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THE BEST ADVICE I EVER GOT
+
FUTURE OF TRADE SHOWS
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®
May 2010 • Volume 3 • Number 5
In It Together
EDITORIAL STAFF
EDITOR IN CHIEF David R. Basler, dbasler@mpiweb.org
MANAGING EDITOR Blair Potter, bpotter@mpiweb.org
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Michael Pinchera, mpinchera@mpiweb.org
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jason Hensel, jhensel@mpiweb.org
ASSISTANT EDITOR Jessie States, jstates@mpiweb.org
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jeff Daigle, jdaigle@mpiweb.org
The ROI of
Volunteering
DESIGN AND PREPRESS Sherry Gritch, SG2Designs, sherry@sgproductions.net
COVER DESIGN Jason Judy, jjudy@mpiweb.org
MPI ADVERTISING STAFF
Denise Autorino, dautorino@mpiweb.org, Phone: (407) 233-7305
(FL, GA, Canada, Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, South America)
Cheri DeLand, cdeland@mpiweb.org, Phone: (410) 822-4810
(AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, NV, OR, WA)
Antonio Ducceschi, Director of Sales/Partnership Development-EMEA,
aducceschi@mpiweb.org, Phone: + 352 26 87 66 63
(Europe, Middle East and Africa)
SWITZERLAND HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN AS “A NATION OF VOLUN-
Katri Laurimaa, klaurimaa@mpiweb.org, Phone: (817) 251-9891
(AL, AR, CO, IA, IL, KS, KY, LA, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NM, OK,
SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, WY)
TEERS.” A self-appointed moniker, I imagine, but nonetheless, the stats don’t
Sandy Lavery, sandylavery@mpiweb.org, Phone: (301) 254-2423
(CT, DC, DE, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI, WV)
lie. In recent years, studies have shown that the average Swiss spends almost 500
hours per year helping their local community in some form or fashion.
Just to put that stat into perspective, for the average American that number is
187, while in Canada the average is 168 and it’s 136 in Australia.
While I certainly don’t need to shout from the rooftops that volunteering is
important (I think everyone is aware), I think it’s important to note that more
companies worldwide are seeing the positives effects of volunteerism, and that’s
a lesson we can all find value in.
The 2009 study, “The Benefits of Employee Volunteer Programs,” by Junior
Achievement Worldwide showed an average 5 percent increase in overall job
satisfaction among employees whose companies implemented an employee volunteer program, and a case study of Sears published in Harvard Business Review
shows a direct correlation of that stat to the bottom line.
A 5 percent increase in employee satisfaction may not sound like much, but
for Sears that increase resulted in a 1.3 percent improvement in customer satisfaction, which produced a 0.5 percent increase in revenue for the year. That
translated to US$65 million more in the bank. Not too shabby—and easy to
seee the ROI.
se
Companies that haven’t taken CSR seriously up to this point
start. Implementing a strong CSR program linked
should clearly start
to your company’s business strategy not only improves employee
bottom line, it allows your employees to build on
morale and the bot
skills and it brings people together for a common
their leadership skil
good—a value set all companies should strive to obtain.
volunteered regularly for years and have been
I’ve vo
lucky eenough to either own my own company or
work for others who shared that value set (MPI
being one of them), so I know the value first hand,
and after talking with some of our members for
the cover story in this issue, “The Best Advice I
Ever Got,” one particular story stood out—that
Ev
of Disney’s George Aguel.
o
You’ll have to turn to Page 78 to hear his
story, but I’ll bet you can already guess its
moral.
m
Carolyn Nyquist, Manager of Client Services, cnyquist@mpiweb.org,
Phone: (972) 702-3002
MPI EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT
Bruce M. MacMillan, C.A., President and CEO
Jeff Busch, Vice President of Strategic Communications
Meg Fasy, Vice President of Sales and Marketplace
Vicki Hawarden, CMP, Vice President of Knowledge Management
Diane Hawkins, SPHR, Director of People and Performance
Greg Lohrentz, Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer
Sandra Riggins, Chief of Staff
Didier Scaillet, Chief Development Officer
Junior Tauvaa, Vice President of Member Services and Chapter Business
Management
INTERNATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Chairwoman of the Board
Ann Godi, CMP, Benchmarc360 Inc.
Chairman-elect
Eric Rozenberg, CMP, CMM, Swantegy
Vice Chairman of Finance
Craig Ardis, CMM, Mannatech Inc.
Vice Chairman
Kevin Kirby, Hard Rock International
Vice Chairman
Sebastien Tondeur, MCI Group Holding SA
Immediate Past Chairman
Larry Luteran, Hilton Hotels Corp.
BOARD MEMBERS
Chuck Bowling, MGM MIRAGE
Matt Brody, CHSP, JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort and Spa
Paul Cunningham, IIMC International Information Management Corporation
Cindy D’Aoust, Maxvantage
Luca Favetta, SAP SA
Chris Gasbarro, C3 llc
Caroline Hill, Eventful Solutions
Kevin Hinton, hinton+grusich
Issa Jouaneh, PENG MBA, American Express
Patty Reger, CMM, Johnson & Johnson Sales and Logistics Company LLC
David Scypinski, ConferenceDirect
Carl Winston, San Diego State University
Margaret Moynihan, CMP (MPI Foundation Board Representative), Deloitte
Jonathan T. Howe, Esq. (Legal Counsel), Howe & Hutton Ltd.
POSTMASTER: One+ (Print ISSN: 1943-1864, Digital Edition ISSN: 1947-6930)
is published monthly by Meeting Professionals International (MPI), a professional
association of meeting + event planners and suppliers. Send address changes
to One+, Meeting Professionals International, 3030 LBJ Freeway, Suite 1700,
Dallas, TX, 75234-2759. Periodicals postage paid at Dallas, Texas, and
additional mailing offices.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: Members receive One+ as a membership benefit paid for
by membership dues. Nonmembers may subscribe to the publication for $99
annually. “One+” and the One+ logo are trademarks of MPI. © 2010, Meeting
Professionals International, Printed by RR Donnelley
REPRINTS: Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form
without written permission. To order reprints, call Wright’s Reprints toll free at
(877) 652 5295 or visit www.wrightsreprints.com.
CONTACT ONE+: Contact us online at www.mpioneplus.org or e-mail us at
editor@mpiweb.org. View our advertising, editorial and reprint policies online
at www.mpioneplus.org.
MPI VISION: Build a rich global meeting industry community
GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS:
Dallas, TX
DAVID R. BASLER is editor in chief of One+. He
can be reached at dbasler@mpiweb.org. Follow
him at www.twitter.com/onepluseditor.
2
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REGIONAL OFFICES:
Doha, Qatar
Ontario, Canada
Luxembourg
Singapore
The body of One+ is printed on 30 percent post-consumer-waste
recycled content and is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified.
Please recycle this magazine or pass it along to a co-worker when
you’re finished reading.
One+ is a proud member of
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ISSUE
05
10
Mojo Rising +70
Industry experts peer into the future:
Trade shows must transform to
remain relevant.
The Connector +74
Jack Hidary’s passion for bringing
people together is heralding a better
future for America’s children.
“The Best Advice I Ever Got” +78
Top meeting and event minds share
great wisdom.
On the Rise +82
MPI proudly presents the 2010 RISE
Award – Individual Category winners.
2010 WEC Sneak Peak:
Performance Matters +86
MPI unveils a conference that will
equip you with better designs, more
efficient practices and ROI that’s clear
and measurable.
+78
+74
+86
+70
The Charity King +56
Price Chopper’s fall holiday show in Hartford
is a welcomed gift for local charities across
the region.
Explosions in the Sky +64
+82
Branson showed off what it can do for
large groups when it played host
to the American Pyrotechnics
Association fall convention
last year.
+56
+64
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+56
mpiweb.org
5
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ISSUE
05
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CONVERSATION
In It Together +2
IGNITION
Don’t Be Shy +46
Editor’s note
The Energy of Many +12
Global update from MPI
Impressions +14
Jon Hutchison
Global View
Parlez Vous English +48
Jon Bradshaw
Reboot Your Brain
Letters to One+
Overheard +18
The Power and Value
of Trade Shows +50
Rumblings from the industry
Irrelevant +42
Big Impression
INNOVATION
Agenda +21
Where to go, in person
and online
Steve Kemble
A Doss of Sass
Interviewing the
Interviewer +52
Dawn Rasmussen
Get the Job
Rise of the Amateur +54
Douglas Rushkoff
High-tech Humanity
+22
Art of Travel +36
The latest in transportable
technology
+42
RECOGNITION
Top Spots +22
New venues + re-openings
Focus On +24
Brent Franklin digs through
the trash
SoundOff +26
Career changes and fresh
perspectives
Your Community +38
The Four Elements, CSR in
Europe, Strikes for Tikes
Meet Where? +88
Wow us with your knowledge
CO-CREATION
Hot Buzz +28
Volcano ash, voluntour days,
power your hotel, saving money,
return of RevPAR, GIBTM, World
Cup prep, LightStay, 2010
trends, Thoughts+Leaders
+40
Making a Difference +39
The Big Deal, Rendezvous,
silent auction
Connections +40
Trade Show + CVB
mpiweb.org
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www.mpioneplus.org
online
More
“Best Advice”
Once you’ve read our cover story on Page 78,
see more inspiring thoughts online.
Plus Size
+
The Joy of Crowds
+
If you haven’t been keeping
up with the One+ PlusPoint
blog, here’s what you’ve been
missing.
• The latest developments about
the volcanic ash crisis
• News and research about
maximizing business results
• CSR and everything “green”
Join us.
Explore crowdsourcing session ideas for
your next event with One+ columnist Robert
Swanwick.
Complete issues of One+
are available in PDF
format! Be sure to check
out MPI’s Meeting Guide
to Canada and Gaming
Venues supplements at
the back of this month’s
issue.
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Contributors
MICHAEL SCOTT BERMAN specializes in
capturing beautiful and intriguing moments
with his camera. His favorite subjects include
real people in real places—and food. Berman’s love for food and restaurants has
inspired him to create a food-related multimedia blog, www.pizzacentric.com, and his
photography website is www.msbphoto
graphy.com. He lives in Brooklyn with his
wife and 4-and-a-half-year-old daughter. He
loves to travel in and out of the city in search
of new photos to take and new foods to try.
Over the past 20 years,
JENNA SCHNUER (www.
jennaschnuer.com) has
written about a rather random assortment of topics,
from getting schooled in
golf by Alice Cooper (yes,
that Alice Cooper) to hanging out with mushers on
the Iditarod Trail to playing
marbles in Tompkinsville,
Ky. And there was a trapeze class; many profiles
of people, places and
events; and loads of other
good stuff mixed in. Along
with writing for One+, she contributes to magazines and Web
sites including American Way, Continental, Executive Travel and
World Hum. She is also the co-founder of Flyover America (read
flyoveramerica.com), a travel site that covers the 50 states.
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DAWN L. RASMUSSEN, CMP, CTP, began
Pathfinder Writing and Career Services after
a 20-year stint as a meeting and tourism
planner. Her previous experience includes
five years as the school-to-career director
for a workforce-training program in more
than 45 high schools in Oregon. Additionally, she worked with employers on student
placements in their businesses and currently
interacts frequently with human resource
professionals and hiring managers to stay
on top of hiring practices and interviewing
trends. In her personal time, Dawn enjoys
celebrating her love of the outdoors hiking
with husband Brad and two dogs and is an
avid photographer. Follow her adventures on
the Travel Oregon blog, where she is a regular contributor.
JOEL DURHAM JR. writes
primarily on technology
and games, but frequently
branches out to cover just
about any topic that comes
his way. Having survived his
writing baptism of fire as PC
Gamer magazine’s first technical editor, he went on to
work full-time for CNET and
Ziff Davis Media in between
freelancing from his home in
Upstate New York.
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The Energy of Many
A Word of Advice…
OSCAR WILDE SAID THAT THE ONLY THING TO DO
WITH GOOD ADVICE IS PASS IT ON, which makes
sense, because you’ve hopefully already used it. You
experience, you learn and you share knowledge with
family, friends and peers. But there exists a fine line
between imparted advice and mere solicited (or unsolicited) opinion.
When Editor-in-Chief David Basler walked into my
office to discuss the opportunity of writing this month’s
Energy of Many column and told me the cover story
was called “The Best Advice I Ever Got,” I was immediately intrigued.
It’s such a simple word, but with a very broad definition. Everyone is familiar with advice, we all receive it
and we all give it, but it’s one of those words that
everyone ultimately defines differently. Advice
that I accept and use may not be the same
advice that you accept and use.
By my definition, advice doesn’t exist at
the personal level until you’ve absorbed it,
acted upon it and others hold you accountable
to it—until that point, advice is just words.
We can absorb information and lessons
from our peers, bosses, coaches and teachers; we can attend conferences, webinars and
classes; we can participate in lively discussions, panels and
collaborations—but
until we absorb,
deliberate and act,
well…what’s the
point?
It is critical,
as you grow in
your professional life, that
you consider
the words of
the wise, query
those who have successfully navigated similar situations and then ultimately personalize and act upon their
advice knowing the act is a reflection of you.
Often, the advice you receive may not seem like
advice at all. It could start out as a general conversation or information you’ve discovered; finding advice
that caters to your specific needs can be difficult and
frustrating.
The search for intelligible and intelligent advice about
the meeting and event industry probably led you to
MPI in the first place. And it’s for that very reason that
MPI presents an expanded World Education Congress
agenda July 24-27 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The advice that is most
relevant and resonates
with you is ultimately what you
must act upon and pass on.
With more educational tracks, business and
networking opportunities than ever before, you’ll get
thousands of opportunities during the four-day annual
conference to absorb all types of information and ideas.
You’ll find the tools necessary to turn the advice of your
peers and educators into personal actions you can apply
to gain new inspirations.
Who knows, maybe the best advice you’ll ever
receive is to attend the WEC or maybe a life-changing
piece of advice is waiting for you in a session room or
in a conversation with one of our amazing general session keynotes.
The advice that is most relevant and resonates with
you is ultimately what you must act upon and pass on.
That’s the energy of many in my mind—MPI community members inspiring each other translates into a
successful future for all of us.
JEFF BUSCH is MPI’s vice president of strategic
communications. He can be reached at jbusch@mpiweb.org.
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Impressions
Business Tales
[Re: Once Upon a Time, February 2010] Stories are a
powerful tool to communicate your message, which I
am hoping to do in my work to create positive change
towards a more sustainable world. Jason Hensel’s feature article hit the nail on the head about what we can
do to engage people.
Another great book to add to your reference list is
The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the
Art and Discipline of Business Narrative by Stephen
Denning.
—Andrew Walker
York University grad student
MPI Toronto Chapter
EDITOR’S NOTE: We appreciate
the feedback on MPI and your
magazine, One+. Your ideas
and thoughts are important to
us. Let us know what you think.
E-mail the editorial team at
editor@mpiweb.org.
You Tell Us
What are your thoughts on
generational differences? Tell
us about it. Send an e-mail to
editor@mpiweb.org.
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Looking Ahead
[Re: Your 2010 Trends, PlusPoint blog] It’s important to
keep reminding ourselves that,
though things may have changed
from a few years ago when the
meetings/events economy was
stronger, when you indentify
the changes, you can find the
answers you need to keep your
business competitive.
—Heather Coldwell
Minus 5 Ice Lounge
MPI Rocky Mountain Chapter
Local Character
[Re: Reboot Your Brain, March
2010] Interesting perspective.
Our approach does change as a
result of our environment, especially where we live and work. I
moved away from Toronto almost
11 years ago and relocated to a
small rural community of 3,300
people. My outlook on life and
work has changed dramatically. I
am less stressed. I’d like to think
the move also has made me less
impulsive and more strategic in
my work, though maybe that has
more to do with experience. LOL.
On the flip side, moving to a rural
area has meant that at times I
feel “out of the loop;” I don’t get
to learn who’s done what, when
and where as quickly as before.
To stay in the loop, I’ve turned
increasingly to social media. And
to really get my fill of innovation
and inspiration, I plan face-to-face
meetings with my colleagues in
Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal.
—Doreen Ashton Wagner
Online Links
[Re: Get the Job, April 2010
online] I have just joined LinkedIn.
com after a long time resisting
joining yet another online community/social network. At the
moment, I’m still trying to work
out the value of LinkedIn as a tool
and how to make it work for me.
Your post shed some light on the
way at least some people use
the tool (good and bad). I’d love
to hear more about how other
people use it, and hopefully I’ll find
the time soon to surf around it a
bit and get more familiar with it
as a tool.
—Hannah Pattison
Wynford
Toronto
Gratifying Time
[Re: Realigning Charity, April
2010] This article struck a harmonic karma chord with me.
“Pro-bono professional work and
skills-based volunteerism allow
nonprofits access to professional
skills and services that they need
that they wouldn’t be able to buy
in the marketplace.”
I provide event services for
several charities in San Diego
pro-bono. It is a gratifying experience working with these charities, as they are all so grateful
for my professional support.
The funny thing is that I feel I get
more out of it than they do. Personally, I love the ability to support these causes and work with
some incredibly giving teams.
On a professional level, I get to
showcase my talent and get my
company name in front of various
high-end demographic audiences.
This year I am supporting the
WomenTogether Luncheon, the
San Diego Museum of Man, the
MPI San Diego Chapter and my
church. Harmonic karma? you
ask. Well, yes, what goes around
comes around. I feel that my
giving has brought me so very
much.
—Carolyn Davis, CMP
Strategic Meeting Partners
San Diego Chapter
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Overheard
Baggage Fees
“In addition to lowering fares even further, this will
reduce the number of carry-on bags, which will improve
inflight safety and efficiency by speeding up the boarding
and deplaning process, all of which ultimately improve
the overall customer experience. Bring less; pay less. It’s
simple.”
—Ken McKenzie, Spirit Airlines COO, on plans to charge for overhead carry-on bags
Jobs Crisis
Brits Abroad
Sustainable Jobs
“If the Baby Boom generation
retires from the labor force
at the same rate and age as
current older workers, the
baby bust generation that
follows will likely be too small
to fill many of the projected
new jobs.”
—Barry Bluestone, dean of
the School of Public Policy and
Urban Affairs at Northeastern
University
“Our latest figures show that
Brits are determined to take
a real break this summer and
its awaycations all the way—
not just sun and sand, but
new cultures and locations.”
—Dermot Blastland, managing director for Thomson, on
a 14 percent rise in long-haul
bookings
“Sustainability is a competitive
advantage in the marketplace.
College graduates entering
the job market this year will
definitely have an edge if they
have developed sustainabilityrelated skill sets.”
—Dedee DeLongpre Johnston, sustainability director for
Wake Forest University on the
9 percent growth in green collar jobs from 1998 to 2007
Business Speak
“Companies pay amazing
amounts of money to get answers from consultants with
overdeveloped confidence in
their own intuition. Managers rely on focus groups—a
dozen people riffing on something they know little about—
to set strategies. And yet,
companies won’t experiment
to find evidence of the right
way forward.”
—Dan Ariely, behavioral economics
professor at Duke University, in his
Harvard Business Review column
“Why Businesses Don’t Experiment”
Best of the Blogs
Be Optimistic
Posted by Brian McDermott
GrowthWorks Inc.
I’m not the kind of guy who recites affirmations in the mirror to start my mornings, but
I am a big advocate of making the choice to
go through life not seeing the other drivers as
jerks and idiots. I’ve seen the difference it can
make in a life or a business when someone
chooses to approach most days with hope
and optimism.
Virtual Attendance
Posted by Brad Goldberg
TriGold Consulting LLC
Every event needs to have someone who is
responsible for the contingency planning/
risk management aspects. That individual
becomes responsible for implementing a standardized method of ensuring attendees, sponsors, clients and speakers all know emergency
exits and what to do should there be an issue
during a presentation. Our national organizations have to implement this strategy with
their chapters.
Socially Charged
Posted by Ann Godi
Benchmarc360 Inc.
“The key for us is to be aware of the human
desire for things to remain the same and get
comfortable with them being different. The
first step is to understand what’s different and
how best to operate in the new landscape.
We can then use the changes and the chaos
of the past year to design strategies that will
propel us forward and help us succeed in the
new business climate.”
Find out what the editors of One+ think at www.mpiweb.org/
pluspoint, and check out official MPI blog Engage at
www.mpiweb.org/engage.
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Agenda
JUNE 23-24 Event ConneQion (ECQ)
BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND
ECQ provides event ideas, solutions and advice to maximize budgets and
ensure that your next event is memorable. Find destinations and venues,
catering options, team-building activities, entertainment, corporate incentives,
invitations and decorations at this Australian expo. Visit www.ecq.com.au.
JULY 1-2 BTC
RIMINI, ITALY
Italian trade show BTC enhances its educational program this year to include
four specified tracks: the state of the European meeting industry, small business growth, planning techniques and experiential communication. A new preshow initiative offers an experimental activity for hosted buyers and exhibitors.
Visit http://btc.it.
JULY 13-15 TS2
BOSTON
Find a one-stop resource for exhibit and event marketing best practices,
leading-edge marketing initiatives and career support—from justifying budgets
to proving ROI to developing your marketing career. The show is owned and
produced by National Trade Productions and sponsored by the Trade Show
Exhibitors Association. Visit www.ts2show.com.
JULY 24-27 World Education Congress
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
MPI’s annual conference serves as a forum where ideas, marketplaces and
people intersect to explore concepts and share perspectives. With an expected attendance of more than 3,000 meeting professionals, the World
Education Congress is an opportunity to tap into the energy of the meeting
industry’s fast-paced decision-makers. Visit www.mpiweb.org/wec.
Connected
APP FIND
BOOK SITE
GET YOUR NEWS
Usefultools.com is a Web magazine
for people who love Web tools and
apps. New and exciting applications
are being developed all the time. Useful
Tools sifts through available technologies and rates each based on user
interface, usefulness and innovation.
Browse through recent reviews, see
highest-rated apps or submit your own
technology for review.
Need a book for your next business
trip? Look no further than What
ShouldIReadNext.com. Re-launched in
February, the site now allows users to
look up books by ISBN. Simply submit
the title of a book you recently read
(and liked), and the site produces a
list of book suggestions. The more
titles you list, the more accurate the
suggestions.
Get all your news at Newsmap.jp,
which projects international headlines
on to a single screen of cells divided by
topic and region. The size of each cell
is determined by the amount of related
articles on Google News. Quickly
identify which news stories have been
given the most coverage, or compare
the news landscape among several
countries.
mpiweb.org
p021 Agenda 0510.indd 21
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Top Spots
N E W VEN U ES + RE-O P ENING S
1.
1. Jacksonville Ice and
Sportsplex
3. Tropicana Las Vegas
The Jacksonville Ice and Sportsplex,
home to Northeast Florida’s only
ice arena, has an event facility that
is now open for group rental. The
facility features meeting spaces,
recreational areas and also provides
organizers with the freedom and flexibility to select their own vendors and
caterers to use during the event.
The facility has 20,000 square
feet of meeting space and three
individual breakout rooms. The
facility also has multipurpose ball
courts, a general fitness space and
indoor turf space.
The Tropicana Las Vegas has begun
a US$165 million Phase I transformation for completion in April
2011. The transformed property will
feature a redesigned facade, all new
rooms and suites, all new amenities,
restaurants and bars and entertainment and nightlife options. The first
of the new rooms were recently
unveiled in the Paradise Tower.
The completed conference center
now offers more than 100,000
square feet of meeting space,
including a ballroom with more than
25,000 square feet and 11 breakout meeting rooms.
2. d-hotel
4. The Oberoi, Mumbai
The recently opened d-hotel in Kortrijk, Belgium, is a marriage between
a historical site and a new futuristic
design. On site, you will find an
authentic and protected windmill
from 1841 as well as a protected
inner farmhouse square. The
hotel offers 45 guest rooms, a spa
(d-mixx), a cosy lounge bar (d-drinxx)
and two multifunctional spaces (dboxx and d-maxx).
The Oberoi, Mumbai in India
reopened last month following extensive restoration and renovation. All
guest rooms have been updated
and include marble bathrooms.
New dining options include Ziya, an
Indian restaurant under the direction of the Michelin-starred Chef
Vineet Bhatia; a new all-day dining
restaurant; a new bar; and a completely redesigned lounge. The hotel
offers nine meeting rooms.
2.
2.
3.
3
1
5
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4.
5. King Kamehameha’s
Kona Beach Hotel
4.
The King Kamehameha’s Kona
Beach Hotel in Hawaii recently
completed a US$35 million renovation. The property now features
all-new guest rooms, bedding and
bathroom upgrades that include
new tubs, toilets, showers and
shiny fixtures. Each room features a
new flat-screen TV, complimentary
Kona coffee and coffee maker and
complimentary wireless Internet.
The hotel offers 5,200 square feet
of meeting space.
5.
6. Crown Metropol
6.
The 658-room, AUD$300 million
Crown Metropol opened last month
as the brand’s third Melbourne
hotel. Situated on the Crown campus, the property’s design includes
a futuristic podium entry, a day spa
located on the top floors, a sky bar
and terrace and a retail precinct
showcasing brands previously
unavailable in Australia. Within
its walls, Chef Gordon Ramsay
opened his first Australian Maze
restaurant. Crown is now able to
offer guests, conference organizers and event planners more than
1,600 guest rooms and the new
Crown Conference Centre.
2
4
6
pg022-023 Top Spots 0510.indd 23
mpiweb.org
23
4/26/10 4:19:06 PM
Focus On...
Brent Franklin can recycle
just about anything.
Brent Franklin
Manager of engineering services for the
Vancouver Convention Centre
5 Things You Don’t Know About
Recycling at the VCC
1. With new technology, composting isn’t just about plant
matter anymore. Almost any food can be turned into fertilizer these days, including meat and dairy products.
2. Compost recycling at the Vancouver Convention Centre
in one year is equivalent to the weight of 150 compact cars.
3. We recycle purified black water from the washrooms to
use in our landscaping.
4. Recycling technology is constantly being updated. One
of our most recent advances is the recycling of laminated
wood products.
5. The newest opportunities for recycling come through
product stewardship, where companies follow a product
through its lifetime. Phone batteries, carpet—these products can be returned to their manufacturers for recycling.
We will see more of this over time.
Don’t forget to register for the MPI World
Education Congress, scheduled for July
24-27 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Visit www.mpiweb.org/WEC.
24
one+
The engineer-cum-recycling manager has sifted through just about
everything discarded at the Vancouver Convention Centre—from
the usual packaging, aluminum
and paper to food stuff, batteries and even washroom water
(which has reduced potable H2O
use by 72.6 percent). It seems,
having worked at the center for
20 of its 25 years, Franklin’s in a
pretty good position to understand
where the waste is and how to
recycle it.
He began his career at the
venue as a maintenance worker
and electrician, moving into his
current position a mere six years
later. Even then, the Vancouver
center was setting sights on curbing its environmental footprint.
Since that time, the venue has
grown and expanded its recycling
program. And Franklin and his
team have overseen parts of the
process, which most recently
included LEED Platinum certification for the West building
(opened April 2009). Franklin
enjoys boasting about the center’s
eco-friendly efforts: the six-acre
living roof, the drainage and water
recovery system, the recycling program, the purchase of green electricity, the restored marine habitat
built into the foundation, the seawater heating and cooling system,
the natural light and ventilation.
Of course, Franklin sticks
mainly to the recycling, citing stats
he might have been born knowing.
The program recycles an average
180,000 kilograms of material a
year, nearly half of the total waste
generated. The facility can desalinate water when supplies are low.
Recycled water irrigates the roof
garden.
As for the recyclables, attendees throw common items into
regular trash containers, which
go to Happy Stan’s Recycling for
sorting. Happy Stan will take just
about anything, Franklin says, and
if he doesn’t know how to recycle
it, he’ll find someone who can.
It’s not just Stan. Mayor
Gregor Robertson has pledged
that Vancouver will be the world’s
greenest city by 2020. The Vancouver Organizing Committee
estimates that green initiatives
reduced the carbon footprint of
the 2010 Winter Olympic Games
by 18 percent over years past.
“There is so much support
and commitment in the region to
recycling and environmental sustainability,” Franklin said. “There
is a willingness here to make the
effort, and you don’t find that in
every city.”
—JESSIE STATES
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4/8/10 10:20:37 AM
SoundOff
Career Changes & Fresh Perspectives
How do you make the trade show
experience more valuable?
“Prior to attending a
trade show, I obtain
as much information as possible with
regards to who is
exhibiting. I then
schedule appointments with exhibitors, which makes
better use of time
at the trade show
than just walking
the floor. I also try
to attend as many
relevant educational
seminars/break-out
sessions as possible to further my
knowledge of the
industry.”
Martin Parry,
New group CEO
for U.K.-based
WorldEvents
26
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“We work with
show management
to create incentives
that will keep buyers
and sellers on the
floor so they maximize selling time.
We provide dedicated venues on property for networking
outside the show
floor, which encourages more interaction during pre- and
post-show hours. We
also are working on
technology enhancements that will expedite show services
and afford exhibitors
more time to sell.”
Richard Harper,
New senior vice
president of sales
for MGM MIRAGE
“Prior to attending a
trade show, I contact
any clients that are
registered. I let them
know I will be there
and arrange a time
to meet. I also attend
all of the educational
sessions. These give
great insight into
the thoughts and
experiences of our
customers, a time
to share our industry
experiences and
insights and continued exposure and
networking
opportunities.”
Susan C. Croggon,
New national
accounts manager
for The Heldrich Hotel
“I contact attendees
who I definitely
want to see prior to
the show to set up
appointments.
I typically have a
full schedule of
appointments before
I even get to the
show! In actually
attending the show,
it is always great to
have something fun
and whimsical that
will catch people’s
attention at the
booth or a giveaway
that makes people
want to stop by.”
Suya Davenport,
New sales director
for the Naples Bay
Resort
“Convention centers
have advanced from
being considered a
backdrop for planners to being actively
engaged in the entire
trade show experience. We at the
Georgia World Congress Center listen
and take ownership
of programs; deliver
timely, efficient and
accurate responses to
customer questions;
and invest in training, materials and
staff.”
Frank Poe,
New executive director for the Georgia
World Congress
Center Authority
05.10
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0510_027.indd 27
4/23/10 1:57:24 PM
HOT BUZZ
Fear & Ash
h
It wasn’t a problem of logistics necessarily for Patrick Delaney, CITE, CMM, of
Dublin-based Ovation Global
obal DMC. Event
planners are always prepared
epared to book
emergency accommodations
ations when a flight
or two delays. That’s the
he nature of the
job. But this time delegates
ates were scared.
They had family to think
k of and businesses
to run and heart medication
cation that just
might run out—and who
o knew when
they’d be allowed to fly home.
“The key was the uncertainty,”
ncertainty,” Delaney
said. “You can plan rationally
onally for strikes
or weather, but there was a mixture of
fear and ambiguity with
h the ash. And a
volcano is a very emotive
ve image. It’s a
really ferocious part of nature. Things
were completely out of our control. And
that is scary.”
Europe’s skies shuttered
tered when the
ash cloud from erupting
g Eyjafjallajokull
threatened air safety last
ast month—and
27 European Union (EU)
U) countries
had to agree on what to do next. As
the EU contemplated how
ow long to
keep the skies closed to
o air traffic,
Delaney’s business erupted.
pted. He
provided clients with as
s much information as he had. And while two
small meetings canceled,
d, he still
had to prepare for a large
rge association event looming on the horizon with delegates arriving
ving from
50 countries.
“We created backup
p plans
for speakers and delegates
ates who
might not be able to come,”
ome,”
he said. “We planned for
or live
feeds and video. We prepared
repared
for every contingency.”
Delaney largely avoided
ded any
need to activate Plan B in the
coming weeks. But he sure is
glad he created it.
28
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05.10
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4/27/10 8:37:58 AM
+
Exotic Help
It’s eco season at the Soneva Fushi and Soneva Gili by
Six Senses in the Maldives.
For the next six months,
the resorts will provide five
comp nights to guests who
commit to five hours of
volunteer work during each
of the first five days of their
stays. The program encourages guests to work on
local projects, such as
marine conservation, teaching children, planting trees
and turning waste into
wealth. Already well known
for their support and respect for local communities,
the Soneva resorts invite
guests to put strapline
“intelligent luxury” into practice. Choose from the following.
Marine Conservation.
Boost coral reef recovery
and learn how to protect
the dwindling shark community
Waste Management.
Create homemade compost, charcoal and bio-char
to encourage locals into
self-sufficiency and reduce
importation of food
Carbon Mitigation.
Plant trees on nearby islands to give Soneva neighbors much-needed shade
and mitigate levels of carbon dioxide
Youth Education. Give
local schools a 30-minute
talk on the importance of
waste management and
composting and discuss
Western culture and geography
Island Income. Make
roofing material and public
rubbish bins for waste
management
By the Numbers
4.6
mean number of
events in region
per buyer (versus 5.7
in 2009 and 4.0 in
2008)
Green
Cycling
Want to make your travel
plans a little greener? Stay
at the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers and help
power the hotel. The property has installed electricity-producing bicycles in its
gym. Anyone producing 10
watt hours of electricity or
more for the hotel will be
given a locally produced,
complimentary meal.
Guests using the electric
bicycles can monitor how
much electricity they’re
producing via iPhones
mounted on the handlebars.
Starting in June, avid
fitness fans can also race
against the hotel’s solar
panel system in a bid to
produce more electricity.
Other green efforts
have already landed the
hotel EU Green Building
and Green Key certifications and include:
• The first groundwater-based cooling and
heating system in
Denmark, expected
to reduce the hotel’s
temperature energy
use by almost 90
percent,
• Low-energy lighting
and hand dryers and
• The largest solar
panel park in Northern Europe covering
all the hotel’s sunny
facades.
Middle East Meetings Industry Report, GIBTM
50
percent of
respondents
who think they will
organize more events
in 2010 (35 percent
said they will organize
the same amount)
58
percent of
respondents
who conducted events
in the region during
the last year
204
mean
number
of delegates in the
region (up from 154
in 2009)
Get the Money
Return of RevPAR
U.S. tax payers would pay an average US$950 more per household
in annual taxes if not for revenue
generated by travel and tourism,
according to the U.S. Travel Association. Travelers inject money into
the economy and pay for civic
development, infrastructure and
jobs for teachers, firefighters and
police officers. In 2009, travel
spending by U.S. and international
visitors resulted in more than
$111 billion in tax revenue for
federal, state and local governments. Of that total, leisure travel
generated $77.3 billion, and
meetings and events yielded
$34.2 billion. One-in-13 workers is
employed either directly or indirectly by the travel industry.
Critical indicator RevPAR is
on the rise. According to PKF
Hospitality Research (PKFHR), U.S. hotels should enjoy
10.5 percent revenue growth
by 2012. The prediction
comes in the researcher’s Hotel Horizons
report. The U.S.
lodging industry
hasn’t seen double-digit
growth in RevPAR
since the inflationary
days of the late 1970s
and early 1980s.
Mark Woodworth,
president of PKF-HR,
says that Economy.
com forecasts for
495,400
mean events budget
(in U.S. dollars)
income and employment will
drive revenue up. In 2012,
the Moody’s website is projecting income to grow at
4.4 percent, the fastest pace
since 2006. In addition, the
3.2 percent forecast
growth for employment
that year is the
greatest since
1988. Until 2012, however, market conditions will
remain relatively soft. For
2010, PKF-HR is forecasting a 1.1 percent
decline in RevPAR, the
third consecutive annual
drop for the U.S. lodging
industry.
mpiweb.org
pg028-034 Hot Buzz 0510_2.indd 29
29
4/26/10 4:33:34 PM
HOT BUZZ
A Big Welcome
a bumper print run of 25,000 to
cater to increased readership
Football (soccer) fans
during the games. Homeless
will find a new guide to people purchase the publication
Cape Town when they and then sell it to generate legitiarrive for the 2010
mate income. In Capetown, The
FIFA World Cup. Cape Big Issue employs 400 vendors,
Town Tourism and
who support 1,500 people. The
street ‘zine The Big
guide will include information on
Issue will produce Your “comedy music,” book clubs,
Guide to Cape Town
sports, spoken word and slam
A-Z as a supplement
poetry, responsible tourism, resto the publication available for three taurants and wineries, among
weeks in June. The Big Issue plans others.
Gulf Success
More than 275 senior-level hosted buyers from
40 countries (up 19 percent on 2009) flocked
to the annual Gulf Incentive, Business Travel &
Meetings Exhibition (GIBTM), March 29-31 in
Abu Dhabi. New initiatives this year included an
expanded professional education program—
supported by MPI among others—and three
themed days focused on event planning, research and trends.
Hilton Light
Hilton Worldwide properties conserved
enough energy in 2009 to power 5,700
homes for a year, saved enough water to fill
more than 650 Olympic-size pools and reduced carbon output equivalent to taking
34,865 cars off the road, according to data
30
one+
collected from 1,300 participating hotels.
T
The company used a system known as LightS
Stay to calculate and analyze environmental
im
impact, which translated into an estimated
sav
savings of more than US$29 million in utility
cos
costs in 2009.
05.10
pg028-034 Hot Buzz 0510_2.indd 30
4/26/10 4:33:56 PM
0510_031.indd 31
4/26/10 1:23:12 PM
0510_032.indd 32
4/8/10 10:33:11 AM
HOT BUZZ
2010 Meeting Trends
1. Cautious optimism in 2010, with strong pacing for 2011.
Demand for corporate meetings is up and steadily increasing. Meeting
providers who came into the year with solid planner-provider relationships are realizing their importance. The pace for 2011 advance bookings is up as well.
2. Booking in the month, for the month…but at least meetings
aren’t canceled. The booking window for corporate meetings remains
short term—from 30-45 days. Planners are unwilling to commit far out
and risk cancellation and other penalties. Fortunately, it seems the scale
of meeting cancellations in 2009 is a thing of the past.
3. Extreme price sensitivity, with hotels once again competing
for meetings business. The severe business climate of 2009
re-educated traditional hotels on
the merits of aggressive pricing.
The lingering legacy of this is extreme price sensitivity in 2010.
Conference centers that maintained
service levels and nurtured strong
customer relationships emerge
stronger.
4. Meetings smaller, duration
shorter. Meeting groups are considerably smaller—in some cases
down by 50 percent. Meetings in 2010 tend to be regional, have more
serious content and are trimmed by at least a day to reduce budgetary
pressures.
5. Being green assumed. But for certain segments, such as federal and state government and education business, it’s a requirement. For
corporate groups, meeting providers are generally expected to have
green programs in place, although this is not yet universally required.
6. No frills meetings. There is no room for bells and whistles in
the 2010 meetings climate of tight and highly scrutinized budgets.
Meeting spend is conservative, image conscious and focused on the
basics. Team building, if it occurs, is integrated into the meeting, as
there is little time to set aside.
7. Internet bandwidth. In 2010, planners are not interested in
the most advanced, cutting-edge meeting technology available, though
they’re coming to negotiations with the expectation that you will have
current meeting technology installed. What they are demanding, however, is that suppliers provide maximum connectivity to support online
content and applications.
8. Price negotiations. Planner expectations are for properties to
extend significant concessions across the board to pump up value for
the meeting budget. The silver lining to this is a renewed appreciation
for the value and importance of the complete meeting package.
9. Health-conscious F&B. The corporate meetings segment is still
reliant on the old-fashioned, healthy and protein-rich diet that keeps
meeting participants attentive and energy levels maximized. And, for the
first time, healthy buffets are seen as perfectly acceptable for all executives—even those from Fortune 500 companies.
10. Social media and the meeting industry. Properties are increasingly turning to Facebook and Twitter for contact with customers. Meanwhile, LinkedIn and TripAdvisor are growing in importance to
planners as they seek information and customer feedback on properties.
—Benchmark Hospitality International
mpiweb.org
pg028-034 Hot Buzz 0510_2.indd 33
33
4/27/10 8:38:29 AM
HOT BUZZ
Thoughts+Leaders
Do you prefer appointmentbased, hosted-buyer programs
or traditional trade shows?
Danna Lilly
Director of sales
Visit Myrtle Beach
Without hesitation, my preference
is the hosted buyer program or
pre-appointment schedule. Kudos
to the meeting organizations that
have learned from other industry
segments and jumped on board
with this effort! I recall a few
years back, standing at shows
with very limited traffic, twiddling
thumbs and discussing the question with industry peers of “how
we’re going to justify this one to
our board?” Pre-scheduled programs allow time to research and
prepare in advance, which ultimately results in more quality
time with planners who are actually interested in your product. It’s
a much better use of time, and
both exhibitors and planners walk
away with a greater sense of
accomplishment. And since these
programs generally offer educational sessions and other networking functions, you have additional
opportunities to build relationships
with planners you might have
missed on the trade show floor.
Roel Frissen
Managing director
Parthen
Eduardo Chaillo
U.S. director
Mexico Tourism Board
In this business environment in
which we have to justify any
investment to attract meetings
to our country, the pre-scheduled
appointment system with hosted
buyers represents the best
option for the Mexico Tourism
Board. In this format, we know
that whoever sits with our team
representatives is really interested in finding information about
the competitive advantages of
doing business with our suppliers
throughout Mexico. I must also
admit that the traditional trade
show format was key in the process of positioning our
brand and having exposure within the MPI community;
however, I believe that in terms of awareness, we are
already there. Now we have to convert it into concrete
meeting opportunities.
34
one+
Although it’s not always easy
to measure, the outcome of a
trade show is key to the exhibitor. The trade show is one of
the most valuable and tangible
parts of the marketing mix. In
this respect, we only go to
trade shows that offer pre-appointments. We can have
short constructive meetings with prospects and clients,
and we do not have to filter possible prospects from the
crowds constantly. We are ensured of a dedicated number of new contacts and that is the basis for ROI. Of
course the most important question is: Are the hosted
buyers well selected, well informed about the fundamentals of modern trade shows and really motivated? The
trade show organizer plays an important role in this
process, hopefully driven by quality instead of quantity.
05.10
pg028-034 Hot Buzz 0510_2.indd 34
4/26/10 4:36:54 PM
0510_035.indd 35
4/26/10 1:24:32 PM
AR
Folding Shoes
for Traveler
On-the-Go
of Travel
Don’t get your clothes
or bag dirty while out
of town. Pocketflops
fold downward so
dirty soles don’t touch
their surroundings.
Just fold them, put
them in your bag
and go. They don’t
fold when you walk.
Pocketflops feel no
different than nonfolding flip-flops. Plus,
they’re comprised of
90 percent recycled
materials and come
with a carrying
case made from
100 percent nonprocessed cotton.
(Flocdesigns.com,
US$15-22)
Traverse the
Town on a
Motorbike
If you’re sick of the
congested, polluted,
stress
s ful cities, the
stressful
YikeBike offers a new
class
s of
person
o al
personal
transport
r.
transport.
Based on
n
the “mini
n“minifarthing” design,
the bicycle can be
comfortably ridden by
most a
dul
ults.
ul
t There is
adults.
no need
d tto
o adjust the
sea
e t,
t because you
seat,
o pedal—your
do not
height relative
re
to the
seat is o
nl important
nly
only
w mu
ch your
to how
much
e bent when
knees are
rid
ding
ng
g. (Yikebike.
riding.
com, €3,495)
Sip on a Hot
Cuppa while
on the Road
Most hotels offer
tea and coffee makers, but the quality
of product can be
dubious at best. Try
this travel-sized Kettle
to Go, standing just
six-and-a-half inches
and weighing just a
little more than one
pound. The kettle
comes with two cups,
so you can share
your brew with a
friend. (Design-go.
com, £24.99)
36
one+
05.10
p036 Art of Travel 0510.indd 36
4/22/10 8:53:13 AM
0510_037.indd 37
4/23/10 2:01:18 PM
Your Community
Elemental Shift
Four-part strategy shows the value of meetings and events
The global financial crisis created myriad
challenges for the meeting industry, as
did unfavorable rhetoric by government
officials and media members. But a team
of events leaders seeks to remind MPI
members of the opportunities presented
by the industry’s recent trial-by-fire. Specifically: The chance for strategic discussions
between the people who plan meetings
and the senior executives who sponsor
them.
Meet Mary Boone of Boone Associates,
Patti and Jack Phillips of the ROI Institute
and Susan Radojevic of the Peregrine
Agency, tenured professionals who are
convinced that the success of future
events and the meeting industry relies on
the so-called Four Elements of Strategic
Value. Based on a groundbreaking white
paper by Boone, the elements include
portfolio management, meeting design,
measurement and advanced logistics.
“Meetings are a leader’s most vital
and effective communication medium.
Those who are not utilizing key communication channels will be stymied in their
attempts to formulate,
communicate and execute
the strategies of their
organizations now and in
the future,” Boone said.
“It is imperative that leaders learn to leverage the
Four Elements in order
to make both face-to-face
and virtual meetings more
productive and to set the
pace for competitors.”
The team has created
a traveling workshop to
spread the gospel of Four
Elements to the meetings masses at MPI chapter events. Each
speaks to his/her expertise: Boone talks
meeting design, Patti Phillips discusses
ROI and Radojevic covers portfolio management and strategic event alignment—
the crucial alliance between meetings and
a business’ success. And, according to
Radojevic, education for industry professionals and business executives is more
crucial now than ever before.
“Meetings and events are a strategic
business tool, and I believe executives may
not realize how relevant they are to their
vision, strategy and goals,” she said. “We
need to up our game, and show that when
leveraged effectively and efficiently, meetings and events build intellectual capital
and improve organizational performance
and profitability. That’s what we aim to
show.”
—JESSIE STATES
CHAPTER SPOTLIGHT
Strikes for Tikes
MPI Texas Hill Country
Chapter members bowled
for a cause, raising a
record US$8,000 for
Sammy’s House, an Austinarea nonprofit for children
who are medically fragile
and/or developmentally delayed. The organization operates a child development
center, a respite care
program and a therapy
equipment loan project. In
two years, the chapter has
raised more than $14,500
for Sammy’s House, nearly
five times more than the
charity has ever raised on
its own.
38
one+
Find a link to Mary Boone’s white paper, “The
Case for Meetings and Events: Four Elements
of Strategic Value,” on the PlusPoint blog at
www.mpiweb.org/pluspoint.
CHAPTER SPOTLIGHT
CSR in Europe
MPI members will tackle CSR June 27-28 in Bruges
during the first annual European Forum on Sustainability in the Meetings Industry, an initiative by
Charles-Eric Vilain XIIII. According to MPI leaders,
the forum will be the first in Europe to focus solely
on sustainable meeting and marks the first time that
all the European chapters take the initiative to set up
a project together. The intention is to sensitize and
inform the meeting community about the organization of socially and ecologically profitable sustainable
meetings.
05.10
pg038-039 MPI Foundation 0510.indd 38
4/26/10 5:10:08 PM
Making a Difference
The Big Deal
Featuring the World Series of Poker
by Harrah’s Entertainment and Hilton
Worldwide.
Purchase 10 seats to play in the
World Series of Poker tournament and
10 tickets to Rendezvous at the Commodore for $3,000, or go it alone for
$275. Too nervous to play? Come and
watch your colleagues sweat and play
for fun for just $100. A $200 power
play pass buys you general admission
to both The Big Deal and Rendezvous.
Even if you don’t make it to the final
table, receive VIP poker treatment at
this first annual event. With less than
200 qualified players, your odds are
too good to fold.
Next year, you don’t have to sullenly
watch Phil Ivey and Scotty Nguyen
bluff it out on the TV screen. Win a
US$10,000 seat at the 2011 World
Series of Poker Main Event during
The Big Deal on July 24 at the World
Education Congress in Vancouver. The
MPI Foundation will provide the cards
and chips, you just bring that Texas
Hold ‘Em know-how.
After a dazzling opening night affair
at the Vancouver Convention Centre’s
open-air plaza, join your peers for an
evening of entertainment, drinks, hors
d’oeuvres and gaming. Play at tables
with poker legends for your chance
to win a seat in Las Vegas, or just
enjoy the show, which will be filmed
and aired on TVs throughout the
venue by Encore Productions and its
fellow sponsors Las Vegas Meetings
Did You Know?
Don’t forget about the MPI Foundation’s other
World Education Congress (WEC) fundraising
efforts this summer. Vancouver’s premier concert venue, The Commodore, sets the stage for
Rendezvous, sponsored by Detroit Metro CVB.
Capture the spirit of the ‘80s and ‘90s with
heart-thumping, fist-pumping sounds of all the
classics. Enjoy the open bar and hors d’oeuvres
until midnight and amplify your networking while
you’re at it. Also find access to the world’s
finest destination hotels, resorts and spas at
the MPI Foundation Silent Auction July 24-26.
(Donations will be accepted through May 28.)
FOCUS ON FOUNDATION
March 2010 Contributors
The MPI Foundation thanks the following organizations and individuals for their generous support.
U.S. CORPORATE
Platinum
AT&T Park
AIBTM Reed
Carlson Hotels
Dallas CVB
Detroit Metro CVB
Fairmont Hotels
Hilton Worldwide
Hyatt Hotels
IHG
Las Vegas CVA
Loews Hotels
Omni Hotels
Universal Orlando Resorts
Wyndham Hotels
Gold
American Express
AV Concepts
Bloomington CVB
Encore Productions
Freeman
HelmsBriscoe
Maritz
MGM Mirage
ProActive
San Antonio CVB
Swank Audio Visuals
Silver
Aimbridge Hospitality
Atlanta CVB
Fort Worth CVB
Global Hotel Alliance
hinton+grusich
LXR
Millennium Hotels & Resorts
Philadelphia CVB
Pier 94
PRA
Salt Lake City CVB
The Greenbrier
Weil & Associates
Bronze
Accor Hospitality
Associated Luxury Hotels
Benchmark Hospitality
Conference Direct
Destination Hotels & Resorts
Dolce International
Experient
Hard Rock International
Hello USA!
Seattle CVB
Walt Disney Swan & Dolphin
Walt Disney World Resorts
Wynn
Gold
Small Business
Silver
4th Wall Events
Attendee Management Incorporated
Best Meetings Inc.
Creative Meetings & Events, LLC
Kinsley and Associates
Meeting Site Resources
One Smooth Stone
OnTrack Communications
Seasite
Site Solutions Worldwide
Song Division
Swantegy
SYNAXIS Meetings & Events Inc.
Special Donors
BBJ Linen
Boca Resorts
Cvent
Folio Fine Wine Partners
Jet Blue
Little Rock CVB
Passadena CVB
Passkey
Production Plus Inc.
SAS Institute
Visit Charlotte
Visit Raleigh
AV-Canada
Calgary Telus Convention Centre
Coast Hotels
Evolution
Hilton Canada
IHG
Marriott Hotels & Resorts Canada
Ottawa Tourism
The Stronco Group of Companies
Tourism Calgary
Tourism Toronoto
Tourisme Quebec
Via Rail Canada
Platinum Key
Bronze
Bronze Key Donor
Friends
7th Wave Communications
Balance Design
CACBSO
Gaylord Palms
Gaylord Texan
Hattie Hill Enterprises
Interactive Visuals
Land O’ Lakes
Leadership Synergies
National Speakers Bureau
Strategic Marketings Inc.
CANADA CORPORATE
Platinum
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
Starwood
AVW-Telav Audio Visual
Caesars Windsor
Convention Centers of Canada
Delta Hotels
IHG
D.E. Systems LTD
Destination Halifax
Direct Energy Centre
IncentiveWorks
Niagara CCC
The Conference Publishers
THE PLANNER
Tourisme Montréal
Special Donor
Accucom Corporate Communications Inc.
ADMAR Promotions
Centre Mont-Royal
Exposoft Solutions
Fletcher Wright Associates
Galgary Exhibition & Stampede
Gelber Conference Center
Greenfield Services Inc.
Group Germain Hotels
Investors Group
Naylor Publishers
The Great West Life Company
Small Business
aNd Logistix
EMEA CORPORATE
Heritage
AIBTM
IMEX
Diamond
mci
BTC
Starwood Hotels and Resorts
Gold Key
Fairmont Raffles Swissotel
IHG
Malaga CC
Vancouver CC
Silver Key
ExpoForce
RefTech
Visit London
Hotels van Oranje
CHAPTERS
Arizona Sunbelt
Atlantic Canada
British Columbia
Calgary
Carolinas
Chicago Area
Dallas/Fort Worth
Georgia
Greater Edmonton
Greater New York
Gulf States
Heartland
Houston
Indiana
Japan
Kansas City
Kentucky Bluegrass
Manitoba
Minnesota
New Jersey
North East New York
Northern California
Ohio
Oregon Chapter
Ottawa
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Potomac
Rocky Mountain
Sourthern California
Tennessee
Texas Hill Country
Toronto
Virginia
Washington
WestField
Wisconsin
INDIVIDUALS
Alan Pini
Allison Kinsley
Ann Godi
Anna Lee Chabot
Anne Clarke
Barbara Cummins
Beverly W Kinkade, CMP, CMM
Bill Boyd
Bradley Martin
Brian Stevens
Brian Reaver
C. James Trombino, CAE
Carl Winston
Carla Benckert
Carol Krugman, CMP, CMM
Carol Muldoon
Charles Bowling
Cheryl Renzenbrink
Chris Gabaldon
Chris Meyer
Christine Duffy
Christopher Chung
David DuBois, CMP, CMM
Dave Gabri
Dave Johnson
Dave Scypinski
Diane Schneiderman
Didier Scaillet
Doug Bolger
Evelyn Laxgang
George P. Johnson
Gus Vonderheide
Hattie Hill, CMM
Heather Milliken
Helen Van Dongen, CMP, CMM
Herb Zeilinger
Ivan Carlson
Janet Victor
Jeff Wagoner
Jennifer Brown
Jerry Wayne
Joe Nishi
JodieAnn Cady
John Meissner
Jonathan Howe, Esq.
Joseph Lipman
Katie Callahan-Giobbi
Ken Sanders
Kevin Olsen
Kevin Kirby
Kristen Robertson Mackenna
Lawrence Luteran
Linda Swago
Lisa Baadsvik
Mamiko Hayashi/Michael K. Stein
Marianne Demko Lange, CMP,
CMM
Margaret Moynihan
Mariela McIlwraith
Mark Komine
Mark Sirangelo
Matthew Schermerhorn
Melanie Cook
Mendelssohn Livingston
Melvin Tennant
Michael Massari
Mike Deitemeyer
Mike Beardsley
Mike Stawiarski
Mitchell Beer, CMM
Moon Civetz
Paul Fogarty
Ping Liu
Richard Harper
Rick Smith
Rob Scypinski
Robert Payne
Robin Lokerman
Robyn Byrd Powell
Ron Guitar
Sandra Riggins
Sara Torrence
Sebastien Tondeur
Steve Kemble
Susan Buntjer
Terri Fisher
Theda Jackson
Tim Brown
Tony Lorenz
Unni Soelberg-Claridge
Vito Curalli
William Gilchrist
mpiweb.org
pg038-039 MPI Foundation 0510.indd 39
39
4/26/10 4:49:37 PM
WHO:
Connections
Sandra Chipchase
CEO for Melbourne CVB
Trade Show + CVB
Sandra Chipchase donned her
Aussie cork hat and thought like
an exhibitor.
“I want buyers, and I want them to be
qualified,” she said, adjusting her metaphoric
thinking cap. “I want to start new conversations with people who might do business
with me. I want a trade show that’s easy to
book and has good air access. I want a business center and affordable and healthy food
on the trade show floor. I want CSR. And I
want to learn.”
It seems it was time to shake things up, and
Chipchase was just the lass to do it.
Reed Travel Exhibitions had been running the successful Asia-Pacific Incentives
& Meetings Expo (AIME) for five years
when Chipchase ascended to the helm of the
show’s owner (Melbourne CVB) in April
2006. The event—established in 1993—was
highly successful. But the bureau had taken
a back seat in the affair’s organization for
several years, and Chipchase likes to dirty her
hands in new projects.
She dug in.
“It wasn’t about control, it was about raising the bar, and Reed welcomed the prospect
with open arms,” she said. “I wanted this to be
the region’s signature event.”
It would be unfair to say that show director
Rosemarie Sama of Reed Travel was surprised
by Chipchase’s interest in the show. She had
worked with the CEO some years back at convention bureau Business Events Sydney.
“I knew her quite well before she joined the
Melbourne CVB,” Sama recalled. “I knew her
passion. She was going to turn things on their
Rosemarie Sama
Event director for Reed
Travel Exhibitions
EVENT:
Asia-Pacific Incentives &
Meetings Expo
March 2-3, 2010
Melbourne
heads; I knew this.”
The welcome reception
proved a likely starting
place. Lesson 2 (or is it
three?) about Chipchase:
She refuses to throw a bad
party.
“I love the welcome
receptions of the ‘80s
and ‘90s,” she said. “But
people got cautious and
started cutting budgets 10
years ago. The parties were boring, and we lost
the opportunity to showcase what we do best.
Today, we put a large portion of our budget
toward the opening reception. More good
business will be generated in those two hours
than any other marketing opportunity we
have. And everyone starts the show Tuesday
morning happy.”
Her favorite venue is an empty one. This
year, that meant the Goods Shed South, an
unremarkable warehouse with concrete floors
and rusted walls, memorable only for its sheer
vastness. For an evening, it transformed into a
circus of gourmet food stalls, traveling drink
trolleys, floor and stage entertainment and a
remarkably high-toned atmosphere despite—
or perhaps due to—its rough personality.
But Chipchase has more than passion for
party. That’s just where she starts. Her main
focus is to ensure that AIME lives up to its
Asia-Pacific name, bringing in more countries,
destinations and international content every
PHOTOS BY JESSIE STATES
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4/21/10 2:24:19 PM
through AIME this year and the payback included the booking of a 500-person event—a
great result for its first foray into the business
events industry.
year to appeal to a greater audience of exhibiMeanwhile, Sama revels in the working
tors and attendees. And she has broadened
relationship with her former colleague; she
engagement with airline partners to create mu- received an extension earlier this year when the
tual business opportunities.
Melbourne CVB re-upped the show contract
Buyer-side, Chipchase oversaw the creation with Reed Travel for another five years.
of a tiered program—spanning fully hosted
“The collaboration between Melbourne
(confined to a strict agenda) and semi-hosted (a and Reed Travel is essential for AIME’s sucbit more freedom on the show floor) trade visi- cess,” Sama said. “From my perspective, it’s a
tors. She also set about giving her buyers more relief to know Sandra and her team are there
destination choices—from Asia and beyond to to provide guidance and professionalism and
Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
passion.”
As for media, Chipchase understands
Chipchase knows she inherited a wonderful
the need for a good mix of publications and
legacy, now it’s her challenge to add value to
personalities. The CVB and Reed Travel have
the Reed partnership.
brought in new print and online trade show
“Our aim is not to be the biggest, but to be
pubs and encouraged more pre-tour options.
the best,” she said.
Population 30K Mildura hosted its first famil
—JESSIE STATES
mpiweb.org
p040-041 Connections 0510.indd 41
41
4/19/10 10:41:07 AM
IRRELEVANT
Sitting Tall
Enjoy stadium seating at any outdoor
event with this portable throne. Unlike
chairs used by the common man, The
Brobdingnagian Sports Chair’s lofty
seat raises your feet well above ground,
where they dangle and sway instead of
merely floundering in the dirt. Its six
cup holders and reinforced steel frame
offer you a glance at the life of a king.
(Hammacher.com, US$149.95)
42
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p042 Irrelevant 0510.indd 42
4/19/10 8:19:46 AM
0510_043.indd 43
4/23/10 2:03:14 PM
0510_044-045.indd 44
4/27/10 2:16:51 PM
0510_044-045.indd 45
4/27/10 2:17:04 PM
Jon
Hutchison
Global View
Don’t Be Shy
TECHNOLOGY IS AN ESSENTIAL PART
OF EVERYDAY BUSINESS. We operate in
46
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p046 Global View 0510.indd 46
BIO
an era in which people across continents
rely on modern technology to conduct
meetings—by connecting with colleagues
and clients via virtualization technologies. Our peers and conference delegates
converse in online forums and on social
networking sites.
But as a result of these interactions and
the ease with which they take place, technology threatens the idea that people need
to attend business meetings, especially in
cost-cutting times in which associations
assume they can hold events online and
realize the same outcomes as they would
through a face-to-face meeting.
Many organizations already realize that technology cannot provide for
the exchange of tacit knowledge that
occurs in face-to-face meetings. It is this
exchange that leads to the development of
trust, cooperation and ultimately innovation for corporations and associations
alike.
In fact, we expect to see the business
events industry prosper as a result of
technology, because face-to-face communication will become even more appreciated as the world becomes more digital.
Too, business events benefit from the use
of technology, and for this reason, the
industry shouldn’t shy away from it.
Technology will not hurt the future of
business meetings, it will enhance it. It is
therefore critical that meeting planners
integrate technology into their business
events.
Technology provides a platform for
delegates to share materials before, during
and after an event. It helps delegates—
who met at a business event—collaborate
and build on future projects. It also
reduces the amount of paper consumed
in the form of pamphlets and folders,
as another medium for information
presentation.
Expect to see the business
events industry prosper as a
result of technology, because
face-to-face communication
will become even more
appreciated as the world
becomes more digital.
Meeting planners should not be intimidated by technology. Instead, planners
must embrace new modes of communication to support their associations or
events and capitalize on the added value
technology brings to face-to-face interactions.
JON HUTCHISON, A.M., is chief executive of Business Events Sydney in
Australia.
4/21/10 2:26:08 PM
mpiweb.org
0510_047.indd 47
47
4/26/10 2:30:22 PM
Jon
Bradshaw
Reboot Your Brain
Parlez Vous
English?
THE DAYS ARE GETTING LONGER AFTER
A PARTICULARLY HARSH WINTER as I
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BIO
write this, and most people’s thoughts are
on the long hot summer days ahead. Of
course, meteorologically such days don’t
generally exist here in Britain, resulting in
the fact that at this time of year much time,
effort and money are invested in organizing
two of what are often the most stressful and
demanding weeks of the whole year—the
summer holiday.
You’ll know that I am proud of my
nationality if you’ve read my column before,
but I have to warn readers who haven’t visited these fair isles recently that living here
isn’t all cricket, bowler hats, cockney accents
and Mary Poppins. I’m afraid that there are
more Mr. Beans than Mr. Bonds—the proof
of which is that 90 percent of the population will choose to escape in the coming few
months, a situation that is either welcomed
or dreaded in equal measure depending on
whether you own a beach bar in southern
Europe or are the parents of the three teenagers who are planning to spend the equivalent of Greece’s national debt there. Batten
down the hatches, the British are coming!
(Very) generally speaking, when it comes
to taking a summer break the British will
do one of three things. Youngsters, heading
for their first holidays without parents, will
go to Mediterranean bars in Greece, Italy
or Spain for two weeks and embarrass our
country by drinking so much on the first
night that they spend the remaining 13 days
in the hospital, hoping that when they return
15 pounds lighter sporting a hospital tag
but no tan their parents won’t notice. Can
I apologize now to my Greek and Spanish friends for the behavior of our younger
generation (and for doing this myself in the
early 1990s)?
Families, on the other hand, will head
to Europe by car looking forward to two
weeks in the sun. This optimism will be
short lived when a) having driven less than
three miles, the children begin a 14-day
argument about which music should be
played, b) continental Europe suffers its
wettest summer in years (while Britain
hits 76 degrees Fahrenheit, the roads melt,
public transport grinds to a halt and a state
of emergency is declared) and c) the falling
value of the pound means that it would have
been more economical to buy a small Caribbean island.
Finally, the older generation relaxes as
the children and grandchildren are away,
hooks a 1960s caravan to the back of a
1950s Mini and proceeds to frustrate the
rest of the nation by driving 20 miles per
hour and taking four days to travel the
coast, thus creating a traffic jam the length
of Chile.
My family duly fit into the stereotype—
we generally took the ferry every year in the
mid- to late 1980s and camped on France’s
northwest tip. I remember the scene as if it
were yesterday, my dad asking a Frenchman in English (but with a hilarious French
accent) how far it was until the next campsite and reacting to the puzzled local by
JON BRADSHAW presents and trains internationally on a variety of subjects in the field of human behavior and performance. He is also director
of business development for IMEX, the European Meetings and Events
Exhibition and can be contacted via www.equinoxmotivation.com.
4/19/10 11:36:43 AM
Improve your cross-cultural
skills today by simply visiting
MPIWeb.org, choosing the
Education tab, selecting the
MPI CultureActive tool from
the drop down and being safe
in the knowledge that next time
you are in Rome you really can
do as the Romans do.
standing closer, raising his voice and speaking twice as slowly—cross-cultural communication at its best!
Being an island nation, we British haven’t
always had the best track record in understanding the habits of those native to the
countries we visit when holidaying “overseas.” In the 1980s, when Ian Rush—one of
England’s top soccer stars—returned to the
country after just one of the three anticipated
seasons playing for Italian giant Juventus, he
reportedly put his early return down to the
fact that living in Italy was like “living in a
foreign country.” Hardly an advert for British cultural adaptability.
As MPI members, no matter where
you’re planning your holiday/vacation this
year—or perhaps more relevantly no matter
where you’re attending your next meeting—
you at least can be assured of blending in
seamlessly with the cultures you are exposed
to thanks to a fantastic online resource.
Funded by the MPI Foundation, IMEX
and MCI, the CultureActive tool, developed
by Richard Lewis Communications, is available via the main MPI Web site at no cost
and introduces you to a staggering library of
information about a variety of cultures. By
taking the short questionnaire, you can compare yourself to others on aspects such as
communication, the interpretation of body
language and conducting meetings.
Improve your cross-cultural skills today
by simply visiting MPIWeb.org, choosing the
Education tab, selecting the MPI CultureActive tool from the drop down and being safe
in the knowledge that next time you are in
Rome you really can do as the Romans do.
I hope you all manage to enjoy relaxing
vacations in the coming months whether
abroad or not.
mpiweb.org
p048 Reboot Your Brain 0510.indd 49
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4/19/10 11:36:54 AM
Steve
Kemble
A Dose of Sass
The Power and
Value of Trade
Shows
I KNOW, I KNOW. THE LONG HOURS.
THE SORE FEET. THE LACK OF ADEQUATE F&B. The harsh lights. The cheesy
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BIO
give-a-ways. It’s the wonderful world of
trade shows! Many of you may find this
hard to believe, but I actually love trade
shows, and here’s why.
First, the networking and business opportunities within the concentrated time of
a trade show are seemingly endless. All of
you know I love events—they truly are my
passion. Yet, I can get an abundance of
business done on the trade show floor without food, beverage and entertainment distracting me. Don’t get me wrong; these are
not distractions in a bad way, but they
sometimes make it difficult to conduct business, because all an event’s elements are so
fabulous that I want to pay attention to
them. At a trade show, though, I want to
conduct business.
When I prepare to go to a trade show, I
do research on the various vendors who will
be exhibiting there. I like to do this research
on my own, and I am very rarely influenced
by the mountains of glossy marketing materials stating “See Us at Booth _____!” Additionally, I am not influenced by the chance
to win something or receive a token give-a-
way (with all due respect, my housekeeper
and yard man won’t even take the T-shirts
anymore...seriously!).
Once I have done my research, I contact
the companies I would like to see and schedule my time accordingly. What I like best is
that you get someone’s undivided attention
face-to-face (and in this electronic age, that
is in itself a wonderful rarity), and you can
discuss business, negotiate and establish a
relationship that could last for years.
Second, the monetary value of exhibiting and attending a trade show is unparalleled. Trust me, I understand that you must
carefully weigh the cost of exhibiting or
attending a trade show, but look at it this
I can get an abundance of
business done on the trade
show floor without food,
beverage and entertainment
distracting me.
way: If you seriously “work” the trade
show, the business booked or business
you were able to successfully negotiate
will be greater than any expenses incurred.
On supplier and planner sides, it is all about
how you implement your business strategy
for attending the show that will make the
difference.
All in all, it’s worth the sore feet, the
harsh lights in the exhibit hall and, quite
often, the lack of F&B to attend and exhibit
at a trade show near you. The networking
and business opportunities in our industry
are endless and bountiful.
STEVE KEMBLE has been the magic behind countless international events
for more than 20 years, from celebrating NFL players’ accomplishments
to organizing parties for two presidents. Follow him at www.adoseofsass.
com or on Twitter @stevekemblechat.
4/26/10 4:21:30 PM
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Dawn
Rasmussen
Get the Job
Interviewing
the Interviewer
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BIO
When you get the call, elation sets in:
“Yeah! I got an interview!” Then reality
hits, and it’s time to hunker down and make
sure you are totally prepared. But what
many people fail to prepare for is an interview of their prospective employers, and
there are a lot of questions to consider.
Is the company financially healthy? The
common wisdom in the world of hiring is
“last hired, first fired,” so an organization
that is struggling financially should trigger
a red flag.
What is the company culture? There are
plenty of good bosses out there, but there
are bad ones, too.
How does the company value its
employees? Look for indicators that staff
members are respected and encouraged to
grow professionally.
Being prepared for an interview means
investigating companies thoroughly, so you
can respond nimbly to questions. However,
it is also important to think about what you
will ask employers about the mindset, culture and operations of their organizations
while also demonstrating your superiority as
a candidate.
Following, find questions you can use to
win points while gaining valuable information about the company and your potential
employer.
1) What is the culture like?
This question lets interviewers know
that you are curious about compatibility
between yourself and the company.
2) What types of professional development
does your organization offer?
Basically, you’re asking the employer: Do
you care about your employees and help
them do a better job by giving them the
tools they need to be successful?
3) If I started today, what would be the
top three things to know in order to be
successful?
I love this question, because it shows how
sharp and keyed in you are on the prospective employer’s priorities. It shows initiative,
hunger for the job and intense interest in
being successful.
4) What is your management style?
Sure, this might make the interviewer a little
uncomfortable, but it’s entirely appropriate. Watch the reactions of the others in
the room, if there is a panel. Side looks can
reveal volumes of information.
5) Based on what you’ve observed today, do
you have any concerns about my ability to
do the job?
After the interview is over, you have pretty
much closed the door on any human
resource or hiring manager providing specific feedback on your performance.
Employers are looking for go-getters;
asking these questions is how you can really
shine.
DAWN RASMUSSEN, CMP, is the president of Portland, Ore.-based
Pathfinder Writing and Careers, which specializes in hospitality/meeting
professional resumés. She has been a meeting planner for more than 15
years and an MPI member since 2001.
4/22/10 8:54:28 AM
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Douglas
Rushkoff
High-Tech Humanity
Rise of the
Amateur
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BIO
One of the greatest benefits (and threats) of
the Net is the way it has opened opportunities for amateurs to work alongside (and
sometimes replace) professionals. Popular
teen bloggers earn front row seats at New
York’s Fashion Week, displacing editors of
formerly prestigious journals; camcorderarmed filmmakers compete with the major
studios via YouTube; and professional
intermediaries from real estate agents to
stockbrokers have been replaced by Web
sites that give people the ability to do things
for themselves.
The people have crashed the gates of
professionalism, penetrating the formerly
sacrosanct boundaries protecting elites of all
industries from challenges from below. Until
the Internet, most professions were at liberty
to create their own barriers to entry, based
on education and experience or even adherence to a certain value system or code of
conduct. Lawyers have the Bar, advertisers
join the American Association of Advertising
Agencies and journalists join the Press Club.
These associations—your associations,
for the most part—were most likely created
to maintain standards across your fields,
promote networking and guarantee a certain
level of expertise among your peers. Even
those that were created for political reasons
(such as the American Dental Association,
which was formed to promote the use of
silver amalgam as a filling material) eventually became dedicated to extending their
members’ interests and expertise. Your associations make you better at what you do.
To the newly minted, Net-enabled amateurs, however, your associations, your
professionalism and even your expertise are
obsolete. They believe their newfound access
to the tools and information that you use to
do your job makes them as good at doing
your job as you are. As one blogger asked
me, “What makes you think a professional
is any better at being a journalist than anyone with a blog?”
He has a point…to a point. The field of
journalism, for example, has been greatly
enhanced by a world in which there are
mobile phones with cameras practically
everywhere. When a story breaks on the
streets of Myanmar, there’s inevitably
someone there to capture it. Likewise, if the
conventional financial press is incapable of
challenging conventional financial wisdom,
a blogger can often be the first to expose
scandalously poor stewardship of the
markets.
Larger groups working together online
can develop a browser (Firefox) that challenges the best of Silicon Valley, an operating system that challenges Windows (Linux)
and the world’s most used encyclopedia
(Wikipedia). Many of the people working
on these projects are themselves experts—
top programmers, researchers and scientists—who are doing these projects in their
spare time. And we’re all better for their
achievements.
At the same time, however, the rise of
amateur activity online has given many
DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF is the author, most recently, of Life Inc: How the world
became a corporation and how to take it back. He teaches media studies at
The New School in New York, and can be contacted at rushkoff@rushkoff.com.
4/19/10 8:41:01 AM
people an exaggerated sense of their own
competencies—and a diminished sense of
yours. If regular folk can write an encyclopedia, they figure, what’s stopping them from
doing anything? As is often the case with
new technology, people have mistaken their
access to your tools for the competency to
use them.
In such an environment, your associations appear to be elitist, purely symbolic
and utterly artificial. They are just means
of maintaining your undeserved monopoly
over your industries. As much as amateurs
may want to be noticed and included in the
ranks of professionals, they would probably
be almost as gratified to see your associations collapse under their own weight. If you
can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em.
And the issues facing your organizations
are just a reflection of what your members
have been contending with for almost a
decade now. Their expertise is hardly valued
anymore, if it is even recognized. With few
exceptions (airplane pilots, brain surgeons),
our vocations are turning into hobbies.
Sadly, people don’t get paid for hobbies.
The answer, of course, is not to discourage amateurism, but to welcome it. Only
by welcoming the amateurs, and educating
them, do we stand a chance of showing
them how much better we are at doing
whatever it is we do. By welcoming them,
we show them that they are a part of our
culture—and in doing so, affirm our own
positions at the center of activity. Political
conventions, in danger of becoming selfcongratulatory snooze fests, reinstated their
own relevancy by inviting bloggers into the
pressroom. Comic book publishers know
that almost every reader thinks he is capable
of writing or drawing just as well as the
professionals. That’s why comic conventions
dedicate significant resources to workshops
and portfolio reviews for anyone who shows
up.
The Net may have given people the false
impression that they are competent at everything, but you are the only ones who can
correct that impression. Your events are now
more important than ever, because they offer
you two real strategies for promoting your
professionalism.
As is often the case with new
technology, people have mistaken
their access to your tools for the
competency to use them.
The first is to make them as transparent
as possible, revealing the depth of thought
and competency actually required to participate. Let bloggers see what it really means to
verify a source, or deconstruct some talking
points.
The second is to embrace a culture of
expertise. Make your members better at
what they do, help them dedicate to learning throughout their careers, bring them the
latest techniques and breakthroughs so they
don’t have to learn about them from a client,
an amateur competitor or a Google search.
After all, if your organization is no better at serving your constituency than the
Internet, your constituents may just decide to
serve themselves.
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+
The Charity King
+
Price Chopper’s fall holiday show in Hartford is a welcomed
gift for local charities across the region.
BY ILONA KAUREMSZKY
THE PRICE CHOPPER SUPERMARKET’S
FALL HOLIDAY SHOW WAS HELD IN
UPSTATE NEW YORK FOR YEARS.
It wasn’t until it settled in the Greater Hartford (Conn.) area four years ago that the family-run discount grocery chain decided to call
the area home to its annual three-day event.
Call it finding the bull’s eye.
“They needed a convenient, central location to gather managers from six New England states. We are located in the middle,”
said Karen Staples, CMP, CASE, director of
sales for the Greater Hartford CVB.
One of the big surprises in playing host to
a food-oriented trade show is the food itself.
Once the event closes what happens to all
the food displays, many of which offer steak
flanks, salmon and tropical fruit?
Ray Caouette, Price Chopper’s meeting
planner since 1981, says the company is big
on value and supporting local communities
and that the potential problem became a welcomed gift as local charities across the region
including Foodshare, the regional food bank
for Hartford and Tolland Counties, the
Albany (N.Y.) Damien Center for individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS and
Schenectady’s Northeast Parent & Child
Society received massive donations.
“We were ecstatic to receive this donation,” said Gloria McAdam, president and
CEO for the local Foodshare, which received
36,000 pounds of nutritious produce and
other food.
The process was seamless, because her
nonprofit already works with food companies that pick up food.
“The products return back to Foodshare
ready for pick up by the local shelters who
schedule appointments,” McAdam said.
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“What’s really great is 10,000 pounds were
fresh produce and 3,000 pounds were meats.
We got the best quality of food.”
Still, Hartford’s concern was to woo
returning guests, specifically the 1,400-plus
Price Chopper Supermarkets managers.
“We knew going into this early that we
wanted a hub that was in close proximity to
our store managers and partners—to actually
work in an area that is aligned with their normal responsibilities,” Caouette said. “Hartford
is a world-class, architecturally stimulating environment. And, quite honestly, it lets us have that
huge city feel of Philly, New York and Chicago
close to home at an affordable non-metro price,
which is very important to us.”
Hartford offers convenient access to more
than 23.5 million people within a two-anda-half-hour drive and is located at the crossroads of two major roadways, I-84 and I-91.
Bradley International Airport is a 15-minute
drive from downtown and the Connecticut
Convention Center.
Staples says that early in the first three
What’s
New in
Hartford
Front Street is a retail,
rental and entertainment
area scheduled to open
THE FLAMING LIPS
later this year across
from the Connecticut
Convention Center.
The Sheraton Hartford
Hotel recently completed
a US$1.4 million renovation.
Touted as the East Coast’s
largest new attraction,
the $164 million Connecticut Science Center
opened last June.
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Fun Facts
Hartford is ranked in the top 6 percent
of North American metropolitan areas
for art and culture.
The Mark Twain House & Museum in
Hartford is celebrating the Mark Twain
Centennial Celebration this year,
commemorating the 100th anniversary
of the author’s passing, his 175th
birthday and the 125th anniversary
of the iconic The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, which was written
in Hartford, a place of which Twain
remarked: “Of all the beautiful towns it
years a full bid book was done.
“But now that we understand the objectives and needs, we have streamlined our
offer with perks for future year bookings,”
she said. “For the rooms, in the spirit of Price
Chopper’s cost-consciousness, they have gone
to an online bidding method. The hotels can
see what the lowest bid is. This helps the client to keep the room pricing competitive.”
Another perk to working with a client
from the beginning is learning what the real
needs are.
“Our CVB loves this event because they
think outside the box when it comes to the
room block. They are not driven to book
the hotels on top of the center but rather
the hotels that offer the best value,” Staples
said. “They sell product themselves, that is
about value. We are able to offer everyone
an opportunity to work with Price Chopper
rather than the typical citywide convention.
Plus, their generous donation of food to area
pantries makes a significant contribution
to our area residents in need, and we truly
appreciate it.”
For hotels such as the Crowne Plaza Hartford Downtown—one of the event’s hotels—
Property Meetings Director Liz Piacentini,
CMP, concurs that the big advantage for a
returning client is familiarization through
consistency.
“The Price Chopper hotel planner placed
many of the same store employees in the same
hotels,” Piacentini said. “I even experienced
handing a bus driver (chartered company)
his room key and asked if he was all set with
parking his vehicle. As it turned out, he had
driven the bus for the same store the prior
year. He not only already knew where to
park, but proceeded to help direct attendees
has been my fortune to see, this is
the chief.”
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of
Art is the nation’s oldest public art
museum, founded in 1844.
to the elevators.”
As a representative for a longstanding
host hotel, she feels the kinks have been
ironed out, due in large part to a Daily Meeting Debrief taken from the previous year.
“This Crowne Plaza report is a tool that
provides feedback for planners on in-house
events. It allows them to keep tabs on their
banquet budgets and room nights actualized
and lists group observations,” Piacentini said.
“For repeat groups, it becomes a great tool
for the hotel and the planner. We use it to
recall peak times, so we can be proactive and
staff accordingly.”
Considered one of Connecticut Convention Center’s largest trade shows with 750
booths that fill the center’s 140,000-squarefoot exhibit hall, the event team comes to
town three days prior to opening, hauling in
perishable and non-perishable food items to
the Exhibition Hall, which transforms into
a larger-than-life supermarket with rows of
foods and products.
“The amount of freight involved surpasses
most other shows. Taking into consideration
their needs and the dynamics of their company, we realized that we were going to have
to approach them a little differently than
other clients,” said Jeanne O’Grady, director
of sales and marketing for the Connecticut
Convention Center. “We engaged with the
business agent in charge of our collective bargaining agreement and began negotiations
that would allow greater flexibility with our
policies and procedures in order to offer Price
Chopper the service they needed to ensure a
well executed event.”
When the items on display involve produce and other grocery products, timing is
essential, and so is the process for move-in
PRICE CHOPPER (4)
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Transportation
Tips
From Bradley International
Airport to downtown Hartford,
a one-way cab ride is roughly
US$42, and the Connecticut
Transit runs buses between the
Old State House in Hartford and
the airport.
Less than a two-hour drive
from New York and Boston,
Hartford is located at the
intersection of I-91, I-84 and
Route 2.
Major bus lines and AMTRAK
arrive and depart from the Union
Station Transportation Center
in downtown Hartford.
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GREATER HARTFORD CVB
+
and move-out schedules.
“Our greatest concern—and a concentrated effort—is to ensure that the equipment, product and people are all operating
in an efficient and safe manner,” O’Grady
said. “One of the challenges we encountered
was maintaining a safe environment during
the move-out process while quickly getting
the non-perishable items in the trucks for
the local food banks. This year a new plan
was initiated. Representatives from the food
banks, Price Chopper and the local union
walked the floor together and determined
which food bank would receive which items.
When the show closed, it was pre-determined
what to pack, and the laborers were able to
do that quickly and get the items to the loading dock to be donated. This reduced the
number of food bank volunteers on the floor
during the move-out process. It was a more
streamlined and safer solution.”
It showed. Hartford was hard hit with
the economic downturn. Local food pantries
grew by 30 percent over previous years. And
Price Chopper made one of the largest singleday donations to the local Foodshare.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to do
something for the local community,” Caouette said.
Company founders Ben and Bill Golub,
who even in the 1930s were very community minded, would have certainly agreed.
ILONA KAUREMSZKY is the former editor of Corporate Meetings & Events and is a
co-producer of mycompass.ca.
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SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT
Myrtle Beach
www.visitmyrtlebeach.com
As South Carolina’s No. 1 tourism destination, the Myrtle Beach area exudes
value and affordability with a myriad of
lodging, entertainment and attraction
choices—adding up to a premier destination for meeting groups, as well as leisure
travelers.
The Myrtle Beach area, also referred to
as the Grand Strand, comprises 60 miles
of wide, pristine beaches along the South
Carolina shoreline. Here, meetings are
held against a backdrop of the sparkling
Atlantic, in facilities ranging from comfortable and spacious hotel conference
rooms to full-size convention centers.
One of the advantages of hosting
a meeting in the Myrtle Beach area is
the awesome array of lodging options
available to groups, allowing the Myrtle
Beach area to comfortably handle almost
any group or meeting, with more than
20 of the area’s hotels offering dedicated
meeting and function space for groups
of up to 2,000.
Of course, all meeting and convention
schedules provide time “on your own.” In
the Myrtle Beach area, the trick is deciding what to do, as the choices are endless! Live entertainment venues serve up
everything from music and dance to dinner shows and celebrity concerts. There
are plenty of ways to play here, making
the Myrtle Beach area an ideal destination for all types of meetings and groups.
The area’s mild climate makes a trip to
the beach enjoyable throughout the
year, and there’s more to do beyond the
beach. More than 100 golf courses, many
designed by world-class architects, offer
an enjoyable day on the links. For the
group’s thrill seekers, water parks, theme
parks and racecar attractions will keep
their adrenaline pumping. Or, spend
the day shopping—the area is home to
outdoor complexes, brand-name outlets,
specialty shops and malls.
Unlike many group travel destinations,
where businesses close up shop when the
sun goes down, the Myrtle Beach area
comes alive at night. A memorable dining
experience is yours for the taking, ranging
from fine cuisine with Lowcountry flair to
themed dinner show attractions.
(With more than 1,700 restaurants
in the area, you’ll find something to
please everyone.) After dinner, explore
the vibrant nightlife scene, including
numerous live theaters, variety shows
and nightclubs.
South Carolina’s Grand Strand is
blessed with moderate temperatures
annually. The Myrtle Beach area enjoys a
mild average temperature of 74 degrees
Fahrenheit, with an average of 215 sunny
days each year. Any time of year—spring,
summer, fall or winter—is the perfect
time for a meeting along the Grand
Strand.
It’s easy to get here, too—an international airport offers non-stop service to
major east coast hubs, and a system of
interstates and highways runs through
the Grand Strand. Easy accessibility to the
Myrtle Beach area ensures your guests
arrive ready to enjoy all this great destination has to offer.
SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT 05.10
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Explosions in the Sky
Branson showed off what it can do for large groups
when it played host to the American Pyrotechnics
Association fall convention last year.
BY SANDI CAIN
THERE WERE FIREWORKS IN STORE
WHEN BRANSON, MO., BID ON ONE
LARGE CONVENTION LAST YEAR as part
of the American Pyrotechnics Association
(APA) program. Even so, Executive Director
Julie Heckman was surprised when a board
member with local ties suggested Branson for
the annual fall convention. The group had
never been to a town as small as 7,500, and
history showed the APA gets higher attendance when the convention is held in places
such as San Diego, San Francisco or Orlando.
But, Branson turned out to be easily accessible and less expensive than any other market,
so it fit the bill for the September event.
Missouri also fit the bill as a state with liberal fireworks sales policies. The APA doesn’t
meet in places that ban the sale of its product,
Heckman says. In fact, the local community
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benefited from fireworks displays on three
consecutive evenings.
“We bring something with us besides
people,” said Mike Collar, chairman of the
2009 event.
Branson, in turn, had a chance to show
off what it could do for a group of 600 at
its 3-year-old convention center and adjoining Hilton Promenade, as well as at Branson
Landing. The landing features a boardwalk
along Lake Taneycomo, along with a courtyard and fountains at the Town Square—a
popular setting for private events and concerts. The group also used Big Cedar Lodge
and the Chateau on the Lake, both at Table
Rock Lake and dam. Everyone from the fire
department and Army Corps of Engineers to
the CVB and the Hilton Promenade stepped
up to make it a special event.
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What’s
New in
Branson
Silver Dollar City, an
Ozark pioneer theme
park and Branson’s No.
1 attraction, will debut
the US$7 million Tom
and Huck’s RiverBlast this
year as part of its 50th
anniversary celebration.
The 89-room Hampton
Inn at Branson Hills
opened adjacent to the 18hole Payne Stewart Golf
Club and offers meeting
space.
“We might not have looked at Branson
without someone with roots in that area [suggesting it],” Heckman said.
That wasn’t a big surprise to Lynn Berry,
director of public relations for the Branson
CVB.
“Locals are very aware of the possibility
of bringing in groups through their connections,” she said.
In addition, Branson’s onetime reputation
as a place for senior citizens’ groups to hear
country music is long gone. Today, conventioneers are just as likely to find family vacationers and tour groups exploring the great
outdoors. The city’s central location, new airport, 220,000-square-foot convention center,
entertainment venues and plentiful outdoor
recreation also make it attractive for convention groups.
APA (3)
A 10,000-square-foot
water attraction dubbed
the Splash-A-Torium has
opened at The Welk
Resort, offering indoor/
outdoor water slides, hot
tubs and play areas.
+
Transportation Tips
Branson Airport, eight miles south
of Branson, opened in 2009. It’s
served by Airtran, SunCountry and
Frontier Airlines and has service to
more than 50 destinations.
Springfield/Branson National
Airport is 43 miles northwest of
Branson and has 35 daily arrivals and
departures. It’s served by American,
Delta, Northwest, United and
Allegiant airlines.
Branson is intersected by I-44 and
U.S. routes 65 and 160. Its location
in southwestern Missouri makes it
within a day’s drive of one-third of
the U.S. population.
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Special Challenges
Naturally, a fireworks group faced some
challenges, primarily in arranging complex
fireworks shows that included aquatic displays. First and foremost was convincing the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to allow fireworks to be shot over Table Rock Lake, since
it had never been done. Big Cedar Lodge and
the Chateau on the Lake are on the shores
of that lake, and it was also the dam’s 50th
anniversary.
Greg Oller, deputy operations project
manager with the Corps, says it needed to
consider how much traffic the shows might
generate on area roads, how many boats
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might get close to the fireworks and how
many spectators might show up.
In addition to the Corps, the Missouri
Highway Patrol, the Branson police, the
county sheriff, the Branson Fire Department,
the county water department and ambulance
providers were brought in to plan the event.
“APA was very receptive and understanding and worked with us [to minimize concerns],” Oller said.
He noted that good communication
between the groups involved and ample
lead time contributed to the success of the
program.
“If a group wants to come here, it’s our
due diligence to make sure [its program] can
happen,” said Ted Martin, the fire department
division chief. “You wouldn’t think the fire
department is a marketing factor, but it is.”
Heckman says Branson’s planning was
particularly impressive in contrast to another
city where the convention had been held. In
that case, city officials forgot to inform emergency workers about the scheduled fireworks
shows, resulting in some panic when people
heard the explosions.
Traffic concerns also dictated what time
the fireworks shows would happen, which
meant scheduling food and beverage events
around the fireworks instead of the reverse.
“We had to think outside the box,” said
Angela Davis, director of catering at the Chateau on the Lake.
The Chateau, which played host to the
final night’s presentation, ended up having a dessert reception outdoors in an area
reserved for APA members. Other VIPs and
regular hotel guests had designated viewing
areas as well. Staff handled crowd control.
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+
Fun Facts
There are 200 miles
of hiking, biking and
horseback riding trails in
and around Branson.
Missouri is known as the
Cave State, and four of
18 major caves are in the
Branson vicinity. They are
available for private group
tours and events.
The choreographed water
fountains at Branson
Landing’s Town Square were
created by WET Design,
which also produces the
water shows at the Bellagio
in Las Vegas.
In all, about 1,000 people
watched the fireworks from
the Chateau.
The CVB provided Grayline buses to The Chateau
and to Big Cedar Lodge—a
huge benefit to the association, Collar says. Staff members at Branson Landing
also went out of their way
to make the program a success, securing eight bands
to perform. Landing staff
also provided escorts to get
members from a reception
at the convention center to
the designated fireworks
viewing area.
Big Cedar Lodge, which typically stages
its own fireworks, found itself a spectator for
the APA’s display. Local ties that helped bring
the convention to Branson also helped land
the main sponsor, Bass Pro Shops, which also
owns Big Cedar, a fishing resort with lodging
that ranges from cabins to a four-star hotel.
BRANSON CVB (4)
Community Benefits
Aside from delegate spending, the APA
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brought other community benefits to the table, including free fireworks shows and a one-day continuing education seminar for Missouri fire marshals.
Martin says working with groups such as the APA
helps the fire department sharpen its skills. Unlike many
towns its size, Branson has a full-time fire department to
serve residents and 8 million annual visitors.
Branson was impressed with these and other APA
efforts in the community. The group placed ads in the
local newspaper inviting the public to various fireworks
displays and turned the show at Branson Landing into
entertainment for the local high school homecoming.
“It’s important to them that the community benefits
from their presence,” Chateau on the Lake’s Davis said.
“Our restaurant sold out and had a waiting list [on the
night of the fireworks].”
The APA convention ended up being a win-win for
the association and the community.
“Branson put together something we’ll never forget,” Collar said.
He suggested that more meeting planners explore
member relationships and connections to find new destinations, bring in sponsorships or otherwise leverage
local expertise to benefit their meetings.
“Everyone has connections,” he said.
SANDI CAIN is a California-based freelance writer.
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BY JOEL DURHAM JR.
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It’s changeor-die time
for trade shows. Following the
worn-out formula of decades past,
they’re growing stagnant and their
days of success are numbered.
Future successes will be realized
through, among other things, smaller shows guided to more targeted
audiences that support larger, national shows and the incorporation
of social media to enhance ROI for
all stakeholders.
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We asked a
pair of experts
what they think is happening
and will happen to change
trade shows in the near and
far future: Chris Valentine, a
founder of T3 Expo, and Rohit Talwar, noted futurist and
CEO of Fast Future.
The Near Future
Going with the idea that trade
shows haven’t changed format
all that much over the past 10
years or so, the future looks
relatively tumultuous. Valentine is certain the industry is
already changing.
“For some sectors...definitely,” Valentine said. “I
think the larger [shows] will
evolve. Twenty years ago they
dominated the audience, but
as time goes on, their segment
of the audience has shrunk. So
what I see happening is more
proprietary type of events...
smaller, regional events, more
narrow-casted events which
are more specific to a target
audience.”
To identify this audience,
trade show organizers should
be paying more attention to
feedback from social networking and blogging, and
using that data to target their
audiences with more specific
approaches. Valentine cites
examples, including WordPress and Salesforce, which
hold several smaller, regional
events, in support for larger,
national events.
“So they do all these regional events, build up intelligence
around their audience, what
their audience is seeking, test
marketing the audience, [and]
it allows them to get at more
customers at a cheaper rate,”
he said. “Then they bring them
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all in for the larger Dreamforce
event in San Francisco.”
Talwar also sees the future
as a time of targeting the bottom line.
“Exhibitors will want to
be able to demonstrate that
attending your show provides
a true ROI. This means show
owners will have to move
from kindergarten to MBA
class quickly in terms of their
approaches to proving that
their shows really do generate
business and measuring it.
“Most ROI calculations
and formulas I see provided
both buyers and suppliers so
that they can get much closer
to real deals or at least an outline of agreement.”
As an example, Talwar indicated that in technical shows
the real value might come
from shortening educational
seminars and getting the tech
people into more intimate,
conversational settings.
That leaves the challenge
of ensuring press coverage of
trade shows.
“To that end, we could see
industry debates and panel discussions moving from the safe,
Show owners will have to
move from kindergarten to
MBA class quickly in terms
of proving that their shows
really do generate business.
by show owners would be
more effective as napkins than
as real business tools,” Talwar
said. “We are going to see a
lot more investment in pre-selecting and screening buyers,
scheduling appointments, using technologies such as RFID
to provide real data on who’s
at a show, the stands they are
visiting, the time they spend,
[and so on].”
Shows aren’t just for
schmoozing, either, according
to Talwar.
“Our Convention 2020
study also shows that increasingly people want to do
real business at a show. This
means making sure key decision makers are there from
‘Why did I bother attending,’
sessions that permeate so many
shows to hard-hitting sessions
that talk to critical issues for
the industry.”
Looking Further
Ahead
Valentine focuses on the utilization of social media and enhanced feedback.
“The funny thing that I see
all the time is, how do you
use social media within the
context of an event? I always
think it’s ironic, because to me
[events are] the original social
networks. You have exhibitors who are customers, and
they get instant feedback, because the people on the floor
are either visiting the booth or
not. They have a number of
thought leaders and they can
build content around those
thought leaders, and they’re
able to interact with the audience. That is what social media is all about”
In the future, he says that
organizers will start to leverage social media technologies
to get better and better feedback around their event.
Virtual events will also continue to be a growing factor,
especially in the distant future.
And remember, virtual events
can be anything that gathers
people online and jazzes them
about the industry which the
event surrounds.
“I think you’ll have virtual
events where you have an avatar and walk around a virtual
trade show floor, but I also
see a virtual event as a tweetup, or a swarm, if you have a
thought leader and if you’re
going to have a chat online
around this,” he said. “Depending on the feedback and
the content, I see those all as
virtual events.”
Where Do We Go
from Here?
Trade shows, it seems, aren’t as
static as many believe. They’re
already changing, leaning
heavily on social networking.
“[Trade shows] will have to
be far more interactive,” Talwar said. “Many will be shorter—possibly even after-work
evening shows—with more
regional and local offerings,
with a far more personalized
experience for delegates and
exhibitors.”
According to Valentine,
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4
Ways to Increase
Your Trade Show ROI
this is already the case. Furthermore, the key to maximizing
ROI for exhibitors and organizers is in analyzing feedback data
through social networking and
onsite metrics (see sidebar).
With more targeted shows,
more virtual shows and more
profitable shows all in the future, the trade show industry is
anything but stagnant or dying.
It’s evolving, as it must, with the
changing times and the connected world.
JOEL DURHAM JR. is a
N.Y.-based freelance writer.
1) EXHIBITORS MUST
MAKE FULL USE of social
“Invest in real research to create provable ROI calculations for
networks to target key attendees
your show, invest in identifying
and book appointments with them, the real buyers in your sector and
according to Rohit Talwar, CEO of
incentivize them to come. Invest
Fast Future.
in research that puts you at the
“Have something to say on your forefront of customer thinking—
stand—provide something of real
not three steps behind it.”
value to delegates, such as inforIn other words, be agile
mation, advice or time-saving tools. and be ready to face changing
[After all], we have enough key
demands.
rings to go around the planet twice.
Schedule time after the show to
3) EDUCATE AND
complete the follow up,” he said.
MAKE SURE SMALLER
PLAYERS in the market
2) SHOWS CAN GET
understand “the game” to
SMALLER, SHORTER AND ensure they’re getting the best
LESS PROFITABLE: an idea ROI. Those smaller organizaplanners should get used to, actions make up the majority of
cording to Talwar.
exhibitors at most trade shows,
according to Chris Valentine, a
founder of T3 Expo.
4) ORGANIZERS AND
SHOW OWNERS SHOULD
DO MORE ANALYSIS.
“I’ve done a fair amount of research
in this area and I think either the
organizer or the third parties have to
work better to wield the data that is
on the trade show floor,” Valentine
said. “Get more information about
the behaviors of the attendees,
whether it’s what booth they visited,
how long they visited or what products they were interested in. There
are companies out there that have
touched upon this, but there [need
to be more], because the potential
data is so rich.”
2010
The Year We
Make Changes
The recently released Center for Exhibition
Industry Research (CEIR) look at the future of
the industry, the CEIR Index, An Analysis of the
2009 Exhibition Industry and
Future Outlook, reveals some
bleak findings of the past year
and “cautious optimism” for
tomorrow.
The Index found a 12.5
percent decline in the trade
show industry, year over year—
four times greater than any
previous year. However, Gary
Shapiro, president and CEO of
the Consumer Electronics Association/CES sees
2010 as a year of opportunity.
“After a challenging 2009, we can benefit
from the U.S. government’s new focus on
growing exports by positioning our shows as
opportunities to expand international exports,”
he said.
For the complete report, visit www.ceir.org.
Myrtlye CC
1/3 page ad
mpiweb.org
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the Connect
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BY JENNA SCHNUER
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL SCOTT BERMAN
ctor
Jack Hidary’s passion for bringing people
and ideas together is heralding a better future
for America’s children.
A late night and an early
morning person. A rare bird.
Meet Jack Hidary, entrepreneur, philanthropist, policy
guy, meeting junkie (see Page
85) and, most officially, chairman of National Lab Day.
Along with the three
for-profit companies he runs
(or is getting up and running)
—including seven-month-oldGlobal Solar Center (globalso
larcenter.com)—Hidary is involved with developing policies
and programs in education and
clean energy. He works with
government entities and other
organizations on “big, big policies that can have a systemic
effect and catalyze a whole different marketplace.”
“Basically, we have several national energy policies
on transportation energy that
we’re able to gain traction on
because of our approach,”
Hidary says. “Our approach
is very much a partnership
approach—a consortium approach where we bring forprofits and nonprofits and
governments together.”
Hidary was one of the architects of the Cash for Clunkers program and, currently,
is working on PACENOW,
which “helps people pay for
the retrofit of buildings” for
energy independence.
But, really, the work he
does that’s guaranteed to rev
everybody else up is in education.
National Lab Day (celebrated May 12) is an ongoing,
don’t-ever-let-it-stop sort of
“The value that we
provide is a tagged,
scalable, easy way of
finding the expert
that you need to get
your job done.
For the expert, what’s
great is that they put in
some really satisfying
volunteer time.”
thing—not truly just a day—
“a National Barn-Raising for
Hands-On Learning.”
The program grew from
meetings between Hidary and
the White House’s Office of
Science and Technology Policy.
The group brainstormed about
education, trying to figure out
what new programs could be
built to “re-engage learning
and hands-on learning in this
country,” he says.
In so many ways, it’s really
a marvelously simple program:
a matchmaking service that
brings together teachers and
their students with scientists,
mathematicians and engineers.
Hidary based the National
Lab Day site on an algorithm
he developed for a dating site.
(You thought we were kidding
about the matchmaking?) But,
instead of boy meets girl, it’s
teachers and students meet scientists.
They guarantee that the actual matchmaking doesn’t need
a middleman—it’s all done by
computer.
Teachers register projects
for which they need help; experts register themselves and
note how much time they
can give.
“Then, our system proactively matches those two and
e-mails both of them,” he says.
No muss. No administrative fuss.
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“The value that we can provide is a tagged, scalable, easy
way of finding the expert that
you need as a teacher to get your
job done,” Hidary says. “For the
expert, what’s great is that they
can put in some really satisfying
volunteer time.”
He adds: “The kids, of
course, love it. It’s hands-on, outof-doors, out-of-classroom and
even in-classroom. [We had a
class] in San Francisco that just
got some civil engineers to help
them build a model of a bridge
in the classroom.”
Like all of his projects,
Hidary has some big goals in
mind for National Lab Day.
“My whole mantra is scale.
You want to have quality but
you want to have scale as well,”
he says. “We cannot just focus on
projects or programs that could
affect 1,000 or 2,000 or 3,000
people. Cash for Clunkers affected millions of people. PACENOW will affect tens of millions
of people. With National Lab
Day, we hope to reach 1 million
kids by the end of this year.”
Along with its White House
supporters—including U.S. President Barack Obama, who has
called on all 200,000 scientists
on the government payroll to do
their parts to get involved—National Lab Day has found plenty
of meeting industry fans. At
press-time, there were plans for
“Why You Should Get Involved
With National Lab Day” sessions at National Science Teachers Association and American
Chemical Society meetings. And
National Lab Day was a featured
topic at the über-hip and inspiring TED conference in February.
With more than 1,000 projects under way, it looks like
Hidary’s year-end goal is well
within reach.
National Lab Day has found plenty of fans
at conferences and meetings. There are
plans for “Why You Should Get Involved
With National Lab Day” sessions at
National Science Teachers Association
and American Chemical Society meetings.
And National Lab Day was a featured topic
at the über-hip and inspiring TED conference
in February.
JENNA SCHNUER is a regular contributor to One+.
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The Meeting Crasher
(Don’t worry, it’s a good thing.)
OK, so it won’t be as funny
as Wedding Crashers, the
bawdy Owen Wilson and
Vince Vaughn Hollywood
flick. At the same time, it’s
doubtful that Hollywood
will develop a script based
on his unconventional
conference-going behavior
anytime soon. Maybe the
meeting industry should
consider launching a
meeting-goer walk of fame
with Jack Hidary’s star
sitting in a place of honor.
Or, at least, give him the
honorary title of “The Meeting Crasher.”
No need to shudder
in fear. Hidary’s brand of
meeting crasher is, as
a certain domestic diva
would say, a good thing.
A self-described “meeting junkie” and chairman of
National Lab Day, Hidary
doesn’t just sign on for
the same old conferences
every year. In his quest to
keep his brain churning and
create new connections
between people and ideas,
he likes to find out what
conferences are going on
at whatever hotel he happens to be staying at and
register.
Topic relevance to his
existing interests is unnecessary.
“It opens up different
opportunities and ways
of thinking when you go
to these conferences that
are outside your immediate realm,” Hidary says. “I
probably shouldn’t admit
this in public but…whatever is there, I’ll just walk
into that conference.”
He walks in and he listens.
“Every conference and
meeting is its own genre,
its own world,” Hidary says.
“It has its own language.”
As the new person who
doesn’t necessarily belong
to that world, he says, “You
can think of new ideas. The
people in the meetings often
can’t see the big forest. But
as an outsider, you can see
the big forest.”
If the thought of an
outsider brings on a wave of
anxiety—who is that guy?—
worry not. Opening the
doors to outsiders can be
the best gift for your meeting attendees. A few years
ago, Hidary did a walk-in at
The Aspen Institute Energy
Policy Forum. Already in the
building for another conference, he decided to check
out the rather intimate gathering of just a few hundred
people. In 2009, he returned
to Aspen as the co-chairman
of one of the event’s tracks.
Fill newcomers in on
industry lingo, acronyms and key issues
of the day. A one-day
pre-conference track for
those new to the industry
can help everybody get
the most out of the main
event. “Let them take
five, six hours intensely
studying the industry with
an expert [so they don’t]
feel stupid when they get
to the conference.”
Pair outsiders with
an insider mentor—a
conference sherpa.
Before heading into
the unknown world of
the massive Licensing
International Expo, Hidary
contacted a friend who
worked in licensing to see
if he would mind being his
guide. “He knows everybody and he’s familiar so
But because Hidary is who he is—the connector—and likes to pass ideas along, here are
some of his thoughts for amping up the meeting
and conference experience for attendees old
and new, insider and outsider.
it was a good entrée into
that world.” Consider setting up a mentor program
to pair newcomers with
industry insiders. Everyone
involved will walk away
with new ideas.
Don’t shut out the
future—and make
sure your organization
pays attention to its
own conference topics.
OK, this one is especially
important for industries
that are getting wiped
out—or, at least, nudged
aside—because of changes
in technologies and
customer behaviors. Along
with his entrepreneurial and
philanthropic endeavors,
Hidary also publishes an
online newsletter through
his foundation, Opinion
Source.com. But when
he tried to sign up for a
news editor organization,
he was turned away from
membership since the
newsletter is online only and
the organization’s bylaws
required all members to
publish in print. But he
did attend the conference.
The topic? How online and
digital media was changing
the news industry.
Encourage people from
outside your immediate industry world to
attend. Invite pediatricians
to your neuroscience meeting. Get accountants to
check out your real estate
conference. “When people
are put in these strange
contexts, their juices really
get flowing.”
Make sure your conference is as open and
welcoming as you
think it is. If everybody
already knows everybody
else at your meeting or it’s
loaded with hard-to-breakinto cliques, how much of a
chance is there for people
who haven’t interacted
before? Hidary recently
suggested that the organizers of a digital media conference take a look at the
degrees of separation, connections and structure of
the social network of their
conference. Of the 1,000
attendees at the five-yearold conference, they found
that there was less than
three degrees of separation
between everybody. If it’s
too close for comfort, make
an extra effort to bring in
fresh blood.
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“The best advice
I ever got.”
B Y D AV I D B A S L E R
“Become a volunteer. It will
make you a better leader.”
GEORGE AGUEL
senior vice president of Disney Parks and Resorts
T
oday, CSR is on
the lips of business
leaders
worldwide, but
the most successful learned
the importance of volunteerism way before it was
cool.
For executives such as
George Aguel, volunteering is more than helping a
community, it elevates his
employees as they make a
difference, builds his company’s brand image and
improves his own personal
leadership skills.
“I was advised by many
great mentors very early in
my career about the importance of volunteerism—it’s
such a good thing for so
many reasons. It expands
your thinking and your
horizons and awareness of
a multitude of issues and
environments you may
operate in professionally
and also that of many other
businesses you come in contact with.”
Proving the power and
the value of meetings that
has become our industry’s
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battle cry is at the very heart
of the learning involved in
this type of volunteer effort.
“The power of working
with others—whether it’s
giving food to the homeless,
building homes or helping an
industry organization come
up with new ideas around
a boardroom table—is a
great opportunity to really
collaborate with different
views. It develops you as a
leader, and you’re stronger
for having the benefits of
those gained insights. So
from that standpoint alone,
it has enormous benefits
to you and your business.
You’re going to be a better
leader in your place of business. Period.”
Aguel strongly believes
that companies today must
believe in the power of people doing good.
Companies such as Disney are increasingly seeing
the value in allowing their
employees to take paid time
off to work in their communities as well.
“When our cast members
go out into the community,
you can see the pride they
have in helping the community and wearing their ‘Disney Volunteer’ T-shirts with
the Mickey ears on them—
you know, it’s a real source
of pride for all of us and an
incredible statement about
our company.”
Disney has had an
employee volunteerism program for more than 20 years
and earlier this year decided
to encourage the public to
share in the experience with
its “Give a Day, Get a Day”
program, which offers a free
one-day admission for every
day spent volunteering.
“There’s nothing earth
shaking or new about
volunteering, but it should
be the backbone of every
company business model
today.
“If you’re personally not
taking time to volunteer
or you’re not encouraging
your employees to volunteer, then change. When
you talk about such things
as benchmarking, you begin
to understand that you can’t
develop your business in isolation without the benefits
of having the great insights
you get from the relationships you build from working along side other volunteers coming from so many
other organizations. It’s a
formula for success.”
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“Change is better than
improvement.”
RÉMY CREGUT
general manager of Montreux Music &
Convention Centre
I
“Nobody says it has
to be forever.”
ANNE HALLINAN, CMP
owner of MarroneHallinan Event
Management
I
t’s never a good
thing to be a onetrick pony, and
looking back on
her career, Anne Hallinan
knows exactly when her
career broadened.
“I was working for
the Oregon Convention
Center in 1994 when I was
approached to take a job
with Conferon in St. Louis. I
liked where I was and didn’t
have any interest in moving,
but Teri Tonioli, who offered
me the job, said, ‘Anne, listen, you come work for me
for two years and I guarantee you will learn more than
you’ve learned to this point.
And if you don’t like it at
that time, go home, nobody
says it has to be forever.”
That’s when the light
bulb went on for Hallinan.
“I took the job, and
I didn’t stay forever—it
ended up being about a
year and a half, but honestly what I did learn in that
time I’ve been able to use
over and over again, and
without that experience I
wouldn’t have been able to
open my own company. It
gave me the experience I
needed to be on both sides
of the meeting planning
fence. I was able to work
nationally in different cities
and learn about a lot of different properties and hotel
contracts (which I knew
nothing about)—I learned
basically how to be a meeting planner. I just thought
it was going to be a job—I
didn’t think it was possibly
going to be life changing.”
n the late 1990s,
Rémy Cregut was
in charge of meeting and incentive
events at Disneyland
Paris. Disney’s second
park outside the U.S.
was still in its infancy,
and change was always
in the air.
“Everybody can improve. Change needs to
be creative and much
more determined. It’s
only with change that
you really reach the highest targets.”
A piece of advice that
Cregut hasn’t forgotten
since came from Philippe
Bourguignon, then president of Euro Disney.
“Rather than simply
improving on the way
things are now, think
more innovatively and
change directions if need
be,” says Cregut, now
the general manager at
the Montreux Music &
Convention Centre in
Switzerland.
“As a venue manager
this [change] is what
we do. Just because 10
companies have done
the same kind of event
the same way in the
same place, we shouldn’t
consider that the best
way to do it. Our role,
I think, is sometimes to
say to those companies,
‘We should try another
way, because I know you
want to reach different
objectives and I think
this way would be better.’ In the event industry, you must really be
able to think differently
every day. Experience is
good, but there are a lot
of people out there with
experience—there
are
not a lot of people with
creativity.”
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“Your greatest asset is being open to the
learning experience.”
CHRISTINE CUNNINGHAM, CMP
director of sales for the Williams Inn
A
veteran in
the hotel
bus i ness,
Christine
Cunningham is always
in search of the next
great learning opportunity—largely because of
a piece of advice she got
from a mentor early in
her career.
Cunningham “grew
up” in the hotel business at the Gideon Put-
nam Hotel in Saratoga
Springs, N.Y. It was
during her almost 11
years there that Director of Sales Pam Lollias
told her “your greatest
asset is being open to the
learning experience.”
“She helped me mature and learn in the
industry—the things to
do and not to do and how
to be successful. Even in
negative situations, you
learn something positive from the experience.
Every experience is a
learning experience.”
Cunningham, now a
director of sales herself,
passes along the same
advice she received more
than 15 years ago.
“Whether it’s serving
on a board, or getting
your CMM or CMP or
on-the-job training, continuing your education
is so key to everything in
your personal and professional lives. You have
to continually be learning and educating yourself in things to grow—
keep your mind open
and you’ll be successful.
You can learn from every
situation and from every
person you come in contact with—especially if
their way of thinking is
different than yours.”
“To believe in myself and trust that I have the
ability to do anything I set my mind to.”
MICHELLE JOHNSON
co-owner and chief gathering officer of c3
A
phone call less than
three years ago
changed Michelle
Johnson’s life, when a
friend simply asked why she wasn’t
in business for herself. The call
reminded Johnson of some advice
from her mother.
“She always used to tell me to
believe in myself and trust that I
have the ability to do anything I set
my mind to.”
She took the advice of her
Windy City friend and struck up
conversations with two people—
now her business partners.
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“I actually get goose bumps
thinking about it. But it wouldn’t
have happened if I hadn’t believed
in myself in the first place. It was
something my mother had told me
since I was a child, but you know,
you’re a kid and you don’t get it
until you need to get it. It wasn’t on
my checklist when I was 18, but it
was on my checklist at 40.
“To believe in myself enough to
know that even though I may make
a mistake, it’s the growth opportunity that comes out of that that’s
the most important thing.”
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“Deliver what you promise.”
HATTIE HILL, CMM
CEO of Hattie Hill Enterprises Inc.
W
hether it be
a business
opportunity, feedback from a
speaking engagement or
work for a client, Hattie
Hill is always evaluating something.
“I get up somewhere
between 4 and 5 a.m.
every day and whether
I am being paid or not,
whatever I am doing,
volunteer or for a client,
I always stop and ask,
‘Are we doing everything the best that we
possibly can?’ I always
evaluate everything I do
that way.”
She has her mother
to thank for her meticulous self-critiques.
“My mom would
always say, ‘When you
commit to someone
you do the best—
deliver what you promise.’ It resonates with
me every single day.
If you make a promise, a commitment to
something, you always
deliver because it’s a
reflection of you.”
“Don’t forget what you already
know.”
MICHAEL MASSARI
vice president of Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s Entertainment
I
t’s easy to get caught up in the
moment and forget to take care
of the details. We’ve all been
there. As he was leaving his job
at The Venetian in Las Vegas in 2000
for a new position at Rio Las Vegas,
Mike Massari was handed a great
piece of advice from his boss Michael
French and it resonated.
“He said to me, ‘Mike, you’re
going to do a great job. But I want
you to keep one thing in mind. Don’t
forget what you already know.’ And I
think this is so appropriate in today’s
environment, because I see so many
people trying to score 100 points on
one play, trying to throw the bomb,
you know, whatever you want to call
it, and they just forget to do the things
that are the basics that they already
know how to do well. They forget
to answer the phones, they forget to
call customers and they forget to ask
questions, because they’re so worried
about trying to do the next, coolest,
best thing.”
Massari likes telling this story to
colleagues and especially to his newest employees at Las Vegas Meetings
by Harrah’s Entertainment, where he
now works.
“When my bosses ask what I’m
doing differently, I am honest and
say, ‘I am doing nothing differently.’
The fact of the matter is, I am doing
less stuff than I did last year, but the
stuff I am still doing is the most critical and I’m going to be the best in the
world at it.”
That’s a hard story to tell your boss
sometimes.
“Everybody always wants to say,
‘Oh we’ve got this new idea and that
new idea, but sometimes you have
to hunker down and say you know
what got me here were these four
things, and I’m going to be the best
at them and I’m not going to mess
with all that other stuff. It’s nothing
but a distraction.”
DAVID BASLER is editor in chief of
ONE+.
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e
h
t
n
O
MPI Proudly Presents the
2010 RISE Award
Individual Category Winners
BY ELAINE POFELDT
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e
s
i
R
e
David Rich and
Krzysztof Celuch,
please step up. The two will be
honored as winners of MPI’s
Recognizing Industry Success and
Excellence (RISE) - Individual
awards at the World Education
Congress in Vancouver this July
Rich accepts the RISE Award for
Meeting Industry Leadership, honoring his vision, creative insight and
positive impact on the global meeting and event industry community.
The award recognizes sustained
commitment and contributions to
the industry and inspires others to
learn from example.
Celuch earns the RISE Award for
Young Professional Achievement,
which recognizes an individual 30
years of age or younger with five or
less years professional experience
who has made outstanding contributions to the meeting industry.
Meeting Industry
Leadership
As a teenage magician, David
Michael Rich wondered why a magic
trick that enthralled an audience in
one performer’s hands fell flat when
someone else performed it.
“I can clearly remember asking
myself, ‘So what’s the difference?
Why is it that some experiences
absolutely transport people and
others utterly fail to?’” he recalled.
Now the senior vice president
of worldwide marketing strategy
for George P. Johnson (GPJ), Rich
has devoted his career to answering similar questions about meetings and events—and finding the
answers. He has made a name for
himself by using careful research to
help corporate clients understand
and maximize the ROI of events
they plan. In doing so, the winner
of this year’s RISE Award for Meeting Industry Leadership has created
one of the largest global integrated
event and experience marketing
strategy practices in the world.
What’s surprising about
Rich is that he hasn’t kept
this sought-after knowledge under wraps.
He’s brought his strategic perspective to an entire industry. As a
longtime MPI member who has held
several leadership positions, he has
been a major force behind the GPJ/
MPI Foundation EventView study,
which has helped to demonstrate
the business case for meetings and
events. He has also become a leading voice for using meetings and
events as strategic tools in corporate marketing plans.
“Many times those in the MPI
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community have complained that their
peers don’t really understand what they
do,” he said. “When one has a really strategic orientation and role, those issues fall
away.”
Rich developed his strategic focus
over many years in events marketing. He
started his career working as a performer
on children’s television show Rex Trailer’s Boomtown that aired in the Boston
area. After the show went off the air, he
and the show’s star, Rex Trailer, launched
an agency called Universal Speakers and
Entertainment in 1981, booking celebrity
speakers, as well as comedians including
Rich Little and Steve Allen.
“I really started to look at the ways
you could engineer an event, a live experience to transport and transform people
and the ways of making that happen,” he
said. “I started to develop methodologies
that one could reliably deploy to make
that happen.”
After selling the agency to Lordly &
Dame, a corporate lecture and entertainment agency, he joined it as a vice
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president. There, he started Strategic
Events International, a division that created strategically aligned events.
“It was a reinvention of the corporate
division to help generate high ROI for
meetings and events,” he said. “I knew
that to get the message across, to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace, we
would have to change our name, position
and brand.”
Rich also began his long association
with the MPI New England Chapter, eventually becoming a two-term president.
“I learned the ways of leadership from
MPI and folded it back into Lordly &
Dame,” he said.
MPI also helped him build a far-reaching professional network, he says—it was
an MPI contact who eventually recruited
Rich away to the technology firm EMC in
1998.
“I was probably the first manager of
events strategy and marketing for a major
U.S. corporation,” he said. “My job was
to make sure that all of its events were
developed from a strategic orientation,
motivated audiences to action and helped
with business objectives.”
George P. Johnson, which had become
the worldwide event lead for IBM, soon
got wind of what he was doing and by
1999 another MPI contact there enticed
him to manage strategic development of
corporate events. It was at GPJ that he
helped birth the EventView study eight
years ago.
“I’ve pushed hardest on doing whatever we can to move the industry in a strategic direction,” Rich said.
As this consummate strategist grasped
intuitively as a young magician, understanding exactly what engages an audience
is essential to creating better events—and
a stronger industry.
Young Professional
Achievement
If Poland doesn’t leap to mind when you
are hunting for a site for your next meeting or convention, Krzysztof Celuch won’t
be surprised.
“We are quite a new destination on the
map,” said the 28-year-old president of
the MPI Poland Club.
But Celuch, winner of the RISE Award
for Young Professional Achievement,
hopes to change that. He has made it his
professional mission to build the former
Eastern Bloc country’s “brand” in incentive travel, showing up at conferences and
MPI meetings in other countries to share
what his nation has to offer.
“If you come, we will help you [envision] the lakes, the mountains, the sea,
the cuisine,” Celuch said. “We are really
proud of our hospitality.”
If anyone seems capable of raising the
country’s profile as an incentive travel
destination, it is this highly educated
and ambitious young professional, who
recently completed his doctoral studies
at Warsaw University (with a scholarship
from the MPI Foundation).
Besides working as a manager of the
Convention Bureau of Poland, part of the
Polish Tourist Organization, he independently produces the annual Warsaw Meetings Industry Report on the state of the
industry and its future. And in 2009, he
took the helm of the MPI Poland Club.
This year, he hopes to see the group
become a full-on MPI chapter.
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Stay tuned: Recipients
of the RISE Awards—
Community category will
be recognized in June’s
One+.
With many young people in Poland
traveling more freely since it became a
member of the European Union—and
finding interest in travel-related careers—
Celuch has also been a major force in
introducing the up-and-coming generation to his field. On top of his day job,
he works as a lecturer on business tourism
at the University of Economics and Computer Science in Warsaw. There, he runs
the business tourism specialty in both the
RISE Feature 0510.indd 85
master’s and bachelor’s degree programs
and organizes the IMEX-MPI Future
Leaders Forum at the Student Scientific
Conference, Warsaw. Having earned the
Certificate of Incentive and Travel Executive designation, he is also an MPI Global
Training-accredited trainer. He says the
meeting industry is offering some attractive options for young people seeking to
establish careers in Poland’s current economy, particularly in hospitality.
“From my perspective, if someone is
looking for a job, he or she will find it,”
he said.
Celuch says what hooked him on the
meeting and event industry is the chance
to find ways to connect with people in
other cultures.
“It is challenging to find a way to speak
to people around the world,” he said.
“Cultural differences are so huge.”
In March, Celuch spoke at EIBTM
Barcelona about what Poland has to offer.
There’s plenty going on now that he wants
to promote, from new facilities to the
country’s hosting of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship.
“I am working really hard to represent
Poland,” he said. “I’m using connections
in MPI chapters around the world. Hopefully, we will spread the word around
other countries.”
ELAINE POFELDT is a regular contributor to One+ and other business publications.
4/28/10 10:39:48 AM
Corporate
Strategic
Social
Meetings
Responsibility Management
2010 WEC Sneak Peek
The CSR track includes
three levels: basic (green
meetings), measurement
(carbon footprint, economic and social issues)
and strategy (using CSR to
increase brand awareness,
increase profit, increase
effectiveness). Through
sessions at WEC, reinforce
your knowledge of basic
green meetings. Then we’ll
explore other CSR elements such as measurement
and strategy, increasing
your level of CSR aware-
Performance
Matters
MPI unveils a conference that will equip you
with better designs, more efficient practices
and ROI that’s clear and measurable. The
World Education Congress (WEC), July 24-27
in Vancouver, will enable you to develop
performance-based objectives, relationships
and new ways to do business. Through
collaboration with top industry minds, discover
the future of events and how to not only work
smarter, but be smarter.
Bring this valuable knowledge home,
and everyone in your organization will
reap the benefits of your attendance.
Join your community for an engaging
exploration of new growth and performance strategies. Ask tough questions most
people avoid and breathe life into learning.
WEC will demonstrate how events shape business—and leave the world in better shape.
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ness and competency.
“Guests may not pay
more for an eco-conscious
hotel experience, but their
attention to our environmental practices will push
demand until green becomes ‘table stakes,’” said
Dennis Quaintance, CEO
and chief design officer for
Quaintance-Weaver Group.
“[We should] implement
a ‘sustainability filter’ on
decision making, just as we
now apply a ‘cost filter.’”
The Strategic Meetings
Management (SMM) track
includes content to reinforce
your understanding of SMM
and knowledge, awareness
and skills related to implementing, growing and
managing an SMM program.
MPI’s SMM content focuses
on disciplined approaches
to managing enterprise-wide
meeting and event activities,
processes, suppliers and data
in order to achieve measurable business objectives that
align with an organizations’
strategic goals/vision and
delivers value in the form of
quantitative savings, risk mitigation and service quality.
“Take control and turn
meetings into business investments,” said Tim Sanders,
a top-rated speaker, author
and past MPI general session
presenter. “Talk the language
of business and help your
corporate or association
stakeholders succeed as they
get you incremental meetings
and budget. Remember: Your
sales VP loves the national
and international sales rally.
It’s the only way to introduce
product and people and get
that big boost in confidence.
Your membership director
loves meetings as a way to
provide education services,
network members together
and market new products.
Your HR group loves their
annual planning offsite as
well as what the incentive
meetings do for the retention
of top sales talent. So you
have friends in high places—
they just need proof that your
meetings are money in the
bank.”
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Future of
Meetings
Value of
Meetings
Core Meeting
and Event Skills
The Future of Meetings track
will focus on emerging issues
facing our industry. As the sector evolves, MPI will provide
the latest and most cuttingedge information to attendees.
This track will examine trends
in meeting design, content
delivery and effective measurement. MPI will provide the
information and tools needed
to achieve success as we evolve
toward the inevitable future of
meetings.
“Event planners need to
learn the language of the CEO
and understand the goals he
or she is trying to accomplish,” said Michael Hitt, a
professor of management at
Texas A&M University’s Mays
Business School. “They have
to show how they can help
create value for stakeholders
and they need to be talking in
those terms.”
The Value of Meetings track
will include sessions addressing the effectiveness of meetings and what value meetings
bring to attendees through
advanced meeting design and
effective adult learning practices. With the growing need
to prove the value of meetings,
we will highlight session information that makes a strong
case for meeting and business
events.
“For meetings to be strategic, they have to be positioned
with the end-game in mind,”
said Patti Phillips, Ph.D.,
president and CEO of the ROI
Institute. “That end is results.
Today more than ever, progressive meeting professionals
are building a business case
for their meetings by clarifying
stakeholder needs; positioning
meetings to meet those needs
by designing them around
clear, specific objectives; and
measuring the success of those
meetings—including, in many
cases, calculating ROI.”
The Core Meeting and
Event Skills track will
provide information and
instruction regarding core
competencies of meeting
professionals. These sessions
have been designed for
the novice to intermediate
meeting and business event
professional and will offer
a wide variety of information on specific topics to
help improve and enhance
the necessary skill set of
industry planners.
“There are legions
of people wanting to be
meeting planners, calling
Personal/
Professional
Development
The Personal/Professional Development track contains sessions
that focus on improving personal wellness and professional
development. The information provided will focus on helping
you as you progress in your career.
“Recent economic challenges have created a tipping point
in the meeting and event industry,” said Dr. Graydon Dawson, MPI’s director of global training systems. “And because
of the negative attention meetings have received, a paradigm
shift in our industry is occurring and there is no turning back.
Delivering real value is a renewed focus. Although we hear that
the recession is over, because of the impacts of the economy on
meetings and events, there are still difficult times ahead. Within
this environment, it is absolutely critical that all meeting professionals take every advantage to equally retool their skill sets.”
themselves meeting planners
or functioning as de facto
meeting planners within
their companies with no
training and no support,”
said Carol Krugman, CMP,
CMM, industry consultant
and educator with Denverbased Krugman Maller LLC
and member of the MPI
Body of Knowledge Task
Force. “Providing them with
the means to acquire the
knowledge, skills and confidence to coordinate successful meetings increases
recognition and respect for
the industry.”
Register now for MPI’s
World Education Congress at
www.mpiweb.org/wec
But wait, there’s more
The Contracts and Legal Concerns track will
answer legal questions as well as outline regulations and rules that are imperative to meeting
and business event professionals. Led by leading
industry experts, these sessions will alert you to
recent changes and updates in legislation and
legal issues affecting our industry.
The Small Business Owners track will provide
useful and timely information for independent
meeting professionals and those working on
opening a small business. Using industry research
and recent lessons, the sessions have been created to provide helpful information for entrepreneurial meeting professionals.
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Meet Where?
S UB HEAD ?
CONTEST!
Correctly identify this venue and its location and you could win an iPod
Shuffle. One winner will be randomly selected from all eligible entries.
Submit entries to jhensel@mpiweb.org by June 1, and find out the
answer and winner online at www.mpiweb.org/pluspoint.
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