ISSUE
01
09
AFTER DISASTER
+
MEETDIFFERENT IN THE NEW ECONOMY
+
COST-SAVING METHODS
0109_C2-001.indd C2
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THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF
M E N S A,
FOR THEIR 2010 ANNUAL CONFERENCE
If the smartest 2% of the world’s population chose Detroit
for their next open meeting, what’s your excuse?
Once you take a look at everything that’s
heart of downtown and voted the fourth best
public space in the U.S. and Canada.
happening in Detroit, it doesn’t take
With a wide array of available
a mastermind to see that Detroit
meeting
has everything a group needs
and
facilities,
(and wants). Dozens of new
convention
scores
of
brand
restaurants and nightclubs
new hotel rooms, and an
line the streets of newly
extensive list of impressively
developed neighborhoods.
cool
The
do throughout the region,
revitalized
riverfront
things
savvy
now boasts three miles of
to
meeting
see
and
planners
are taking another look at
upscale hotels, casinos, and
Detroit ... a s one of the most
Campus Martius Park, located in the
m
eu
us
opening in 2008. And then there’s
affordable and versatile meeting
oy
R
are
Ph
ot
ob
yR
facilities
M
ord
ry F
He n
entertainment
itch
ie
family-friendly trails. Numerous
destinations in the Midwest.
T H E A C C E S S I B L E , A F F O R D A B L E A L T E R N A T I V E.
For expert assistance in taking your next event to a city that will make you look pretty smart too,
CALL CARLA CONNER-PENZABENE, DIRECTOR OF SALES, AT 313.202.1938
0109_C2-001.indd 1
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TM
January 2009 • Volume 2 • Number 1
EDITORIAL + PRODUCTION STAFF + ADVERTISING SALES
EDITOR IN CHIEF
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
David R. Basler, dbasler@mpiweb.org
Jeff Daigle, jdaigle@mpiweb.org
MANAGING EDITOR
Blair Potter, bpotter@mpiweb.org
DESIGN AND PREPRESS
Antonio Ducceschi, Director of Sales/
Partnership Development, EMEA
Phone: +352 26 87 66 63
aducceschi@mpiweb.org
Sherry Gritch, SG2Designs
sherry@sgproductions.net
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Michael Pinchera, mpinchera@mpiweb.org
MPI ADVERTISING STAFF
Dan Broze, dbroze@mpiweb.org
Phone: (702) 834-6847, Fax: (702) 834-6847
Territory: AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, NV, OR, WA
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Jason Hensel, jhensel@mpiweb.org
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Yvonne Christiansen, ychristiansen@mpiweb.org
Phone: (952) 938-5281, Fax: (972) 406-6634
Territory: CT, DC, DE, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH,
NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI, WV
Jessica States, jstates@mpiweb.org
PUBLICATIONS COORDINATOR
Karin Buck, kbuck@mpiweb.org
Katri Laurimaa, klaurimaa@mpiweb.org
Phone: (972) 406-6538, Fax: (972) 406-6638
Territory: AL, AR, CO, IA, IL, KS, KY, LA, MO, MS, MT, NC,
ND, NE, NM, OK, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, WY
Mary Lynn Novelli, CMP, mnovelli@mpiweb.org
Phone: (214) 390-8858, Fax: (214) 390-8878
Territory: FL, GA, Canada, Caribbean, Central America,
Mexico, South America
Carolyn Nyquist, Manager of Client Services
cnyquist@mpiweb.org
Phone: (972) 702-3002, Fax: (972) 702-3096
MAGAZINE INFORMATION
One+ (ISSN: 1943-1864) is published monthly by Meeting
Professionals International, 3030 Lyndon B. Johnson Fwy.,
Ste 1700, Dallas, TX 75234-2759. Phone: (972) 702-3000,
Fax: (972) 702-3096, E-mail: publications@mpiweb.org.
Periodicals Postage paid at Dallas, Texas, and additional
mailing offices.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: One+ is the official publication of Meeting
Professionals International, a professional association of
meeting planners and suppliers. Members receive One+ as
a membership benefit paid for by membership dues; US$50
of membership is allotted to One+ and is nondeductible
therefrom. Nonmembers may subscribe to the publication
for $99 annually ($129 outside the USA). For subscription
information, deletions and address updates, contact publications@mpiweb.org. File address changes with the U.S. Postal
Service online at www.moversguide.com.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to One+, Meeting
Professionals International, 3030 Lyndon B. Johnson Fwy.,
Ste. 1700, Dallas, TX 75234-2759.
IN CANADA: Publications Mail Agreement No. 40033737.
Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to MPI, 6519-B
MPI MISSION: Make our members
successful by building human
connections to: Knowledge/Ideas;
Relationships; Marketplaces
MPI VISION: Build a Rich Global
Meeting Industry Community
GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS
3030 LBJ Freeway, Suite 1700
Dallas, TX 75234-2759
Phone: (972) 702-3000
Fax: (972) 702-3070
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Phone: (905) 286-4807
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mpicanada@mpiweb.org
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AFRICA OFFICE
15, Route de Grundhof, L-6315
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of Luxembourg
Phone: +352-26103610
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dscaillet@mpiweb.org
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73, Bukit Timah Rd.
#04-01 Rex House, Singapore 229832
Phone: 65 6496 5504
Fax: 65 6336 2263
mtay@mpiweb.org
2
one+
Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON L5N 1A6.
ADVERTISING POLICY: Advertisers and advertising agencies
assume liability for all content (including text, representation and illustrations) of advertisements printed and assume
responsibility for any claims arising therefrom made against
the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to reject any
advertising which is not in keeping with the standards of One+
and Meeting Professionals International. Advertising rates and
specifications are available upon request. Call (972) 702-3002
or visit www.mpiweb.org.
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.
EDITORIAL POLICY: As part of its commitment to
editorial integrity and responsibility, One+ commits to coverage of news and events in a fair and ethical manner. Editors
will ascertain content’s newsworthiness independent of an
individual’s or organization’s financial support of One+ and/or
MPI. The purchase of advertising in One+ and/or other financial support or sponsorship will in no way guarantee mention
of the advertiser or sponsor in related editorial. Statements of
fact and opinion within One+ are made on the responsibility of
the authors alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of
the members or staff of Meeting Professionals International.
One+ is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts and no
guarantee of publication of unsolicited editorial content is implied or should be inferred.
One+ ETHOS: Just as a meeting is always one person plus
at least one more, a human connection is always you plus
another person, market opportunity or community. One+ is
your connection to a global meeting and event community and
to a world of ideas, multiplying your potential. Engage. Enjoy.
Be successful. One Connection at a time.
“One+” and the One+ logo are trademarks of Meeting Professionals International.
Copyright 2008, Meeting Professionals International, Printed
in the USA by RR Donnelley & Sons Co.
MPI EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT
INTERNATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Bruce M. MacMillan, C.A., President
and CEO
bmacmillan@mpiweb.org
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Cary Broussard, Vice President of
Marketing and Brand Management
cbroussard@mpiweb.org
Katie Callahan-Giobbi, Executive Vice
President, MPI Foundation, MPI Chief
Business Architect
kcallahangiobbi@mpiweb.org
Trey Feiler, Chief Operating Officer
tfeiler@mpiweb.org
Vicki Hawarden, Vice President of
Knowledge and Events
vhawarden@mpiweb.org
Diane Hawkins, SPHR
Director of People and Performance
dhawkins@mpiweb.org
Greg Lohrentz, Chief Financial Officer
glohrentz@mpiweb.org
Sandra Riggins, Director of
Governance and Chief of Staff
sriggins@mpiweb.org
Didier Scaillet, Vice President of Global
Development
dscaillet@mpiweb.org
Junior Tauvaa, Vice President of
Member Care and Chapter Business
Management
jtauvaa@mpiweb.org
Larry Luteran
Chairman of the Board
Hilton Hotels Corp.
Kevin Hinton
hinton+grusich
Kevin Kirby
Hard Rock International
Karen Massicotte, CMP, CMM, BA
PRIME Strategies Inc.
Ann Godi, CMP
Chairwoman-elect
Benchmarc360, Inc.
Carole McKellar, MA, CMM, MCIPD
Resources for Business Group
Eric Rozenberg, CMP, CMM
Vice Chairman of Administration
Ince & Tive
Patty Reger, CMM
Johnson & Johnson Sales and Logistics
Company, LLC
Sebastien Tondeur
Vice Chairman of Finance
MCI Group Holding SA
David Scypinski
ConferenceDirect
Alexandra Wagner
Vice Chairwoman of Member Services
SunTrust Banks Inc.
Angie Pfeifer, CMM
Immediate Past Chairwoman
Investors Group Financial Services Inc.
BOARD MEMBERS
Marge Anderson
Energy Center of Wisconsin
Matt Brody
JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort and Spa
Luca Favetta
SAP SA
Caroline Hill
Carhill Associates
Ole Sorang
The Rezidor Hotel Group
Carl Winston
San Diego State University
Paul Cunningham (Europe Middle East and
Africa Advisory Council Representative)
IIMC International Information Management
Corporation
Rita Plaskett, CMP, CMM (MPI Foundation
Board Representative)
ASSET
Katherine Overkamp, CMP (ICLC Board
Representative)
US Airways
Jonathan T. Howe, Esq. (Legal Counsel)
Howe & Hutton, Ltd.
01.09
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SSUE
ISSUE
01
09
After Disaster +66
How CVBs and Hotels Bounce Back
+66
Sarbanes-Oxley 2.0 +70
Keeping Tabs on Global
Accountability Standards
+63
Let it be Fun +74
AP PHOTO
Why Gretchen Rubin set out on a
search to understand happiness
and what she learned about her
life along the way.
MeetDifferent in the
New Economy +78
Innovative Strategies to Facilitate
Professional Success
Penny Pinching
Planning Tips +84
Steal these ideas to save big
bucks on your next event.
+84
+78
+74
Down to a Science +54
Managing a FAM with detailed, scheduled
visits and activities can prove to be
tricky; however, the Scottsdale (Ariz.)
CVB has it down pat.
+60
+58
A Can Do Attitude +60
Playing host to a group that
deals with blind and visually impaired
students is an audacious move, but The
Banff Centre is up to the challenge.
Hawai’i Five-Oh +64
+64
Fifty years after becoming a state,
Hawai’ians celebrate their golden
anniversary with tributes to the
past, present and future.
mpiweb.org
January TOC.indd 5
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E
ISSUE
01
09
CONVERSATION
In It Together +10
Editor’s note
The Energy of Many +14
Global update from
the CEO of MPI
Impressions +18
Letters to One+
Overheard +20
Rumblings from the industry
Irrelevant +44
Nothing much
INNOVATION
Agenda +23
IGNITION
Defining Experiences +46
Borbala Csillag
Global View
Flight Fright +48
Tony Carey
Across the Bow
How Virtual Can a
Meeting Get? +50
Annalee Newitz
Open-Source Everything
Attitude Adjustment +52
Tim Sanders
Transform the World
+26
Where to go, in person and online
Art of Travel +36
+42
+24
The latest in transportable
business technology
RECOGNITION
Top Spots +24
New venues + re-openings
+44
Focus On … +26
Reid Sigmon reserves
Sundays for football
Spotlight +28
Industry leaders announce
job advancements
Your Community +38
Community Knowledge Plan,
New COO, Students-in-Transition,
Council ponders industry future,
The European Meetings and
Events Conference
Meet Where? +100
Wow us with your knowledge
CO-CREATION
Hot Buzz +30
U.S. Travel Association,
new application for travelers
to U.S., saving the white lion,
Russians flock to Israel, Venice
in High Water, this-just-in from
the air industry, Asia travel
crisis, EIBTM
Making a Difference +41
MPI Foundation plans fabulous
MeetDifferent events
Connections +42
Collaborative planner + supplier
success story
mpiweb.org
7
0109
www.mpioneplus.org
online
+
Asian MICE
Update
Bruce Northam
reports the
latest MICE
news to come out of the
Association of Southeast Asian
Nations’ 2009 Asian Tourism
Forum in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Putting the “Meet”
in MeetDifferent
The Importance of Community
+
Planner Julie Tieman reports on Guam’s meeting and events
industry, as well as a culture of cooperation and sharing.
The Doghouse
Beau only stays at top U.S.
luxury hotels. His favorite amenities are monogrammed pillows, bedtime
treats and scented toiletries. Discover how this Irish
Setter plans to change the
world of pet accommodations with One+ Assistant
Editor Jessie States.
MPI is teaming up with Pathable to
provide an online community where
everyone coming to MeetDifferent
can get to know each other. Once
you’ve registered for MeetDifferent,
use your MPI username and
password and log into
http://pathable.com/events/
meetdifferent-2009.
Join a conversation about the meeting and events industry with the
editors of One+ on their new blog,
PlusPoint—consistently updated,
always relevant, sporadically funny.
Complete issues of One+ are available
in digital flipbook and PDF formats!
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In It Together
More Blogging, Less Bagging
After a recent reader survey, we learned that you think
our content is some of the best in the industry and that
most of you are knowledge junkies like us—always
wanting more relevant information that can be translated into future success.
It’s a legitimate desire in any global economic climate
and we are always asking ourselves, how can we expand
our content streams outside the printed pages of One+?
Beginning with the October issue we introduced monthly online exclusive content available only at www.mpioneplus.org. Consisting
of expanded and/or original content, we’ve
received rave reviews from you on this new
addition, but as I said, we are always striving
to give you more.
In that spirit, we recently kicked
off the One+ editor’s blog,
PlusPoint.
Since the inception of
One+ in August 2008, PlusPoints have been prevalent
throughout the
pages of
the magazine—adding relevant, thought-provoking bullet points to the already in-depth stories.
Although any industry-relevant topic can be discussed on the new blog, the concept behind the blog’s
moniker is that the in-print PlusPoints would be a source
of continued discussion linking One+ to the PlusPoint
blog. After a few months of careful planning, brainstorming and a bit of trial and error, PlusPoint was born.
Be sure and check out the PlusPoints throughout this
issue and join the continued discussion with us on the
blog at www.mpioneplus.org.
Another exciting piece of One+ news for the new
year is the introduction of One+ Europe, Middle East
and Africa (EMEA) Edition that will be launched in
mid-February. Replacing the European Digest, One+
EMEA will mix the already global content of the flagship One+ with original content aimed directly at our
EMEA members.
This move is exciting, not only because we are
expanding our publication to cover specific regions of
the globe, but also because of the positive corporate
social responsibility aspects involved. Printing and
shipping will now take place regionally, and members
will not receive hard copies of both magazines, ultimately cutting down on the amount of environmentally
unfriendly plastic bags and fuel used in the past to package and ship across the ocean.
The end result?
If you live in the EMEA region, you will begin receiving One+ EMEA in February and the flagship One+
magazine will be e-mailed to you as a digital flipbook.
If you are a member living elsewhere on the globe, you
will continue to receive One+, and if you wish you can
opt-in to receive the digital flipbook of One+ EMEA.
These are just a few simple ways MPI continues to
bring you the most relevant content in the most environmentally friendly and cost-effective ways possible.
Keep reading and enjoy the new year!
David R. Basler is editor in chief of One+.
He can be reached at dbasler@mpiweb.org.
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Contributors
ALLAN LYNCH has been an advertising representative, reporter, editor and publisher. He’s authored four
books. His latest is The Nova Scotia Book of Musts:
The 101 Places Every Nova Scotian MUST See. In
pursuit of story ideas, Allan bobbed around icebergs
off Newfoundland in a tiny open boat, hung upside
down from treetops on an Alberta dude ranch and
nearly killed himself snowbiking down an 8,500-foot
mountain.
In the last two years, Allan has visited Alberta five
times to research features about golf and mountain
meetings. Based near the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia,
Canada, Lynch has covered the global meeting and
events industry since 1992.
KATHLEEN NACOZY is a licensed
attorney working as a freelance
journalist. Her background in law
enables her to interpret legal topics
for a variety of publications—this fall
she even penned a blog for teenagers on U.S. voting laws. Law school
taught Nacozy to think like a lawyer,
but she strives to write like a nonlawyer and offer content that’s more
accessible. She received her law
degree from Texas Tech University
and undergraduate degree in communication and business from the
University of Arizona. She currently
resides in Austin, Texas.
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Freelance writer JENNA SCHNUER lives in
New York. A contributing editor for American
Way, the American Airlines magazine, she has
also written for magazines including National
Geographic Traveler, Continental and AAA Living.
Interviewing author Gretchen Rubin about
happiness reminded Jenna that she’s happiest
when challenging herself, so she pretty much
immediately got back to work on the book
proposal she’d been ignoring for months. As for
the hot pink cowboy hat, it kept the sun off her
neck and a smile on her face when she attended
the Calgary Stampede last August. Read more of
her work at Jennaschnuer.com.
Professionally, JOSEPH DOBRIAN
writes about any and all business
topics under the sun, including real
estate, finance, travel, jewelry, golf,
cars, meetings, retailing and business
management. His byline appears in
The Wall Street Journal, The New
York Times, National Jeweler and
Real Estate Forum. His corporate
clients include Prudential Douglas
Elliman, J.D. Power and Associates,
American Airlines and CIT Group. For
his own vanity, he writes plays, poetry,
fiction and essays on politics and
popular culture. A resident of New
York, Dobrian is also a noted boxing
historian.
01.09
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The Energy of Many
Thriving Together in 2009
Happy New Year! It’s always at this time of year we
are inundated with trend forecasts for the year that is to
be. Let’s start with the obvious: there is little doubt that
the global economic crisis will dramatically affect our
industry in the coming year. Nomenclature like “disruptive,” “paradigm-shifting” and “transformational” will
be the norm. According to FutureWatch 2009 presented
by American Express, reductions in meeting and event
budgets have already been implemented on a broad
scale in the United States, and are increasing in Canada
and the EMEA countries. Bottom-line, we are going
to have to work harder in 2009 and probably for less
money. The term “running to stand still” will become
all too familiar.
But remember this: you are not alone.
We have not and never will lose sight of the fact
that MPI is a member-based community—and it is
this energy of many that will help you find success.
To help you remain part of the MPI community
family, we have created several programs to give
you the weapons you need to successfully fight any
battle the economy may throw in your direction.
We recognize that some of you
have lost your jobs, and maintaining access to MPI’s
networking, online conversations and Career
Connections opportunities is now more vital
than ever. So, we are
now offering members
in-transition who
are up for renewal a
six-month membership extension. This
keeps you connected
to your profession
by providing critical
access to vital success
tools.
The economy has
hit everyone hard—the
most senior and those just entering our industry. It’s
not easy to make the transition from college to career,
especially as recent graduates search for their first jobs.
Under MPI’s new Students-in-Transition program,
first-year graduates pay only US$75 for membership. A
gradually increasing scale will ease you into full membership, allowing you to get your foot in the door and
boost your career when it needs it the most.
Lending their hand in this battle for success is the
MPI Foundation. They are a key investor in our knowledge and educational programs such as our new Global
Certificate in Meetings Operations and an enhanced
Certificate in Meetings Management program. The
Chapter Grant Program will enable chapter initiatives
for leadership development, research projects, scholarship programs, development of educational programs
and community building to grow throughout 2009. All
you need to do is apply. Members can also apply for
grants to MPI programs and events and scholarships to
finance CMP or CMM certifications. The MPI Foundation pledges to help members achieve their success goals
despite economic restrictions.
We also issued a call to action for business leaders
everywhere to pause amidst the mania of politics and
bailouts to consider the importance of face-to-face
gatherings and the findings of the George P. Johnson/
MPI Foundation 2008 EventView study. Rather than
seeing these events as disposable budget items, we are
making great strides in proving the business, social
and educational value of connecting. And I, along with
leaders of many of our peer organizations, am leading
frank conversations about the value of sales events,
educational conferences, trade shows and performance
incentive programs across the globe.
Welcome to 2009 and a new beginning. It is surely
going to be a roller coaster ride this year, and with the
proper tools and support from a strong global community, our industry will not only survive, but thrive in
ways in which only can be ignited by the energy of many.
Bruce MacMillan, CA, is president and CEO of MPI.
He can be reached at bmacmillan@mpiweb.org.
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Impressions
What I Missed
I have just recently become an MPI member and it is amazing
how much information I have been missing. The experience
of others is of invaluable help. I will make sure to apply every
single article to my everyday life and share it as much as possible. I am glad there are many more colleagues as positive as
myself. We will overcome this crisis.
—Carolina Munguia
MPI Mexico Chapter
Promotora Xcaret
Plus/Minus
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
publications@mpiweb.org.
You Tell Us
Where are you going for
your next vacation? Send us
an e-mail at publications@
mpiweb.org.
18
one+
In the November Plus/
Minus section, all three features in the “minus” column
just sent me through the roof.
First of all, why are cell phones
even allowed in the air traffic
control booth at all? There are
many jobs where a cell phone
is NOT needed or could cause
a potential hazard, and I would
think the air traffic control
booth would be at the top of
that list.
Secondly, the survey by
Sheraton reported a whopping
87 percent of professionals
take their PDAs into their
bedrooms. What on earth
for? Which explained the next
statistic that one-third (35
percent) say that if forced to
choose they’d pick their PDAs
over their spouses. Seriously?
No wonder our world is going
to hell if people would choose
an electronic device over their
spouse. It causes concern that
we have gone too far with our
technology dependence that
someone would value a PDA
over people. I certainly want to
know who these people are,
because I don’t want to do
business with any of them.
Yes business is important,
but really, there is a proper
time and place for it. Life balance and time management
come to mind.
The final “minus” was the
growing concern about bed
bugs (80 percent) among
travelers. It indicated at least
8 percent had experienced the
critters in hotel beds. How can
we protect ourselves? And it
came as no surprise that other
sources of anxiety were dirty
carpets, bedspreads, television remotes and bathrooms.
Those should be “easy fixes”
for hotels, and I wonder why
the room cleaning process
hasn’t really evolved over the
years. Thank you for letting me
vent, and keep up the great
work.
—Diane Dukes, CMP
MPI Minnesota Chapter
Professional Liability Underwriting
Society
Why One+?
I love the look and feel of
the new magazine. It is superior to the old one in every
way, except for the name. I
am the type of person that
expects the name of the publication to reveal its content.
Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek and Smart Money all get
this, and the contents are no
surprise based on the name.
With One+, the name really
is vague and has no bearing on the excellent content
contained within its cover. It
is not a bad name; it just does
not describe the content or the
readership.
When I gave my mother a
copy with my picture in it, she
had no idea what magazine
it was or what it was about. I
had to tell her that it was the
top magazine for the meeting
industry. With The Meeting
Professional, nobody ever
had to make that explanation.
So, I love the magazine, but
the name leaves a bit to be
desired.
—Timothy Alan Arnold
MPI Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter
Hospitality Performance Network
01.09
pp 18 Impressions 0109.indd 18
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Overheard
Strength in India
“Terrorists will try to destabilize us. They will try to provoke
the global community to abandon India. They will try to
make our diverse communities fight. But for all the idiosyncrasies that make India complex, we are a nation that
always gets up after being knocked down.”
—A message from the India Convention Promotion Bureau following the
late-November terrorist attacks in Mumbai
Cyprus Advice
Farm Tourism?
Caribbean Tides
“The steep increase of more
than 70 percent in airport
charges at Larnaca and Pafos
[airports] and the unacceptable government concession
fee of 33 percent on airport
revenues are examples of how
Cyprus has become an unattractive place to do business
for airlines. Other resorts
in Egypt and Turkey, that
reacted quickly to the current
downturn in the tourist sector, are continuing to grow as
holiday destinations.”
—Luc Geens, International
Air Carrier Association
operations manager
“The farmhouse owner will
provide home-cooked food,
comfortable accommodations and show the visitors
local agricultural practices
such as floriculture, harvesting, bee-keeping and dairying.
Besides the farm experience,
visitors will also receive exposure to local community life.”
—D.P. Reddy, secretary
cum director of tourism and
cultural affairs for the Punjab
region in India, on a new
farm tourism scheme
(The Financial Express)
“We are putting the roof
on top of the house so that
when the rain falls the people
will not be wet. We have
already generated over one
million seats this winter season across the various marketplaces. Airlifts are in place
so that people who want to
travel to Jamaica can.”
—Jamaican Tourism
Minister Ed Bartlett on plans
to increase the country’s
advertising campaign from
US$12 million to $15 million
(Jamaica Observer)
Obama’s Hawai’i
“Hawai’i will always be home
for President-elect Barack
Obama. There can be no
doubt that growing up in
this idyllic, multicultural setting was a major influence
in shaping who Obama is
today.”
—The Hawai’i CVB details U.S.
President-elect Barack Obama’s
favorite local activities and
restaurants on its Web site,
GoHawaii.com
Best of the Blogs
Keep On Giving
Posted by Mitchell Fielder
MPI Tennessee Chapter
Green Savings
Posted by Michelle Scott, CMP
MPI Northeastern New York Chapter
PlusPoint (One+ Blog)
Posted by Jason Hensel
One+ Associate Editor
Justin Greeves, vice president of Harris Interactive, says that “in a year when people are
having trouble meeting basic needs, giving by
individuals usually increases.” Companies decide
that instead of a lavish party, they’ll help those
in need. An easy way to give back is the MPI
Foundation. Just imagine if every member of
MPI gave US$1 a week to the foundation, what
an impact that could have. This is a year where
organizations, corporations, families and individuals should dig deep and help each other out.
The green movement is about strategic rethinking and decisions based on responsible,
long-term use of resources—both financial
and environmental. Since this is also good
business practice, organizations looking at
long-term viability will simply have to adopt
greener practices if not for environmental/
social reasons then for financial reasons. The
bottom line is that green practices save money overall. Isn’t that what we are all looking to
do during economic hard times?
Let me extend a digital handshake and welcome
you to the new One+ magazine blog. Here you
will find industry news stories, editorial opinions
and behind-the-scenes workings of magazine
production. Think of this blog as a conversation among the One+ staff about the meeting
industry.
▲
Find out what the editors of One+ think about the industry’s hot
trends and late-breaking news on the new One+ blog, PlusPoint.
Share your thoughts at www.mpioneplus.org.
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Agenda
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
For planners looking for inroads into the Asia Pacific market and suppliers
hoping to boost their international business, AIME offers a VIP hosted buyer
program and 12,000-square-meter trade show. At the 2008 event, 92
percent of hosted buyers said they would likely place business as a result of
attending. Can’t beat those odds. Visit www.aime.com.au.
▲
FEB. 17-18 Asia-Pacific Incentives & Meetings Expo (AIME)
FEB. 23-25 NBTA Mexico Corporate Travel Conference
MEXICO CITY
Attend the National Business Travel Association’s Mexico conference for travel
management practices and industry trends for North America’s southern sector. More than 300 industry leaders are expected to attend the event, which
will offer education sessions as well as a Trade & Technology Exchange Showcase. Visit www.nbtamexico.org.
TORINO, ITALY
Connect to the passion of the meeting industry with MPI’s biggest European
event. The annual conference promises three days of groundbreaking education
and next-level networking as well as dialogue and solutions for current challenges
facing the industry. Education sessions will focus on the war for talent, corporate
social responsibility and the future of meetings. Visit www.mpiweb.org.
▲
MARCH 1- 3 The European Meetings and Events Conference
MARCH 11-15 ITB Berlin
BERLIN
Industry leaders will focus on headline topics at the 2009 ITB Berlin, one of the
world’s largest tourism conventions. For the first time, the event will devote an
entire day to corporate social responsibility, focus on best practices and experiences in other sectors and put forward concrete solutions for making CSR work
in the tourism industry. Visit www.1messe-berlin.de.
Connected
ROMANCE ON THE ROAD
CALCULATE THE SCORE
WHERE WE MEET
Business travel is a requirement of the
professional world, especially within the
meeting industry, but having a career
focus doesn’t mean your personal life
should be put on hold. TravelingEn
counters.com is the first online dating
community that helps you find locals or
other travelers to enjoy dinner, drinks
or something more with during your
business trips. Join now and get total
access through 2009 for free.
Meeting Strategies Worldwide Inc. has
launched the Bestplacestomeetgreen.
com Web site, which allows viewers
to score cities based on environmental
programs available through the CVB,
convention center and area hotels.
Or calculate the best place to meet
based on the home regions of your
attendees.
Conventioncities.com provides meeting planners with a comprehensive
and up-to-date list of convention centers throughout the U.S. The search
engine allows users to inventory available facilities by state, square footage or number of meeting rooms and
then links directly to matching sites.
It’s easy and free.
Don’t forget to register for MeetDifferent 2009, scheduled for Feb.
7-10 in Atlanta. Visit www.mpimeetdifferent.org to register.
mpiweb.org
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23
12/17/08 1:31:27 PM
Top Spots
N E W VEN U ES + RE-O P ENING S
1. Stoorn
Thorbjörn Holmlund decided to build
the world’s largest moose on top of
the 510-meter Vithatten Mountain
in the late 1990s. With his broad
experience in eco-tourism, Holmlund
saw opportunity in creating a center
for adventure tourism for both
Swedish and foreign visitors.
Apart from conference and exhibition
space and a top-class restaurant,
the 45-meters-high facility will also
offer activities such as snowmobile
safaris, sled-dog tours, hunting,
fishing and guided nature walks. The
project was granted an environmental license in 2007, and the
Skellefteå and Arvidsjaur municipal
governments issued building permits
in 2008. The facility is scheduled to
open its doors to the public in 2010.
2. InterContinental
Melbourne The Rialto
The AU$60 million resurrection
of Melbourne’s grandest heritage
hotel is complete, and the iconic The
Rialto has reopened as InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto. Guests
can now experience the only luxury
hotel in Melbourne’s financial
district, transformed as one of the
city’s best remaining examples of
19th-century gothic architecture
into a world-class international hotel
by Joseph Pang Design Studio.
The hotel offers all the facilities
and services expected of a luxury
international hotel, including a variety
of five-star dining establishments
and bars, the Club InterContinental
overlooking Collins Street, private
business environments and a suite
collection that takes advantage of
3. Indianapolis International
Airport Col. H. Weir Cook
Terminal
In November, the US$1.1 billion
Indianapolis International Airport
Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal opened.
The terminal touts 40 gates and
will be able to handle up to 12
million passengers annually. The
terminal’s Civic Plaza, a pre-security,
25,000-square-foot space with
100-foot glass windows, overlooks the runways and the city’s
skyline. This space is available for
special events and receptions. More
than 50 retailers and restaurants
are featured throughout the terminal including Indianapolis originals
such as the Indy 500 Grill as well as
free Wi-Fi. It is expected that a 250room hotel, located at the airport
complex, will be developed in the
next five years.
1.
2.
3.
4. Airport Station
“Are you ready for takeoff?” runs the
slogan for the Station Airport, a new
special event venue that opened
this month at Düsseldorf International Airport in Germany. Directly
overlooking the airport runways
and part of the airport’s mainline
railway station, the facility can
accommodate up to 1,650. In the
coming months a glass partition
wall will be installed to screen off
the public station area and ensure
that events take place in a secluded
and exclusive atmosphere. All the
facilities needed for smooth events,
such as dressing rooms, sanitary
installations, production offices,
conference rooms and a kitchen,
are being fitted.
3
5
the building’s gothic heritage.
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pp 24-25 Top Spots 0109R1.indd 24
12/20/08 2:36:26 PM
4.
4.
5. The Malta Room
5.
Recognized as Orange County’s
largest resort/meeting facility with
more than 30,000 square feet of
indoor and 60,000 square feet
of outdoor meeting space, the St.
Regis Monarch Beach in California now offers a new high-tech
boardroom for smaller, intimate
business meetings. The Malta
Room features a 60-inch plasma
TV, built-in Internet, videoconferencing, a drop-down screen and
an integrated sound system. The
room also showcases remotecontrolled audiovisual, curtains and
lighting schemes. For receptions
and events, the Malta Room can
accommodate up to 50.
6. Fairmont Yangcheng
Lake, Kunshan
Part of the Fairmont’s foray into
Asia, this resort—located on the
shores of Yang Cheng Lake in
China’s Jiangsu province—will join
sister hotels operating in the region
including the Fairmont Singapore
and the Fairmont Beijing, expected
to debut in winter 2008/2009. A
short drive from nearby Shanghai and a 15-minute drive from
Kunshan’s city center (home
to a growing manufacturing
center that produces one third
of the world’s notebook PCs),
the resort will feature 210 guest
rooms with lakeside views, 30,000
square feet of function space, a
spa and health club facility, dining
options and a state-of-the-art business center when it opens in spring
2009.
6.
1
4
6
2
pp 24-25 Top Spots 0109R1.indd 25
mpiweb.org
25
12/20/08 1:46:31 PM
Focus On...
BOB BAGGETT PHOTOG R APHY
The Sigmon brothers all
work on Sundays. Two are
ministers. The other plans
Super Bowls.
Reid Sigmon
Tampa Bay Super Bowl
Host Committee
5 Things You Don’t Know About
Planning a Super Bowl
Volunteers Needed. For this year’s game in Tampa
Bay, we needed 6,000 volunteers. Within my first few
weeks, we recruited 2,000. In four months, we had
more than 6,400.
It’s Not Just a Game. The NFL has made a commitment to local communities. The Emerging Business
program focuses on involving minority- and womenowned businesses in the procurement process. Educational projects offer academic outreach. Habitat
SuperBuild will assemble new homes for 20 families
during a three-week, blitz-building operation.
Sunday is THE Day. My focus right now is on the next
32 days and getting to Feb. 1. You don’t have time to
think about anything else.
No Glamour in This Job. There’s not a lot of interaction between the stars and the planning committee.
Sometimes current and former players or coaches are
speakers and guests at the special events, but we’re
not running around with a bunch of superstars.
It’s Like Building a Business. You start with one employee and no office. A few months later, you have 15
staff members, a Web site, publications, events, community outreach, sales and marketing. And when it’s
all over, when the game has been played, you’re back
where you started: one employee, no office.
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A backup kicker for Wake
Forest University, Reid Sigmon’s
first job after graduation was as
operations assistant in his school’s
athletic department. Twelve years
later, he is planning the biggest
annual sporting event in the
U.S. as executive director of
the National Football League
(NFL) Super Bowl XLIII Host
Committee.
The position comes after an
unusually rapid rise through the
ranks of sports planning. In 1998,
Sigmon followed his former Wake
Forest boss and mentor, Michael
Kelly, to St. Petersburg, Fla., to
help plan the 1999 NCAA Division 1 Men’s Final Four college
basketball tournament. Sigmon
served as project manager for
transportation, stadium operations, game management and YES
(Youth Education through Sports)
clinics.
Following the event, Sigmon
accepted a post as director of
operations for the Tampa Bay
(Fla.) Super Bowl XXXV Task
Force. It was his first professional
sporting event. After earning a
master’s degree in business from
the University of Florida in May
2003, Sigmon returned to the
sporting scene as vice president
of operations for the Super Bowl
XXXIX Host Committee in Jacksonville, Fla., where he focused on
transportation, parking and visitor
movement—and learned how to
deal with contingencies.
Severe fog delayed for hours
the arrival of three cruise ships,
chartered to provide rooms
for thousands of Super Bowl
guests—all but stranded in a
temporary boat terminal. Sigmon
had planned ahead. The tented
structure housed a food store and
(perhaps more importantly) a
bar—which kept the guests busy
and fed until the cruise liners
arrived mid-afternoon. It wouldn’t
be the only challenge that year.
The committee kept track of
more than 100 public and private
events, all related to the Super
Bowl.
After the February 2005 event,
Sigmon accepted a position with
the Cleveland Browns NFL team
as director of stadium development and event operations. But it
wasn’t long before he was back
in Florida, planning the big game.
This time it’s Super Bowl XLIII
in Tampa Bay, and Sigmon holds
the committee’s lead post: executive director, handling day-to-day
operations, staffing and budget.
After the game on Feb. 1, who
knows where he will land? Certainly not Sigmon, who has eyes
for one day only. But odds are
he’ll be back.
—JESSIE STATES
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Spotlight
Jodi Doughty has
been named director of
sales and marketing for
Houston’s 244-room
Hotel Sorella, slated
to debut in July 2009.
Doughty previously served
as director of sales and
marketing for Hotel ICON
in Houston and for the
JW Marriott Jakarta and
The Ritz-Carlton Jakarta
in Indonesia. Her first
position in Jakarta was
executive director for the
American Chamber of
Commerce of Indonesia.
Benchmark Hospitality International has promoted Alex
Cabañas to the position of vice
president of development and
strategy. In his previous role as
vice president of capital markets, Cabañas developed a strategy for potential co-investment
opportunities and supported
strategic planning initiatives.
He also oversaw the launch of
Benchmark Japan, the company’s Asian subsidiary. Prior
to joining Benchmark, Cabañas
worked for Dallas-based The
Boston Consulting Group.
Ashley McCormick of PRA
Destination Management Orange
County was recently promoted
to national sales manager,
responsible for sales, account
management and marketing
efforts for the organization.
An Orange County native,
McCormick has spent the last
three years as senior account
manager for PRA Orange
County.
Wende Blumberg has been named general manager for the Mission Inn Resort &
Club on Lake Harris in Howey-in-the-Hills,
Fla. (near Orlando). For the past 10 years,
Blumberg has worked with Hilton Hotels
Corp., serving most recently as general
manager for the Hilton Atlanta Airport Hotel. She also worked as general manager
for The Hilton University of Florida Conference Center in Gainesville, which she helped
open.
Sales firm hinton+grusich
has appointed Atlanta-based
Michael DiLeone as its
regional director of sales for
the U.S. Southeast. DiLeone
began his 20-year sales career
representing Perry Ellis in
the apparel manufacturing
industry and moved into the
hotel industry about seven
years ago. Most recently, he
served as associate director of
sales for the Innisbrook Resort
and Golf Club in Tampa, Fla.,
and the Wyndham Peachtree
Conference Center in Atlanta.
Log on to the careers blog at www.mpiweb.org, and tell
the meeting community about your recent job change.
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HOT BUZZ
+
Roger Dow
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One Step
Ahead
The Travel Industry
Association (TIA) officially
merged with the Travel
Business Roundtable on Jan.
1 to form the U.S. Travel
Association, which represents
leaders from hundreds of
travel-related companies, state
tourism offices, dozens of
CVBs and most of the key U.S.
travel associations. Former
TIA president and CEO Roger
Dow (a past chairman of the
MPI Foundation) leads the
organization. Dow says the new
association intensifies the voice
of the US$740 billion travel
industry.
“Travel supports nearly 18
million U.S. jobs that cannot
be outsourced and contributes
more than $100 billion in
federal, state and local tax
revenue,” Dow said. “America’s
travel community has created
an organization that matches
the power and scope of
America’s travel economy.”
Dow began his career as a
summer lifeguard at the sixth
Marriott hotel. His tenure
with the company spanned 34
years and led to the position
of senior vice president of
global and field sales, where
he oversaw a 10,000-person
global sales force. He has
received recognition from the
Convention Industry Council,
MPI and the American Society
of Association Executives.
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Registration Required
BE FOREWARNED: International
travelers to the U.S. from countries
in the Visa Waiver Program must
apply for entry online as part of the
new Electronic System for Travel
Authorization, effective Jan. 12. The
program does not apply to travelers
entering by land from Canada or
Mexico. The authorization is valid
for two years or until your passport
expires, whichever comes first.
Do note, authorization does not
guarantee entry into the U.S.; that
decision rests with the immigration
official at the port of entry. Visit
https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta to
apply for entry.
The White Lion Project
Dead Deal
In response to a
dramatic increase in
Russian tourism to
Israel, city of Moscowowned Sun Dream has
announced plans to
open a US$100 million
luxury resort at Ein
Bokek, on the southern
shores of the Dead Sea,
by mid-2009. The hotel
will offer 240 guest
rooms and suites, two
indoor swimming pools,
conference rooms,
two restaurants and
a helipad. Sun Dream
will begin construction
within the next few
months. The resort will
increase the number
of guest rooms around
the Dead Sea to about
4,300.
“The first nine
months of 2008 saw
230,000 Russian
tourists in Israel, an
increase of over 100
percent compared to
the same period last
30-35_Hot Buzz0109.indd 31
year,” said Ruhama
Avraham-Balila, Israel’s
minister of tourism.
“With Russia being the
third-largest source
of incoming tourists
to Israel, an additional
240 hotel rooms will
help accommodate the
increase in visitors to
the world’s most famous
natural spa.”
The Israel Hotel
Association reported
that 763,000 tourists
stayed in the country’s
hotels in September
—a rise of 49 percent
compared to the same
month last year, and
tourist stays between
January and September amounted to 7.6
million—a rise of 25
percent compared to
the same period in
2007. Israel expected
an all-time-high 3 million
tourists to arrive in
2008.
Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in
South Africa’s Western Cape
Province has successfully
released an integrated lion
pride comprised of two adult
male and two juvenile female
white lions. The reserve is
home to 54,000 hectares
of undulating mountains and
plains, several luxury lodges
and conference and incentive
services. The release of
the pride at Sanbona is the
culmination of the years-long
White Lion Project sponsored
by The Shamwari Dubai World
Africa Conservation team.
The striking coloration of
white lions makes them visible
on the savannah and thus vulnerable to predators. The goal
of the White Lion Project was
to boost their genetic integrity
by mating their offspring to
the tawny wild lion, thus
breeding in survival skills lost
through successive generations bred in captivity. Due to
poaching and “canned” hunting, the white lion population
has dwindled over the years
to the brink of extinction. The
300 or so remaining white
lions are found in zoos and
circuses.
Legends about white lions
abound, doubtless because of
their rarity and spectral appearance. Some believe they
are children of the Sun God
sent to Earth as gifts. Others
say they are messengers of
the gods brought to earth on
ships of white light. But “messengers” might be translated
“angels,” since white lions are
also believed to be the bearers
of goodness. They were first
spotted in the wild 400 years
ago, but the next recorded
sightings were not until 1928.
mpiweb.org
31
12/22/08 4:06:48 PM
HOT BUZZ
Get Ahead
Here’s a fee you may actually want to
pay. United Airlines travelers can shell out
US$25 for priority access at check-in, security and boarding. That’s right. No lines.
Customers can purchase the so-called Premier Line at United.com or at United’s
airport kiosks. Other United services include
overnight luggage shipment and economyplus seating (with up to five inches of additional legroom).
Flight Delay
Mobile Boarding
American Airlines customers departing from
select U.S. airports can now receive their
boarding passes electronically on their mobile
phones, saving the time it takes to print and
present a paper boarding pass at the airport.
Mobile boarding passes
use a two-dimensional
barcode and are available at O’Hare International Airport (Chicago),
Los Angeles International Airport and John
Wayne Airport (Santa
Ana, Calif.). If successful in trial
cities, it could be
extended to additional U.S. airports
in coming months.
+
BOARDING PASS
American Airplines
Terminal 1
Depart Denver 9:31 am
Gate 21
Arrive New York 12:47 am
Gate 4
20017620155-2
Just Look Up
CREDIT LINE
Delegates at the Las Vegas Convention Center can now get real-time
flight data on six 40-inch displays
that feature upcoming departure
times. The center is currently the
only off-airport facility to feature flight
information screens, allowing conventioneers to attend to all of their
business needs on the show floor
and still plan their arrival times at
the airport. The convention center
also features SpeedCheck Advance kiosks for
checking in and printing boarding passes and
Airport SpeedCheck Advance, which allows travelers to check their luggage for a US$20 fee.
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01.09
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By 2030, climate change and
a lack of airport capacity will
mean that one flight in two will
risk delays or cancellation at
highly congested airports, according to a study by the European Organisation for the Safety of
Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL).
The analysis shows that—even
taking the economic downturn
into account—demand for flights
in Europe will rise from 10 million today to 20.4 million in
2030. Accounting for all expansion plans currently in place,
airports will only be able to handle 18.1 million of those flights,
leaving 2.3 million flights a year
(or 6,300 flights a day) unaccommodated.
As a result, airport congestion is set to rise substantially;
+
by 2030, about 20 of the continent’s largest airports will be
saturated (or operating at full
capacity for eight hours or more
a day). About half of all European
flights will pass through one of
these saturated airports.
Weather-related delays will
likely be more common as well.
According to EUROCONTROL,
bouts of extreme weather may
occur more frequently due to
climate change and will probably
be more severe, bringing further
disruption to already saturated
airports. Higher temperatures in
Europe will change holiday patterns. Airlines will be able to
change their routes to cope with
this, but airports, which require
substantial infrastructure, are
not as flexible.
Atta Baby
Southwest Airlines celebrated its
30th year in Amarillo, Texas, with a
first-born baby contest. The family of
the first baby born in the city on Dec.
12 was awarded four roundtrip tickets to any of the airline’s scheduled
destinations. Southwest also celebrated with gate decorations and
complimentary adult beverages for
travelers wearing yellow or “amarillo.” The airline started service in
Amarillo in 1978 with five nonstop flights. It
now operates 12 nonstops, carries 64 percent
of Amarillo air traffic and has 51 local employees.
+
12/22/08 4:13:22 PM
The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower reopened its doors at 7
p.m. Dec. 21, following the devastating and unprecedented
terrorist attack on the hotel and several other locations in
South Mumbai.
These Boots
Were Made
for Walking
The Venetian Hotelkeepers
Association offered a “Venice and
the High Water” special following
weeks of severe flooding this winter.
The €190 package included one
room night at any of seven area
hotels and free use of rubber boots
to walk through high water (as well
as a map of alternative pedestrian
routes). Venetian hoteliers and Mayor
Massimo Cacciari reassure tourists
who want to come to Venice: “Don’t
worry, there is no danger; high water
is a phenomenon that will quickly
disappear.”
mpiweb.org
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12/22/08 4:15:22 PM
HOT BUZZ
Global Professionals Feel
Affects of Asia Crises
Fifteen percent of industry professionals had travelers
or local employees directly affected by the terror attacks in
Mumbai this past November, according to a report by the
National Business Travel Association (NBTA). The survey
examined the affects of two recent security incidents in Asia:
the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and the airport closures due
to protests in Bangkok.
Mumbai
• 29 percent of respondents had travelers or employees on
location who were not directly affected by the attacks
• Nearly nine in 10 of those respondents were able to utilize
traveler-tracking systems to locate affected employees and
were able to contact them after the crisis
• 42 percent of respondents expect a decline in their companies’ travel volumes to Mumbai, and 39 percent see a reduction to the rest of India
Bangkok
• 32 percent of respondents indicated that they had travelers flying to, from or connecting in Bangkok during the days
when the two international airports in the city were closed by
protesters
• 85 percent of those were able to locate and contact travelers affected in Bangkok utilizing traveler-tracking systems
and make alternative arrangements for them
• 34 percent of those surveyed expect a decline in their
companies’ travel to Bangkok and Thailand
EIBTM Breaks Attendance Records
This year’s EIBTM in Barcelona
shattered its 2007 performance,
registering a 12 percent increase in
hosted buyers and 11,000 more
pre-scheduled meetings. Total attendance exceeded 8,000—up 6 percent
over last year.
“The record figures show not only
how resilient the meetings market is
in challenging times, but the reputation EIBTM has as the place to do
business,” said Paul Kennedy, MBE,
group exhibition director for Reed
Travel Exhibitions Meetings and Incentive Events (which organizes the
event). “It certainly seemed that more
actual business was being transacted
on the show floor than ever before.”
34
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Meanwhile, joint research by The
Right Solution and EIBTM revealed
that the market’s mood was optimistic
and upbeat, despite a challenging year
ahead. Sixty-four percent of respondents said the economic climate and
pressure to reduce costs are key
factors of influence for next year.
However, 25 percent of respondents
were set to organize more international events in 2009.
“The mood is one of optimism
despite concerns,” Kennedy said. “It
will be vital for events to offer a valuable and worthwhile use of time for all
those attending, which is also enjoyable and stimulating, yet perceived as
neither extravagant nor too exclusive
in its appeal. It will require careful
consideration of all options for destinations, travel methods, venues, content and speakers to achieve an appropriate balance.”
Reed Travel also announced a
major global partnership with MPI
that will further consolidate their longstanding relationship. According to
the agreement, all of Reed Travel’s
events—EIBTM, GIBTM in Abu Dhabi,
CIBTM in Beijing and AIBTM in Baltimore—will become platforms to focus
on the development of certificated
training and professional development
through MPI’s newly launched Global
Knowledge Plan.
01.09
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12/22/08 4:16:21 PM
Helping
e
Hand
In an effort to help its members
through current and future hard
times, the U.N. World Tourism
Organization (UNWTO) has
launched SOS.travel to assist
with natural and man-made crises
response, and the new UNWTO
Resilience Committee will provide
short-term analysis to help the
sector better assess the impact
of the global financial crisis on
tourism performance.
Nose Dive
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecasts an industry
loss of US$2.5 billion in 2009. All
regions, except the U.S., are expected
to report larger losses in 2009 than
in 2008, giving the industry its worst
prospects in 50 years. The IATA
predicts that industry revenues will
decline to $501 billion next year, a fall
of $35 billion from 2008 projections.
Granola Crunchy
Tysons Corner Marriott near Washington, D.C., is putting a healthy, ecofriendly spin on the traditional pillow-top
snack. In mid-November, the hotel began giving guests a special turndown
treat of wholesome, house-made granola with oats, almonds and dried fruit
packaged in cups made of 100 percent
corn plastic that are fully compostable
within 45 to 60 days.
Nordic Green
The Finland Convention Bureau has initiated a pilot project to draw up guidelines
for environmentally responsible meeting
services. The city of Hämeenlinna, approximately 100 kilometers north of
Helsinki, will serve as model for the
project. The convention bureau has commissioned Finnish consulting company
Travelcon Oy, which supplies sustainable
development solutions to the travel industry, to implement the project.
Minus a Mentor
North American managers are less
likely than those in other regions to
believe coaching actually improves the
bottom line, according to a study by
global consultant BlessingWhite. Only
65 percent of managers in the U.S.
and Canada believe that coaching
leads to greater business results
compared to 71 percent in continental Europe and 74 percent in
Asia. The U.K. and Ireland trail with
63 percent.
RevPAR Shrink
U.S. hotels have entered the initial
stages of one of the deepest and
longest recessions in the history of
the domestic lodging industry, according to a report by PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR). A forecasted
7.8 percent drop in RevPAR for
2009 will be the fifth-largest annual
decline since 1930. And PKF-HR
predicts that U.S. hotels will not
experience a year-over-year quarterly
increase in RevPAR until the second
quarter of 2010.
mpiweb.org
30-35_Hot Buzz0109.indd 35
35
12/22/08 4:31:08 PM
ART
of Travel
Sleeve Keeps
Bottles Safe,
Clothes Dry
During Flights
Protect your bottles
from the rigors of
travel with WineSkin.
An interior layer of
bubble wrap provides
protective padding,
and two sticky seals
prevent wine from
leaking into your
suitcase (just in
case rough handling leads to
breakage). (Ma
gellans.com, 2
for US$9.85)
Cushion Feet,
Keep Comfy
with Rollable
Travel Shoes
Flexible, packable and
feather-light, these
pocket slippers are
ideal for padding
about the plane or
après-swim at the
beach or pool. Zinetic
Pocket Slippers
roll up and secure
with a Velcro strap
(included) and can
be carried together
in their nylon pouch
or individually in
separate pockets.
(Travelsmith.com,
US$24.95)
Keep Your
Laptops Safe
with Special
Combo Lock
More than 600,000
notebook computers
are stolen each year.
Protect your laptop—
and the sensitive data
on it—with a ComboSaver notebook
lock. Three cable
thicknesses
suit any
environment: one
travels in a bag or
backpack, the other
two provide maximum
security for notebooks locked down in
the office. (Kensing
ton.com, US$24.99)
36
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01.09
pp 36 Art of Travel 0109.indd 36
12/17/08 1:36:25 PM
0109_037.indd 37
12/16/08 9:07:55 AM
Your Community
MPI Launches its Community Knowledge Plan
as Professionals Earn Global Certification
In response to demand for the GCMO I
certification and other global knowledge
programming in the Gulf Region, MPI has
opened a Middle East office in Doha, Qatar,
in partnership with the Qatar MICE Development Institute and the Qatar Foundation.
tively impacted their careers. Respondents also
indicated high interest in
additional MPI training
opportunities. All 50
students said that they
would recommend the
program to colleagues.
The boon follows the
overwhelming success
of MPI’s fall Certification
in Meeting Management
program, where all 55
students stated that the course was a worthwhile investment
in their career development. The two programs are part of the
re-imagined knowledge plan, which caters directly to all career
levels of MPI members around the globe.
Sponsors for the Middle East program included Qatar
Airways, Gulf Adventures and the Qatar National Convention
Centre. To cater to the waiting list of people wishing to attend the
course, a second workshop has been planned for early 2009.
For additional education in the region, MPI will present its Gulf
Meetings and Events Conference, March 28-29 in Abu Dhabi,
United Arab Emirates.
MPI Welcomes New COO
MPI has hired the former senior
vice president of development for
Jamba Juice Co. as its new chief
operating officer. Trey Feiler—who
started on Dec. 3—now leads the
knowledge and events, marketing
and communications and member
care teams. Prior to Jamba Juice,
Feiler held key positions in real
estate, finance and development
for Brinker International and Yum!
Brands Inc.
“MPI is at a pivotal point of its
growth. Globalization, and the necessity to connect across geography and
cultures is essential for organizational success today,” Feiler said. “With
such high growth in emerging economies such as China and India, the
chance to build and enhance the foundation of training, networking and
professional growth for meeting professionals worldwide is a great opportunity, and I am very excited to play a part.”
38
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MPI is offering a series of Webinars
for members looking to advance their
careers online. To register, visit www.
mpiweb.org, click on education, online
learning and the Harvard & Kiplinger
Webinar Series.
Jan. 14 Straight Talk for Underperformers in
Your Workplace
Jan. 15 The Right Moves: How to Build Success in a New Leadership Role
Jan. 27 How to Contend with Unacceptable
Behaviors in the Workplace
Jan. 29 Today’s Marketing Mess and
How to Fix It
Feb. 11 Secrets of the CEO Coach: Building a
Success Plan for You and Your Team
▲
MPI garnered significant praise from industry professionals
who attended the inaugural Global Certificate in Meeting Operations I (GCMO I) funded by the MPI Foundation. The course was
held this fall in Doha, Qatar, as part of the organization’s new
Global Knowledge Plan. Each of the 50 inaugural participants
passed at least 10 of the 12 course exams and earned the
GCMO I certification.
“GCMO I was launched in Qatar to the same high standards
and content integrity for which MPI is respected globally,” said
Joyce Dogniez, CMM, director of EMEA operations for MPI.
“We look forward to running more educational and knowledge
transfer programs with our partner, the Qatar MICE Development Institute.”
One hundred percent of respondents were satisfied with the
educational content, and equal numbers said the program posi-
01.09
pp 38-41 Community Foundation 0109.indd 38
12/19/08 2:10:35 PM
Executive Council
Ponders Industry’s
Future
MPI Supports Students in Transition
When Marlene Blas graduated
from George Washington University,
she worried about maintaining her
MPI membership as she transitioned
into the meeting industry. There was
no need for anxiety. MPI’s Student-inTransition plan ensures that graduating student members experience an
easy transition into the full membership rate over three years.
The new plan helps students as
they become full members of the
industry and search for their first
jobs in a tumultuous market, during
a time when industry connections
are essential. The first year out of
college, student members pay only
US$75, gradually paying more until
reaching the full membership rate by
year four.
“MPI has always been supportive
of my educational endeavors, and
I’m sincerely grateful to know that I
continue to have the support of the
organization while I’m in transition,”
Blas said.
“MPI is committed to its student
community and student membership
has grown 90 percent in the 12
months ending Oct. 31 to 1,649
members,” said Junior Tauvaa, MPI
vice president of member care and
chapter business management.
“Graduating students represent the
connection MPI has to the future
of the meeting and events industry
Student Faculty Advisory Council, a
major stumbling block for retaining
and converting student members
to regular members was that, upon
graduation, students only had a
one-year grace period before dues
“MPI has always been supportive
of my educational endeavors, and
I’m sincerely grateful to know that I
continue to have the support of the
organization while I’m in transition.”
and represent an integral part of the
community as it moves forward.”
Students also provide a talent
pool for MPI partner companies to
satisfy their increasing human capital
needs. MPI embraces the role of
nurturing and developing new talent
as students prepare to enter the
industry’s labor market. The Studentin-Transition program is a testament
to the organization’s commitment to
the industry’s future.
According to Charles Massey,
who formerly chaired the MPI
jumped to that of a regular member.
“We found that we were losing many potential members who
couldn’t get company support from
their new employers who reserved
MPI memberships for more senior
employees,” Massey said. “By offering the Student-in-Transition pricing
structure, MPI made a financial
commitment to support the future
talent and leaders in the meeting and
events industry.”
MPI has appointed an exclusive
group of global industry leaders to its
inaugural Executive Advisory Council,
which will provide an executive’s
perspective on the growing industry
and advise MPI management on
the development of new strategic
initiatives. The group will also share
perspectives for success with MPI’s
24,000-member global community.
Angie Pfeifer, CMM, Chairwoman
Craig Ardis, CMM
Christine Duffy
Ann Godi, CMP
(MPI chairwoman-elect)
Joann Kerns
Patricia Kerr, CMP
Julie Lindsey
Bruce MacMillan, CA
(MPI president and CEO)
Margaret Moynihan, CMP
Carol Muldoon, CMM
Camille Paluscio, CMP
Susan Paschal
David Rich
Brigit Roeterdink, CMM
Jim Sharpton
Jeff Singsaas
Panos Tzivanidis
Marcia Willett, CMP
The European Meetings and Events
Conference: Connect to Passion
MPI welcomes to the city with a passion for
food, fashion, architecture and cinema the professionals with a passion for meetings and events.
Turin, Italy, plays host to the annual European
Meetings and Events Conference March 1-3,
delivering groundbreaking education and a forum
to network and dialogue about current challenges
facing the industry. Attendees will connect with the
people in meetings and events that matter most
and keep abreast of industry topics relevant both
today and in the future.
Educational sessions will include “Tough Times:
How Global Markets Impact You” with Daniel
Thorniley of the Economist Group, “Leading Tomorrow’s Workforce in Today’s World” with Leadership
Methodologist Paul Bridle, “New Technology Trends
Transforming the Industry” with Corbin Ball of
Corbin Ball Associates and “The Best Way to Beat
a Recession is to Sell Your Way Out of It” with Mike
Southon, a business guru, author and journalist.
Last year in London, The
European Meetings and
Events Conference became
the first-ever event to
achieve the BS 8901 Sustainable Event Standard. In
that spirit, the 2009 Turin
conference will continue to
set the pace for sustainability efforts for the industry
throughout Europe. MPI’s goal is to minimize any
negative social and environmental impacts of the
European event while meeting objectives and maintaining a high-quality experience.
In today’s world, it’s imperative to be smarter
about conducting business. Don’t miss the chance
to connect this March as the community that
shapes our industry gathers once again. Visit www.
mpiweb.org/emec to register.
mpiweb.org
pp 38-41 Community Foundation 0109.indd 39
39
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0109_040.indd 40
12/9/08 11:34:03 AM
Foundation Rock ‘n’ Roll
The MPI Foundation pulls out all the stops in planning its
2009 MeetDifferent fundraising events.
Silent Auction
Blackjack Tournament
Rendezvous Atlanta
MPI Global Village
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 7-9
World of Coca-Cola
9 p.m. to midnight on Feb. 7
InterContinental Hotel Buckhead
9 p.m. to midnight on Feb. 8
The Silent Auction has long proven to be one
of the MPI Foundation’s most valuable and successful onsite fundraisers. And it’s not just the
winners who triumph at auction end. Donors
receive recognition in the Silent Auction program,
at MPIWeb.org and on signage throughout
MeetDifferent. There really isn’t any way to lose.
Silent auction items include packages to Universal Orlando, the Gran Melia Puerto Rico and
the House of Blues. Or bid on a signed photo of
Michael Phelps.
“Contributing to the MPI Foundation Silent
Auction is something we felt as a company was
a great step in not only supporting the meeting
and events community, but also in increasing our
branding opportunities in front of a very valuable
audience,” said Vince LaRuffa, vice president
of resort sales and marketing for Universal
Orlando Resort. “What better way to champion
our industry than to make a donation to the MPI
Foundation via the Silent Auction at MeetDifferent 2009?”
Enjoy a Coke-tini while playing the tables at the
MPI Foundation Blackjack Tournament at the
World of Coca-Cola museum. Purchasing a table
may not throw good fortune your way, but it is
the perfect opportunity to score quality time with
six of your key clients. Don’t settle for an early
evening, take the party across the street after
the MeetDifferent Welcome Reception and enjoy
access to the world-class museum and premier
networking opportunities.
“The MPI Foundation is renowned for its
glamorous blackjack evenings,” said Amanda
Gourgue, CMP, chief meeting revolutionist for
Meeting Revolution. “Not only is it the perfect
occasion to visit with clients—and meet future
ones—it’s also a wonderful night to support the
industry. The MPI Foundation uses these events
to raise funds for student scholarships and
valuable industry research. It’s the perfect time
to give back to the meeting industry that has
already given so much to us.”
The name itself invokes a certain…je ne sais
quoi. Rendezvous Atlanta will pulse with the
sounds of The Maxx, a product of the fertile local music scene that has thrilled more than 1
million people across the globe. Choreography,
horns, costumes and mixed vocals make The
Maxx a delicious recipe for success. But the
band is about more than music, having established its own nonprofit organization, Musical
Youth Of America, designed to inspire elementary and middle school children to learn to play a
musical instrument.
“Choosing The Maxx as the mainstay for
the Rendezvous event, MPI once again shows
its support for the industry and the host cities
of its meetings,” said Carvie Gillikin, sales and
marketing director for Fourth Wall Events. “The
Maxx has been a huge part of the Atlanta music scene since the early 1980s, but, not only
that, the band has also proved its commitment
to the community through charitable work and
donations. When two great organizations work
together, only good things can happen.”
FOCUS ON FOUNDATION
November 2008 Contributors
The MPI Foundation thanks the following organizations and individuals for their generous support.
U.S. CORPORATE
Platinum-Legacy Donor
AT&T Park
Carlson Hotels
Dallas CVB
Detroit Metro CVB
Fairmont Hotels
Hilton Hotels
Hyatt Hotels
IHG
Las Vegas CVA
Loews Hotels
Marriott Hotels & Resorts
Omni Hotels
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
The Venetian
Wyndham Hotels
Gold Donor
AV Concepts
Bloomington CVB
Maritz
MGM Mirage
ProActive
Silver-Partner
Aimbridge Hospitality
Anaheim CVB
Aramark
Atlanta CVB
The Broadmoor
The Greenbrier
hinton+grusich
LA Inc.
LXR
Meet Minneapolis
Millennium Hotels
Park Place Entertainment
Pier 94
PRA
PSAV
Puerto Rico CVB
St. Louis CVB
Weil & Associates
Bronze-Friend Donors
Associated Luxury Hotels
Benchmark Hospitality
Destination Hotels & Resorts
Dolce
Experient
Fort Worth CVB
Gaylord Opryland
Global Events Partners
HelmsBriscoe
PC Nametag
Philadelphia CVB
SearchWide
Seattle CVB
Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin
Wynn
Small Business Donors
4th Wall Events
Best Meetings
Concepts Worldwide
Creative Meetings and Events
Dianne B. Devitt
InnFluent, LLC
Kinsley & Associates
The Laureli Group
Meetingjobs
Meeting Revolution
Meeting Site Resource
Spets
SYNAXIS Meetings & Events
Inc.
Special Donors
Blumberg Marketing
Boca Resorts
Carol Krugman
CVent
Dave Scypinski
David DuBois
David Gabri
George P. Johnson
Jonathan T. Howe, Esq.
Katie Callahan-Giobbi
Ken Sanders
Little Rock CVB
Mark Sirangelo
One Smooth Stone
Pasadena CVB
Production Plus Inc.
SAS Institute
Visit Raleigh
Friends of MPI
7th Wave Communication
Balance Design
Beverly W. Kinkade
C. James Trombino
Gaylord Palms
Gaylord Texan
Hattie Hill Enterprises
Helen Van Dongen
Jerry Wayne
Joe Nishi
Interactive Visuals
Ivan Carlson
Leadership Synergies
Linda Swago
Marianne Demko-Lange
Melvin Tennant
Michael Beardsley
Mitchell Beer
National Speakers Bureau
Vito Curalli
William Gilchrist
CANADA CORPORATE
Leader’s Club
Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Heritage Club
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Diamond Club
Caesars Windsor
Convention Centres of Canada
Delta Hotels
PSAV
Platinum Level
AV-Canada
AVW-Telav
Calgary Telus Convention
Centre
Cascadia Motivation
Coast Hotels & Resorts
Evolution
Hilton Canada
IHG
Marriott Hotels & Resorts
Canada
Ottawa Tourisim
Stronco
Tourism Calgary
Tourism Toronto
Tourisme Quebec
VIA Rail Canada
Gold Level
The Conference Publishers
D.E. Systems Ltd.
Destination Halifax
Direct Energy Centre
IncentiveWorks
Tourism British Columbia
Tourism Vancouver
Tourisme Montreal
Silver & Bronze Levels
Accucom Corporate Communications Inc.
ADMAR Promotions
Calgary Exhibition & Stampede
Cantrav dmc
Centre Mont-Royal
Destination Winnipeg
Exposoft Solutions Inc.
Fletcher Wright Associates
Gelber Conference Centre
Group Germain Hotels
The Great West Life Company
Investors Group
Mendelssohn Livingston
Naylor Publishers
The Planner
EUROPE CORPORATE
Heritage Club
EIBTM
IMEX
Diamond Club
MCI
Platinum Key Donors
BTC International
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Gold Key Donors
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
Malaga CVB
The Rezidor Hotel Group
Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre
VisitDenmark
Silver Partner Donors
ExpoForce
RefTech
Bronze Friend Donors
Amsterdam RAI
Hotels van Oranje
Ince&Tive
Visit London
CHAPTER DONORS
Arizona Sunbelt
Atlantic Canada
British Columbia
Carolinas
Chicago Area
Georgia
Greater Edmonton
Greater New York
Gulf States
Heartland
Houston Area
Japan
Kentucky Bluegrass
Indiana
Manitoba
Minnesota
New Jersey
Northern California
Ohio
Oklahoma
Orange County
Oregon
Ottawa
Philadelphia Area
Potomac
Rocky Mountain
Southern California
Tennessee
Texas Hill Country
Toronto
Virginia
Washington State
WestField
INDIVIDUAL DONORS
Diamond
Dave Johnson
Four Star
Michael Deitemeyer
Vince La Ruffa
Fellow
Devon Binder, CMP, CMM
Stephen Revetria
mpiweb.org
pp 38-41 Community Foundation 0109.indd 41
41
12/18/08 8:17:46 AM
WHO:
Connections
Ramón Álvarez,
G.S.A.R.
Marketing
Planner + Supplier Success Story
Maria de Los Angeles Barraza Gomez,
Tourism Cartagena
In many countries the use of
historic landmarks as event
venues is strictly verboten, or, at
the very least, harshly restricted.
In Colombia, anything is possible.
Seventeenth-century marvel Castillo de
San Felipe de Barajas hovers stone-heavy over
the colorful city of Cartagena, its gray-scuffed
walls marking the remains of Spain’s greatest
colonial fortress. It is not an inviting place for
an event.
But on Nov. 24, the castle’s rough-hewn
outer ward played host to an enchanting closing gala for 230 MITM Americas trade show
attendees. Under dark and threatening skies,
partygoers clad in Caribbean white linen
climbed the steep walk to the venue and discovered a castle transformed by light. Tables
sported fine white cloth. Delicious Colombian
melodies drifted slowly from the bandstand,
hastened by natural stone acoustics.
It was a remarkable evening of decadent
Caribbean food, exceptional dance performance and live and local beats. Only Maria
de Los Angeles Barraza Gomez of Tourism
Cartagena was not surprised. She stood alone
and to the side against the fortress wall, feeling the cold stone edge against her skin and
the light sprinkle of rain as her final guests
disperse. She smiled. This city never fails her.
“In other countries, using a fortress for an
event is nearly impossible,” Barraza said in
practiced English at a trade show press conference for media representing more than 10
countries. “The city permits us to use our as-
42
one+
EVENT:
MITM Americas
Cartagena, Colombia
Nov. 23-24, 2008
sets and our history to showcase who we were
and who we are.”
She bowed her head slightly, yielding the
floor to Ramón Álvarez of G.S.A.R. Marketing, which organizes MITM annually in Latin
America. The two have worked together since
they met at the 2007 MITM in Salvador,
Brazil, to ensure the success of the 2008 trade
show.
Needless to say, their efforts exceeded
expectations. Álvarez estimated 2,400 scheduled meetings between buyers and sellers and
approximately US$10 million in future business transactions from the November event,
which welcomed attendees from 19 different
countries. He told those assembled that the
destination itself lured attention from hosted
buyers across the globe including 14 European
nations.
“In the MICE business, a huge part of a
great incentive program is an exciting destination—that’s something clients are looking
for,” Álvarez asserted. “We don’t look to London, Paris and Rome; buyers already know
these destinations. You have IMEX in Frankfurt and the Motivation Show in Chicago.
Cartagena? Cartagena is something different
and new and attractive.”
But the city won’t be South America’s wellkept Caribbean secret much longer. Barraza
01.09
pp 42-43 Connections 0109.indd 42
12/20/08 2:01:12 PM
Ramón Álvarez and his G.S.A.R. staff
carefully cull hundreds of hosted-buyer
applications each year, accepting less
than 100 candidates to invite to the
MITM Americas show. Each must prove
to be booking business in the region.
JESSIE STATES (4)
cited increasing interest in her historic seaport
both regionally and internationally. Cartagena
ranks first among cities for first-time travelers
to Colombia, according to Proexport, the nation’s tourism promotion agency. And on Dec.
8, the city gained status as an intermediate
boarding port for Royal Caribbean’s southern
cruise circuit. As Barraza put it, the time to visit
Cartagena is now as the city’s inherent charm
continues to attract more and more visitors.
Specifically, Barraza pointed to an insurgence of boutique hotels in the city’s Old
Town led by LaHeroica.com, an association
of small hotels, apartments and homes for let.
Cartagena’s historic center alone boasts dozens
of converted properties with stunning New
World patios, vibrant colors, rooftop pools
and faultless views of city and sea.
“In speaking to the buyers here at MITM,
they are interested in something exquisite and
new. We have the history, the culture and the
Caribbean—but we also have excellent service
and infrastructure,” Barraza said.
But she isn’t referring to roads and transportation systems. For MITM’s opening night,
Barraza hired a new-is-old pirate ship and
sailed her buyers to Cartagena’s Club de Pesca
on the Caribbean shore. The restaurant is embedded in an old fortress wall, facing the sea,
at once rustic and elegant, with delicate table
drapings and overhanging foliage.
Álvarez cannot be more impressed with the
show, especially considering that Barraza and
Tourism Cartagena hired a coordinator specifically to handle the MITM event.
“It is wonderful to work with such professional people,” he said. Quite an endorsement
for a city that has yet to realize its potential as
an incentive and events destination.
—JESSIE STATES
mpiweb.org
pp 42-43 Connections 0109.indd 43
43
12/22/08 4:45:37 PM
IRRELEVANT
Get Them
Nothing
What better present for the
person who has everything
than a poignant reminder that
they want for nothing? This
lovingly crafted vial of emptiness is filled to the brim with
unfettered nothingness. Free
from the burden of possessions and the weight of
responsibility, Nothing is as
idiotic as it is brilliant. It’s a
statement—an empty gesture if you will—a nod at the
futility of ownership. And yet
despite Nothing being nothing, it is packed with millions of protons, neutrons
and what-have-you, which
is pretty good for Nothing. Suitable for ages 14
years+. (Iwantoneof
those.com, £3.49)
44
one+
01.09
pp 44 Irrelevant 0109.indd 44
12/22/08 11:46:41 AM
0109_045.indd 45
12/9/08 11:38:54 AM
Borbala
Csillag
Global View
Defining Experiences
THERE WAS A TIME WHEN THIS
LOOKED LIKE IT MIGHT BECOME
ONE OF THOSE “I MOVED ABROAD
FOR A FEW MONTHS AND HAVE
BEEN HERE 20 YEARS” STORIES.
After graduating college, I moved to
Budapest for a 12-month management
training program at a hotel. Two-anda-half years—as well as five rotations in
various hotel departments, three computer
programs, two MPI European Meetings
and Events conferences, four weddings
and three funerals—later, on the brink of
a move back to Toronto, came the greatest lesson from abroad so far. A senior
colleague stopped me to share and drive
home the point that the sense of peace and
fulfillment in life, if one is fortunate enough
to find it, comes 90 percent from the inside
and 10 percent from outside.
Rich and defining experiences are
not only had in faraway places after
extensive travel. If we are open to
meaningful experiences, they can
happen anywhere.
46
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01.09
pp 46 Global View 0109.indd 46
BIO
I wanted to write this column as a professional piece and realized that the greatest
impact of my global experience has been its
effect on my life. I can’t separate my being
from my professional self.
“Global competency does not mean that
you are always working overseas,” wrote
Carol Krugman in her October Global
View column.
Although I have been living abroad, I
have experienced much more than immersion in Hungarian culture. Within the
hotel—operating with a North-Americandeveloped corporate culture—I had the
good fortune of working with people
from very different backgrounds. Some
Hungarian born and bred, some Western
expatriates and numerous colleagues from
countries near and far. Socially, I was also
introduced to a diverse group of (mostly
U.S.) expatriates, some of whom were only
here transiently and many of whom have
become close friends. Never during frequent
childhood visits to my homeland Hungary
had I imagined that so many expats would
come together in Budapest.
We talk about transformation, about
changing the world, about making a difference, about dialogue that has meaning. We
talk about innovation and creativity, about
leadership and about connections. Rich and
defining experiences are not only had in faraway places after extensive travel. If we are
open to meaningful experiences, they can
happen anywhere.
What matters is the journey, not the
destination.
This resonates all the more in times
as uncertain as the ones we are facing. It
should resonate whether we define ourselves as members of the meeting profession
or not. I, however, consider myself lucky
and proud to be a part of our community.
BORI (BORBALA) CSILLAG is a catering/conference services coordinator at
Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest. Contact her at b_csillag@
yahoo.ca.
12/16/08 11:23:36 AM
0109_047.indd 47
12/16/08 9:11:35 AM
Tony
Carey
Across the Bow
Flight Fright
I’M OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER a time
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pp 48-49 Across The Bow 0109.indd 48
BIO
when only air crews told flying stories. It
seemed a job perk that they should hold
us spellbound in the pub with their understated tales of coolness in the face of bird
strike, engine failure and acute vomiting
at 18,000 feet. We owed it to them to be
impressed—it was the least we could do—
many of them had flown against Hitler.
But things have changed. Flying stories
have been hijacked (not a word I normally
use in connection with air travel—at least,
not within 500 meters of an airport) by
the passengers. If you overhear a flying
anecdote these days, it is probably the pub
bore boasting to his friends about turbulence at 28,000 feet from the perspective
of seat 37E.
Of course, this is partly because there
are fewer people on the flight deck (and
they’re only employed to keep the automatic pilot amused and to reassure us with
avuncular announcements). But it’s also
because flying today is more exciting in
the cabin than up front. I speak only about
coach class; first and business offer little
to stimulate the senses except a certain
smugness.
In the average coach section of the average long-haul flight, you will find drama
and romance, comedy and pathos. All
human life is there—united (although they
would never admit it) by a healthy fear
of the unexpected. I have watched love
awaken between strangers, spats develop
between lovers and frequently wondered
about the relationship between the couple
in the front row. The only way to survive
the discomfort of air travel is by studying one’s fellow passengers. (I am always
amazed at how few of them I want to
spend several hours adjacent to—although
that’s probably more a reflection on me
than on them.)
There’s something about air travel that
brings out the caged beast in us all. We are
apprehensive, but it isn’t cool to show it.
Men, in particular, go to great lengths to
appear air-wise and nonchalant, concealing sweaty palms, round cans of things
or (when the wherewithal was free) overindulging in adult beverages.
Each flight is a journey into the
unknown—only the pilot really knows
where we’re headed, or we hope he does.
(Have you ever felt a twinge of unease
when the captain announces: “Good evening everyone, welcome aboard this flight
to.....er.....er...um......?”)
Admit it, however many blasé air miles
you have clocked, there is still a pulsequickening sense of anticipation as you go
to check in—or there should be, because
every flight is a new experience with fresh
challenges: me vs. system.
Was it Row 14 or Row 41 that had
the legroom in a 757? Will my grovelling
request for an upgrade be successful? How
can I avoid that line at security? Please
God, don’t let that obnoxious child be
seated within 10 rows of me. Who will I
find myself seated next to?
Recently I have started compiling a list
TONY CAREY, CMP, CMM, is an award-winning writer and past member
of MPI’s International Board of Directors. He can be reached at
tonycarey@psilink.co.je.
12/17/08 1:38:29 PM
There’s something
about air travel
that brings out
the caged beast
in all of us. We
are apprehensive,
but it isn’t cool to
show it.
of those whom I don’t wish to sit next to
on a long-haul journey. It is based, not on
prejudice, but on experience; each of the
following has been closer than I would like
at 30,000 feet.
People who overlap. If I’m not permitted to carry on a bag of pocketbook
proportions because it won’t fit into the
overhead bin, shouldn’t someone who
won’t fit into a seat travel in the hold?
People with extra extremities. I swear
that the woman who sat next to me on a
recent flight to Ottawa had five, specially
sharpened, elbows.
People who talk too much. Talking
is all very well in a casual and desultory
manner, but there should be a lapel badge
with an international symbol for: “If
you must talk incessantly, please do it to
someone else!”
Messy bastards. There are those who
can’t open packets of pretzels without
spraying them everywhere and who knock
over their wine bottles while trying to open
packets of pretzels.
But who is on YOUR list? I’d be interested to hear. (Unless, of course, you only
ever travel business class, in which case
most of the foregoing was probably lost
on you.)
My list is growing longer with every
flight I take, but at least I’ve got some
stories for the regulars down at the pub.
Agree? Disagree?
Share you thoughts with
other readers at
www.mpioneplus.org.
mpiweb.org
pp 48-49 Across The Bow 0109.indd 49
49
12/17/08 4:11:52 PM
Annalee
Newitz
Open-Source Everything
How Virtual Can
a Meeting Get?
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pp 50 Open-Source 0109.indd 50
BIO
Nearly everyone has attended a meeting that is at least partially virtual. Perhaps
some of your colleagues dialed in via
speaker phone or participated through
webcam. Maybe you’ve even been in a conference room with a “virtual wall” that lets
you see and speak with life-size people in a
remote office across the world.
One of my jobs is running a science fiction blog called io9.com where all of my
employees work remotely. So every week at
our editorial meetings, we convene about
five to eight staff members over the Internet.
All our meetings are virtual. Nobody meets
face-to-face. Using a conferencing program
called Campfire, the staff can talk in a private chat room together, as well as share
images and documents easily.
I say “easily,” but it’s not always easy to
run a virtual meeting—even a partly virtual
one. Most of us think of meetings as places
where we talk aloud, often engaging in
rapid-fire question/answer exchanges, trading ideas quickly. These quick exchanges are
what make meetings helpful.
But is there a point at which virtual
meetings lose so much of the original meaning of “meeting” that they are no longer
useful?
You can run the risk of going too virtual
in a meeting when the technology you use
for the meeting gets in the way of quick,
informal interactions.
This is an idea that’s understood by
some of the world’s finest idea-making
institutions. Several years ago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
ordered an enormous new building that
would house several departments, including artificial intelligence, linguistics and
architecture. William Mitchell, the school’s
architectural adviser, says the single most
important organizing principle of the building should be making possible “collisions
of people by accident.” Celebrated architect Frank Gehry, who designed the Ray
and Maria Stata Center at MIT, says he
designed a non-linear building to encourage
chance encounters and casual conversations
between colleagues.
The Stata Center is like a good piece of
meeting technology. Its structure is designed
to encourage quick, chance exchanges
between colleagues as well as more formal
meetings. The question to ask yourself when
you’re using a piece of meeting technology
is this: Is it built so people can have casual
cross-talk as well as formal presentations?
One of the reasons I like Campfire and
free alternatives such as IRC is that the chat
room structure can be formal or informal.
I would contrast it with virtual meeting
places such as telephone conference calls,
where cross-talk quickly gets chaotic and
difficult to hear. Of course, if all you need to
do is make announcements, a teleconference
would be just fine.
So when you pick a technology for your
virtual meetings, the question you should
ask is whether your virtual space is versatile enough to support the kinds of casual
conversation that can lead to breakthroughs
and good ideas.
ANNALEE NEWITZ is the editor in chief of io9.com, a blog about science fiction
and science. She contributes to Popular Science, New Scientist and Wired magazines and is the co-editor of She’s Such a Geek, a book of essays about women
who work in traditionally male fields. E-mail her at annalee@techsploitation.com.
12/20/08 2:12:48 PM
0109_051.indd 51
12/9/08 11:45:44 AM
Tim
Sanders
Transform the World
or happiness. Reflecting on Mark’s talk, I
made a New Year’s resolution that I’d convert my have-to’s into get-to’s. By the end of
January, my attitude turned around and my
performance improved dramatically. Now, I
savor every opportunity to write or speak—
and I’ve never been happier with my career.
You can do this, too.
IN FALL 2007, I ATTENDED A TALK BY
If you’re feeling burned out and swimMARK SCHULMAN, SUPERSTAR DRUMming in have-to’s, rescue yourself from your
MER AND CANCER SURVIVOR. I had met
him a few years previously when I moved to attitude. If you’ve come down with a case of
Los Angeles. He and I became friends, and I the mutters—and after 2008’s crazy ride, it
wouldn’t surprise me—make this your New
became a fan of his infectious attitude.
Year’s resolution, too!
In his talk, he told a story about his
Here’s the idea: Reframe your tasks
wife—who also battled cancer—and how
her health crisis reframed her attitude about into opportunities. Author and markether roles and obligations. Every day was pre- ing expert Seth Godin also advocates this
mental approach to daily “chores.” He once
cious to her, and a day she could do things
quipped that he doesn’t have to blog every
was a good day. Her language changed.
day, he gets to blog every day. And it shows
She converted tasks into privileges, or as
in the quality of his content (and the amount
Mark put it, “She turned her have-to’s into
of traffic he’s built up over the years).
get-to’s.” On days she had the energy to get
By reframing, you can find more joy in
out of bed, she’d say, “Today I get to go to
your day-to-day responsibilities. If you think
work, create things and hang out with my
about it, most of our obligations are really
friends.” Mark learned from her example,
opportunities that we’ve lost our gratitude
adopted it too and emerged with a winning
for. We think of work as something we
view on life.
“have to” do, but when we first got the job,
In January 2008, I realized that I had
we thanked our lucky stars that we “got to”
let too many of my get-to’s become havehave this career opportunity.
to’s. For example, when it was time to put
Here’s an exercise to shake up your outthe finishing touches on my new book, I’d
look on the daily grind: Pick out three big
mutter, “Today, I have to slog through
tasks you “have to” do this week
hundreds of pages of research and respond
and pretend that you’ve been fired
to dozens of editorial notes.” When I’d
leave for Europe for a speaking engagement from them. Imagine you no longer
get to manage your team at work.
I’d grouse, “Today, I have to fly halfway
You no longer get to drive your
around the world.”
son to baseball games and sit in the
That was not a prescription for success
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BIO
Attitude
Adjustment
TIM SANDERS is the author of Saving the World at Work:
What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond
Making a Profit to Making a Difference (Doubleday, September
2008). Check out his Web site at www.savingtheworld.net.
12/17/08 4:45:33 PM
bleachers
cheering
for his
team.
You no longer
get to attend creative meetings to hash
out details on the new
product. Think about it. Doesn’t that make
you feel a little silly for complaining about
these types of “duties?”
Finally, police your language, and watch
out for any negative talk about your work
life that signals a breakdown in gratitude.
The next time you are marching into that
dreaded sales and marketing meeting, tell
someone, “Today I get to meet with some of
my favorite people, solve problems and find
ways to be successful in our roles!” You’ll be
surprised what a difference it makes.
How important is attitude? Let me close
with a relevant story about the importance
of perspective.
Christopher Wren was a philosopher,
astronomer and architect, commissioned to
rebuild St. Paul’s Cathedral after the Great
Fire of 1666 that leveled London. To be
more fire resistant, the church was to be
rebuilt with brick, which is labor intensive
and would require more than 50 years of
backbreaking work to finish.
One day in 1671, Wren observed three
of his bricklayers working on a scaffold. He
approached the first one, who had a listless expression on his face, and asked him,
“What are you doing?” The first bricklayer,
If you think
about it, most of
our obligations are really
opportunities that we’ve
lost our gratitude for.
without even looking up, replied, “I’m making a wage.” Wren approached the second
bricklayer on the scaffold and asked him the
same question, “What are you doing?” The
second bricklayer looked back at him slowly
with a blank expression and muttered,
“I’m building a straight wall,” then turned
back to his work. The third bricklayer on
the scaffold seemed much more excited to
be there than the first two, whistling as he
worked, accomplishing more than the other
two combined. Wren then asked him, “And
what are you doing?” This bricklayer stood
up straight and with a gleam in his eye proclaimed, “I’m building a cathedral for the
Almighty.”
For decades after, Wren challenged titans
of industry to transform their businesses
into something with purpose, like building
a cathedral. His story is still told today to
illustrate how perspective makes work a joy,
not just a way to make a living.
Have you witnessed
something that will
transform the world?
Tell us about it at
www.mpiweb.org.
mpiweb.org
pp 52-53 Transform World 0109 Rev1.indd 53
53
12/17/08 4:47:15 PM
+
What’s New
in Scottsdale
Down to a Science
BY JASON HENSEL
“SHOW US YOUR WHOLE CITY, NOT JUST
THE HOTELS,” said Stacy J. Weber, CMP,
event and meeting manager for Moss Adams
LLP, about what CVBs can do to spruce up
FAM trips. Such sage advice has always been
followed by the Scottsdale (Ariz.) CVB. With
a FAM trip that has happened annually for
20 years, the CVB sets the bar for how familiarization tours should be conducted and
used for business.
“In the late 1980s, Scottsdale saw a huge
growth in resort product, especially with
the addition of several resorts with meeting
space,” said Rachel Sacco, Scottsdale CVB
president and CEO. “We were looking for
a way to expose meeting planners to this
new product in the destination. We’d had
a lot of success in the past with FAMs for
travel agents, so we decided to try a meetings
FAM as well. Our first meetings FAM was
in spring 1988 and incorporated a golf tournament. It’s since morphed into an annual
event that’s grown to be a destination-wide
partnership with our members. We continue
to receive rave reviews from both members
and clients.”
Twice a year, the Scottsdale CVB plays
host to approximately 25 meeting planners
that have a definite interest in bringing their
groups to the city.
“The Scottsdale CVB invites our database
of meeting planners to qualify for the FAM
by sending in a qualified RFP considering
Scottsdale as one of the top three destinations,” said Renee Angeles, Scottsdale CVB
director of sales and services. “RFPs are sent
to our properties with the CVB collecting
responses from our resorts and reviewing to
ensure we narrow down our list to the planners who are the best fit for our destination.
On average, we receive about 160 responses
per FAM and have to narrow the selection
down to a list of only 25 planners.”
Finding these planners, though, that have
a sincere interest in bringing business to
Scottsdale benefits all involved in that site visits are relevant and activities are educational.
“Over the years, our FAM itineraries have
become more focused to ensure planners are
learning the most they can about our destination in only a few short days,” Angeles said.
“We also are more strategic with what we
The InterContinental
Montelucia Resort &
Spa opened in November and features
27,000 square feet of
indoor meeting space,
the 31,000-square-foot
Joya Spa and a private
wedding chapel with
cathedral ceilings and
wooden beams. Guests
can enjoy activities such
as wine tastings, star
gazing and cigar rolling,
in addition to several
property restaurants.
In October, Marcus
Hotels and Resorts relaunched Resort Suites
Scottsdale as the new
Xona Resort Suites
after a comprehensive,
multimillion-dollar renovation of the property.
The hotel boasts a new
lobby and porte cochere, re-designed and
updated guest suites,
the new Asada Desert
Grille restaurant specializing in regional cuisine,
the new Orange Iguana
indoor/outdoor lounge
and renovated pool
areas.
The W Scottsdale
Hotel & Residences
opened in September
offering approximately
10,000 square feet of
meeting space complete with audiovisual
equipment, high-speed
and wireless Internet
and plasma screens.
A meeting planner reviews supplier information
at a recent Scottsdale FAM trade show.
SCOTTSDALE CVB
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0109_055.indd 55
12/9/08 11:50:24 AM
+
Scottsdale
Transportation Tips
Phoenix Sky Harbor International
Airport serves Scottsdale and offers
air service from 20 airlines such as
Air Canada, American, British Airways,
Delta, Southwest and United. Driving
time from the airport to Scottsdale is
approximately 30 minutes.
The Scottsdale Trolley is free and
moves riders between many of downtown’s attractions including Scottsdale
Fashion Square, the Fifth Avenue Shopping District, the Scottsdale Arts District and Old Town. The trolleys make
stops at these and other downtown
spots every 10 minutes, seven days a
week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
56
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+
showcase to ensure we are meeting the needs
of our clients and helping them experience
activities and amenities that will assist them
in creating a memorable meeting for their
group.”
And it’s this focus that pleases planners
the most.
“The CVB team is completely focused
on customer service and creating partnerships with both their planner and supplier
clients,” Weber said. “You could tell that
the CVB team personally knew the individuals. I needed to see a couple of additional
hotels after the FAM—the CVB set up those
appointments for me and even accompanied
me for two days on those sites, including two
or three that they don’t represent but were
of interest to me. The FAM also gave me a
chance to understand what all a CVB can
offer besides just sending out a lead. They are
a tremendous resource both when considering a destination and after selection.”
What’s New
in Scottsdale
The historic Camelback Inn, A JW
Marriott Resort &
Spa added new amenities while retaining its
Southwestern appeal
with its US$50 million
revitalization that was
completed in September. New features
include 20,000 square
feet of meeting space
equipped with keyless security, 24-foot
ceilings and wireless
connectivity. To add a
historical atmosphere,
private meeting spaces
are available at Camelback Inn’s Old West
Town, which features a
saloon, a livery stable
and mock storefronts.
01.09
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12/17/08 4:37:01 PM
0109_057.indd 57
12/17/08 1:21:17 PM
+
The Downtown Scottsdale Arts District offers more than 125 galleries with
art in all styles and mediums for serious collectors and casual admirers alike.
Scottsdale Fun Facts
Weber says the FAM really gave her a feel
Scottsdale only gets approximately for the entire area, not just hotels A, B and C.
“The FAM had 15 hotels in three days—
seven inches of rain a year.
that’s a lot, but it’s why we’re there and we
The Sonoran Desert—where Scottsdale weren’t rushed,” Weber said. “Various hotel
is located—is the hottest desert in partners were invited to the meals at other
North America. It is 120,000 square hotels—this gave us a chance to chat outmiles in size, and the country of England side of the hotel tour and get to know each
would fit in that space twice. other. It also gave the hoteliers a chance to
meet. The best part of the FAM was the trade
show. It was at one of the resorts and was
SCOTTSDALE CVB
very casual, but informative since many vendors besides hotels were present. It was also
a good size group of planners—too few and
you’re ‘stuck’ with everyone, too many and
you don’t feel you get to know people.”
Managing a FAM with such detailed,
scheduled visits and activities can prove to
be tricky; however, the Scottsdale CVB has it
down to a science.
“We begin planning three months in
advance,” Angeles said. “For each FAM, we
assign two sales managers, a project manager
and a sales coordinator who work together
on the program.”
Angeles says the best advice she can give is
to set realistic goals for the FAM and be clear
about expectations.
“From there, you can build your itinerary
and secure your clients and members for participation,” Angeles said.
From a planner’s perspective, Weber suggests that CVBs planning FAMs include other
vendors—especially restaurants and DMCs.
“While we are driving from one place
to another, tell us about what we are seeing so we can understand the destination as
a whole,” Weber said. “Be sure to give the
vendors a chance to interact with us and each
other in a social setting.”
By keeping goals in mind throughout the
process, Angeles says, the program will be
valuable for everyone involved.
“The FAM is a big investment, but the
right clients paired with the right members
equates to a great return on investment,”
Angeles said.
JASON HENSEL is an associate editor for
One+.
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pp 54-58 Destination - Scottsdale.indd 58
12/17/08 4:37:11 PM
Go ahead. Sit back and savor the sunshine. After all, it’s making this
rare, free moment seem even brighter. So soak it all up – you deserve
GREATER PHOENIX
it after such a successful day.
MEETPHX.COM
CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU
877-MEET-PHX
0109_059.indd 59
12/9/08 1:49:08 PM
+
What’s New
in Alberta
BY ALLAN LYNCH
AS PRETTY AS BANFF IS, YOU WON’T SEE
MANY FLOWERS. THE ELK EAT THEM FOR
BREAKFAST. Encircled by snow-capped
mountains and dissected by a clear, glacierfed river, Banff is the gateway community to
a linked chain of four national parks—Banff,
Jasper, Yoho and Kootenay—which rise from
the Alberta foothills into the Canadian Rockies. Protected by Parks Canada for a century,
these pristine parks have earned UNESCO
World Heritage Site designations. Elk have
the right-of-way. And they are everywhere,
strolling the golf course, lingering on lawns
outside the Banff Springs Hotel and dining on
every flower in sight.
Given the natural beauty, the modern
delights of high-end shopping and fine dining and the wealth of wilderness experiences,
it’s no surprise Banff is a popular holiday,
conference and incentive destination. But
playing host to a group that deals with blind
and visually impaired students here is an
audacious move. And that’s exactly what the
organizing committee for the biannual Canadian Vision Teachers Conference is doing by
booking The Banff Centre for its October
2009 conference.
“This conference has never been held in
Western Canada before, and when the committee decided to take this on we first considered Calgary,” said Pam Rannelli, committee
co-chairwoman and provincial coordinator
for students with vision loss for the Alberta
government. “There’s a lot of hotel space in
Calgary, but if you’re going to come to Calgary, why not go to Banff [which is a 90-minute drive from the Calgary International
Airport]?”
It’s too early to tell if the delegate count
will surpass the event’s 250-person high.
“We’ve had a lot of good buzz about
60
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01.09
pp 60-63 Destination Banff_B.indd 60
it,” Rannelli said. “People are excited it’s in
Banff.”
Traditionally, this conference has been
held in schools for the blind or city-center
hotels. This year, the conference will be held
at The Banff Centre, a 43-acre, heavily treed,
21-building mountainside campus. And just
to pump up the obstacles, the center is in the
midst of constructing a new, 21,000-squarefoot innovation center. Therein lies part of
the challenge: how to make this geography
accessible to the 10 percent of delegates who
are blind or vision impaired.
“[The hillside campus] does present some
other challenges compared to staying in a
hotel or typical convention space, but we
have on our committee several trained orientation and mobility specialists,” Rannelli
said. “Their job is to look at an environment,
assess the risks for a person who is blind and
develop training protocol both for the person
with the impairment and those who serve
them.”
To ensure that happens, Rannelli says the
organizers are working with Jodi Burke, conference services manager at the Banff Centre,
to do some training for her staff.
Northlands—an
exhibition, conference
and trade facility in
What’s
New
Edmonton—completes
in
the fiAlberta
nal phase later
this year of an expansion that increases
the venue’s size to
500,000 square feet
of integrated, contiguous trade and consumer show space.
Calgary’s Stampede
Park opened a casino
in 2008 and is planning to add 50,000
square feet of space
in an expansion of the
375,000-square-foot
Roundup Centre.
Calgary’s 185-room
designer boutique property, the Hotel Arts,
expanded its ballroom
to 9,300 square feet
of fully dividable space
in fall 2008 and plans
to add 66,000 square
feet of retail and office
space.
DIAMOND AND SCHMITT
A Can Do
Attitude
Conceptual drawing of the Kinnear Centre
for Creativity and Innovation.
12/17/08 4:50:06 PM
0109_061.indd 61
12/9/08 12:01:47 PM
THE BANFF CENTRE
The Banff Centre’s Dining Centre, home of the Vistas Dining
Room and the Three Ravens Restaurant and Wine Bar.
+
Alberta
Transportation Tips
Delegates can fly direct to
Calgary International Airport or
Edmonton International Airport
from Chicago, Dallas, Denver,
Frankfurt, Houston, London, Los
Angeles, Minneapolis, New York,
San Francisco and Seattle, as well
as all major Canadian cities.
Groups going to Jasper have the
extra choice of arriving by VIA
Rail or the luxury of the Rocky
Mountaineer train, which travels
between Vancouver and Calgary.
Banff operates the country’s only
green transit system, Roam, using
an all-hybrid electric transit fleet.
Fare boxes accept smartcards and
U.S. currency. A GPS system tells
riders at bus stops when the next
bus is coming.
62
one+
“Just basic tips and tricks on how you
guide a person who is blind, what things you
should look out for, how to make the space
a bit more user friendly, that sort of thing,”
Rannelli said. “We plan to do a workshop
with the managers about vision issues,
because it’s almost impossible to do the whole
staff because the staff changes frequently.”
Burke admits to never playing host to a
group that has this number of sight-impaired
people.
“In terms of disabilities, we have had
people here in wheelchairs or with physical
mobility problems, but not to the extent that
there’s a whole bunch all at once,” Burke
said.
The center has surprisingly little retrofitting to do. According to Burke, the organizing committee will provide Braille signs
for the elevators and campus wide “you are
here” maps and will also send tactile maps to
delegates before they arrive in Banff.
“Our director of customer services, Jim
Olver, also stands outside every morning at
the end of the pathways where people come
from the bedrooms to direct people to either
the dining facility or meeting rooms, or he’ll
help organize the bellmen to take them around
the pathways to the other side of the building
if that is going to be easier,” Burke said.
Delegates will not have to deal with a huge
amount of issues in relation to construction,
Burke says.
“They will have to deal with gravel on
the pathways and a few potholes caused
from trucks going in and out,” Burke said.
“From our end, we’re going to be [telling]
our staff that there will be vision-impaired
people on site, and if they see someone
they should ask if they need directions or
The Banff Centre
+
SCOTT ROWED
Alberta Fun Facts
Banff has a population of 8,000 and
welcomes 30,000 visitors a day. It
has 130 bars, pubs and restaurants.
Development in Banff and the national
parks is tightly controlled by Parks
Canada. People need to prove “a
reason to reside” (i.e., work there) to
live within the park boundaries. This
policy protects against over development
and land speculation.
The three ski resorts in Banff/Lake
Louise have great skiing on 120 miles of
trails spread over 7,748 acres.
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A Planner’s Checklist
Here’s a quick checklist for planners
and properties playing host to an
event for people with vision or
physical impairments.
1. Ahead of the event, ask delegates
for special needs regarding information retrieval. Do they require Braille
or specialized electronic formats to
access information?
2. Conduct an environmental scan,
and consider engaging the services
of a specialist in universal design or
accessibility issues for people with
disabilities.
assistance getting around.”
As it gets closer to the conference date,
the center will remind the contractor to
advise his work crew to be aware of potential hazards for vision-impaired and blind
delegates.
There is also some tweaking for the dining room.
“We’re working with Jodi in the dining
room to put more visual indicators on the
tables people are going to be using,” Rannelli said. “Right now they post a regular
white paper with the name on it. We’ll use
a kind of color code and make it brighter
so people will be able to head to the right
table.”
The challenges in serving this group also
cross over to content presentation and access
to information.
“Because of the clients we have, and our
philosophy, we have to discern which format
best serves them,” Rannelli said. “Before
they send in their registration, we request
that they let us know if they are large print
or Braille users, so for handouts and presentations we have the appropriate format for
3. Is there Braille signage in elevators,
along corridors, property maps and
on door numbers? Are there talking
elevators?
4. If the property is outfitted for
wheelchairs, can it handle motorized
scooters? More people are converting to these, and they require deeper
elevators as well as wider turns on
ramps.
5. Consider color—is your signage
red? Many vision-impaired people see
red as black. Check with specialists to
see what colors show best for visually
challenged delegates.
them to have access to the information. We
ask presenters to have their PowerPoints on
a USB drive so people can access that, and
we ask delegates ahead of time if they require
alternate format materials. Think about how
often we, as print users, go into a presentation and are given a handout. For someone
who’s blind or a Braille user, how often do
they have that luxury? Not very often.”
If there is anything properties, planners
and society need to consider when dealing
with groups who have challenges, it is attitude, Rannelli says.
“I think society, when it thinks of someone who’s blind, thinks first of what they
can’t do, before considering what these
people can do,” Rannelli said. “We need to
change that attitude. We want to make sure
everybody knows people who are blind or
visually impaired are people first and visually
impaired second. They are just the same as
you and I, but they might require accommodation in terms of their vision.”
ALLAN LYNCH is a freelance writer based
in Nova Scotia, Canada.
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BY JESSIE STATES
CHESTER
KAHAPEA
SPEAKS
SOFTLY
FROM HIS LIVING ROOM, SURROUNDED
BY PHOTOS OF HIS FAMILY, HIS COPPER
SKIN CREASING AS HE GRINS INTO A
STUDIO CAMERA.
“I was 12 years old when Hawai’i became
a state,” he says in his thick Hawai’ian lilt.
“In 1959, I was at St. Patrick’s [church].
My mom was working for the Star-Bulletin.
A picture was to be taken of me giving the
first paper to the mayor at that time, [Neal
Shaw] Blaisdell.”
A photo was taken that day at St. Patrick’s, a photo that would make Kahapea
an icon, but it wasn’t with Blaisdell. Instead,
it shows a young boy hawking newspapers on a street corner, each emblazoned
with a U.S. flag and a massive, one-word
Fun Facts
Hawai‘i Opera Theatre will present three celebrated
operas during its 2009 Winter Grand Opera Season:
Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut on Jan. 30, Feb. 1
and Feb. 3; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Abduction
from the Seraglio on Feb. 13, 15 and 17; and Georges
Bizet’s Carmen on Feb. 27, March 1 and March 3.
The largest outdoor shopping mall in the U.S., the Ala
Moana Center, will celebrate its 50th anniversary this
year along with the state of Hawai’i. The mall offers
nearly 300 stores, including 70 dining options, one of
the world’s largest collections of luxury retailers and
several only-in-Hawai‘i merchants featuring locally made
products.
Honolulu’s Chinatown presents its First Friday art walk
monthly (on first Fridays), offering a diverse sampling
of Hawai’i’s burgeoning art scene as galleries open
their doors with exhibits, free entertainment and light
refreshments.
64
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headline: STATEHOOD! It was March 13,
1959, and the U.S. Congress had ratified a
bill to make Hawai’i a state.
A half-century later, Kahapea speaks
to the people of Hawai’i on the eve of the
state’s 50th birthday (Aug. 21) for one
in a series of weekly television vignettes
recorded by students at Wai‘anae High
School in Honolulu. The 50 Voices of Statehood sequence is one of several programs
planned to commemorate the golden anniversary and remind the people of Hawai’i
what has been made possible by the advent
of statehood.
Leading the 50th Anniversary of Statehood Commission are Chairman Kippen de
Alba Chu, executive director of the ‘Iolani
Palace (former residence to Hawai’i’s last
two monarchs) and Vice Chairman Lenny
Klompus, senior communications advisor
to Gov. Linda Lingle. The two are winning
a battle against the souring national economy to create and execute a year-long series
of events and activities worthy of the state’s
50 years.
“We want an event that doesn’t just
sound good and look good. We want an
event that touches the people, and we’re
giving everyone a chance to be a part of it,”
Klompus said.
In addition to three key events in Honolulu and the 50 voices project, the state’s
birthday celebration will be branded on
more than 40 individual events throughout the islands, each enhanced by a special
statehood component.
It’s not the events at issue, though. It’s
the financing. With national and international economies in flux, de Alba Chu says
regional and local companies have hunkered
down for a hard winter and shut off donation channels. The state has appropriated
What’s New
on O’ahu
The Outrigger Reef on
the Beach has opened
its new Pacific Tower,
marking the beginning
of the final phase of the
hotel’s US$110 million
transformation project. The Pacific Tower
includes 403 guest
rooms and 33 suites
with full-sized tubs and
made-in-Hawai‘i bath
amenities in every room.
The Outrigger Reef
also recently completed
its porte cochere and
driveway that includes a
century-old canoe.
MURRAY BEFELER/PHOTO HAWAI’I
Hawai’i Five-Oh
Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa
completed a $28 million
guest room renovation
project to its oceanfront Kealohilani Tower.
Featuring “beach house”
inspired interiors that
reflect a stylish and fresh
Hawai‘i residential feel
and look, the 605 guest
rooms and suites include
granite tops and birchwood furnishings, as well
as splashes of vibrant
color accents, prints and
textures.
01.09
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12/20/08 1:38:34 PM
HAWAI’I TOURISM AUTHORITY/JOE SOLEM
Scenes from Hawai’i.
The Royal Hawaiian is
scheduled to reopen this
month after an extensive
upgrade. The restored
hotel will highlight O‘ahu’s
culture and history with
new guest programs,
refined service and an
elevated ambiance. The
hotel’s private pool cabanas, Hawaiian cultural
programs and historical
and tropical garden tours
will continue.
Moana Surfrider,
A Westin Resort
has opened its
Moana Lani Spa. The
16,000-square-foot
oceanfront spa features
two couples treatment
suites with private oceanfront lanais and whirlpool
tubs, eight custom massage therapy rooms, two
body treatment rooms,
a Vichy shower water
therapy room, three
custom facial rooms and
a fitness center with 24hour access.
US$600,000 for the celebration, with the
caveat that the 25-member commission find
$250,000 in private donations.
“The economy right now is our biggest
challenge,” de Alba Chu asserted. “We’re
competing with other nonprofits for funding. We see it everywhere. Even here at the
museum we are laying people off. It is hard
to find funds in a situation like this.”
Luckily, Klompus has a background as a
planner—and avid fundraiser. Before joining the governor’s office, Klompus organized the Aloha State Games as well as
Hawai’i’s college football Aloha Bowl. He
knows the challenges of finding money in
shaky times.
“Getting private support isn’t as easy as
it was six months ago,” he admitted. “How
do you overcome that? You work a little
harder. We’re tailoring partnerships with
corporations and individuals, offering to
let them sponsor certain events—a dinner,
a concert, a festival. A banner at an event is
not going to get us the money we need.”
Meanwhile, the show goes on. The 50
Voices began running in August, featuring well-known politicians and Hawaiian
celebrities as well as teachers and school
children.
In November, the commission held its
kickoff event on downtown Honolulu’s
Bishop Square. The fest commemorated
the introduction of the Hawaiian quarter—
and children in attendance received one for
free.
In March, a festival celebrating the
passage of the Hawaii Admission Act will
follow a joint session of the legislature in
the rotunda at the state capitol, featuring
speeches from lawmakers, entertainment
and food booths. Festivities will culminate
on Aug. 21 with a one-day event at the
Transportation Tips
Blue Hawaiian Helicopters recently began operations
on O‘ahu and offers three tours that cover the island’s
must-see sights. Take a 15-minute, romantic night
excursion to Waikiki and Diamond Head; a 30-minute
excursion of Waikiki Beach, Kaneohe and Nu‘uanu Pali;
or a 45-minute circuit of O‘ahu’s rainforests, beaches,
reefs and lush valleys as well as Sacred Falls, the Dole
Plantation and Pearl Harbor.
Atlantis Submarines celebrates its 20th anniversary
in Hawai‘i this year, marking two decades of underwater
tours and marine conservation. In celebration of this
event, it is offering special tour packages with Atlantis
Cruises’ scenic sunset dinner cruise along O‘ahu’s
south shore.
Star of Honolulu Cruises & Events will offer its daily
Premier Whale Watch Cruise through April 30. The
Star of Honolulu offers panoramic walkways, a 60-foothigh observation sun deck, educational activities with
a crew of certified naturalists and Hawaiian cultural
programs. The company also offers a two-hour Wild
Whale Watch Cruise aboard the Starlet.
Hawai’i Convention Center with keynote
speakers and breakout sessions. The event’s
tone will at once be celebratory and solemn
as Hawai’ians discuss their past, their present and their future.
“We gained a lot by being a state with
federal contributions and helping people get
jobs,” Kahapea reflects on screen. “Everybody celebrated. Everybody was happy to
be part of the United States. I think statehood was a great thing.”
JESSIE STATES is assistant editor for
One+.
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BY JOSEPH DOBRIAN
How
CVBs
and
Hotels
Bounce
Back
A
A Hong Kong MICE Tourism event at the
Taj Hotel & Palace on Tuesday and a farewell dinner for the director of Singapore
Tourism at the Oberoi-Trident twin properties on Thursday—that was the original
plan for yet another busy schedule in southern Mumbai for Sushil Wadhwa. Suffering
from a cold, however, Wadhwa would be
unable to attend either function, but did
make it out briefly for a friend’s birthday
party near his home.
“We heard the news about a bomb
blast and firing,” said Wadhwa, founder of
MICE company Platinum. “At the party,
we started shutting off the lights on the terrace and turned off the music, as the fear
was that terrorists had hijacked a police
vehicle and were firing indiscriminately, so
we didn’t want to take a chance and get
some unwelcome guests.”
Late Wednesday, the Taj and the OberoiTrident were attacked…taken hostage…
shot, detonated, set ablaze…staff, guests
and bystanders killed and injured.
The attacks in Mumbai in late November serve as a potent reminder of the ongoing threat the global meeting and events
industry faces, and the danger in which
meeting professionals may be at any time,
anywhere.
And many of these dangers are of the
natural variety, such as the devastating
66
one+
After
hurricane that struck New Orleans a few emergency plan was already in place, and it
was one of the best in the country. It provided
years ago.
for relocation of our key people to several
other cities all over the country, so that even
A fast and efficient response to Hurricane if the whole city lost power we could mainKatrina established the New Orleans Metro tain communications. We also had backup
CVB (NOMCVB) as the source for desti- posting capabilities to our Web site on both
nation management organization disaster coasts—and for a week that backup was our
management best practices. Since that trag- main method of getting information to the
edy in 2005, NOMCVB procedures have mainstream media. We reached all our cusbeen adopted successfully by organizations tomers immediately with updates and full
information.”
worldwide.
Almost as quickly, CVB representatives
If a community has well-prepared contingency plans in place, damage and inconve- started appearing on national TV programs
nience can be minimized at the outset. If lines to inform the public of how New Orleans
of communication stay open during the disas- was recovering from the devastation. Perry
ter and in the weeks following, the recovery alone appeared on nearly 75 news spots, he
will go much faster. And if specific plans are estimates, in the month following Katrina’s
in place to educate the meetings and tourism landfall.
“There was a lot of emotion and rumor
communities about that recovery, visitors will
going around,” he said. “My job was to
return all the quicker.
According to Stephen Perry, NOMCVB counter the initial hysteria by talking about
president and CEO, evacuations, rescues and our tourism infrastructure.”
New Orleans recovered swiftly. Six
salvage operations were not part of the CVB’s
mission—but salvaging the city’s reputation months later, the city had a fully functional
was. If that mission was successful—as it Mardi Gras; the convention center re-opened
appears to have been—it was because of hon- four months later in June. Perry suggests that
the CVB’s fast reaction may have saved the
est, timely and intensive public outreach.
“Because of the level of damage, it was city billions of dollars.
“We did not tell our clients that everything
important for us not to be a spin machine
for the city, but a trusted source of informa- was fine,” Perry said. “We gave them very
tion for our customers,” Perry said. “Our clear status reports and timetables that they
A Disaster Bellwether
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Disaster
could rely on. Finally, in June 2006, we told
our clients, ‘You can now stake your professional reputations on our ability to meet your
requirements.’ It’s as simple as that. You set
realistic targets for recovery, and meet them.
The worst strategy is to over-promise and
under-deliver.”
One critical CVB function, Perry says,
was to develop videos of the city coming
back to life. The major news channels—for
months after the storm—continued to run
file footage of the destruction and flooding,
even though the floodwaters had cleared out
in three weeks.
“We had to counter that and show that
the French and Spanish quarters and the Arts
District were all on high ground and in great
shape,” Perry said. “Our job was to communicate that we were in better shape than the
mainstream media were suggesting.”
In fact, Perry discovered that most promotional photographs in the CVB’s database
were obsolete, once Katrina left town, so one
big task was to re-shoot the whole city—still
photos and videos—to show a recovered
New Orleans.
“We got testimonials from incoming meetings; we stressed that New Orleans had more
restaurants than before Katrina and that our
hotels were in better shape than ever,” he
said. “And we had to document all this. We
also hired Weber Shandwick, a huge global
I
public relations firm. We went to the federal
and state governments for advertising and
marketing funding. Then we created a whole
new ad campaign.”
What did New Orleans learn from
Katrina? Quite a lot, Perry says.
“One thing we didn’t know then, that we
know now, is what it’s like to be completely
without power, without phones, without cell
phones, without an Internet,” he said. “If
we’d not had a multi-city strategy in place,
we’d have been completely blinded. We had
all the emergency numbers in the world, but
none of them worked. Satellite cards got us
onto the Web. We had car adapters that let us
recharge our laptops in our cars.”
Another important lesson learned, Perry
says, is the importance of coordinating the
CVB’s message with that of the local government. Post-Katrina, some city officials
were accused of making matters worse with
inflammatory remarks.
“Some of the city’s messaging got off target a little,” Perry said. “We would have preferred a more unified strategy. We’ve learned
from this that our industry will have to be
quicker to partner with government leaders
to craft effective messages.”
As a result of its post-Katrina success, the
NOMCVB is now often consulted by cities
and countries around the world that have
suffered natural disasters or other blows to
prestige.
“Aruba approached us, because that
country had a ‘branding issue,’” Perry said,
alluding to the disappearance of a U.S. teenager there a couple of years ago. “Following
the earthquake in Sichuan Province, the Chinese government asked us to help them create
a new brand.”
Hotel Side
Undoubtedly, behavior during a crisis often
leads to swift (or more swift) recovery after
it. The India Hotels Co., parent company
of Taj hotels, maintained a communication
pipeline in late November via the hotel’s Web
site resulting in a hub of official information
to limit confusion.
More than 130 guests from the Taj were
relocated to India Hotels’ other properties
in the city, but Indian Hotels Vice Chairman
R.K. Krishna Kumar reiterated that the company is “not just determined, but completely
committed, to rebuilding the institution. We
will restore it to its fullest glory.” An initial
renewal and redevelopment plan has already
been assembled by the company. According
to media reports, structural engineers have
suggested it may take a year and US$100 million to bring the Taj back to its former glory,
however the hotel did partially re-open late
last month.
On Dec. 1, Oberoi Group officials said
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WHAT
TO TELL
ATTENDEES
they expected the Mumbai Trident property
to be finished with repairs and re-opened
Dec. 21, since it received the least amount
of damage among seized hotels. The Oberoi,
Mumbai, will take months of work before it
can be re-opened, complete with enhanced
security.
There has been an immediate security
response to help protect the MICE infrastructure in Mumbai—and Wadhwa says the
citizens of India are very angry, demanding
improvements in security infrastructure in
general.
“There is already increased security in
place, the likes of which has never been seen
here before,” Wadhwa said. “Most five-star
hotels are not allowing cars inside their gates,
and valet parking is being offered from the
road itself, only after thorough checking of
cars and passengers. Most people who would
just go to a five-star hotel for a coffee or a
meeting in the lobby will now not be able to
do so for a while. Only guests with room or
restaurant reservations are being allowed in
the hotel premises.”
Evacuation and Return
For natural disasters that offer a small
amount of warning, evacuation planning and
preparedness are critical.
Gil Zanchi, area general manager for the
New Orleans Marriott, manages 15 hotels in
the city and reports that the recent evacuation
in advance of Hurricane Gustav “went like
clockwork.”
Are some of your attendees nervous about going
to a destination that has
recently suffered from
a natural disaster or a
severe public relations
crisis? Here’s how you
can calm their worries.
• Work with the destination. The local CVB will
be as eager as you are
to let people know that
the city and its meeting
facilities are back in good
working order. Use the
CVB’s videos, photos,
press releases and Web
site to spread the word.
• Explain that many natural disasters—particularly hurricanes—happen
at certain times of the
year. Most of the time,
there’s no danger—if
a hurricane threatens,
you’ll usually have several
days in which to complete your business and
leave the area.
• Emphasize that other,
more sudden disasters—
such as tornados and
earthquakes—while less
predictable are also
rare. San Francisco, for
example, is famous for
suffering two serious
earthquakes—but they
happened almost 100
years apart.
• If a destination has
recently had bad press
because of a high-profile
crime or civil disturbance, remind attendees
that these incidents
almost always take place
well away from primary
meeting venues, in neighborhoods where visitors
are unlikely to go.
O
“The key, before, during and after a [disaster], is communication—with employees,
guests and the local government,” Zanchi
said, reinforcing the method of information
dissemination that Taj officials have taken in.
“We kept our guests thoroughly updated in
terms of instructions for the evacuation process. In the 48 hours before Gustav hit, we
sent four letters to our guest rooms updating
people—on the fourth letter was, ‘You have
to evacuate.’ We got the whole hotel emptied
in time; there were no issues. We brought in
an independent firm to secure the hotel during
the hurricane. We had buses located across
the street from the hotel to drive people to
the airport. And 57 percent of our clientele is
drive-in business—so they just drove out.”
Meanwhile, Zanchi had moved the hotel’s
sales and human resources teams to Atlanta,
to lessen the likelihood of a communications
breakdown. As for remedying the situation
after the storm, Zanchi says it’s a matter of
welcoming your employees back and assuring them that they’re wanted—and then
doing the same for visitors.
“The first thing we did, post-Katrina, was
make sure all our employees came back,”
Zanchi said. “We let some of them stay at
our hotels, and took advantage of the situation to do renovations that we’d wanted to
do anyway. Then we focused on group sales,
bringing a lot of people to New Orleans on
FAM trips.”
Still, it’s been a slow road back for New
Orleans.
“Our business was down 40 percent
citywide in 2006, compared to pre-Katrina
levels, 35 percent off pre-Katrina figures in
2007, down 25 percent in 2008 and will
probably still be 15 percent below that level
in 2009,” Zanchi admitted. “People are more
cautious about visiting, especially during hurricane season.”
The Mumbai attacks did immediate damage to India’s international tourism industry,
the Hindustan Times reported. The major
tourism destination of Agra—home to the
original Taj Mahal (among other UNESCO
World Heritage Sites) and more than 650
miles from Mumbai—reported a 40 percent
cancellation in hotel bookings with other
guests postponing their visits.
Wadhwa says that business had already
slowed down in November due to the global
economic situation.
“Now with the terrorist attacks, the
immediate impact on the MICE business for
December is that the majority of local events,
conferences and weddings have been cancelled or postponed,” Wadhwa said. “As a
result of this, business has been hit for most
hotels, event venues and companies like ours.
Due to a threat of attack on one of the airports, travel-related conferences are, too,
being moved back. I expect the MICE business to only start picking up around March
or April 2009.”
Subhash Goyal, chairman of Delhibased STIC Travel Group, was quoted in
the Hindustan Times as saying the attacks
C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 9 0
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SARBANESOXLEY 2.0
Keeping Tabs on SOX
70
one+
THE KAFKA-ESQUE ACCOUNTABILITY
DEMANDS OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT
(SOX) AND ITS INTERNATIONAL COUNTERPARTS HAVE BEEN IN FLUX—AND
DECREASINGLY IN THE NEWS—SINCE
THEIR INCEPTIONS. EVEN WITH THE BULK
OF THIS LEGISLATION INTACT, SOME
SLIMMED-DOWN ELEMENTS PROVIDE
RELIEF FOR MEETING PROFESSIONALS.
B Y K AT H L E E N N A C O Z Y
As the global economy suffers,
SOX is increasingly criticized.
Pundits are harsh when it comes
to the act. After all, investor confidence has reached low depths—
something SOX was supposed to
raise.
There have been calls for further reform of SOX, from very
knowledgeable people.
“By rushing SOX into law,”
wrote UCLA Law Professor and
SOX expert Stephen M. Bainbridge in his book, The Complete Guide to Sarbanes-Oxley,
“Congress and President Bush
sacrificed the American economy
at the altar of short-term political
gain. It’s time for them to go back
and grant the SEC clear authority to provide carefully crafted
regulatory relief, especially for the
small firms that have disproportionately suffered from the unanticipated costs of complying with
SOX.”
In an article for The Wall
Street Journal dated Nov. 4, 2008,
billionaire investor and businessman Stephen Schwarzman
wrote, “Until the current crisis,
the American financial services
industry had been the envy of
the world for its creativity and
nimbleness. We must not create
a new system of regulation that
throttles innovation through the
ever-increasing complexity of its
rules. Sarbanes-Oxley has made
a fetish of compliance with complex regulations as a substitute
for good judgment. This has not
made American corporations any
more stable or profitable, but it
has damaged our competitiveness and weakened our domestic
financial markets.”
There are, of course, advocates of SOX who think its overall influence is positive.
“There was a call in a lot of
circles for the whole thing to also
apply to nonprofits and associations,” said Joshua Grimes,
a Philadelphia and Washington,
D.C.-based attorney who is considered an authority on SOX and
its meeting and events industry
impact.
Perhaps SOX would be more
effective if its application was
broader and its guidelines stricter.
Yet, SOX was scaled back, which
begs the question, is the SEC
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taking SOX in the wrong direction?
“In sum, Sarbanes-Oxley has done much to improve
corporate governance, but the costs have been high,”
Bainbridge wrote in the last chapter of his book.
SOX has done some good and some bad. Some people like it, some people don’t. This is the give and take
that is Sarbanes-Oxley. You don’t have to love it, but you
have to learn to live with it and in the current climate it is
even more important to stay abreast of its evolution (or
devolution).
WHERE IT’S AT
Business professionals working for public companies are
directly affected by SOX, and those who work for themselves or for private companies are indirectly affected,
whether they realize it or not.
Passed in 2002, in the aftermath of the Enron, WorldCom and Tyco scandals, SOX—officially titled the Public
Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act—primarily regulates accounting and auditing procedures and only
applies to public companies; it tells companies how financial information offered to the public must be compiled.
Yet, despite auspicious beginnings, SOX has always
been controversial.
Most everyone seems to agree that SOX has burdened
businesses more than expected, leading lawmakers to
acknowledge the burdens and, in subsequent years, alter
the act.
“The business community, the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) and even Congress are waking up to
a basic fact: SOX is costing us a lot more than anybody
anticipated,” Bainbridge wrote. “Having legislated in
haste, Congress is now repenting at leisure.”
Lame Proposals
To alleviate the burdens of SOX, the SEC has since scaled
back the legislation. The changes that are the most significant, and the most relevant to meeting professionals, were
to Section 404, the most dreaded requirement of SOX.
To comply with this section, company managers and
external auditors must assess the company’s internal control over financial reporting. This requires more than just
disclosure. Managers and auditors need to thoroughly
examine the company’s procedures each year to make this
disclosure, resulting in a significant expense for businesses.
In fact, Bainbridge wrote of a 2003 USA Today article in
which two CEOs estimated “that their companies would
spend 20,000 staff hours to comply with Section 404, which is the
equivalent of 10 people working
full-time for a year.”
Section 404 has since undergone several transformations,
with the present version taking
shape in 2006.
In May 2006, the SEC proposed several modest changes to
SOX. One change would extend
the compliance deadline for small
companies (market values under
US$75 million) to fiscal years
beginning on or after Dec. 16,
2006. Another change would
amend the auditing standards
to provide new guidance to Section 404.
Bainbridge
called
these
changes “surprisingly lame” and
wrote that the SEC took a narrow and trivial approach to the
problem.
In August 2006, three months
after proposing these small steps
in SOX reform, the SEC proposed bigger strides in the form
of two changes, both of which it
adopted in December 2006. The
first change gave small companies a longer extension to become
SOX compliant, until fiscal years
ending on or after Dec. 15, 2008.
(In June 2008, the SEC extended
this deadline for the fifth time,
to Dec. 15, 2009.) The second
change exempted newly public
companies from SOX until they
file a second annual report with
the SEC.
In December 2006, in addition
to these two changes, the SEC
issued the guidelines to Section
404 that it promised in May. The
guidelines gave company managers more discretion, telling them
to use a “reasonable basis” for
their annual assessments. Instead
of examining every transaction
for financial fraud, managers
could conduct a risk assessment
first and then target audits in
high-risk areas.
The new guidelines were arguably useless.
“Terms like ‘reasonable’ and
‘material’ are standards, which
by their very nature fail to offer
brightlines between lawful and
unlawful consequence,” Bain-
“I DON’T THINK
THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF
ENFORCEMENT OF SOX
IN THE MEETING AND
EVENTS INDUSTRY.
IT’S MORE THE THREAT
OF ENFORCEMENT.”
bridge wrote. “The company and
its management cannot be certain
that they’ve fully complied with
Section 404 until the SEC or a
court decides that they’ve done
so. It therefore seems doubtful
whether the new guidelines will
actually result in significant cost
savings.”
On the other hand, Grimes
thinks “reasonable” is a great
standard for meeting professionals. He said the question is whether
a decision is reasonable under the
particular circumstances.
“For instance, if you’re doing
a sales trip and you want to
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FEATURE - SOX_alt.indd 71
71
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attract customers, you probably
need to do it with a certain level
of amenities,” he explained. “If
you’re having an internal corporate meeting—where people have
to show up—you probably need
something a little less.”
Actual Change
In July 2007, the SEC issued better
guidance to Section 404, Auditing Standard No. 5, and, like
Chanel perfume, No. 5 seemed to
stick. SEC Chairman Christopher
Cox called No. 5 “an exception-
“PEOPLE THINK IT’S A
PAIN IN THE NECK IF
THEY’RE THE ONES WHO
HAVE TO COMPLY WITH
ALL THESE RULES.”
ally positive step for both investors and for America’s capital
markets.”
Auditing Standard No. 5 is
less than half the length of the
previous SOX auditing standard
and is easier to read. It is also far
more lenient than original SOX
legislation and incorporates ideas
from the SEC and the committee’s
previous proposals.
The SEC outlined four major
ways that No. 5 improves the
SOX auditing process.
No. 5 makes the auditing process scalable to fit the size and
complexity of any company. For
example, the auditor can reduce
the amount of internal control
testing for audits of smaller and
less complex companies.
No. 5 tells auditors to focus
on high-risk areas. It also allows
auditors to use data from previous
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disadvantage compared to independent planners and
those who worked for companies not within SOX. In its
new auditing requirements, the SEC has partially resolved
this inequity imposed on the meeting and events industry.
SOX mostly affects meeting professionals indirectly,
and these effects remain. Yet, it has also raised business
standards in the meeting and events industry—Grimes
says SOX standards have become best practices. Contracts have become longer; every aspect of a business deal
is documented more as people protect themselves from
liability.
“I don’t think there’s been a lot of enforcement of
SOX in the meeting and events industry,” Grimes said.
“It’s more the threat of enforcement. ‘This is what we
have to do because of SOX,’ and most companies say,
‘we’re not going to take any chances. We don’t want to
be put in a position where we’re going to hire someone
who’s not qualified because they’re related to somebody,
or we’re going to spend too much money on this contract
without getting bids.’ It’s just not worth it to companies
anymore.”
The influence of SOX in the meeting and events industry, which is in part a forced paranoia to avoid Enronesque scandals, will not disappear with the new SOX standards. It is likely that over time, the scaling back of SOX
will pulse relaxed standards through the industry.
That is not to say that relaxed standards are preferred.
“People think it’s a pain in the neck if they’re the ones
Changes in Practice who have to comply with all these rules,” Grimes said.
Even with most of the 2002 SOX “But from the outside, I think it’s a good thing because it
legislation still unchanged, the really makes the process and operations of these companew, leaner Section 404 does nies much more transparent.”
relieve the burden for some meeting professionals. By relaxing the INTERNATIONAL SOX
auditing standards, the SEC less- SOX is a significant component of an entire legislative
ened a SOX handicap placed on movement towards transparency in internal organizameeting professionals who work tional controls. A look at four of the most significant SOX
for public companies.
equivalents—and their current legal standing—brings this
Before the changes, public movement into focus.
companies’ in-house planners
and procurement officers had to South Africa’s King II
get multiple bids to justify spend- South Africans were at the forefront of the Sarbanesing. To comply with Section 404, Oxley movement. In 1994, a committee led by South
public companies had to set up Africa Supreme Court Judge Mervyn King published the
a third-party auditing system to King Report on Corporate Governance (King I).
verify spending and a plan for
Groundbreaking in 1994, King I lost its relevancy in
corporate managers to monitor 2002 when King II was born from corporate failures of
spending at all times.
U.S. and South African companies. SOX and King II have
This extra work ate up in- the same purpose, but their means are quite different.
house planners’ time and projKing II deviates from a singular focus on shareholders’
ect budgets, putting them at a
C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 9 4
years’ audits to reduce testing.
This eliminates unnecessary procedures from the audit.
No. 5 is less prescriptive. The
mandatory requirements (i.e.,
the “shoulds”) have been greatly
reduced so the auditor can focus
on testing the areas deemed
necessary.
No. 5 allows auditors to use
professional judgment to incorporate the work of others. Previously, the act required internal
auditors to conduct the entire
process themselves.
Despite the SEC’s touting of
Auditing Standard No. 5, there
were immediate criticisms by
the outside business community. Before the SEC even voted
to approve it, NASDAQ Stock
Market Inc. released a statement
saying the standard, “has not
provided the needed clarity or the
tools to alleviate the root cause of
unnecessarily onerous and costly
auditing processes.”
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0109_073.indd 73
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T
e
b
t
i
t
Le
N
U
F
ppiness
a
h
d
n
a
t
s
r
e
d
n
a search to u
n
o
t
u
o
t
e
s
in
b
Ru
g the way.
n
lo
a
fe
li
r
e
Why Gretchen
h
t
learned abou
e
h
s
t
a
h
w
d
n
a
SCHNUER
BY JENNA
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FEATURE - Rubin Profile.indd 74
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sary. Actually, it’s overkill. With two daughters,
3 and 9, it would be understandable—and, even,
expected—for author Gretchen Rubin’s living
room to be littered with plastic ponies and school
backpacks. Instead, the coffee table is out of
place. That’s pretty much the extent of the mess.
And, on this traditionally frenetic day before the
U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, Rubin, who has just
returned to her apartment in time for the
interview, looks more put together than
most people do on their best mornings.
The apology is the first sign that Rubin,
43, has a bit of a perfectionist streak, that
she considers everything. But it also becomes
clear that the apology is as much a clue to
Rubin’s warmth and generosity. Of ideas. Of
discussion. Of making sure that a guest in
her home feels welcome and comfortable.
Considering Rubin’s current book project is about happiness, it’s all rather perfect.
Spending time with her is really a great joy.
Rubin latched onto happiness while riding the M79 bus across Manhattan.
“I have these moments of epiphany
which, I realize, makes me sound like I’m
very dramatic but I’m not,” Rubin says. “It
was raining, and I was looking out the window. And I thought, ‘What do I need from
life anyway?’ I was thinking, ‘What do I
want?’ I want to be happy. I realized I never
think about happiness even though I say it’s
my big priority. I never think about what
would make me happy or how I could be
happier or even what it means to be happy. I
thought I should have a happiness project.”
Within minutes her analytical nature
pushed the idea forward.
N
FEATURE - Rubin Profile.indd 75
“I’m very planned out and plotted out,”
she says. “And then I thought I could write
a book about the happiness project. I could
see the whole thing and how it would all
come together.”
She continued to shape the idea while
finishing her fourth book, Forty Ways to
Look at JFK: “I went through many evolutions of my thinking.”
In the past, Rubin immersed herself in
her book topics by reading anything and
everything she could dredge up on the subject. Much of the wall space in her living
room is devoted to built-in bookshelves that
are neatly—though tightly—packed. But,
for the book she’s working on now, Rubin
has turned to an additional source of material: her own life. For The Happiness Project, due out in late 2009 by HarperCollins,
Rubin spent a year “test-driving every principle, tip, theory and scientific study” she
could find about the quest for happiness.
Over the last three years, Rubin’s work
on the project and her life have become
completely intertwined. And that’s a good
thing.
Even if she learned nothing else along the
way—but how much she’s learned!—Rubin
makes it clear that 19th-century British
WHY HAPPY WORKS AT WORK
T
The apology for the mess is by no means neces-
Every office has at
least one griper. But have
you ever noticed that the
griping tends to spread?
“There’s something
called emotional contagion
where people catch
emotions from one
another,” Gretchen Rubin
says. “The thing that’s
too bad is that negative
emotions are more
catching than positive
emotions.”
It’s better to steer
clear of work complaints
as much as possible.
By working to stay on
the positive side of the
equation at work, there’s a
good chance you’ll reap big
benefits on three fronts.
1) “Happier people
tend to be more helpful,”
Rubin says. “They’re more
cooperative. They’re more
eager to share information.
As a consequence,
people are more eager
to help them because of
reciprocity.”
2) Happier people
tend to come across as
more energetic. One study
showed that high-energy
types get better marks
on performance reviews
because they’re “going
to be perceived to be
more efficient and more
capable.”
3) It’s a common
misperception that people
tend to act out on the way
they’re feeling. Rubin says
the reality is that “you
often feel [a certain way]
because of the way you act
so if you’re acting irritated
or you talk trash about
somebody it will tend to
intensify your feelings.”
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HAPPINESS DEFINED?
Though Gretchen Rubin
spends more time than
most thinking about this
happiness thing, she says
there’s no reason for her
to set a definition of it in
stone (or in her book or on
her blog).
“There are, at last
count, 14 different
academic terms for
happiness,” Rubin says.
“You can get yourself
all tangled. I spent a
semester in law school
talking about ‘what is a
contract?’ I knew that was
the highway to hell. What
I decided was that it’s not
important to arrive at an
exact definition of it for my
purposes. Your happiness
might be different from my
happiness but it’s about
having more of it in your
life.”
HAPPINESS DURING TOUGH TIMES
If concerns over the
current economic climate
make the quest for
happiness sound like an
unnecessary luxury (or
just flat-out impossible),
consider a new approach.
Between reading up on
the science of happiness
and her own experiments,
author Gretchen Rubin is
a firm believer that “one
of the best ways to make
yourself happy is to make
other people happy.” And
you don’t have to spend a
dime to do it.
“If you can’t give money
give time,” she says. “If you
give, you remind yourself
that you’re not so in need.
[Ask yourself,] ‘What can I
do within my own nature?’
Trying to be generous in
whatever form it would
take is a way to comfort
yourself when you feel that
things have been taken
from you.”
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philosopher John Stuart Mill’s statement, “Ask
yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to
be so,” is as far from the truth of happiness as you
can get. With every sentence she offers up about
the ways the happiness project has expanded
and enriched her life, the author glows just a bit
brighter.
Breaking Away
Rubin credits that rainy day cross-town bus
ride as the birth date for The Happiness Project,
but it really started much earlier. A 1994 graduate of Yale Law School (where she was editorin-chief of the Yale Law Journal), it would have
been a safe bet to count on Rubin having a long
and high-powered career in law. Her father was a
successful and happy lawyer back in Kansas City,
Mo., and, well, Rubin’s first post-degree job was
as a clerk for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Sandra Day O’Connor. Not a shabby start. It was
the next step that tripped her up. She realized she
just wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, “which is
kind of a bad sign.” She could have played it safe
and stayed with law but, as she has learned, success can be a trap.
“People can be good at things that aren’t really
the highest and best use of their time,” she says.
Around that time, Rubin visited a friend who
was in graduate school for education.
“She was reading all these dry books about
education. I said something very dismissively like,
‘Is this what you have to read for your program?’
She said, ‘Yeah, but that’s the kind of stuff I read
anyway.’”
Cue the light bulb.
“That’s when I realized I was surrounded by all
these people who loved law. They talked about law
on their lunch hours. They read law journals for
fun. They were totally into it,” she says. “I [spent
just what time] I needed to do to do my job well
and not one minute more.”
While her friends were soaking up the law journals, Rubin spent her spare time writing a book
exploring power, money, fame and sex.
“I was doing it as a hobby,” she says.
Rubin ended up taking one more law-related
job, at the Federal Communications Commission,
before she and her husband (whom she met in law
school) decided to leave their legal careers behind
and move to his hometown, New York City.
After the move she bought a book about how
to sell a book proposal “and switched to being a
full-time writer.” She published Power Money
Fame Sex: A User’s Guide in 2001.
So, years before she took that bus ride, she had
already practiced one of the essential elements of
happiness: stay true to your nature. Nowadays,
she sums it up in the first of the 12 commandments she has developed for her own happiness:
Be Gretchen.
Get in on the Project
No, there isn’t a precise recipe for happiness.
Instead, Rubin offers up a basic framework of four
elements essential for a happy life: 1) Make sure
you have “enough feeling good” in your life, 2)
know what makes you feel bad, 3) know that you
are living the life that feels right for you, 4) develop
an atmosphere of growth.
“You need positive change,” she says.
Think of it as though you’re choosing a location for a regular client’s annual event. You’ll need
a place that fits the needs of the group. You don’t
want a room that’s too cramped or loud for the
“One of the findings of the
science of happiness is
that novelty and challenge
bring happiness.”
meeting. You choose a location that fits the personality of the group. And, to really make the event
shine, you find a place that excites and inspires the
participants.
“One of the findings of the science of happiness—and it’s certainly buttressed by the philosophers of happiness from the past—is that novelty
and challenge bring happiness,” Rubin says. “Part
of it is that you get the feeling of mastery and
part of it is that when your brain is forced to do
something new you have a more intense emotional
experience.”
Trying something new is also one of the best
tools around to stop life from just speeding on by.
“When something new happens, time slows
down,” Rubin says. “You think that time is
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MeetDifferent
®
in the New Economy
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Innovative
Strategies
to Facilitate
Professional
Success
BY DALIA FAHMY
It’s not pretty out there. As the economy
grinds to a crawl and companies slash more
meetings, planners are fighting aggressively
for every shred of business. Yet, David
DuBois, CMP, CAE, is optimistic. The head
of the Forth Worth CVB recently launched
an initiative that he hopes will boost revenue this year by US$2 million. The “Meal
Deal,” as it’s known, offers clients who sign
up for a meeting in 2009 an entire food and
beverage function free of charge.
“It’s a buyer’s market,” said DuBois,
explaining how the CVB will foot the bill
for a breakfast, coffee break, lunch or dinner, depending on how many room nights
the client books. “If we go up against our
good friends in Austin for a piece of business and the rates are pretty close, the ‘Meal
Deal’ program could make the difference
between us getting the business
instead of Austin.”
With the global economy
sunk in a massive recession,
meeting planners are bracing for the toughest financial
downturn of their careers. In
times like these, innovative business strategies are especially important, and they can
help with everything from attracting profitable business to growing contact networks.
“The people who will come out of this
glowing are the ones who can find opportunity amid the adversity,” said Brooke Bode,
MPI’s director of knowledge management.
“As an industry we need to band together
and figure out how we can come out of this
not just surviving but thriving.”
And at MPI’s MeetDifferent conference
in Atlanta, Feb. 7-10, the economic crisis is
being targeted head-on, offering attendees
cutting-edge strategies to help grow their
businesses and advance their careers. The
result is a complete four-day tutorial on
how to get through this economic storm,
not just intact, but with a stack of deals in
hand.
How to Thrive in Tough Times
“It’s easy to become a victim, but you have
to find ways to affect what’s happening
around you,” said Bonnie Wallsh, CMP,
CMM, founder of meeting planning firm
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FEATURE - MeetDifferent.indd 79
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Now Playing at
“Speed Networking: Expand Your Connections,” presented by Eli Gorin
Your ROI: Develop new clients and contacts immediately at a single session…
and share the story of your role in the
global meeting and events industry.
“Strategic Tips for Increasing Profitable
Business in a Tumultuous Environment,”
presented by David DuBois, CMP, CAE,
and Bonnie Wallsh, CMP, CMM
Your ROI: Learn how to fulfill the needs
of even the most challenging clients
and transform enhanced professional
relationships into profitable business
practices.
“Mastering Your Mingle-Ability: How
to Improve Your Community Networking Skills,” presented by Jacqueline
Whitmore
Your ROI: Hone your in-person networking skills to identify the people you need
to meet and those that may just be wasting your time.
“Free & Low-Cost Tools for a Tight Economy,” presented by Cris Canning, CMP
Your ROI: Learn how to apply next-generation marketing tools, such as blogs,
e-zines and social networking sites, to
boost the reputation of your business.
“Using LinkedIn/Facebook for Business
Networking and Career Development”
and “Social Networking Open Lab,”
presented by Patrick O’Malley
Your ROI: Get hands-on experience
and practical tips on how to best utilize
online social media.
“Crossing the Generational Divide:
Making the Four Generations in Your
Workplace An Economic Advantage”
and “Gen Y and Your Meeting: How to
Attract, Engage and Maintain Gen Y
Participation at Your Meetings—Even in
a Tight Economy,” presented by Jason
Ryan Dorsey
Your ROI: Learn to identify the key needs
and best methods to communicate with
all of the generations currently working in the global meeting and events
industry.
MeetDifferent will also see the release of valuable industry-specific
research. The MPI Foundation and George P. Johnson will announce the
North American study results for EventView 2009. Funded by the MPI
Foundation, EventView is the longest-running research series specifically
serving senior marketing executives, providing the data and context necessary to anticipate event trends and capitalize on where the marketing
world is headed. And FutureWatch 2009, the annual industry survey produced by MPI in partnership with American Express, will also be released
at MeetDifferent and published with One+.
Bonnie Wallsh Associates.
No. 1 on the agenda is increasing profitable business. Because when the need for
every meeting is being questioned by potential hosts, attendees and sometimes even the
media, it’s more important than ever to make
sure the business that comes in counts.
Financial incentives, such as the “Meal
Deal,” work well. And DuBois and Wallsh
are among the speakers scheduled to present
at MeetDifferent on the wide variety of topics
that can help attendees compete more effectively for profitable business.
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Another tactic to enhance professional
success is to offer more value for the money,
experts say. Gail Bower, a meeting planner
and consultant who helped plan former U.S.
President Bill Clinton’s inauguration and
regularly works on the Newport (R.I.) Folk
Festival, points out three often neglected
areas: sponsorship deals, exhibitor packages
and VIP services. By customizing offerings in
these three areas, meeting planners not only
distinguish themselves from the competition and help justify the value of their meetings, but they also create the opportunity for
up-selling.
“One size does not fit all,” Bower said.
“If an event has a high-value corporate sponsorship program that offers its corporate
partners a significant return on investment,
corporate sponsors are still going to purchase
because it’s a marketing vehicle.”
Instead of asking sponsors to fill out
generic forms, she recommends building a
close relationship with them, figuring out their
marketing needs for the year and tailoring a
deal that helps them meet these objectives.
“Exhibitors have varying degrees of capabilities, interests and budgets,” Bower said.
“Why not offer different packages so exhibitors can purchase at the level they’re interested in?”
The draw of customized packages also
applies to attendees. Bower, who has helped
organize the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage
Festival for over a decade, says VIP packages
help to boost revenue. Last year, the festival
sold out its limited supply of Big Chief VIP
Experience tickets offering an air-conditioned
lounge, snacks and soft drinks, full-service
restrooms and private viewing areas. The
added comforts—priced at a hefty $750
per weekend compared to the standard tag
of $120—even helped attract visitors who
might otherwise shy from a hot and crowded
New Orleans race track, says Bower.
Of course, none of these strategies work
if you don’t draw attention to them. Effective
marketing is crucial in this economy, and if
you think you don’t have enough money for
marketing, think again.
“There may not be room in the budget
for more traditional, costly things like printed
fancy four-color brochures,” said Cris Canning, CMP, head instigator for Hospitality
Ink and director of sales and marketing for
The Venues at NTC Promenade. “But there
are marketing tools on the Internet that are
low-cost or free.”
Starting a blog, for example, not only
boosts your online presence by creating a
public platform on which to present ideas
and services, but also lifts your search engine
ranking, she points out. Social networking
sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn let you
mingle virtually with clients and colleagues,
meet new people who might be interested in
your services and obtain recommendations
from those who already know you.
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“A lot of people are resisting some of the
social media, thinking it’s all kids,” she said.
“Well, it’s not.”
In fact, sites such as Facebook have
become perfectly acceptable business tools.
Canning raises a point that often comes
up in discussions about doing business these
days: Different age groups do their work in
very different ways.
This is the first time in history that four
generations have found themselves in the
same workforce.
Usually, these generational gaps are seen
as a liability, or at best, a drag to deal with.
However, a growing number of business
experts, such as MeetDifferent Presenter
Jason Ryan Dorsey—the self-proclaimed
“Gen Y Guy”—believe a multi-generational
workforce can be turned into an economic
advantage if it’s managed right.
“When you bridge generations, you will
see specific outcomes,” Dorsey said. “You
should see higher retention, higher productivity and better teamwork and innovation.”
He points out that offering customized
incentives to staff members from different
generations, for example, will help motivate
employees better than a generic corporate
gift.
Consultants such as Dorsey say meeting
planners have plenty to learn about generational issues, and add that with some understanding, you can use your age diversity to
your advantage.
For starters, make sure your project teams
are generationally diverse, says Lynne Lancaster, co-founder of consulting firm BridgeWorks and co-author of When Generations
Collide.
“If you have a big client, you might say
‘let’s put all our top Baby Boomers on this
account because they have been around the
longest.’ But that’s not the way to look at it.
You get more perspective by having a multigenerational team,” Lancaster said.
Plus, your client is likely to have several
generations on his workforce, and they will
relate better to you if they can identify with
your representatives.
Perhaps more importantly, having several
generations planning one meeting will help
you incorporate elements into the event that
appeal to people of different ages. Instead of
PowerPoint presentations, your younger staff
members might help you introduce more
interactive screens or even hand-held voting
devices. And seeking input from your Baby
Boomers about food and beverages might
help you avoid menus that are too experimental for many taste buds.
“By bridging the generations you’re going
to be able to do more with fewer resources,”
Dorsey said. “Bridging the generations actually saves you money.”
With such impactful bottom-line and savings issues of increasing importance, MeetDifferent will provide actionable solutions
to attendees to help ensure a healthy global
meeting and events industry.
DALIA FAHMY is a freelance business and
financial writer based in New York.
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PENNY
PINCHING
PLANNING
TIPS
Steal
these
ideas to
save big
bucks
on your
next
event.
BY GWEN MORAN
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MEETING AND EVENT planners, like almost any business people,
are carefully watching spending, and
we all know the same old tips. Negotiate. Hold events in inexpensive cities
and at off-peak times. Look for deals
on everything. However, it’s still not
enough.
Before budget cuts leave you swiping paper towels from the bathroom to
use as dinner napkins, we’ve scouted
out some fresh ideas for saving money
on your next event. Of course, depending on your client or company, your
location, the type of event, the type
of facility and other factors, not every
tip will be appropriate for every situation. (And you should check with your
facility manager before you do something like bring in workers who might
violate your agreement.) However,
a savvy planner knows that a penny
saved is…well, it’s a penny. But when
you start saving hundreds or thousands of dollars, you’ve got a happy
company or client on your hands.
When you’re looking for savings
opportunities at your next meeting
or event, be creative. Map out
every step and brainstorm
with your team. Ask
yourselves: How can
it be done less expensively? How can costs be
cut without sacrificing quality?
“It can be tough to save,” said
Derek Jenks, director of operations
for Meetings Management Group in
McLean, Va. “You have to distinguish
between what’s cookie cutter and
what’s cutting edge.”
Almost every meeting has places
where it can economize—the key is to
search out the savings and be bold in
making changes.
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SPACE SAVERS
GO GREEN
REPURPOSING
Some employees might threaten to quit if
sent out in search of discarded items. But
when Sarah Brand, principal of Seattlebased meeting planning firm SKB Solutions,
sent her assistant on a real-life scavenger
hunt, it was a day at the beach. Brand’s
employee went oceanside to find shells
and driftwood the company could use as
centerpieces and other decorations for a
corporate barbeque. The found items were
free and saved her client hundreds of dollars
on expensive table decor, Brand says.
Brand also scours thrift stores for
couches (typically about US$15) that she
carts in to empty-space venues to create
lounge areas, saving on furniture rental
costs. Mismatched plates are also a favorite
of hers, and she’s been known to bring in
her flea market and thrift shop tableware
finds to create pretty settings that aren’t all
“matchy-matchy,” saving the cost of renting
china, glassware and flatware.
The green movement offers
timely and significant opportunities to save money,
Brand says. First, forego
favors, or brand the glassware your attendees use
and use that as a favor.
“Use a simple card or
announcement to let people
know that you are reducing
the carbon footprint of the
event and making better
use of resources by not giving them small trinkets or
swag bags full of unneeded
products,” Brand said. “This
buys goodwill and saves
money.”
Also, ditch the bottled
water in favor of tap in
pitchers or coolers, reducing plastic waste and cost.
ou can also
Brand says you
ation costs by
cut transportation
arranging for shuttles to
determined
depart at predetermined
times instead of arrangual
ing for individual
n—
transportation—
me
also in the name
n.
of being green.
Depending on the type of event, you may
want to make “cheap” part of the theme,
Brand suggests. If they’re in good condition,
vacant warehouses and office buildings can
make industrial chic meeting and event locations. Instead of spending money on carpeting and wall draping, she recommends using
projectors to flash fun or themed images on
the walls or floors, saving hundreds or more
depending on the size of the space. If it’s
allowed, painting the floor or adding removable decals can also be a fun and inexpensive way to spruce up the space underfoot.
Event Coordinator Jill Garner of Toronto’s
Gatherings Event Planning suggests looking for bargains with municipally owned
properties.
“Municipal offices in downtown Toronto
offer free spaces,” Garner said. “There are
also open spaces, like parks, that have really
low-cost or free options. Depending on the
type of meeting you’re holding, you can really
save a lot of money.”
Garner planned an event for 30 people
in a space many wouldn’t think of: a local
condo association’s community room. The
room was pretty, and she saved her client
US$1,500 by not going to a restaurant.
Look for savings opportunities on site
at traditional venues. Research the events
that will be there immediately before you and
see if they will leave carpeting and draping
for your event. You’ll still incur a charge,
but it could be a fraction of what you would
pay if you were ordering it for yourself,
especially if you’re working in a facility where
unionized labor is required, Jenks says. He
also suggests coordinating delivery times—
audiovisual equipment, decor, etc.—in union
facilities, especially if they have two-person
and four-hour minimums.
Using that strat
stratlabo
egy to maximize labor
h
costs saved one of his
clients $50,000 on a
$500,000 conventi
convention.
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BYO
The more you can do in-house the
he
more you can save, typically.
Jenks recommends printing
small quantities of badges,
table cards and the like
in-house. For larger jobs that
will take up too much valuable
employee time, use local printers, who can often deliver more
n
quickly and less expensively than
even Internet printing companies that need to charge for
shipping.
Another great area of
bring-your-own savings is to
use your own sound system,
he says.
mium
“Many venues charge a premium
for patching into house sound,” Jenks said
said.
“This can become necessary if you have
video, music or any other items that require
amplification. Often a small speaker system
or a sound box will suffice and be cheaper
than patching into house sound and paying
for a board and board operator.”
That could mean hundreds or thousands
in savings, even if you have to rent house
microphones.
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BACK TO SCHOOL
CHOW DOWN
Saving money on food
can be tricky. Chips and
salsa probably aren’t
going to cut it. To make
less food look like more,
Garner likes using
Japanese Bento boxes,
which can be used for
more than just raw fish
and rice.
“They’re smaller and
pretty and when you put
food in them, it looks
amazing and looks like
more than it would on a
plate,” Garner said.
Getting away with
smaller portions can
save on your catering bill—as can boxed
lunches, which can cost
as much as US$25 per
head less than catered
food. One of Garner’s
favorite inexpensive
snacks is popcorn, which
she says smells great,
“makes people happy and
gets them talking.”
If you do need to
shell out for expensive
grub, practice portion
control and put the
food in a place you want
to draw traffic, Jenks
says. He also advises
checking with the food
and beverage staff,
audiovisual provider and
other vendors to see if
you can piggyback on
events held at the same
time as yours. Ordering
the same menu choices
or using similar facilities,
supplies or services may
let you cash in on volume
savings.
Students are one of the best-kept secrets
of meeting savings. Brand recently hired a
local college’s choral club to entertain at a
corporate holiday party.
“Many college music departments are
very good and very professional,” Brand
said.
While she was looking at a cost of
between US$1,500 and $2,500 for a professional choral group, the students received
$500 and a good meal. She has also hired
local college communications departments
to handle audiovisual. The only caveat is
making sure the students are responsible
and show up when scheduled, she says,
even though she’s not yet encountered that
problem.
Brand also suggests turning to local
culinary schools for gourmet food on a
shoestring. While they may be trade schools
or part of local colleges or universities, they
have one thing in common: The students
need experience serving large groups, and
booking a meal from the culinary school can
be significantly less expensive than a professional caterer. At a charity fundraiser, Brand
turned the culinary school contributions into
a revenue stream by having the students
create an extravagant dessert (sufficient
sweets for 10 people) for each table. The
group at each table then bid on the desserts. The money the cakes raised took a
bite out of the cost of the event.
Schools often have facilities that can be
rented inexpensively, not to mention a proliferation of students who need cappuccino
money and who can be hired for everything
from staffing registration tables to serving
hors d’oeuvres, depending on the event
venue.
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BACKYARD SAVINGS
Look for savings in your own backyard by hiring local
entertainment and keynote speakers, says Sharon Reinhart of the Gatlinburg (Tenn.) Department of Tourism
and Convention Center. That
saves on travel and per diem
costs for out-of-town talent.
Speaker Kare Anderson
of Say It Better in Sausalito,
Calif., adds that you can
have speakers do double- or
triple-duty by having them
deliver the keynote, speak
in a workshop or on a panel
and provide a door prize or
giveaway, such as a signed
book or an hour of consulting time.
Anderson also suggests polling attendees on their
favorite books. If your event has more than 100 attendees, contact the publishers for free copies of the top
five to promote at the event. Give them away as prizes.
You may also ask local participants to commute
instead of putting them up at the hotel, and offer them
a lower-cost perk in exchange for the inconvenience.
(Although most would probably prefer to sleep in their
own beds anyway.)
GWEN MORAN is a freelance writer based in New
NET SAVINGS
Several online tools can help you
and your clients save money. Here
are a few that can help you find
additional cash.
FreeMeetingPlanner.
com. A free meeting
planning Web site that
tracks responses and
meeting details. The catch
(there always is a catch)
is that it’s a product sales
site. You order customized
promotional products,
which they fulfill and ship,
guaranteeing delivery
at your event. However,
product orders are not
required in order to use
the site.
Yapta.com. Lets travelers
find flights, track airfare
prices and receive e-mail
alerts when their flight
prices drop. The site
continues to track the price
of flights even after you’ve
purchased tickets. If the
price continues to drop,
you may be eligible for or
able to negotiate a travel
voucher from your airline.
Since the launch of Yapta
in May 2007, the free
site has reportedly saved
subscribers more than
US$77 million. One wedding
planner saved her party
$2,500 in airfare.
Zilok.com. An online
rental marketplace where
businesses and individuals
offer temporary use of
everything from meeting
venues to furniture to
catering. If you have
meetings-related equipment,
you can also rent it out
through Zilok to get a little
rental ROI. Your business
can create a listing or
search for items needed for
your next event.
Jersey.
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C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 6 8
Hensley, CHA, director of sales and marketing, notes that when a tornado ripped
through Atlanta during a college basketball
game last March, the town was obliged
to take care of thousands of visitors while
simultaneously trying to make alternative
arrangements for a major volleyball tournament that was scheduled to take place a few
days later.
“We were fortunate that our hotel was
one of the few downtown that suffered no
damage,” he said. “We took people in from
other hotels, gave back a rebate on the rooms
by way of a check we wrote to the Atlanta
CVB and asked our construction team if they
At the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Keith could speed up the renovations that we’d been
have “sounded a death knell for the industry,” which is already suffering from a 20
percent decrease in international visitors.
He predicted Mumbai could suffer the
greatest, with up to a 40 percent drop in
tourist arrivals.
In a recent survey conducted by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, 48
percent of respondents who regularly do business in the region said they were holding off
on travel to India until the situation becomes
more stable—7 percent were stopping travel
to India entirely.
Good Neighbors
After Disaster Feature_B.indd 90
undergoing before the tornado hit. They completed work on our ballroom six weeks early,
and thus we were able to take in a group that
had been booked at the Omni Atlanta Hotel,
which had been badly damaged.
“Over the next few weeks, we accepted
some deals that were not to our advantage—
but our objective was to help the city get back
on its feet and keep people coming in.”
It Takes a Nation
Sometimes, entire countries are affected by a
disaster—particularly in Asia, because of its
population density. William Kuipers, managing director of B-Concept Media Entertainment Group Co. Ltd. in Bangkok, relates
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how the tsunami of 2004 temporarily halted
the meeting and events industry in Thailand.
“Bangkok was totally down,” he recalled.
“Hotels cancelled all in-house events and
some international meetings had to be cancelled or postponed.”
But various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) pitched in, Kuipers says, to
coordinate rescue, reclamation and cleanup
efforts. The various national embassies were
centralized at Government House Bangkok,
at help desks, for fast communications with
their respective nationals. The deceased
were quickly taken to various temples for
identification.
“NGOs also set up a volunteer center that
helped with database input, aided people
who were looking for family members and
conducted other social outreach; this was
taken over by the government after a while.”
Kuipers says the Thai government’s PR
machine was particularly effective in getting
the word out that Bangkok was a safe place
for future meetings and, in particular, that
sophisticated alarm systems had been put in
place to provide advanced warning.
“The Thai government did an excellent
job with PR,” he concluded, “but I hope I
never have to take part in rebuilding again.”
As New Orleans’ Stephen Perry implied,
the Sichuan earthquake in China, which damaged the city of Chengdu this past spring, sent
aftershocks throughout the Asian nation’s
MICE market as well. Chengdu, a provincial
city, is not an especially important destination
for international meetings, but the quake was
felt as far away as Beijing and Shanghai, and
China was concerned with a possible negative impact to its international image.
According to Xin Hong, China National
Tourist Office spokeswoman, fast reaction
by the national government reassured potential visitors of the viability of all Chinese
destinations.
“Of course, people were concerned following the earthquake, but our office and
the national government let people know
that there was nothing to worry about,
and the meetings industry wasn’t seriously
affected,” she said. “Chengdu is not a
A
gateway for international flights, so its meetings and exhibitions are mainly for domestic
organizations.”
Still, Perry says that China felt the need
to rebrand internationally following the
earthquake and through the Travel Industry
Association, which is quarterbacking the
project, he’s currently assisting the Chinese
government.
Reflecting on Disasters
The 105-year-old Taj now steps into a different role in Mumbai, some are predicting,
contributing to “disaster tourism.” Already,
self-appointed guides are found in the busy
streets around the property offering up their
own tales of the events—tantalizingly claiming, “Everything you’ve been told about the
attacks was wrong!” And the government
cannot agree on how best to handle this
new kind of attraction. Currently, it’s bothersome to investigative and redevelopment
efforts; in the long run, it will add up to an
important chapter in the history of the city
and the hotel.
In other cases, a disaster can add a sense
of fun and adventure to a destination—if
you wait long enough after the fact. Anchorage, Alaska, is a city known for its imposing
beauty and for its occasional tremors. It was
also home to the most powerful recorded
earthquake in North America, the Good Friday Earthquake of 1964. But Jeanette Anderson Moores, communications and marketing
specialist at the Anchorage CVB, says that
although her office maintains a crisis communications plan and works closely with
the Municipality of Anchorage’s Emergency
Operations Center, the threat of earthquakes
is extremely slight and doesn’t harm Anchorage’s convention business at all.
“Meeting planners don’t consider Anchorage a high-risk city for any disasters,” she
said. “Just recently a group had a small earthquake during their convention here and it was
the highlight of the meeting.”
JOSEPH DOBRIAN is a freelance writer
based in New York.
MICHAEL PINCHERA, associate editor of
One+, contributed to this article.
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C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 7 2
profits and focuses on economic, environmental and social issues. This develop-
ment makes South Africa’s Johannesburg
Securities Exchange unique among the
world’s stock exchanges in regard to promoting social responsibility. For instance,
whereas SOX requires CEOs to vouch
for financial statements, this is not a
legal requirement in King II. King II is a
principles-based approach more than it is
rules-based.
Australia’s CLERP 9
Australia was also ahead of the SOX
curve—its lawmakers passed the
Corporations Act in 2001. The act has
since been revised by nine Corporate
Law Economic Reform Programs
known as the CLERP reforms. The most
recent version is CLERP 9, enacted in
July 2004.
Parts of CLERP 9 mirror SOX. Like
SOX, but unlike King II, CLERP 9
requires corporate managers to sign off
on the accuracy of their companies’ financial reports.
Overall, CLERP 9 is more lenient than
SOX and some scholars and professionals want CLERP 9 to toughen up. Lawmakers have revised CLERP 9, but not
significantly, and not enough to justifiably
make it “CLERP 10.” The changes are
similar to revisions of SOX and mostly
scale back procedural requirements. A
criticism of CLERP 9 is something that
is praised about King II—that CLERP 9
is so merciful that it relies heavily on an
ethical culture and personal integrity that
people will do the right thing.
Canada’s Bill 198
In response to the U.S. corporate turmoil
in 2001 and 2002, Canadians legislated
to secure their markets. In December
2002, they passed the Keeping the Promise for a Strong Economy Act, simply
called Bill 198. Bill 198 is dubbed the
Canadian Sarbanes-Oxley (C-SOX) and
is perhaps best known for its correlation
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to SOX. Yet, only a sliver of Bill 198 pertains Instruments and Exchange Law (FIEL) in
to SOX issues. The bill is mostly a govern- June 2006. FIEL, like SOX, prescribes a company’s internal controls of financial reporting.
ment budget.
Where Bill 198 does overlap with SOX, It also monitors companies’ external dealings.
SOX evolutions are reflected as Canadian In its role as internal controls director, FIEL is
lawmakers took a deliberate “watch and see” referred to as J-SOX.
The financial reporting provisions of FIEL
approach to improve upon SOX. Most notably, Bill 198 omits the old SOX rule requir- closely resemble those of SOX, but they presing external auditor input, which demanded ent different challenges, due to the profesextraneous work for U.S. companies and was sional culture in Japan. Compared to Japan,
abolished. Canadians considered adding the the U.S. has more than 10 times the number
requirement but decided against it in 2006 of qualified accountants. This disparity could
make FIEL easier to enforce among accounafter public objection.
And C-SOX influenced a change in its U.S. tants. However, it also makes it vital to autocounterpart. The Canadian standard for com- mate auditing in Japan. The nation’s shortage
pany managers’ assessment of financial reports of auditors increases the necessity for process
is “reasonable assurance” of their accuracy. In efficiency in the internal audit process and
the U.S., the standard was higher: to reduce software that can support these processes.
risk of mistake to a “remote chance.” U.S.
lawmakers issued guidance in 2007 to emulate HERE TO STAY?
Canada’s “reasonable assurance” standard.
All companies can potentially benefit from
SOX compliance. Bainbridge encourages voluntary compliance to strengthen oversight
Japan’s FIEL
The Japanese were retroactive in their SOX- of independent board members, ensure the
like reform. After enduring their own cor- accuracy of financial statements and promote
porate scandals, they passed the Financial confidence in companies.
FEATURE - SOX_alt.indd 96
And Grimes advises meeting professionals to focus on four things to best make nice
with SOX. First, consider how your actions
appear to an outsider then decide what the
best decision is. Second, disclose information
relevant to decision-making and oversight
duties. Third, make certain that adequate
safeguards are in every contract to justify
decision-making and to prevent possible
issues. Fourth, understand every contractual
provision, particularly obligations to comply
with laws. Complying with SOX is all about
putting things in writing—including conflict
of interest, alcohol and travel policies.
Whether you like it or not, SOX is here to
stay. Six years after its creation, SOX is the
established way to do business in the U.S. and
has ultimately impacted corporate governance
legislation worldwide.
KATHLEEN ZACOZY is an attorney and
freelance journalist based in Austin, Texas.
J. ROBERT BROWN JR., professor of law,
University of Denver Sturm College of Law,
contributed to this story.
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C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 7 6
going to speed up but the first month of a
job is like a year. Or the first three months
with your baby is like a lifetime. That can be
good.”
The key to finding positive change—
whether through a new hobby or a job challenge—is to figure out “what are you intimidated by but secretly attracted to?” She set
out to find her own challenge to test the positive change theory. “I thought, ‘What could
I do that would be novel and challenging?’
People said, ‘Well you can try line dancing’
and I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t want to do that.’
Then my agent suggested a blog.”
This was in 2006 and, at the time, Rubin
was a self-professed luddite. Blogging had
started to take off but it was hardly the widespread rage that it is today.
“I had no idea how these things worked,”
she says. “I didn’t read blogs. But it was reading and writing and creative. It was more the
kind of thing that would appeal to me.”
Basically, blogging had all the hooks that
charged Rubin up—but with a twist. She
launched her blog, www.happiness-project.
com, in March 2006. It quickly became a
favorite activity for the writer. While the book
“is much more coherent, woven together and
analytical,” the blog gives her a home for all
the bits that didn’t fit in.
“The book is deeper but it’s not as wide,”
she says.
Rubin has since become an active member
of the blogging community.
“It’s interesting to have immediate feedback from an audience—especially on something like happiness where people come at it
from different points of view that I couldn’t
have generated on my own, so that’s really
fascinating,” she says. “And I’ve connected
with all these other bloggers who write about
it from their own points of view.”
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The Joy of Barry Manilow
Unfortunately, happy people often take a
hit. They are often perceived as naïve when
held up against crankier counterparts. One
study showed that if people read two book
reviews, one critical and one positive, the critical reviewer gets higher marks for smarts.
“It does bug me because I think it’s very
shortsighted,” Rubin says. “I think it takes
a lot more energy and self-discipline to be
happy.”
While reading for the project, Rubin came
across a prayer by St. Augustine of Hippo
“[that said] something like, ‘dear Jesus, console your sick ones, comfort your dying ones’
and then it says ‘shield your joyous ones.’”
At first, she rejected the notion that the joyous ones needed any help as, well, they were
already happy.
“Then I realized they’re always under
attack and being criticized. They do need to
be shielded.”
Rubin posted a blog entry about it and,
soon enough, some self-described joyous
ones wrote in to say that they didn’t understand why people were always trying to
knock them down.
“I think there is this feeling where people
kind of pride themselves on their irony and
their discernment.”
The joy of joy in action (sans the bad vibes)
became evident to Rubin at a Barry Manilow
concert for a law school friend’s birthday.
“I was so impressed by the fact that she
could be so wholeheartedly enthusiastic
about it,” she says. “There was no irony. It
was not campy. She loved it. I got so into it. I
thought this is so much better than us all sitting around making snarky comments about
Barry Manilow or not even going because we
were so busy making fun of it. Let it be fun.”
Let it be fun.
It’s one of the greatest lessons Rubin has
learned. Though a fan of children’s literature,
Rubin hid her passion.
“It didn’t comport with my idea of myself:
that I was very educated, very sophisticated,
very grown up,” she says. “That I had these
very erudite tastes. Which is true, but then
I also had this taste for children’s literature.
One of the ways I was living a false life was
that when one of the Harry Potter books
came out I didn’t even buy it for like two
weeks. I hadn’t embraced how much I really
loved it.”
The Happiness Project gave her the chance
to bring Potter (and loads of other kid lit) out
into the sun.
“I happened to go out to lunch with
somebody who is this incredibly beautiful,
polished, elegant, dainty, incredibly hardcore,
intimidating literary agent,” Rubin says. “We
were trying to be friends. You know how
when you’re trying to be friends and you
haven’t really figured out how exactly to be
friends? I said something about Stephen King
and I was like ‘ew, maybe she’s too fancy for
Stephen King.’” But the response was a great
surprise. “She said, ‘Well I love Stephen King
but it’s not as good as J.K. Rowling.’ And
all we did was talk about Harry Potter the
whole time.”
Since that lunch meeting, Rubin has
started a children’s literature book club with
nine other now-very-happy, kid-lit-loving
writers, editors and literary agents.
“This is the joy of my life,” she says.
And, once again, she’s beaming.
JENNA SCHNUER is a New York-based
freelance writer.
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Meet Where?
JESSIE STATES
S UB HEAD ?
CONTEST!
Correctly identify this venue and its location and you could win a
(PRODUCT) RED Special Edition iPod Shuffle. Global Fund’s (PRODUCT) RED initiative directs up to 50 percent of gross profits toward
African AIDS programs focusing on the health of women and children. One winner will be randomly selected from all eligible entries.
Submit entries to jhensel@mpiweb.org by Feb.1, and find out the
answer and winner online at www.mpioneplus.org.
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