Business partnerships come in all shapes and sizes. Whether you are a corporate meeting planner, marketing agency, CVB, live event agency, DMC, rental company, entertainment agency, technology provider or social media curator, it has become even more important to create cohesive working relationships to provide the end client or attendee with the best possible meeting or event experience.

For Maureen Sojka, event planner at Creative Marketing Alliance, a full-service marketing agency located in Princeton, New Jersey, establishing these professional relationships provides her with a wealth of knowledge and experience.

“For example, when sourcing a location you have never been to, your best option is to reach out to the CVB for the most up-to-date information,” Sojka says. If you come across a new contract clause, you can reach out to your colleagues in the industry and see if they are experiencing the same thing and how they addressed it.”

Colleagues also are a valuable resource when selecting new vendors. However, the vendors themselves also can be helpful.

“I recently contracted with a transportation company who provided a referral for a Trivia Contest emcee who turned out to be the hit of our evening event,” Sojka says.

Building professional relationships is important in most industries, but even more so in the meetings and events industry, which is relationship-based.

Trust Is Crucial

As Lynnette Offen Gerber, CMM, CMP, manager of global accounts at HelmsBriscoe explains, meeting a hotel supplier, for example, could help a meeting planner decide between whether they want to do business with Hotel A versus Hotel B.

“It actually can be crucial,” Gerber says. “People want to do business with people they know and trust.”

Relationships have been crucial in Gerber’s own career: In her previous two positions, she had already known people at the organizations, which not only gained her entrée, but helped her ultimately get hired.

“Additionally, if a crisis comes up in a meeting or convention, working with those you have partnerships with will better help you solve the problem,” she says. “With the relationship already established, you are more likely to share information, and you are inclined to work together. You both are motivated as well.”

Patrick Burkhardt, chief idea person at Luxpitality, a San Diego-based hospitality company that connects new-age businesses with unique hotels for corporate events or teambonding experiences, says that his company continually partners with other entities in the meetings and events field to create mutually beneficial outcomes. Luxpitality partners with some of the top hotels and businesses in the U.S. and Europe, and prides itself on harnessing local partnerships to provide clients completely customized group trip experiences. Burkhardt has more than a decade of experience in the hospitality industry and served as president of Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) Southern California, the largest chapter in the world.

“We work with hotels, and that’s what we excel in. However we aren’t as savvy when it comes to executing ground-service activities and offsite venues for our groups,” Burkhardt says. “So we partnered with an amazing company called Hosts Global Alliance. They share the same global footprint as us but excel in all these services. We help them with hotels, and they help us with destination management services.”

‘Coopetition’ and a Changing Industry

Corporate meeting planners and other entities within the meeting-planning sphere share the same goal: to provide memorable meetings and events that provide an impactful outcome for attendees and companies alike.

Take Kathy Miller, for example. Miller is CEO of Total Event Resources, a Chicago meeting and event planning company that produces innovative events for Fortune 1000 companies, major trade associations and not-for-profit organizations She says that the meetings and events industry has changed drastically, especially when it comes to business relationships.

Gone are the days when supplier partners stay in their “lane” when it comes to who manages what. For instance, the off-premise caterer used to manage food and beverage only. Now caterers can be “full service” — offering clients solutions and management for entertainment, tenting, lighting, rentals, venue selection and more.

“There are days when we are partnering with a caterer and other days when we are competing for the same business,” Miller says. “It’s no longer black and white, it’s very gray, which is why one day they are your partner and the next they are your competitor. Hence the word ‘coopetition,’ we partner — cooperate — with our competitors that may also be our ‘preferred partners.’ ”

For Miller, business relationships enhance her company’s learning curve, as their partners bring new and innovative ideas to Total Event Resources on a continual basis, giving Miller and her team the platform to be uber-creative in the proposal process.

“In Chicago, and I believe in other major cities where meetings and events are plentiful, we are finding that venues are popping up all over and are being bought and managed by a variety of supplier partners including scenic design firms, caterers, event agencies and DMCs,” Miller says. “This makes the venue search and management process interesting for the live event agencies like us. Again, one day we are partnering with a scenic design firm to provide all the design elements and the next time we are competing with them.”

Helping Reduce Costs

For Karen Shackman, president of Shackman Associates New York, relationships, quite frankly, are “everything.” This is especially important when a meeting group wants to book something on short notice.

“Relationships are also important in New York City when traffic can completely alter the timing of an after-hours event or product launch,” Shackman says. “We have worked with the NYPD to speed transportation and meeting logistics when unrelated problems could throw off timing. Relationships also help for meetings on a budget.”

Shackman Associates also has piggybacked luncheons with other groups at hotels to save meeting planners thousands of dollars. Pulling this off successfully is dependent upon continuing communication with key hotel and venue staff.

“Understanding who else might be meeting at a hotel helps us discover potential opportunities for sharing food and beverage,” Shackman says.   “When we piggybacked a luncheon at a five-star hotel, we noticed that our group of 750 attendees was similar in size and demographics to another one, so our relationships with the hotel event management team led the same menu to be prepared for 1,500 people, which obviously saved costs with a larger order.”

Establishing Strategic Relationships

Today, much of the meeting and events business is built upon reputation and word of mouth. David Jacobson, who has more than 15 years of professional events experience, is the CEO of TrivWorks, a corporate entertainment and teambuilding company. He understands that to be successful, meeting and event professionals cannot operate within a vacuum. Collaborating with other industry professionals not only extends the planner’s reach, but also provides access to talent, venues and offerings they otherwise wouldn’t be able to deliver on their own.

“Be bold and approach those whom you genuinely feel there is the potential for a mutually beneficial collaboration,” Jacobson says. “The best types of strategic partnerships are those where both sides stand to gain tremendous value over the long-term; when seeking out potential partners — be it individuals, organizations or venues — think about what you have to offer, as well as what you could potentially do together as far as synergies. But don’t be shy — the worst you can be told is ‘no’ ”!

Jacobson says the biggest mistake corporate meeting professionals make when trying to establish partnerships within the industry is only thinking of the immediate, short-term benefit, and only thinking about what they’ll get in return.

“That probably won’t get you very far. You will likely be much more successful if you approach partnerships not as quick hits, but as strategic investments, where both you and your potential partners’ interests are well-aligned, and a mutual benefit is clearly outlined upfront,” Jacobson says.

Richard Heby, marketing manager at LiquidSpace, a network for on-demand workspace, including event spaces, says corporate meeting planners should know what they expect to offer and what they can expect to receive from the partnership, but they shouldn’t be afraid to reach out if they don’t have a complete multiyear plan. “It’s so easy to connect these days — so go and connect,” Heby says.

Strategic partnerships have been the key to LiquidSpace’s success, because the company works to connect venues with professionals, startups and other enterprises looking for space. “We partner with coworking spaces, business centers, hotels, private companies and direct landlords,” Heby explains. Their network benefits everyone involved by injecting speed, technology and simplicity into the space discovery and rental process. That includes space for meetings, events, training sessions, team offsite events, flexible office space and more.

And great partnerships often will pay dividends in exclusivity and referrals.

Networking

When establishing professional relationships within the meeting and event industry, planners are advised to reach out and identify those people or companies they prefer to work with, understand the value they can offer potential partners and what is expected from them in return.

Sojka recommends networking at industry events such as IMEX, PCMA, MPI, SITE, etc., and reaching out to the CVBs regarding upcoming site visits to learn more about their destinations.

Gerber also stresses that establishing relationships is easiest through joining a professional organization and becoming involved with it. Gerber was on the executive board of MPI Minnesota twice and she says that it has been crucial to her success.

“Not only do you get to meet people, but you also get to demonstrate your abilities and knowledge to them,” Gerber says. “That can be priceless for your career. It is definitely worth the time you invest in it.”

Leveraging LinkedIn

And it’s important to remember that sometimes long-term partnerships begin with simple gestures, such as connecting via professional websites including LinkedIn, which can be a very powerful tool for connecting with industry players and generating business leads. Having a LinkedIn page facilitates engagement with followers, sharing potential meeting and event opportunities, and being available as a trusted resource.

LinkedIn also allows planners to connect with potential industry partners by sharing industry-related blog content, participating in Q&A sessions or even displaying a call to action in your summary. As an added feature, LinkedIn provides analytics, which enable users to measure just how effective their updates are.

Providing industry-related blog content on LinkedIn also is an excellent strategy for gaining exposure from new audiences, while catering to an existing network and industry partners. But the goal is to provide shareable content — something followers would be genuinely interested in seeing, and would consider sharing to their own followers. The result is exposure that increases exponentially, particularly when content goes viral.

Participating in Q&A sessions related to the industry is a powerful way to build stronger connections and demonstrate industry expertise. The key is to add value to the conversation. The end goal is to establish partnerships with others within the meeting and events industry.

Getting an Edge on the Competition

“If our partnership with a vendor is unique, it gives a selling edge over our competition. Referrals are an obvious bonus of partnerships,” says James Bennett, president of Firefly Team Events in Los Angeles. “A less obvious benefit is that each of your partners may be a privately owned business. As a small business, we have growing pains and struggles. I can reach out to some of my partners and have a heart-to-heart with an owner who’s probably gone through similar situations. It’s extremely valuable to have a network of peers that know your journey.”

Recently one of Firefly Team Events’ planner partners added all of the company’s products to their website. For Bennett and his team, that is like having an additional sales team promoting their clients.

“It allows us a wider reach and gives our partner a larger service offering,” Bennett says. “It’s a beautiful win/win for both of us.”

Bennett has found that industry events are great for a first introduction, but it is vital that meeting planners follow up after those connections are initially made.

“Many of our partnerships with fellow suppliers are forged in the heat of battle while working for the same clients,” Bennett says. “With our hotel partners, we reach out to them quarterly and try to schedule face-to-face time with their teams as well as FAMs.”

Sojka advises other corporate meeting planners to avoid the common mistake of not moving outside of their circle. “The more inclusive, the wider the range of contacts, the broader the base of knowledge,” Sojka says.

And reputation is everything. “Nothing is worth losing your reputation over. Be honest, hardworking and true to your core values,” Bennett says. “For us, we’re trying to keep our clients happy, healthy and engaged.” C&IT

IAEE’s Women’s Leadership Forum featured education sessions for women at all stages of their career.

Betsy Bair is Vice President, Strategic Narratives, for Velvet Chainsaw Consulting, which provides strategic consulting for associations and companies that are interested in growing or transforming their major face-to-face events through redesign of premium education, networking or the trade show floor. www.velvetchainsaw.com

Having recently consulted with a major professional association on the sustainability and long-term growth strategy of its women’s leadership conference, I was motivated to attend a leadership forum for women in our own industry: the International Association of Exhibitions and Events’ (IAEE) Women’s Leadership Forum, which took place at the new MGM National Harbor in early May.

Here are some of the key learnings I took away from the forum, many of which can be applied to any aspiring professional or any conference.

1. Ask for a raise.

If you’re a woman, never go to your boss asking for a raise because a man makes more than you. Having research about pay scales can add to your business case, but better yet, be able to show your value to the organization. Take notes when someone compliments you or sends you written props, when you’ve saved the company money, brought in revenue over and above expectations, helped your organization make a strategic leap or volunteered for projects or work that are not part of your job description. Oh, and by the way: NEVER say it’s not my job when someone asks you do something (a top pet peeve among the women attending the forum).

2. Advocate for an advocate.

From a woman’s viewpoint, it’s best to have an advocate who will represent your interests in a room or a discussion that you’re not privy to. This point was made not only during a panel of CEOs about engaging men as advocates (man-bassadors) to pioneer gender equality but also in a presentation by Jay Newton-Small, author of Broad Influence: How Women are Changing the Way America Works (Time, 2016). She told a story about women — in power — being excluded from some major decision-making meetings during President Obama’s first administration. Rather than being competitive, key women banded together to form a network so they’d be aware of when they were being excluded. During a critical Oval Office meeting, which they had not been invited to, “they walked in, sat down and started participating.” The men in the room got the message, and the women weren’t excluded again. It’s important to know your advocate is truly making your case, and not just giving you lip service. As for the women in the White House? They knew they had each other’s back.

3. It’s not always about “show me the money.”

The panel also made the point that making more money may not be the most important motivator for a woman. If work/life balance is important to you, be prepared to ask for time off, work-at-home options or flexible hours rather than salary increases. A great reference is this recent article from Harvard Business Review: “How to Convince Your Boss to Let You Work from Home.”

4. I versus we?

A consistent message: Women will rise to the top because they are consensus-builders. In the panel discussion, Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, said that in the association world, it’s all about the “we” not the “I.” Participants recommended that women do need to learn how to better tout themselves, but suggested that you always mention another by name, or more than one, to ensure you are advocating for others. Wouldn’t we want men to do the same?

5. Refuel, refill.

Clearly many attendees thought of the forum as more personal development than professional development (Emotional Intelligence, or EQ, versus IQ). A little refueling never hurt anyone. That says a lot about how important soft skills are to women leaders. But guess what we’ve discovered in dozens of our own engagements with association volunteers when we’re tasked with improving the education at their annual conferences? Think of a mentor or boss you really admired. What attributes made them special? “Listens well, inspiring or visionary” always wins the day over “intelligent.”

6. Encourage networking.

If there are large numbers of people from the same organization at your conference, it is important to help them branch out from those they’ve come with: Attendees will only reap benefits and grow if they leave their comfort zone and interact with new people. Formal networking can be intentionally designed. It can happen serendipitously, but ideally it should be both. Those attending the first afternoon at the forum had fun with an organized networking event — a scorecard where you had to fill in boxes such as “favorite dessert” and find a mate who had the same answer — but the following day lacked planned networking or table discussions.

7. Build to transform.

The speakers were entertaining, en pointe with messaging, particularly about personal improvement, and highly professional. I believe women’s conferences should aim to be inspirational and transformative. This also can be achieved through the flow of the sessions: Start strong and end with emotion. According to the organizers of TED Talk conferences (as well as the advice we give our clients): “Save the most gripping speakers for the end. This is when your attendees are most open to being moved. It will leave them with a feeling that will stay with them — maybe even motivate them to action.”

Do you think women should use “I” or “we” in a professional setting when talking about their achievements? Are you an advocate for people you manage, and if so, how?

The post “How to Ask for a Raise and Other Top Learnings from IAEE Women’s Leadership Forum” appeared first on Velvet Chainsaw (www.velvetchainsaw.com). C&IT

Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center has enhanced its meeting space with the new 16,000-sf RiverView Ballroom situated in front of the resort on the waterfront.

First-tier cities tend to be hotbeds of hotel development, and this is to be expected given their high demand in the leisure, business travel and meetings segments. But these days it is especially challenging for planners to find lodging space in those cities, and so it pays to keep an eye on less-traveled pockets of the country where meeting hotel development is surging.

Northeast

One such destination is National Harbor, Maryland, located along the Potomac River just south of Washington, DC. While the destination has a recreational feel with waterfront concerts, the Capital Ferris wheel and Tanger Outlets, there are two major meetings-ready hotels onsite, one of which is new and the other improved.

Last December, the MGM National Harbor began welcoming guests to its $1.4 billion property, complete with a 3,000-seat theater, three celebrity-chef restaurants among 15 dining options, high-end retail establishments and a spa. The 308-room resort is also serious about meetings, offering the 50,000-sf MGM National Harbor Conference Center.

Even more recently, the AAA Four Diamond Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center has enhanced its meeting space with the new 16,000-sf RiverView Ballroom. The venue provides unobstructed views from its 270-degree floor-to-ceiling windows, and is supplemented by two outdoor terraces equaling more than 10,000 sf of space. With the addition of RiverView Ballroom, the 2,000-room Gaylord National now offers five ballrooms and more than 600,000 sf of indoor and outdoor meeting space.

Akron, Ohio-based The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company held its annual Customer Conference in January 2016 at Gaylord National. “We are excited to see the finished ballroom, as we were watching the construction take place,” relates Kelly Julian Fleming, corporate event planner. “It will definitely be a ballroom that we will want to utilize for our future programs. The natural light that this ballroom provides will help with overall creativity, productivity, mood and even reduce stress. We are very excited about the additional space and outdoor terraces right on the river with gorgeous views.”

Meeting at the Gaylord National allowed all 2,059 Goodyear customers, exhibitors, associates and staff “the opportunity to network under one roof,” says Fleming. “One location for our general sessions, our trade show floor, education sessions, meal function and sleeping rooms — no running to catch a shuttle to the hotel from the convention center.” Among the numerous onsite dining and recreational venues, Fleming highlights The National Past Time Sports bar, which was “a very popular amenity with our attendees. It provides a great menu selection, a variety of TVs to watch sports, sports memorabilia and a friendly environment to meet at and network with one another.”

Another DC property the 413-room Fairmont Washington, DC, completed a $27 million renovation in January that encompassed all guest rooms, the lobby and loggia. The executive forum amphitheater was converted into the 2,900-sf Kennedy Ballroom, and the courtyard garden was leveled to allow for larger events.

Following is a selection of more regions and cities that are home to new and renovated properties, creating exciting opportunities for corporate groups.

Southwest

Another destination outside of the first tier that is burgeoning with hotel development is Austin, Texas. The 1,012-room JW Marriott Austin opened in 2015, adding 120,000 sf of meeting space to the city’s meetings infrastructure. This major new property is located just two blocks from the Austin Convention Center.

Last December, construction began on the $6 million Red River Canopy Walk that will connect the Austin Convention Center to Fairmont Austin. Opening in September, the Fairmont is yet another major addition to Austin’s hotel inventory, offering 1,048 guest rooms and nearly 140,000 sf of total meeting space. Amenities will include a heated swimming pool on the seventh floor rooftop terrace, full-service salon and spa, and state-of-the-art fitness center.

Groups also can take advantage of an upgraded Hilton Austin. The hotel completed a $23 million renovation and modernization of its 80,000 sf of meeting space and lobby last year. The project follows upgrades to the hotel’s 801 guest rooms, suites and executive lounge in 2014, and a refurbishment of the hotel’s eighth-floor pool deck and bar in spring 2013.

The latest renovation has redesigned the lobby to include social and work spaces, as well as a new digital media wall. Last summer, two new restaurants were added: Cannon + Belle and The Reverbery. The former establishment features a multi-station open kitchen, Texan menu, specialty wine and cocktails program, and an indoor biergarten where attendees can casually convene. The Reverbery, ideal for special events, is a recording studio-themed banquet hall complemented by outdoor space. A specially designed food and drink menu reflects Austin’s culinary culture. Two more establishments were introduced last fall to further enhance the Hilton Austin’s F&B offerings: the Austin Taco Project, located a block off Austin’s music “Main Street,” and a 3,000-sf Starbucks with an Austin motif. Given all these improvements, planners who last brought a group to the Hilton Austin prior to 2016 would do well to consider revisiting the property.

In Dallas County, Texas, the 350-room Westin Irving Convention Center Las Colinas is scheduled to open late 2018/early 2019. Located adjacent to the 17-acre Irving Music Factory, the hotel will offer 16,000 sf of meeting space.

South/Central

Nashville is another second-tier city that has welcomed major new hotels. The 453-room Westin Nashville opened last fall with 20,000 sf of meeting space. Highlights include a rooftop pool bar and lounge, L27; and a resort-style spa, Rhapsody Spa. Planners who are fans of Music City can look forward to an even larger property, the 533-room JW Marriott Nashville, scheduled to open next summer. Housing 50,000 sf of flexible meeting space, the property will boast Bourbon Steak, a Michael Mina Restaurant as well as a rooftop bar on the 33rd floor. Groups will have up to 32 breakout rooms at their disposal.

Next spring will see the debut of the 612-room Omni Louisville Hotel. The property will bring 70,000 sf of LEED Silver-certified meeting space to a prime location, just one block from the Kentucky International Convention Center.

And in 2020, an 800-room Loews convention hotel is expected to open in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The new hotel, Loews Kansas City Convention Center Hotel, will be located across from the Kansas City Convention Center Grand Ballroom and offer about 60,000 sf of meeting space.

Northwest/West

The American Northwest is known for its majestic vistas, and a Seattle hotel opening this month will deliver inspiring views of Lake Washington from 23,000 sf of outdoor terraces. Offering a total of 60,000 sf of indoor/outdoor function space, the 347-room Hyatt Regency Lake Washington at Seattle’s Southport is 11 miles from downtown Seattle and nine miles from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. It’s an ideal location for Bellevue, Washington-based PACCAR’s RPM Expo, which convenes dealers and suppliers for product learning. The event has been booked at the Hyatt for next January and will bring in about 160 dealers in two separate waves.

“I was at a Hyatt focus group a couple years ago, and they mentioned they were putting in this new product on Lake Washington, and I was ecstatic because it was literally half a mile from my office,” says Catherine Schrock, CMP, marketing events manager for PACCAR. Schrock, who has met the GM, adds that she has confidence that the new hotel will be up to par in its operations.

“My concerns about it being a new property are allayed by the fact that Hyatt’s got an amazing training program. And many of the staff will come from other Hyatts,” she says. “Plus, with them opening (in July) and my meeting not being until January, they’ll have had a chance to gel.” Having participated in a hardhat tour of the property, Schrock observes, “They have great indoor and outdoor function space with beautiful views. The thing I like is all their meeting space has natural light without compromising the need for audio-visual; you can go natural light or you can block it out.”

A rejuvenated property in the Emerald City is Motif Seattle, a Destination Hotel, which recently unveiled a $10 million redesign of its 319 guest rooms. Rooms now include art walls that serve as bold representations of the Seattle cultural scene and artwork by local artists. Groups have the 6,000-sf Seattle Ballroom and the 8,915-sf Emerald Ballroom at their disposal.

DaVita, a Seattle-based kidney care company, held its annual meeting at Motif Seattle last September, bringing in about 175 finance and accounting managers. “We have used Suncadia in the past, which is part of Destination Hotels, and to avoid monotony, we looked into other options in the Seattle area for our 2016 retreat,” explains DaVita’s C Level Executive Assistant Nikki Brummond. “We were delighted to find that Motif was part of Destination Hotels and allowed them to bid. …While Motif was not the cheapest, it was the relationship we had with Destination Hotels that made the decision easy for us. It was something new, fresh (downtown Seattle vs. rural Suncadia), and we knew the Destination Hotels standard.” Attendees can look forward to enjoying the redesigned guest rooms, as “We will definitely keep Motif in the rotation,” says Brummond.

Farther south on the West Coast, the Oregon Convention Center is preparing for a headquarters hotel in 2019, the Hyatt Regency Portland. The 600-room hotel is expected to achieve LEED certification, not to mention a 30 percent increase in convention business for Portland. The hotel will have its own 32,000 sf of ballroom and meeting space.

On the boutique end of the spectrum, The Pendry San Diego is a new West Coast property that is also in a prime location: just four miles from San Diego International Airport and three blocks from the San Diego Convention Center. For a boutique property, it’s well stocked in function space (35,000 sf) and has a great diversity of F&B outlets (six restaurants and bars).

Leawood, Kansas-based Third Avenue Events recently brought a major automotive group to the 317-room property for a media-facing product launch. Third Avenue Events owners Annie Rector, CMP, and Kristin Hems, CMP, who did several site inspections of the property last summer and fall, cite several features that make the property a standout.

“It’s one of the few hotels in the Gaslamp area that is vehicle-accessible in their ballroom spaces,” says Hems. Another feature is “all of the different restaurants and bars it has on property. We were there for two weeks solid; I don’t think I ate at every outlet they had.” In addition, attendees gave “a lot of good feedback with regard to the technology they had in the guest rooms. They have a port on the nightstand where you can plug in all of your chargers. You can stream whatever you’re watching on your phone to the TV. Those kinds of little touches really made a big difference in their stay.” The hotel’s rooftop pool, which accommodated nearly 200 attendees on the deck for a special event, was another highlight.

In spring 2017, The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas completed an aggressive capital expenditure campaign that began in late 2015. Improvements included a complete makeover of 640 guest rooms and suites in the 11-story Casino Tower. Also, the meeting and convention space makeover is now complete with the reopening of the 28,000-sf Artist Ballroom and the addition of nearly 18,000 sf of meeting and convention space. The newly expanded Artist Ballroom can be broken down into eight separate and flexible configurations. Ceiling heights in the new space reach up to 22 feet for optimal exhibition use. Hard Rock Hotel now boasts nearly 110,000 sf of contiguous meeting and convention space.

Southeast

Arguably the preeminent Southeastern meetings state, Florida has major hotel development news to share from top to bottom, as it were. Up north, the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront completed a renovation of its 951 guest rooms, corridors, the rooftop fitness center and Regency Club lounge in April. The guest rooms now evoke the St. Johns River with their color palette, and outdoor terraces allow planners to use the actual river as an event backdrop. The project also added six hardwalled meeting rooms, located on the fourth level of the hotel’s Terrace Building. Overall, the Hyatt offers more than 116,000 sf of flexible meeting and exhibit space.

Orlando is abuzz with hotel upgrades, one of the most significant being the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin’s multiyear, $140 million redesign that includes the transformation of all 2,267 guest rooms. The latest improvement was a $5 million meeting space renovation, and the final will be a $12 million lobby redesign projected for completion in the fall.

Meanwhile, Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort is expanding over the next two years, adding new dining options, resort rooms and outdoor networking spaces. Construction is underway on a new 500-room tower that will overlook Lago Dorado. The expansion also will add a boardroom and two multipurpose rooms to the resort’s current 220,000 sf of function space.

The former Buena Vista Palace Resort & Spa was recently reflagged as the Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace, connected to the new Disney Springs area by pedestrian skybridge. The 1,011-room hotel completed a major makeover featuring newly designed guest rooms, a new outside terrace and refreshed meeting spaces totaling 92,000 sf. The renovation also includes the Float Lagoon lazy river; new pools and cabanas; and Shades, a new poolside restaurant. As the hotel is an official Walt Disney World Hotel, groups are offered entertainment and event production services through the Disney Event Group as well as the Disney Institute’s educational programs.

Another property, Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista also is connected by pedestrian skybridge to the Disney Springs dining, shopping entertainment district, recently completed a renovation of the Palm Ballroom with new furniture, fixtures and equipment. The hotel offers more than 78,000 sf of versatile meeting space including three large ballrooms and 38 breakout rooms, and is just 10 minutes from the Orange County Convention Center.

Extensive refurbishments have been completed at Rosen Shingle Creek. All 1,501 guest rooms and suites, the hotel’s grand lobby and many of its retail, restaurant and lounge spaces now feature a more contemporary Spanish revival-style design. In addition, the hotel’s 18-hole championship Shingle Creek Golf Course has been redesigned and complemented by a new open-air covered pavilion for 19th-hole events. The AAA Four Diamond hotel houses 490,000 sf of function space.

This fall will see a major meeting space addition at the Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate, part of a $40 million expansion project. The Osceola County Conference Center will expand, adding 100,000 sf of indoor/outdoor meeting and event space, and a new market-style restaurant will debut. In addition, the Omni is adding 93 spacious, upscale guest rooms, bringing the resort’s total room count to 813 guest rooms and suites, plus 49 two- and three- bedroom luxury villas. Finally, a new 23,000-sf recreational area has already been introduced at the resort.

The 1,000-room Loews Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal Orlando opened last July with 115,000 sf of meeting space, a 41,000-sf ballroom, 30,000-sf hall and 16,000-sf outdoor event area and an additional 16 meeting rooms and three meeting planner offices. The new meeting space at Loews Sapphire Falls Resort’s prefunction spaces, filled with natural light, contain many open seating areas, perfect for workshopping new ideas or networking between sessions. An air-conditioned bridge connects Loews Sapphire Falls meeting space to Loews Royal Pacific Resort, creating The Loews Meeting Complex at Universal Orlando, offering a combined total 247,000 sf of meeting space and 2,000 guest rooms.

Down in Miami, the future is looking even more promising for the meetings industry with the MDM Group’s acquisition of the former site of the Miami Arena as part of the plan to build the Marriott Marquis Miami Worldcenter Hotel & Expo Center. Groundbreaking could occur this year for the project, whose first phase would include a 600,000-sf conference and exposition center and 1,100 hotel rooms; a second tower would house 600 hotel rooms. The hotel is part of a 30-acre mixed-use development that will include retail, dining and entertainment, and luxury residences.

When hotel developments are carefully tailored to market demand and preferences, they typically become success stories. Such was the case in Atlanta, with the $70 million renovation of The Westin Peachtree Plaza completed in 2014. Every interior element of the hotel, including the lobby, all 1,073 guest rooms and suites, the entire 85,000 sf of meeting space, and the revolving Sun Dial Restaurant, Bar and View, were revamped. One of the guiding ideas for the redesign was Westin’s emphasis on wellness.

“Westin has six pillars of wellness: Eat Well, Sleep Well, Work Well, Play Well, Move Well, Feel Well. So everything if possible had to support those pillars,” explains Ron Tarson, the property’s general manager. “For example, the pre-renovation property had a black terrazzo floor (in the lobby) with kind of bench seating. When we renovated, we understood that in order to work and play well in the lobby, what we would have preferred is a bunch of conversational areas. So the look completely changed; we carpeted a piece of it and added beautiful conversation areas, many of them with televisions and hookups to be able to have impromptu meetings there. So the whole look of the lobby changed because our emphasis changed to be more targeted toward the Westin customer.”

The project has led to new group business for the Westin Peachtree Plaza, Tarson reports, but it was also important to “communicate with our best customers while we were undergoing the renovation. One of the things they told us is make sure when you’re inviting us back, you’re inviting us back at the right time. And what they meant was, don’t bring us in early if your meeting space isn’t ready for having a group. Make sure that the first experience we have back with you is a good one. We listened very carefully to that and as a result, we didn’t invite our group customers back until a good year after we invited our transients back. That took a bit of discipline, but it was absolutely the right thing to do.”C&IT

Atlantis Paradise Island recently introduced the new Junkanoo Bahamian Fest & Feast teambuilding program.

The arc of islands that curve from the Bahamas in the Atlantic Ocean down through the Caribbean Sea to South America offers planners superb beaches, rich culture, history, plenty of activities and resorts able to meet diverse needs.

Aruba

Located below the hurricane belt, Aruba has nearly year-round idyllic weather.

Jay Smith, president of Sports Travel and Tours, likes Aruba. In February, he booked two liquor-industry sales incentive groups on the island, both at the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino, which completed a $25 million renovation to guest rooms, public areas, pools, the beach and restaurants in December.

“I’ve hosted programs at a few resorts in my 25 years of bringing groups to Aruba,” Smith says. “The Hilton has been one client’s requested hotel, in part because one of the main point people had been to the hotel when it was a Radisson and enjoyed the property.”

Smith says the Hilton staff excels. “As a meeting planner, you are important to them, and they work hard to address any issues and make a program work. Audrey Wolfe, director of catering and convention services, is a wonderful asset. Even under pressure times, Audrey is still working.”

Among his program highlights is a sunset beach function, which he calls impressive. “The food is top-notch and we have had a variety of menu options. The AV, he adds, “is brought in from outside; you do need to work with the staff to make sure you/they get the AV the way you want it.”

In addition to functions on site, the group played golf at Tierra del Sol and had a dinner or two at local restaurants.

While Aruba temperatures average 82 degrees year-round, winter weather in U. S. cities can cause flight problems. “Possible alternatives are something to have in place before the moment of impact,” Smith cautions. Fortunately, when delays occurred this winter, the hotel helped, adding nights to the end of the trip for attendees who missed the start.

Winter is Aruba’s prime season. “You need to be patient with hotel staff to achieve the end results of your programs,” Smith says. “They get very busy; you need to stay on top of details that you as the meeting planner must make sure are covered.”

Smith suggests a minimum of four nights for a program so attendees really enjoy the experience. Beyond that, “Aruba offers great people, wonderful weather and a place you probably won’t go to just once.”

The Bahamas

Seven hundred islands across 100,000 square miles offer enormous diversity. Most well known are Grand Bahama and Nassau and Paradise Island, but there are many possibilities.

Bimini is the closest Bahamas island to the U.S. mainland — just 50 miles east of Miami. Ernest Hemingway and Martin Luther King Jr. both found profound inspiration here.

Barbara Becker, V.P. administration with Fields Auto Group in Glencoe, Illinois, brought 58 attendees to the Hilton at Resorts World Bimini last May. “Although it’s not the easiest place to get to, it’s worth the wait. The rooms are beautiful, the staff very accommodating and the casino is now open. Transportation once you land is easy. Leave the planning up to the RWB staff and they take all the worries away.”

The group liked the resort’s pricing and the fact that it opened recently and just completed phase-two upgrades in June. “We like things shiny and new,” Becker says. The staff was also a positive. “Everyone from the manager to the lady cleaning the floors has a positive, friendly attitude — exactly what you want when away from home.”

Becker suggests planners “trust the staff; they know what will work for your group size and what won’t.” She has brought groups large and small to Bimini, though with groups over 30, she says, they mainly stay within the resort. “It’s so beautiful and the food is wonderful, especially if you like seafood. You don’t need to leave to get just about anything you’re looking for.”

On Nassau, Melia Baha Mar is a possible site for a New England manufacturing company’s incentive program. Nell Nicholas, senior director, global sales, HelmsBriscoe, says, “Nassau is a great fit for this program. The clients prefer easy, inexpensive airlift from New England cities. Though they love all-inclusives, they like to get off property and there are lots of offsite activities here.”

The resort is next to the in-progress Baha Mar development, which Nicholas says shouldn’t deter planners. “Although the infrastructure of Baha Mar isn’t complete, the Melia is easily accessible and a wonderful all-inclusive option with proximity to great golf and offsite water activities. The grounds are lovely and the buildings are beautifully appointed. Once all the Baha Mar facilities are up and running, it will be a fabulous resort complex.”

Nicholas says the Melia offers a great value for the money, “and raises the bar in this area for all-inclusives. If you’re a Melia resort frequent traveler, you’ll be well acquainted with the restaurant offerings and consistently good Royal Service.”

For those considering the Bahamas, Nicholas adds, “The one advantage I cannot overemphasize is the knowledge, dedication and assistance the CVB offers to planners.”

Baha Mar, the $4.2 billion integrated resort development located along the pristine beaches of New Providence in The Bahamas, opened its first phase in April. The first-phase opening includes the preview of the 1,800-room Grand Hyatt Baha Mar; Baha Mar Casino; Royal Blue Golf Club; The Baha Mar Convention, Art and Entertainment Center; Peter Burwash International tennis courts and facilities; multiple restaurants, bars and lounges; select ESPA spa experiences; the resort’s extensive pool and beach areas; and the entry show lakes and fountain shows choreographed to music, film and lights.

Grand Hyatt Baha Mar manages The Baha Mar Convention, Art and Entertainment Center, the destination’s 200,000-sf indoor and outdoor convention facility, and connects directly to Baha Mar Casino, the largest casino in the Caribbean. Baha Mar’s phase-one unveiling is followed by phase two with the debut of SLS Baha Mar in fall 2017, and the final phase will introduce the enhanced and expanded Rosewood Baha Mar in spring 2018.

Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas is a destination oceanside resort with 2,317 guest rooms in five lodging options, more than 500,000 sf of indoor/outdoor meeting space, Aquaventure — a 141-acre water park — open-air marine mammal habitat, spa, golf course, casino, 40 restaurants and more. New at Atlantis is an app giving attendees access to mobile check-in, itinerary management, a direct link to guest services and more. Three new restaurants also opened, including 77° West, specializing in Bahamian-influenced South American cuisine, and there are multiple new dolphin experiences. In more news, after a $20 million transformation, the Coral Towers will reemerge July 16, 2017 as The Coral at Atlantis with all new guest rooms, lobby , F&B concept and adults-only pool. Centrally located on the property, The Corals will connect to the Atlantis Conference Center, casino and Marina Village.

For groups, Atlantis recently introduced the new Junkanoo Bahamian Fest & Feast teambuilding program designed to immerse participants in the Bahamian culture. Junkanoo is a major cultural festival of the Bahamas, celebrating life and freedom with a street parade of music, dancing and festive costumes. Teams design their own costumes and compete in a dance competition during the Rush Out. The experience includes:

• Dinner featuring Bahamian cuisine.
• A Junkanoo history session with Principal of Bahamian Educulture Arlene Nash Ferguson.
• Junkanoo dance lesson.
• Costume creation.
• A traditional Junkanoo Rush Out: The Junkanoo Rush is when the rhythm of the music builds into what can be described as an intoxicating beat that inspires spectators to participate in the parade.

Dominican Republic

A glorious mix of dense jungle and sweeping beaches, the Dominican Republic has multiple resort areas — La Romana, Bavaro, Samaná Peninsula, Punta Cana —and remote adventure options, including stunning Parque Nacional del Este.

Dozens of resorts line Punta Cana’s beaches. There’s golf and water sports galore, excellent dining and nightlife. Kip Lambert, chief culture officer for Destinations Inc., chose Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana for a February incentive trip of 1,600 from a U.S.-based network-marketing company.

The Dominican Republic “perfectly met the criteria for this group in four important ways,” Lambert says: “Inexpensive airlift from across North America; an exotic factor that piqued the interest of attendees and helped them strive to meet the incentive’s goals; the all-inclusive option, including a resort credit attendees used for deeply discounted tours, spa and golf; and high-adventure activities for a young demographic.”

He calls the resort perfect for large groups and says the staff “can handle whatever you throw at them.”

The events team stood out. “It’s the best of any team we’ve worked with in the Hard Rock chain or the Dominican Republic,” Lambert says. “Fred Boutouba, general manager, is incredible. He greeted each coach upon arrival and gave instructions about the check-in process. Additionally, the resort gave us, the planners, extra surprise performers for our arrival/check-in experience — stilt-walkers with LED light suits, a roller-skating dancer who roamed the lobby engaging guests, a rock band playing outside the group lobby and beautiful décor to really dress up the group lobby, all at no extra cost.”

With such a large property, Lambert says, there could be issues with assigned rooms far from meeting space, but there weren’t. “The solution is a continuous shuttle system around the property that rarely seemed overburdened. I don’t recall any complaints about this from our attendees and their guests.”

Outside the resort, Lambert held an exclusive dinner for the very top performers at one of Cap Cana’s beaches. “We’ve done this exclusive event for years,” he says. “This location scored 99 percent satisfaction and 4.5 stars in a post-event survey.”

Lambert’s advice to planners is to purchase the Dominican Republic entrance visa in advance to be included in final travel documentation. “These can be preprinted or saved as a PDF and sent out electronically. At bare minimum, let your attendees know about the visa so that they can skip the potentially long lines at the Punta Cana Airport.”

He also recommends a site visit. “Fred Boutouba and his staff will roll out the red carpet and make your visit very productive and expedited so you can make quick selections and have time to enjoy the resort.”

Puerto Rico

A U.S. territory since 1898, Puerto Rico offers rich culture, evocative history and no passports for U. S. citizens. Among its natural treasures is exquisite El Yunque National Forest.

Last April, NatureServe Inc., a Virginia-based organization providing data, tools and services related to wildlife conservation, met at the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino for a Biodiversity Without Boundaries conference. Don Kent, Ph.D., says the hotel offers “a convenient location and great facilities,” and standouts at the resort include “the staff, meeting rooms, food and VIP breakfast patio.”

Additionally, he says, “Meeting rooms are clustered on the second floor, easily accessible via elevators from the guest rooms or escalator from the lobby. Planners should be aware that there is a casino,” he adds, “but it was not a distraction for us.”

Kent notes, “Puerto Rico is a relatively easy travel location for U.S. attendees, both in flights and permissions. The island is also blessed with natural beauty and served us well for field trips. Many of our attendees extended their stays to snorkel and see the sights.”

About a dozen field trips were included within the conference, arranged in conjunction with partner, Para La Naturaleza.

Thanks to the resort’s great staff, Kent says there were no challenges organizing the conference, but he offers one suggestion for planners: “I recommend starting with Meet Puerto Rico to gain inside knowledge, assistance and discounts.”

In Puerto Rico news, Sheraton Old San Juan Hotel in Puerto Rico has completed a multimillion-dollar renovation to its 240 guest rooms, public spaces, meeting and pre-function spaces, and added a lobby café/evening tapas lounge.

El San Juan Hotel & Casino is undergoing a $60 million phased renovation to restore the glamour for which the property was once known. Updates to the common areas (lobby and restaurants) and all of the guest rooms have been completed. Upgrades to the spa and entertainment venue, Tropicoro, will be finished by the end of the year.

A 6,000-seat concert and entertainment venue, slated to open in 2019, will anchor District Live!, a hospitality/entertainment area by the Puerto Rico Convention Center, which will include a 170-room luxury hotel with 6,000 sf of meeting space.

St. Martin/St. Maarten

Just 37 square miles, this island has two distinct cultures, governments and spellings. St. Martin, on the north, is French, while St. Maarten is Dutch.

The Westin Dawn Beach Resort & Spa is on the Dutch side, and was ideal for an East Coast-based building supply company’s customer appreciation trip in February. “While it was not the least expensive suggestion we provided,” says Susan M. Robertson of Docherty Incentives & Meetings, “the location, coupled with the quality of the room product, food, beverage and service fit what the client was looking for to achieve his goals of rewarding his top customers.”

Dual cultures enhance the island. “You have two cultures and countries that come together as one,” Robertson says. ”The tax-free shopping on the Dutch side is a bonus for shopping enthusiasts. The small town of Grand Case on the French side, with its multiple excellent restaurants, is considered the ‘gourmet capital of the Caribbean.’ ”

Other worthy sites she recommends include “Sunset Beach Bar & Grill, where you can literally feel the jet propulsion as aircraft come and go alongside this beach and bar, and The Loterie Farm, a secret hideaway nestled in the hillside of Pic Paradis where you can wine, dine, climb, hike and glide over the treetop canopy. The island,” she says, “is truly an ecotourism and gastronomical experience you’re not likely to forget or find elsewhere.”

Booking a program in high season yields positives, including good airlift with non-stops from multiple cities. There’s also Carnival Night on Tuesdays in Grand Case from mid-January to mid-March, where visitors and residents gather to experience what Robertson calls “amazing culture, live music, local crafts, art and gastronomy that combines French cuisine and flavors of the Caribbean.”

At the Westin, Robertson says, “The No. 1 thing that impressed me is the staff, starting at the top. GM Daniel Beddor is very hands-on. He was present everywhere, every day, and took the time to speak with as many guests as possible to ensure all needs were met or exceeded. He was in the restaurant at breakfast, in the gift shop, in the lobby, at our events. This also flows through the staff, from my conference services coordinator to my banquet staff, banquet captain, to the restaurant manager and staff, to the front desk. All truly cared and were in the know of what activities my client planned or what attendees were doing off and on property. I can’t tell you how many resorts I’ve had programs in where we never see, let alone meet, the general manager. The dedication of this staff shows and is appreciated.”

The group held two events outside. “They were spectacular,” Robertson says. “The food was delicious and our AV needs were easily met.”

As with any program, she says, there were some challenges; however, “The Westin did everything within its power to appease me and/or find solutions. I would not hesitate to put another group in this hotel. They do an outstanding job.”

In October 2016, Liza Passantino Maguire, V.P. with CIMAX Inc., brought a sales incentive group from New Jersey-based Sparta Systems to The Westin. “Our clients look for a destination with not just the usual sunshine and activities, but where there are also great accommodations and exceptional service,” she says. “We also look to balance value against the ultimate product, and the island and hotel met those parameters, then exceeded them onsite.”

Like Robertson, Maguire points to the GM. “I can honestly say that, after over 26 years planning, the GM at this hotel was a big reason we booked it. And he was there every day of the program, carrying through on every promise and more. He’s exactly the type of GM we wish were at every client event. Additionally, Paola Morales, CSM, was also right there making sure our every need was attended to.”

Maguire recommends contacting Westin’s in-house DMC, calling them “fabulous to work with.” She believes working with an experienced DMC is “key to having your visions realized. We had gorgeous evening events created per our specifications, with not one stone unturned regarding service.”

She also notes, “There are very different vibes in different parts of this island, and as planners we know what our clients are looking for. I would make sure to do a full site visit and take into account staying at the exclusive Westin, but planning for excursions to different parts of the island.”

Among the excursions she recommends is a dine-around in Grand Case. She also says planners should be aware that the hotel is on the Atlantic. “The beach and waters were not rough since it’s in a cove area,” she says, “but keep that in mind when planning watersports. Take the group off-property to enjoy a day elsewhere if that is an important factor.”

Timing also makes a difference. “Flights in October were probably the only challenge we faced,” Maguire says. “There are limited non-stops at that time of year. Otherwise, the destination has everything you could want.”

U.S. Virgin Islands

These three islands are remarkably different, but each offers striking natural beauty plus resorts and facilities able to accommodate all kinds of groups.

St. Croix, one of the few islands completely surrounded by the Caribbean, is home to The Buccaneer, family owned and upscale. It was on the short list for a spring 2017 incentive program for a global technology company, HelmsBriscoe’s Nicholas says. “St. Croix is a good fit for this group due to easy access from major U.S. airports, short distance from the U.S. mainland, no passports required and lots of water activities. It’s the best of both worlds,” she adds. “It has a wonderful tourism infrastructure to meet the demands of the most discerning world traveler and pristine beaches and resorts offering serenity and tranquility.”

The Buccaneer works on all levels. “It offers onsite dining options and recreational activities (including golf), fabulous water views, comfortable accommodations and the ability to board a catamaran cruise directly from the resort beach with no need for ground transfers,” Nicholas says. “What is especially meaningful to our stakeholders is that The Buccaneer ranks high on TripAdvisor with excellent reviews.”

Ample function space is a necessity. “With several outside reception locations available, I can move my group from one night’s welcome reception location to another location for the closing night,” Nicholas says. “They’ll have two completely different outdoor dining experiences and I never have to leave the property to accomplish that.”

It’s a must to explore the island, however. “Be sure you take advantage of the water sports and activities,” Nicholas says. “St. Croix is all about the beautiful Caribbean waters. An absolute must is uninhabited Buck Island, offering world-class snorkeling and diving an hour’s cruise from The Buccaneer. Several cruise options are available and can be coordinated directly with the property.”

One caveat for planners: St. Croix’s scenic roads. “Although road quality is very good, St. Croix still has that ‘country road’ feel,” Nicholas notes. “Winding roads can be slow. When you ask for distances, say from town or the airport, be sure to ask in miles and time.” C&IT

Don Welsh: “Destinations International represents a powerful, forward-thinking, collaborative association (committed to) exchanging bold ideas, connecting innovative people and excelling tourism to its highest potential.”

When Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) convenes its annual convention in Montreal this month, there will be one major difference between it and every convention that has preceded it: The acronym DMAI will no longer be the correct designation for the organization. Starting with the 2017 meeting, the group’s official name will change to Destinations International — DI.

Destinations International

Chairman Gary C. Sherwin, who also serves as president and CEO of Visit Newport Beach, California, and DMAI President and CEO Don Welsh, made the announcement in March during the 2017 CEO Summit, which took place in Nashville with more than 180 in attendance. The announcement was met with a standing ovation, which came as something of a surprise to DMAI leadership. Since then, the team has received consistent feedback that this was a great name and direction for the association.

It was all part of a thoughtful process. From October through December 2016, a DMAI team worked on the new organization name research and strategy. “Destination” or “Destinations” was the foundation for all of the name considerations, and there were quite a few in the beginning, according to Melissa Cherry, DMAI’s chief marketing officer. The process included brainstorming sessions with the team, legal searches, name testing with key stakeholders and a competitive review of other associations. Once there was a final recommendation, it was shared with the DMAI Board of Directors for approval in November 2016.

In case you’re wondering, a number of rather famous entities have also gone down the name-change route with great success: Datsun became Nissan, BackRub became Google and Apple Computers shortened its name to just Apple without confusing consumers for a nanosecond.

But changing a name is just one aspect of a rebranding process, whether for a corporation or an association. For DMAI, it’s really about better serving its stakeholders by strengthening, clarifying and refocusing its mission and goals, the work it does, and, ultimately, its future.

“We realize we are a trade organization, not a marketing organization. Our members are the marketers. This is exactly why we felt the need to rebrand the organization,” Welsh says. “Our efforts go far beyond a sharp new logo and a new name. Together with our members and partners, Destinations International represents a powerful, forward-thinking, collaborative association (committed to) exchanging bold ideas, connecting innovative people and excelling tourism to its highest potential.”

As part of this collaborative process, DMAI conducted an extensive brand review over many months, which included stakeholder interviews and a deep analysis of key operational facets of the association. It began in July 2016 with the launch of the first of several planning sessions to review past and current initiatives with the goal of building a new framework for the organization in 2017 and beyond. During the review process, the team collectively established a new vision, mission and value proposition, which in turn led to a new business plan for 2017.

Sherwin says that the collaborative process itself, as well as the resulting new brand focus developed during that process, “reflect the broader dimension of our organization.”

Coming Changes

In keeping with that broader dimension, the new name is just one of a full roster of changes that will take place in the coming months, changes that reflect the new DMAI brand — what it represents and how the organization intends to operate going forward.

The association’s long look inward revealed many things, but none more compelling than the understanding that change would necessarily include a greater focus on member needs. “We are fundamentally changing the way in which we operate,” Sherwin has said, “and that begins with consistent engagement with our members.”

Welsh provides a deeper context for that intentional shift. “The mission for the organization is to empower our members so that their destinations excel,” he says. “Together with the support of the Destination & Travel Foundation (which also is undergoing a name change and will become the Destinations International Foundation in July), we support more than 600 official member destination organizations and Convention and Visitor Bureaus (CVBs) in more than 15 countries. We do that with resources, research, networking opportunities, professional development and certification programs. Since we announced a strategic organizational realignment nearly one year ago to date, we have been and remain keenly focused on listening to what our members want, need and are willing to support.”

Welsh says that during the initial stages of an ongoing listening tour by the association’s leadership team, which visited with more than 300 members and partners throughout the year, “a few things were heard over and over again.”

Four Core Needs

Among them were four core needs expressed by stakeholders that ultimately emerged as a foundation on which to build positive change. First, the need for stronger advocacy on behalf of destination organizations and CVBs; second, the need for research to assist with strategic planning, return on investment (ROI), relevancy to stakeholders and advocacy for funding; third, the need for education, standards and best practices; and finally, the need for more peer-to-peer networking.

“A vibrant and engaged member community is the cornerstone of both the association and the foundation,” Welsh says. “The member-centric culture that DMAI/Destinations International has now instituted across all departments is core to the success of the new brand positioning and to the overall messaging for the association. By delivering on the stated value proposition, stakeholders in turn will feel engaged, valued and empowered.”

To ensure that continued engagement, Welsh says several goals are in place and will be a focus throughout 2017. Destinations International will:

• Continue the ongoing listening tour to further engage members and collect feedback to prioritize and evaluate all initiatives.
• Develop and share research, data and tools that support ROI, exemplify relevance to stakeholders and provide advocacy for funding.
• Focus on drawing members into a higher level of investment and participation in professional and organizational development opportunities.
• Clearly convey the role of the foundation to deliver value on member investment and support of the foundation’s efforts to support the association’s initiatives to empower destination organizations and CVBs through education, research and advocacy.

Four Key Pillars

These initiatives tie into Destination International’s four key “pillars,” which now help define the organization and pinpoint its focus for the weeks and months ahead. The pillars are Community, Advocacy, Research and Education. Welsh says there are a variety of programs and goals within each pillar that clarify how members will benefit going forward.

Community: In terms of Community, he states, “We intend to become connection central; our members will be connected through knowledge sharing.” That is where community and education meet. “Destinations International is fully committed to supporting entry-level through CEOs,” Welsh says.

Advocacy: Becoming a voice for the organizations represented by Destinations International members is at the heart of advocacy efforts. “We will be the collective voice for destination organizations and CVBs,” Welsh says. “We will empower destinations on issues big and small. Our online Advocacy toolbox will feature advocacy crisis-communications plan templates, a case-studies library, a policy briefs library and more.”

Research: Also central to Destination International’s stated mission,   there is a lot going on in terms of how research will be front and center in the coming months.

“We will continue to deliver forward-focus and relevant data,” Welsh says. “We are thrilled to have Andreas Weissenborn on board as director of research and analytics, working alongside Jack Johnson, our chief advocacy officer. During our listening tour with members and partners, we consistently heard the need for research to assist with the creation of strategic plans, the ability to communicate return on investment, advocacy for funding and other means of support, and to truly be recognized as the brand manager of the destination. Filling this need has become a major initiative for the Destination & Travel Foundation. Andreas’ familiarity with the nature and needs of a DMO, a strong working knowledge of current and past research work at DMAI, his thoughts on how to improve those as well as new projects to undertake made him a clear choice.”

Weissenborn and Johnson will work together to expand the research library, which will include association and foundation research reports, destination-related research, an external resource research library, destination industry resources and more.

Education: And finally, Welsh states, in terms of education, Destinations International “will be the definitive resource for professional development and destination management,” and there will be a strong component of increasing “next-generation professional development” for the growing number of younger members. “All of our educational efforts are being led by Colleen Phalen, a proven industry leader,” he says, “along with the recent addition of Haydee Barno, in the new role of director of education. We are in the process of developing an enhanced suite of education-based programs with entry level (PDM) up to the CEO level. CDME continues to be the hallmark of our industry’s commitment to education and we will build upon it.”

Two of the critical programs for 2017 that Destinations International will continue are geared for those younger industry professionals Welsh spoke of. They are the 30 Under 30 program and the Apprenticeship Program, both supported by the Destination & Travel Foundation. The 2017 Apprenticeship Program is a 600-hour program with the goal to help create a culturally and socially reflective tourism industry. The 30 Under 30 program offers 30 young industry professionals under the age of 30 the opportunity to attend the organization’s 2017 convention in Montreal, and take part in expanded networking and professional development throughout the year.

Additional educational programs are being developed this year and are expected to launch in 2018 and beyond.

International Growth

All of the association’s ongoing strategic goals remain relevant to what members want, need and are willing to support. These include building on strategic partnerships while at the same time transforming the association’s partnership business model in order to create beneficial solutions for destination organizations, partners and DMAI itself, and expanding the organization’s international footprint to grow membership, non-dues revenue and global impact.

Welsh says the focus on international growth will be seen in part in the form of “new and enhanced destination tools through which we will collectively align, brand and market a suite of ‘best practice’ destination products.”

As an example, Welsh points to DNEXT and the Event Impact Calculator (EIC), which continue to be relevant for destinations in all parts of the globe. “All destination organizations require metrics and ROI,” he says. “We intend to grow the EIC to ensure that it is the industry standard. We’ll do that by working with and collaborating with other industry organizations.”

Additionally, he says, “We are working internationally with ECM, Europe, Canada, Australia, Mexico and Colombia to provide the products, services and education that they need. We will develop and launch DestinationFIRST, a new product that will provide destinations with the guidance and resources they need to establish a new destination organization.”

Membership on the Rise

Growth is, in fact, part of an overall strategy that is already working. While many associations face declining membership these days, Welsh says that DMAI membership is on the rise. “DMAI’s membership base continues to grow. We have added approximately 50 new members and we continue to work with all of our members, from the smallest budgeted destination organization to the largest, to provide value to all. Our model starts with the forward goal of domestic and international growth for our destination members,” Welsh continues.

“With that organizational membership comes the benefits and delivery of a value proposition that reaches all levels of membership, from entry level to CEO,” he says. To that end, the association plans to deliver more opportunities through new and refreshed education programs, the annual convention and its industry summits. And in keeping with the goals of continued growth, providing added value and increasing engagement with members, Welsh says Destinations International will also “elevate the Destination Marketing Accreditation Program (DMAP).”

Like other associations, DMAI has made an effort to keep dues increases to a minimum, yet membership dues are, according to Welsh, “a strong revenue component” for the organization. That has made increasing existing revenue streams and finding new revenue streams all the more important.

“We are looking for more corporate partners globally and we are increasing revenues from our current events, summits, our annual convention and new events and summits that our members have deemed important,” Welsh says.

Crisis Management

Yet with all of the focus on change and innovation, it’s important to note that DMAI also continues to do what it has always done, including being ready when necessary to step in and help its members facing crisis.

Cherry notes that the team works under the mantra that there are no “little” plans. “One of the first things that was critical to implementation of the new strategic plan was to make sure that the organization could also continue to be nimble to what members need now,” she says. “From the travel bans to travel boycotts or public and private funding challenges, the team works hard to balance moving forward with the strategic plan while also being there to put boots on the ground when crisis strikes for any of our members.”

Of all the components of the rebranding effort, strategic plan and name change, Cherry says one of the most important pieces has been that process itself. “It was critical that there was a thoughtful and engaged process from beginning to launch to implementation,” she says.

If a thoughtful, thorough, engaged collaborative process and forward thinking ensures success, then Destinations International is looking at a rosy and productive future, indeed.C&IT

ASAE’s annual Xperience Design Project helps attendees think differently about meetings. Credit: ASAE

In this ever more distracted and distractible world, meeting and event planners find themselves on a continual quest for new and innovative ways to capture attendees’ attention and hold it long enough to drive home the meeting’s message. The most successful at this are planners who become disciples of experiential event design.

For Erin Fontana, CMP, meeting and event manager at Special D Events, the design of an event is critical to driving attendee engagement and experience. “The discipline of meeting architecture allows planners to build an event based on the desired outcomes, whether that is improved learning, additional networking, attendee engagement or increased ROI for the host organization,” Fontana says.

In today’s digitally focused world where everyone is tethered to their cellphones, executing events in which attendees truly engage can be challenging.

As Vicky Fairhurst, executive producer at Bishop-McCann explains, there are many barriers to attendee engagement; we are all bombarded with hundreds of distractions every day and not just from the smartphone in our pocket. As a result, attendees are rarely truly present in the moment.

“Whilst being present is the subject of many books on happiness, few of us ultimately practice the notion,” Fairhurst says. “Our attention spans are shortening, and many of us feel the pressure to multitask at every moment of the day, leaving little headspace for engaging in a single task.”

Gone are the days of sitting in a ballroom with a number of speakers taking turns to use the lectern. Today’s participants expect events to reflect their day-to-day lives and the challenges that come with a highly connected lifestyle. Smart event planners mix up the event format with different communication techniques to appeal to all types of learners. Workshops, panel discussions, video content, expos, gamification and interactive keynotes all strive to shake attendees out of their sometimes passive mindset and create a more active and collaborative level of participation, which results in increased learning.

“The proliferation of media has resulted in highly fragmented brand communication,” Fairhurst says. “Despite the number of digital and virtual ways to connect, humans will always need face-to-face interaction to develop emotional connections.” This is evidenced by the increased proportion of marketing budgets being assigned to relationship, experiential marketing and event design.

Event Personas and Personalization

And different people find different things engaging, which also adds to the challenge. Maritz Global Events, which includes the Experient and Maritz Travel divisions, encourages the development of “personas” for each event they design.

Karen Watson, senior director of strategic events at Experient, explains that personas are not segments and not based on demographics, but instead help identify groups of people who share the same or similar attitudes, behaviors and motivations.

At a recent conference, Watson developed a “journey map” that outlined specific elements each day of the conference based on their appeal to the different personas her team had identified for the conference. For example, for the “Be-Wellster,” they highlighted the “yoga with the dolphins” and “morning run” along with specific menu items available on a certain break as well as meditations offered each day. For the “Post-Master,” they highlighted the conference hashtag and great photo opportunity locations based on entertainment or physical sets. For the “Best Practitioner,” they identified specific sessions available or peer-networking opportunities.

“The journey map is like a shortcut to helping guests identify those elements of the program that might best appeal to them, but it certainly doesn’t limit them for trying out everything,” Watson says.

Engagement With Speakers

“Different event elements can appeal — and thus engage — different people throughout the event,” Watson says. One of her pet peeves includes speakers who strictly speak at attendees and don’t try to incorporate opportunities for audience participation. This can include asking attendees to discuss a point they just made with the person next to them to building in real-time polling and Q&A.

One programming element that Dominique Nguyen, meeting planner at EventMates, recommends to increase engagement is a tool called “Question Ranking.” This involves attendees asking questions from their device of choice and voting for the ones they like the most.

“It facilitates audience interaction without them having to ‘take the mic,’ ” Nguyen says. “Tee-up questions can be pre-populated to spark interest among attendees and encourage them to add their own questions.”

Watson says, “It’s harder and harder to keep people’s attention, so you have to work at incorporating different things into presentations. This can even apply to entertainment at evening events. People want to participate, which you can build into more interactive food and beverage stations or food events that are educational.”

For years, Watson and the Maritz Global Events team have worked to make the content at events more interactive and dialogue-based. One of the challenges with this is that not all presenters are good facilitators.

“Facilitation is most often a separate skill set,” Watson says. “So while it makes the conference more valuable, because it drives engagement among and between the participants, it can make developing the content and finding the right presenter or facilitator more difficult.”

Build in Flexibility

To further positive engagement outcomes, Maritz Global Events builds schedules that allow people to be more flexible in how they spend their time.

“In the past we never would have had ‘competing’ elements, but now we acknowledge that some people are going to be distracted by a business emergency and be called out of a session. We design seating areas in the public space to allow for these side conversations, but in addition to this, we design elements of the event where everything doesn’t follow the exact schedule,” Watson says. “Some sessions may run 60 minutes, some may run 90 minutes, and some elements are available throughout the conference. This allows people to engage as they choose and personalize their experience.”

Engaging the Senses

Robert Fowler, managing partner and senior vice president of CatalystCreativ, an experience studio in event marketing, has had the opportunity of working with The Nature Conservancy on their last three annual trustee summits in Washington, DC. The meeting is a multiday event that takes place in a windowless ballroom. CatalystCreativ uses air-purification systems, live plant material and trees to make the space feel more alive.

“Touching on all the senses with every event is so important,” Fowler says. “Some days we even add nature sounds during walk-ins and transitions to make attendees feel like they are outside.”

New Configurations and Formats

Conferences today are packed with so many sessions and events, it is difficult to compete for and win an attendee’s full focus and attention even in the sessions they decide to attend. Fowler has found that keeping events as small as possible is best and using discussion circles where attendees can all see each other instead of sitting behind tables is ideal. Of course, the constant need to stay connected via cellphones, tablets and laptops makes it more difficult to hold attention.

“When attendees do not have a table to ‘hide’ behind, there is more engagement,” Fowler says. “And please, no panels. We have found that panels are the least engaging way to present information. Use formats like fireside chats where someone from your organization interviews a guest, or have speakers give TED-style talks that last less than 15 minutes and get straight to the point of the content.”

Fontana suggests setting the meeting room in crescent rounds instead of classroom style. This fosters a networking environment by being able to see and speak with several people at once rather than one or two people in a standard classroom setup.

Surprise and Delight Moments

Offering “surprise and delight” moments throughout an event also encourages attendees to explore what else might be in store for them. These moments can range from something simple like offering an unexpected catering item to a surprise appearance by a top music artist.

Fontana says incorporating CSR activities into a meeting also can be very beneficial. Activities such as a “build-a-bike” challenge can double as a teambuilding activity as well. “If your event is hosted in a new location each year, volunteering with a local community organization, such as a food pantry, can help attendees feel engaged and that they are making an impact in that community during their time there,” Fontana says.

Anne Churchill, CMP, owner of AnnaBelle Events and Jubilee Planning Studio, says visuals are vital for engagement and experiential event design — this could be entertainment, a live band, food that’s interactive or a photo booth.

“When a motivational speaker is involved, it may involve having screens that stream the speaker, so no matter where an attendee is in the room, they can see the presentation,” Churchill says. “Planners should always go into each event visualizing its setup, as an attendee. Are interactive signs needed? Hostesses to direct guests? Or even a fun, playful map when they arrive?”

Planners need to always think of making a “wow” first impression and then evaluate the flow of the event for the attendees. How are the attendees going to naturally experience the event? One rule of thumb Churchill always uses is making sure attendees make their way through the entire event before finding a place to “land” or sit.

“That way, they see everything offered to them, and we encourage movement and mingling, rather than people going straight to their seats and staying there all night,” Churchill says.

Mobile Apps and Social Media

Technology is a must for any meeting or event. All attendees are “plugged in,” so that is often the best way to get in front of them. One core component of experiential design is developing an event app. This keeps event information at attendees’ fingertips and allows them to communicate with planners, who can give them real-time feedback. Planners can use the app to push event previews, notifications of schedule changes and other ongoing information.

As audiences at events skew younger, it’s vital to incorporate social media. This includes using Snapchat geofilters for the event or creating Instagram scavenger hunts. For example, Watson recently orchestrated a scavenger hunt that reinforced the objectives and theme of the conference.

“We didn’t hit them over the head with it — but just built it into the images we were asking them to capture,” Watson says. “We also were able to tease upcoming elements of the event based on the 10 things we had asked them to find during the event and post on Instagram. Gamification has been around but now it’s a matter of utilizing social media for it.”

As part of the gamification process, planners can keep track of statistics, including how many played the game or how many images were posted, how many people downloaded the app, etc. All this data shows different levels of engagement and participation and how effective the experiential design of the event has been.

“Using a mobile app can also create a sense of community among attendees,” Fontana says. “They can share their thoughts in real time on the activity feed as well as through various social media outlets. Plan to launch at least a month before your event to start conversations among attendees and build up excitement to the big day. Post-conference, attendees will also have the app community to continue the conversation.”

Of course, most people attend a meeting or event to connect and learn. The experiential design embedded in social media facilitates both of these goals. Oscar Godwin Osei, meeting planner at EventMates, says social media tools, from a simple event hashtag to a Snapcode, enable attendees to easily connect with other attendees and receive easy-to-share information.

“When programming an event, schedule key content elements to be shared throughout the event,” Osei says. “Infographics, quotes, videos, slides, info bites — information keeps guests engaged and coming back for more. Offer behind-the-scenes footage and recaps of the day, to drive attendee engagement well after the event is complete.”

Osei also adds elements of fun: “Selfie stations continue to draw high participation rates. Include a hashtag sign holder, and you have the built-in ‘share.’ Show the pictures during the breaks and have attendees vote for the best selfie.”

According to Justin Markle, who functions as director of sales and marketing at the Duke Energy Convention Center for venue management company Spectra by Comcast Spectacor, event apps allow for direct networking with those attending the same meeting.

“Most events can create an event-specific hashtag,” Markle says. “Promoting this prior to the event allows for additional networking before attendees arrive. This hashtag can be monitored by attendees, and they can see who else is talking about it, giving them an opportunity to connect beforehand.”

Connecting Before, During and After

From social media to face-to-face activities, most elements during an event enhance engagement. But planners work to engage attendees before and after the event as well. Watson says the follow-up is important. Is it a postcard after the event? Video slideshow of photos from the event? Or perhaps it involves sharing content on the app or a post-event website, both of which provide the opportunity for guests to continue to engage with the event.

What’s the ROI?

Effective experiential event design ties into impressions and event ROI.

“While ROI is already difficult to measure in events, it’s a key indicator in the results,” Nguyen says. “If attendees are engaged in meetings, it will lead to more conversations, new ideas, problems solved and, ultimately, more business.”

For many corporate events, and definitely the ones that Watson manages, networking is one of the key objectives of the event. This can be between peers (staff who need to work better together) and supplier/vendor (to develop relationships that will continue to benefit after the event).

“In order to deliver better networking and relationship-building, you have to build in engagement opportunities throughout,” Watson says. “We have survey questions that ask the number of new relationships formed during the event. Looking at these numbers shows us if we have been able to deliver on the engagement necessary.”

Creating memorable experiences is a way to help solidify the attendees’ meeting or event experiences long after the event is over. Attendees may not remember all the content from an event, but if they see, do or experience something out of the ordinary, that will stick with them.

“Those cool experiences become associated with your brand and your company,” Fontana says. “This can lead to higher levels of employee engagement. As we move into the future of meetings, I see it becoming more and more interactive. There will be less speaker-to-audience delivery and more two-way interactive conversations. This interactive approach will invite attendees to take a more active role. C&IT

For decades, famous and time-honored European destinations such as London, Rome and Paris have been wildly popular among meeting planners and attendees. Over the last year — and just last month in Manchester, England — a series of terrorist attacks has prompted increasing security concerns that have markedly dampened enthusiasm for some destinations.

Yet it’s also true that aside from the security concerns that have recently become a factor in destination decision-making, the market for European meetings is evolving and growing, says Pittsburgh-based Teri Curry, CMP, CIS, CTC, CMMM, senior international sourcing manager at Maritz Global Events. “Companies are becoming more global, so a lot of mid-range companies are opening offices in foreign destinations and doing local meetings in those destinations,” Curry says. “But for companies that source international meetings in the U.S., they are still primarily incentive programs or meetings being held by large global companies, such as technology or pharmaceutical companies.” But, she says, the meetings portion of the market is growing and will continue to grow.

Up and Down Demand

Nevertheless, demand that was robust for European destinations for the last two years is down slightly this year, Curry says. “For the last couple of years, demand has been very strong, because of the strength of the dollar and the obvious appeal of European destinations,” she says. “And as a result of Brexit last year, both the British pound sterling and the Euro fell drastically in comparison to the dollar, so that gave U.S. companies strong buying power and enhanced any interest in Europe that already existed. And that buying power is still there.”

“Our situation, when it comes to European meetings, has not changed at all. For us, there is no hesitation to go to Europe.”
— Sharon L. Schenk, CMP

But growing security concerns have dampened the enthusiasm of many U.S. companies for European events. “For Paris or some places in Germany, security concerns are definitely a major factor, Curry says. “But for other places, like London, where the environment is very stable right now and the buying power is strong, demand is still strong.”

Asked to comment on whether last month’s terrorist attack on Manchester Arena would impact decisions to hold meetings 200 miles south in London, Curry responds, “I think the political and economic environments in London are still stable. I think that the attack in Manchester is a sad statement that nowhere is 100 percent safe in the ‘civilized world.’ …We can’t let what happened yesterday prevent us from living tomorrow.”

Despite the security concerns about European travel that have generated newspaper headlines and TV coverage in the U.S. this spring, Sharon L. Schenk, CMP, director, conventions and event management at corporate conglomerate CCA Global Partners in Manchester, New Hampshire, is still enthusiastic about Continental destinations for the incentive travel programs she plans.

“Our situation, when it comes to European meetings, has not changed at all,” Schenk says. “For us, there is no hesitation to go to Europe. We are still very interested in taking our incentive programs to international destinations, and Europe has always been popular with our attendees and it always will be.”

However, she does acknowledge that, in general, “there is more trepidation about going to Europe than there used to be. For example, I think the recent bombing in Manchester, U.K., is certainly going to have an impact on how people perceive Europe and the climate there. And part of that is the acts of violence we’ve all seen on TV. But at the same time, there have been acts of violence that have happened within the U.S. (Terrorism) is just a reality now.”

Schenk also points out that one can make an argument that much of the current sense of danger in Europe is more perceptual than real, based on statistics. “But the perception is what matters, since most people are more ruled by emotions than facts, she says.” In addition, the U.S. media makes the problem worse by hyping terror attacks around the clock for days and even weeks after the event, she says.

Travel Warning

However, Schenk acknowledges that the unprecedented travel warning issued by the U.S. State Department on May 1 — for all of Europe — understandably increases the perception of danger and accentuates security concerns for both companies and attendees. “And that’s not the media saying there are safety concerns,” Schenk says. “That’s our government saying it. So naturally, that is going to have more impact on international travel. And, in a general way, I can’t see how that won’t have a negative effect on demand for European meeting destinations. There are just going to be some companies that say ‘we’re not going to even consider going to Europe while that is in effect.’  “

To make matters even worse for prospective meeting hosts and planners wanting to go to Europe, the State Department advisory singled out airports, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs and shopping malls as high-risk venues.

The warning has particularly exacerbated security concerns for historically popular destinations such as Paris. “And because of that,” Curry says, “I think a company would have to do a lot more now to sell Paris as a destination. For example, at the very least they’d have to provide information on what has been done to enhance the safety of visitors and what measures the company will be taking to keep their attendees safe.”

As result, she recently saw a client choose to avoid Paris. A meeting proposed for the City of Light was relocated to Barcelona. “And why did they change their minds?” Curry says. “Because they got opposition from top management to doing the meeting in Paris because of security concerns.”

Expert Advice

For meeting hosts or planners who want to use a European destination, the important thing is to understand the underlying issues and make an informed decision, says Tim Bradley, a former FBI agent who now works as a consultant to Pembroke Pines, Florida-based travel security advisory firm Incident Management Group Inc. “The fact is, it’s hard to determine where the risk is,” Bradley says. “For example, with regard to the police officer that was recently shot in Paris, does that increase the risk of going to Paris? In a general sense, it’s hard to quantify risk. On the same day the police officer was shot in Paris, two were shot in Seattle. And we didn’t hear as much about that. So part of the discussion becomes about how much media coverage is doing to perpetuate the sense of risk.”

Christopher Hagon, Incident Management Group’s Orlando-based managing partner and a former member of the protective detail for Britain’s royal family, amplifies the media-hyped perception issue with a specific example. “A few years ago, we did the security planning for a President’s Club-level event in Paris,” he says. “And just prior to the trip, the London bus and subway bombings happened. And if you watched the BBC presentation of those events, compared to CNN, you wouldn’t believe you were seeing two reports of the same attacks. And of course, people in the U.S. were watching CNN and not the BBC.

“The point is that London is a large city of 820 square miles. And people who were just three or four streets away had no idea the attacks had even happened until they saw the police cars and so on. But for our group, the discussion was immediately about whether or not to cancel the trip to London, which would have cost millions of dollars to do. We explained to them that we had contacts in the security services in London. And we told them we could modify the comprehensive plan that was already in place in order to meet the changing circumstances on the ground. We also told them that we did not believe the risk in the future would impact them. But at the same time, the decision was being made on the basis of the coverage of the London attacks being provided by the U.S. media.

“However, once they were presented with our expertise and information, they decided to go forward with the program. And they did so safely.” 
Nevertheless, Bradley adds, “There is definitely risk in going to Europe right now. And when you have a U.S. company doing an incentive trip to Europe for several hundred people or more, and they have leisure time to wander around on their own, keeping track of them and being able to locate them quickly if there is some kind of attack is the key element of preparing for these events. And the more time you put into planning and preparation, the more prepared you are, by definition, for anything that could happen. And whether the risk is real or not, the indisputable part of the issue is that people do not feel as safe going to Europe today as they did a few years ago. And that’s a fact. So that means more needs to be done so that people can feel safe.”

Given the risks and potential liability of a terrorist attack, the ideal situation is to have an expert security consultancy such as Incident Management Group get involved in the threat assessment and planning process even before the destination and the hotel are finalized, Bradley says. “No decision should have been made yet on activities or excursions, either. That gives us a chance to assess and vet the entire experience, as it is being discussed and considered. The point is to avoid any kind of decision that can in and of itself put people at risk.”

The next step is detailed contingency planning. “You answer questions such as, ‘What do we do if this happens? What do we do if that happens? How do we get in touch with people?’ And one of the things that we find most companies have overlooked when they come to us is a medical plan. And that doesn’t just mean in the event of a terrorist attack. It means an attendee stepping off the curb and spraining their ankle, or having a heart attack. And those kinds of common medical emergencies are much more likely than a terrorist attack.”

As a practical matter, the key component of a security plan is for attendees to know that in the event of a terrorist incident, they can be located and accounted for quickly and efficiently, and their loved ones back home can be notified quickly and efficiently that they are safe.

As a result of that fundamental need, five years ago Incident Management Group developed a proprietary, innovative and patented “FoneTrac” smartphone system that performs the key function of accounting for attendees in real time in the event of an emergency. “What clients like about it is that is it very robust,” Hagon says. “It tends to work almost everywhere, unless there is no Wi-Fi available. It’s also a simple system. It’s built to account for people as quickly as possible and then, in turn, to inform their loved ones back in the U.S. of their status. And those are by far the two most important practical functions in an emergency situation.”

Subjective Decision-making

Just as is the case with other elements of meeting planning, there can be no hard and fast rule that dictates how decisions should be made about using a European destination. Each company must base its decision on its own unique factors.

“For example,” Curry says, “one big factor is who your attendees are. Young people, in the high tech field, or more sophisticated and well-traveled  industries like financial services, tend to see a trip to Europe, and even to Paris, as more of an adventure than a risk. On the other hand, a major company that is going to be discussing sensitive information at the meeting, is probably going to be less likely to consider what is perceived as a risky destination. So I think the decision often comes down to the type of attendees and the type of meeting.”

All planners understand that if a company is doing an incentive program, they’re going to want to take their people to some place where they can either see or experience something that they would generally not easily have the ability to experience on their own, Curry notes. “And the good news in that regard is that Europe currently offers a wonderful range of less well known destinations that deliver both safety and a strong value proposition.”

One current example Curry likes: Dubrovnik, Croatia. “It’s a destination that is pretty exotic,” she says. “It’s one that most people would not think about traveling to on their own. And it’s very safe because it has a very stable government. Most of all, it’s a real medieval city with a lot of great history and architecture. It also has an incredibly beautiful coastline. The HBO show “Game of Thrones” is filmed here, so it’s the kind of place that will get people really excited. It has good hotel product and also offers a very good value proposition. So, it’s a good example of the great European destinations that are out there that are unique and safe.”

Other current examples of European destinations that offer safety, exotic appeal, and good value are Prague and Budapest, Curry says. “And then there are the destinations, like Lisbon, Portugal, that are also exotic, but also known to most people. And there is a lot going on in Portugal now that is very interesting. It’s just a great destination for a meeting or incentive program.”

Schenk will use Lisbon as the destination next year for a 600-attendee incentive program.

“Our people have never been to Lisbon and they’re super-excited about going there,” Schenk says. “And from a planner’s perspective, Lisbon is exotic. It offers very good value. It’s safe. It also has very good meeting infrastructure for the size of the group I’m bringing over. And you don’t always find that in the less well-known European destinations. And when it comes to Lisbon, the best thing is I have not gotten any negative feedback from our top management or our attendees about going there.”

Despite all the current chatter about the risks of going to Europe, Schenk says, there is a reality about destination selection that will endure forever. “When I look at destinations, I try to find a place we haven’t gone,” she says. “Then I try to get a sense of the infrastructure as it relates to the type and size of the program we’re doing. And when it comes to European programs, that is always a consideration, because we’re an American company with American employees. And we want the level of property and service that Americans are used to. And if you’re going to a less well-known or smaller European destination, you have to pay attention to those things. But it’s a fact that Europe has always been popular for meetings. And that will never change.” C&IT

The intimate courtyard of Broussard’s, an iconic New Orleans restaurant since 1920. Credit: ©Barrett DeLong-Church, courtesy of Hosts New Orleans

For many visitors, cuisine is what defines the New Orleans experience. Creole, Cajun and Southern soul cooking form the culinary backbone, but the city’s sophisticated denizens have successfully lured fine chefs from other regions to set up shop and develop a food scene that is smart and trend-defying. Others will point to the city’s robust cultural heritage, where the collision of French, Spanish and African influences produce one of America’s most distinct societies.

Some will reflect on the architecture of New Orleans — the French Quarter, the Garden District, the elevated European-style cemeteries — as defining what makes this city so special. And New Orleans’ musical heritage is undeniable: The Crescent City was the birthplace of jazz, and today the clubs and other venues remain well-stocked with a long roster of full-time musicians who happily share their craft with visitors.

“One of the key things we want to include…is New Orleans music in all its forms. …We’ve decided to use jazz as a common thread that flows through the entire forum.”
— Terry Epton

Individually or in tandem, these are among the attributes that can be woven into a successful meeting program in this great Southern city. They are among the assets that will distinguish a New Orleans gathering from the location of any previous setting meeting groups may have experienced.

Consider the plans Hosts New Orleans president Terry Epton, CIS, CITE, DMCP, is finalizing for the HGA Global Forum in June.

“The city has so many things to choose from, and if you have a mediocre event you’ll lose your attendees,” explains Epton. “One of the key things we want to include at the Hosts Global Forum is New Orleans music in all its forms. In coordination with Cara Banasch from the CVB we’ve decided to use jazz as a common thread that flows through the entire forum. It will range from school children performing to award-winning performance groups, but there won’t be any commercial jazz plug-ins.

“One night we’ll have Mardi Gras Indians with two tribes coming together at Jackson Square, followed by a jazz performance by Kermit Ruffins and Grammy-winner Irving Mayfield at Le Petit Théâtre Du Vieux Carré, the oldest community theater in America. After the performance, we’ll reveal a courtyard next door which leads into the restaurant Tableau, where we will use the entire facility. After dinner, we’ll do another parade featuring imbedded street performers.

“They’re going to get a taste of what life in New Orleans is like,” adds Epton. “But you need an awesome DMC to pull this off, a company that’s tapped into the local scene, to be able to get this kind of quality experience.”

Fortunately, not only does New Orleans have locally based DMCs, but the city’s convention and visitors bureau encourages a dialogue during the sales process, to tap into the city’s wealth of heritage.

The CVB Is a Great Partner

“We have so many resources we can customize, so for something like music we find out, what are the goals,” says Cara Banasch, MBA, senior vice president of sales and strategy for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. “For instance, we identify where are the places we can drop in music as a surprise-and-delight moment. Most of our musicians are from New Orleans, and they can create a very authentic, welcome statement at the start of a meeting. At a coffee break, as long as it’s not too loud, why not have it as an enhancement, or to transition from one space to the next? Second lines and brass bands can also be integrated into almost any movement — it gets groups away from air horns and xylophones.”

We already know New Orleans as a one-of-a-kind in America, but these are the kind of localized touches that make the city a memorable convention and meeting destination. And the numbers bear that out.

In 2016, visitors spent $7.41 billion dollars in New Orleans, a 5.1 percent increase over the visitor spending record set in 2015. The city hosted a record-breaking 10.45 million visitors in 2016, the highest number since 2004 and a 6.9 percent increase compared to 2015. The meeting business appears to be growing apace.

“In 2015 we did about 300 corporate events,” says Banasch. “In 2016, we were up by about 10 percent, and for 2017 so far we’re already up about 20 percent.”

Over the years, New Orleans has repeatedly had to rediscover and renew itself, most notably following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2006. As Banasch explains: “There’s been a necessity to reinvent ourselves, and through that, we’ve become one of the premiere hubs for entrepreneurialism and start-ups. We’ve always had a lot of locally owned businesses and boutiques — when you’re buying clothing or art, you’re often buying it from the person who owns the store, or maybe even designed it.

“In the corporate world you hear about reinvention and disruption. But when you think about it, that’s what New Orleans is about, and I think a lot of businesses look to us as a space where they can take inspiration from the local culture.”

One asset destined for reinvention is the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. An all-new, nearly $1 billion state-of-the-art terminal for the airport is under construction and set to open in early 2019. Originally planned for 30 gates, in January the city announced the airport would construct an additional five gates to accommodate increasing demand, which has led to a 7 percent increase in seats into the airport this year. In March, British Airways launched a nonstop flight from London-Heathrow; in May, Condor Airlines debuted a seasonal flight from Frankfurt.

Access and Service Are Key

That kind of access is vital for many of the corporate groups New Orleans seeks to lure, and it was a key reason the city was a good fit for Sheila Fuzy, president of Fishers, Indiana-based Fuzion Training, Marketing and Communications, who has organized several programs for a luxury automotive manufacturer in the city, most recently in May.

“New Orleans was the perfect location for these events, as it is centrally located,” explains Fuzy. “The majority of our participants were able to travel in on direct flights.”

But another part of the equation for Fuzy was identifying a meeting property she could partner with over successive events, and she found it in the Hotel Monteleone, where she says the entire team was “committed to assisting us in executing our vision.” That vision involved a number of unique requirements.

“I’ll give you a few examples,” says Fuzy. “For the first program we worked with the hotel on, we decided to have a parade with our clients’ vehicles. We conducted the parade eight times over the course of the time that we were there. This required us to work closely with the hotel as they had all of the contacts we needed, ranging from city permitting to close down Royal Street, Canal Street and Bourbon Street, to sourcing bands, dancers, etc.

“In addition, we had a vision for the dinner reception that was a bit different than what the hotel’s catering team had executed in the past. We wanted it to be very free-flowing, so guests could mingle while enjoying local cuisine. The hotel executed flawlessly. There were various stations set up in the ballroom that allowed guests to sample at their leisure versus in a traditional sit-down dinner.

“For the second event,” Fuzy continues, “our concept was to project a map on the building across the street, and the Hotel Monteleone again jumped into action. We had to remove several windows in the building in order to accommodate the projection equipment. In addition, the hotel assisted in working with the owner of the building to set up a lease agreement to utilize the property to display our client’s products. This required removal of storefront glass, and permitting to shut down Royal Street. We also used the marquee above the hotel to showcase our band. This was something that had not been done before.

“Sometime hotel properties are hesitant to let you do things like this,” adds Fuzy. “The Hotel Monteleone was all about helping us figure out how to make it happen.”

Built in 1886 on Royal Street in the heart of the French Quarter, the 570-room Monteleone offers more than 24,000 sf of meeting space, ranging from breakout rooms to the 6,236-sf La Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom. The hotel’s famed, 25-seat Carousel Bar has been revolving since 1949 while standards spin — live.

“The event spaces at the Hotel Monteleone are traditional New Orleans, but also allow you a canvas to create a vision,” says Fuzy. “The hotel rooms are again traditional, but upscale and luxurious.” But it’s the service and level of professionalism that Fuzy says keep her coming back.

“The entire team at the Hotel Monteleone is absolutely amazing. Sales Manager Lisa Thompson is simply one of the best in the business, and I cannot say enough about how thorough Lisa is or the attention to detail she provides. I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and she is one of the best I’ve ever encountered. Kent, Keith and Edie also were an absolute pleasure to work with. Their commitment to ensuring our event was a success was unparalleled and greatly appreciated. I truly feel like the entire staff was an extension of our team. From the front desk, to the doormen, valet staff, chef and catering team.”

Strict Standards of Excellence

Another group that had stringent meeting requirements was Illycaffè, the Italian coffee roaster, which held their annual North American commercial meeting for a group of 100 in New Orleans in 2016.

“Illycaffè is very exclusive brand, and they will only go to venues that rep their company, either through a café inside, or in their banquet rooms,” explains Michelle Johnson, owner of the Anchor Group, which organized the meeting. In New Orleans, just four hotels carry Illy, which narrowed the field considerably, but Johnson was delighted by her final pick, Le Méridien New Orleans. The 410-room hotel has 20 meeting rooms covering more than 20,000 sf of meeting space — all, except for the Grand Ballroom, providing natural light.

“Le Méridien met Illy’s exacting requirements for standards of excellence,” says Johnson, “the customer service levels, their knowledge and experience working with meetings, the cleanliness throughout the hotel. One of the things that impressed me, was that everything in the hotel has something to do with New Orleans. Walking in the front door, there’s a tall wall that stands two floors (high); if you look at it carefully you see it’s a topographical map that shows the evolution of the levees.”

Johnson appreciated how elevators take meeting guests straight from their rooms to the meeting space without having to navigate the lobby. The group took up the whole ballroom for its functions, which meant no dedicated space for breakfast. Instead, the hotel gave Illy the restaurant and made allowances for the group to dine at their convenience each morning. But there were still challenges.

“Illy doesn’t do anything easy,” suggests Johnson. “For them, it’s not just making coffee, it’s an art, and there’s technical and a quality team to set up a full ensemble of equipment. These are not cheap espresso machines — they come to these meetings with a $50,000 mac-daddy machine, and they require water, power, everything. We set it up the day before a meeting starts, break it down the day after — and once you set it up, you don’t want to break it down. The hotel did really well with that.”

The hotel’s main ballroom served for the general session with a stage, breakout room and an awards dinner, for which a Mardi Gras theme was incorporated to bring a masquerade ball to life. By the next morning, the room was converted back for breakout sessions.

Johnson organized two events offsite — one to visit the three other hotels serving Illy and a local Illy café. The attendees were divided up for the site visits, which included entertainment, appetizers and specialty cocktails, and then regrouped for dinner at a local restaurant.

“One of Illy’s main considerations is to try and make sure we immerse the team into the culture of the city,” Johnson adds. “So, Illy does a community service event wherever we go. In New Orleans, we did a beautification project for a school that had lost some of its funding. We used yellow school buses and took them down to 9th Ward to plant trees. It was so inspiring, and the group loved getting their hands dirty.”

Small and Big Groups: All Are Welcome

One of the interesting aspects for New Orleans is that the city’s 28,000 hotel rooms are primarily located in or close to downtown, and 85 percent of them are within walking distance of each other. Many of the hotels are smaller, boutique properties brimming with character and individuality, but with modest meeting space. But although smaller events like the one for Illycaffè are common, the city has its share of big venues as well, including the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, with 1.1 million sf of exhibit space.

But you can go even bigger.

For the annual convention of an insurance client last October, New Orleans-based Kuoni Destination Management was tasked with finding a venue that offered enough space to accommodate seating for a 1,600-person awards dinner as well as a custom stage with extensive lighting, video components and the ability to host a pyrotechnics finale.

Solution: The turf field of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

“The Superdome was chosen based on its size and the wow factor,” says Denise Ferrier Mavor, CMP, Kuoni’s regional manager of sales, central. “Being able to accommodate a 1,600-person seated dinner, along with having the turf down, created a unique experience that offered everything the client was looking for. They needed flexible space, extensive production capabilities, high-level food and beverage service, and an experienced event team that could work through the logistical requirements to ensure a successful event.”

The SMG-managed Superdome is a surprisingly busy space, especially when combined with the adjacent Smoothie King Center, an indoor arena that is home to the NBA Pelicans (and also managed by SMG). Turf events are possible outside of NFL season, August through January, but the Superdome has a variety of other event spaces to offer. These include the 45,000-sf outdoor Champions Square, which features a 60-foot-wide stage, and various indoor function rooms and club lounges.

During negotiations with the Superdome, the sales team informed Kuoni of another confirmed event set to transpire the day prior, right during setup for the client’s Awards Dinner.

“Since the Awards Dinner had extensive production requirements, we needed to work closely with the facility to plan the logistical schedule to accommodate the production pre-rig requirements, loading dock schedules, pre-show storage space for 1,600 chairs and the pre-rig of the pyrotechnics display,” explains Ferrier Mavor. “Jennifer Cooke Talbot, Elizabeth Brown and Katherine Miller with SMG did an outstanding job of working with us to accommodate the extensive rigging points for the production and pyrotechnics needs. The teams also worked together to blend their production schedules to streamline the conflicting load-out and load-in of the two different events, along with NFL technical rehearsals for the Saints game that weekend. This coordinated effort ensured that we adhered to our timelines and completed all required inspections to produce the event.”

Centerplate is the Superdome’s catering company, and Ferrier Mavor says Justin Roux, catering manager, and Lenny Martinsen, executive chef, presented a detailed explanation of the logistics behind preparing and serving more than 1,600 meals simultaneously, as well as how the team planned to accommodate special dietary requests. “The Centerplate catering team presented a three-course gourmet meal working from four quadrant kitchens to keep service coordinated in a timely manner within our show plan. The execution was spot-on.”

While the Awards Dinner at the Superdome was undoubtedly a highlight for the group — just stepping out onto the field under the enormous dome sets jaws agape — there were other, only-in-New-Orleans functions that the attendees will likely remember as well.

“The client had several off-property functions including transporting the 1,600 attendees on 30 Super Floats in a parade to the Fat Tuesday Extravaganza at Mardi Gras World,” recalls Ferrier Mavor. “There was an executive lunch on the stage of the historic Saenger Theater, and we had a tour program with activities ranging from swamp tours, city tours, riverboat cruises, walking tours and haunted history tours.”

“New Orleans offers such a wide variety of quality restaurants, unique event venues and outstanding entertainment options, the challenge arises in selecting just one from the many great options available,” she adds. C&IT

Twenty-five years ago, even a decade ago, it was difficult to imagine that so many meeting planning pros would use — let alone depend on — smartphones, apps and social media to set up and conduct meetings.

And, whether we like it or not, expect the dependency on technology to continually increase. It won’t be long before planners will routinely use today’s emerging technologies on a consistent basis. And if planners don’t jump on the bandwagon, experts suggest they will face a reduction in such areas as ROI, attendance, efficiency and engagement.

In spite of that advice, adoption among meeting planners remains gradual at best. About 60 percent of planners claim they understand and appreciate event management technology tools, but more than 70 percent say they devote less than one-fourth of their time using the tools, according to a study by Meeting Professionals International (MPI). Nearly 70 percent say they still depend on traditional processes such as spreadsheets to organize meeting data.

“I encourage event technology providers to have low-cost or free starter plans that work for multiple events. It might take you two or three events to figure out if a tool is right for you.”
— Brandt Krueger

One of the main reasons planners fail to learn and adopt new technologies is the lack of time to devote to every new option, explains Jeff Rasco, CMP, the founder and CEO of Attendee Management Inc., a Wimberley, Texas-based meeting and event planning firm. “Planners are seldom in control of the budgets sometimes required to implement the latest and greatest technologies,” says Rasco. “Technology has to be learned and managed — just one more thing on our overflowing plates. Often technology is thrown at planners with little time allotted for training, and user adoption becomes the No. 1 obstacle to success.”

Nevertheless, experts such as Corbin Ball, CMP, CSP, founder of Corbin Ball Associates, a meeting technology consulting firm in Bellingham, Washington, suggests adoption of new technologies is inevitable partly because of their proliferation. “The rate of technology change is accelerating with thousands of ideas, apps and innovations bubbling up to help meeting planners, exhibitors, venues and other meeting participants to do their jobs better and improve the attendee experience,” Ball says.

There’s an App for That

Among the thousands of apps, there are hundreds dedicated to meeting and event planning. They are becoming even more numerous and sophisticated partly because so many Americans use mobile devices. According to the Pew Research Center, 95 percent of Americans now own a cellphone of some kind, and 77 percent own a smartphone (which was 35 percent in 2011 when Pew conducted its first survey).

Brandt Krueger, owner of Richfield, Minnesota-based Event Technology Consulting, suggests the heavy smartphone use among planners and attendees is why more and more meetings have their own apps now. “By far, the No. 1 use of mobile right now is the event app,” says Krueger. “It’s funny to think back to the time when that was considered leading-edge technology, and now we’ve reached the point where even the smallest meetings and events are just expected to have a mobile app.”

There is an app for practically every task planners must tackle before, during and after meetings. Apps can purchase airline tickets; register attendees; book rooms and dining reservations; and help with RFPs as well as hotel and venue selection. Planners can use apps to track and schedule myriad tasks, create reports and share files.

Apps also provide programs and update changes (saving a great deal of paper and time); allow attendees to network before, during and after meetings; provide games and teambuilding activities; and survey attendees. Event check-in apps can help planners move lines more rapidly through registration stations, track attendee arrival numbers and identify VIPs.

Planners can even use apps to create another app designed specifically for a meeting. Such apps can be costly as well as time consuming for attendees to learn how to use. Therefore, apps that can be used at more than one event deliver the most value. Also, some people don’t want to download an app they may only use once.

Social media apps remain a strong and growing part of mobile usage among planners and attendees. “Twitter has faded a bit, but photo-sharing on Instagram and SnapChat are still quite popular,” says Krueger. “Know your audience and where they are interacting with each other. Be there.”

Online Registration

Online registration systems are among the fastest-growing meeting technologies. Planners can register attendees with apps and customized software systems, and design their own templates for specific meetings. The tools track registration numbers in real time, generate reports, and sign up attendees for sessions and events.

Despite the efficiency of online registration systems, many planners still don’t use them. “Though online registration has pretty much become the norm, there are still a lot of planners using Microsoft Excel and Word as primary planning tools,” says Krueger. “It’s hard to justify the cost and learning time for something that may or may not work for you and your team. It’s why I encourage event technology providers to have low-cost or free starter plans that work for multiple events. It might take you two or three events to figure out if a tool is right for you.”

Integrated Planning Tools

The number of event software tools has grown to more than 1,700 since planners started using them in the mid-1990s. The tools are largely distinct, non-integrated systems. An integrated system that handles all aspects of planning from beginning to end would be easier for planners to buy, learn and use. However, building a one-size-fits-all software product is difficult because meetings, trade shows, incentive programs and special events all have their own different needs.

That’s partly why progress has been slow in developing integrated systems. “Data integration has simply not been an easy task,” says Ball. “Over the years, they continued to slowly improve into a wide assortment of online event systems to manage registration, exhibits, housing, room blocks, membership, event website analytics, budgeting, sourcing and more. However, for much of this time, these data sources remained in silos as they have been difficult to share between systems.”

Many of the larger event technology providers are providing their tools as part of a suite of non-integrated technology offerings. For example, Lanyon’s Active Network includes the following separate, non-integrated products: Starcite (sourcing and strategic meetings management software); RegOnline (attendee management); and Passkey (room block management). Cvent’s offerings include Crowdcompass (mobile event app); OnArrival (check-ins); and Elite Meetings/Speed RFP.

Integration is improving with the help of tech firms offering cloud-based planning software that is compatible with other systems. The systems on the cloud, a network of servers, combine functions such as registration, room blocks, housing, membership, budgeting and sourcing. Examples include Eventbrite (registration, invitations); EventGeek (logistics, budgeting and meeting analytics software); and Etouches (16 compatible event planning modules).

Virtual Reality

Experts predict that the future of meeting planning will be forever changed and enhanced by the still developing virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) tools that are showing up more and more these days.

VR offers three-dimensional walk-throughs of properties and full visualization of décor, lighting and seating arrangements. “Imagine walking into an empty ballroom, donning a pair of AR glasses, and having the convention sales manager walk you through various setup options for a space, including call-outs for power, overlays for ceiling height, rigging points and other technical specifics,” says Krueger. Virtual site visits won’t replace physical ones, but they may help eliminate a venue or two by reducing the number of in-person visits, saving time and money.”

Currently, VR developers such as Samsung, Microsoft and Google are spearheading VR research and showcasing its uses at industry events and trade shows. Eventually, VR is likely to help increase attendee engagement and increase planning and site selection efficiency.

One day, planners, properties and CVBs will commonly use VR for virtual site visits and destination tours. The trend has started already. For example, Shangri-La Hotels offers Oculus Rift VR site inspection tours; the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority provides Vegas VR, a downloadable tour of local sites; and Destination BC (Vancouver, British Columbia) recently launched The Wild Within VR Experience, using Oculus Rift technology, making it the first destination marketing organization in North America to use virtual reality to promote the destination. The Wild Within VR Experience is an interactive, three-dimensional video that allows travelers to experience British Columbia in a truly immersive way, as if they were actually there.

Engagement

New tech tools also provide ways to measure attendee engagement and for good reason as engaged attendees are more likely to learn and retain knowledge, interact more with presenters and other attendees, and return to events.

Social media tools help measure engagement via surveys and monitoring the number of meeting-related posts, tweets, views, pictures and videos. Mobile event apps can track attendee engagement via networking and participation in sessions, activities and games both online and offline.

Audience response technology can increase engagement by allowing attendees to anonymously and honestly ask questions in real time during events.

The technology can sometimes be a bit challenging for meeting stakeholders. “At one corporate meeting I was working, management was hammering home the importance of workplace diversity and their commitment to it,” says Krueger. “An anonymous respondent said he was uncomfortable with the level of diversity and asked what he should do. The CEO explained that diversity was a company core value and that anyone uncomfortable with it probably shouldn’t be working there. For better or worse, that’s a conversation that probably wouldn’t have happened using traditional two-microphones-in-the-audience Q&A.”

Video and Live Streaming

Live streaming is growing by leaps and bounds mainly for two reasons: It allows long-distance participation in practically every aspect of meetings from keynotes and seminars to networking and games. More properties and venues are featuring the high bandwidth connections, software and equipment necessary for live streaming.

Live streaming grows as more social media services provide the technology and continue to improve it. Social media providers such as Facebook Live, Facebook Instant Video, Instagram, Snapchat and Periscope continue to enhance their technology, offering planners more avenues for video sharing.

Biometrics

Technology will eventually allow planners to use biometric systems to ascertain attendee information. “Technology has developed to the point where face recognition systems can determine attendees’ gender, approximate age, ethnicity, mood and even specific individuals in a photo database,” says Ball. “Postings on social media can be analyzed for sentiment as well. We will see these tools used at events and exhibitions to measure engagement, demographics, sentiment and even spot potential troublemakers.”

Examples of the systems, says Ball, include CrowdStats Audience Analytics, which offers “real-time insights into your audience behavior and interests.” The system analyzes “faces of an audience, collects the above-mentioned data, and presents the processed results in an intuitive dashboard in the Cloud.” Other companies in this area include Visage Technologies and Mood.me.

Slow Adoption

Experts say that adoption among planners will improve, albeit slowly. According to the MPI study, planners are discouraged from using new technologies for several reasons, such as:

• They have negative experiences with technology.
• They lack access to dependable Wi-Fi.
• They are discouraged by bugs in the technology or the inability to integrate it with other platforms.
• They can’t or don’t want to keep up with technology because it advances so rapidly.
• They also fear something may go wrong with a new technology.

“Because much of what we do requires us to get it right in one shot, it’s natural that planners might shy away from trying new things,” says Krueger. “It creates a Catch 22. If we can’t find ways to test technology at scale during live events, we can’t ever know for sure if it’s going to work properly or fix any bugs that might come up. And if there’s even a chance it’s not going to work properly, planners are going to be reluctant to use it at their events.”

Education Needed

Planners who educate themselves about event technology are most likely to overcome roadblocks to adoption. Experts advise that planners continuously network, socialize and ask questions about event technology. “Find out what other people use and what they like and dislike,” says Krueger. “Look for education opportunities at industry events and look at the tools planners use for those events. Our industry has been a word-of-mouth industry for a long time. That hasn’t changed in the digital age. Ask for references when considering new technologies.”

Rasco offers this advice: “You need to understand the systems well enough to work within them, but trying to do it all yourself only distracts from the primary focus of planning and executing your meetings,” says Rasco. “Read, take courses, attend webinars as you can, subscribe to newsletters from industry experts, get a technology mentor and definitely plan for the time and energy it will take to learn the tools well enough to manage them. Understanding technology diminishes fear of it.”

Despite the growth of technology such as live streaming and videoconferencing, experts say that the opportunities for networking, brainstorming and relationship building are still greater at face-to-face meetings than online.

On the other hand, the use of new technologies is likely to enrich and enhance meetings by helping to keep attendees engaged, entertained and informed. C&IT

Marketing executives use it as a key tool for their success. Business consultants use it to obtain new clients and often make it a key part of their overall strategies. Meeting and event planners see it as a necessary effort to expand their business. What is it? It’s networking, and in the world of business, people network to help smooth out the potholes on the road to success. For Christy Lamagna, CMP, CMM, CTSM, founder of Strategic Meetings & Events in New York City, networking is about starting relationships.

“If you approach it with a sales goal in mind you are cheating yourself and others out of the processes’ full potential,” Lamagna says. “Our audiences are becoming more savvy so we need deeper and broader partner networks so we can innovate, collaborate and inspire our guests. The deeper the bench, the more options we can offer.”

Making Connections

Building social relationships is the foundation of any kind of organized society. Only in the last half of the 20th century did it become something that people did deliberately. The famous book How to Win Friends & Influence People was published in 1936 and, in great part, was all about networking, but author Dale Carnegie never once uses that word in his book. Susan RoAne and Bob Burg began speaking on the topic in the 1980s — actually calling it “networking,” and both published two of the first books on the topic.

Today, networking has evolved to incorporate social networking as it’s called when using social media. The two not only can, but should work hand-in-hand.

“Seeing someone’s facial expressions, gestures and body language is such an integral part of the communication process…people are hungry for human contact.”
— Jenny Powers

“The best networking opportunities are outside formal networking functions when conversation can flow more naturally,” Lamagna says. “I like planes, especially business class, and charity events — anywhere you are standing is a potential conversation.”

According to Susan Smolarek, event planner and director of group sales at Visit Lake Geneva (Wisconsin), part of her role as an event planner means that she recognizes the vital role networking plays within the industry.

“While we have a great deal of technology that allows for communicating long distance, the value of bringing people together face-to-face is still vital to business success today,” Smolarek says. “There is something stronger gained when a face-to-face connection occurs.”

As Smolarek explains, planning the networking component of an event requires just as much strategic forethought as the rest of the event. For example, what is the amount of time dedicated to networking in comparison to the rest of the agenda? What’s the mix of structured and non-structured networking?

“Add creativity to networking versus just providing the standard cocktail hour for networking,” Smolarek says. “Consider speed dating, round-table discussion tables, incorporating the use of social media platforms and team competitions such as scavenger hunts for certain attendees.”

Networking  has evolved from large-scale events where people walk around trading business cards to more intimate atmospheres where people can truly get to know one another.

“People are starting to value more authentic ways of getting to know people,” says Jenny Powers, founder and CEO at Running With Heels LLC in New York City. “With the amount we all spend in front of computers and looking at our phones, face-to-face networking has become more critical. Social media networking is fine for introductions but once those have occurred its time to get off the URL and meet IRL (in real life).”

Indeed, before technology, networking was more face-to-face and less global. With technology, networking has become more global and outreach easier. However, as Gail Tolstoi-Miller, CEO and chief staffing strategist of Consultnetworx in Livingston, New Jersey, and author of Networking Karma: How Today’s Cutting Edge Networking Trends Can Help You Connect and Conquer, (Consultnetworx, 2016) explains, with technology there are some downsides, hiding behind the technology and not having the motivation to interact with others face-to-face or relating on an empathetic level.

“The younger generation looks down too much at their phones and has lost the ability to interface in person on a more personal level, including making eye contact,” Tolstoi-Miller says.

And how has in-person networking evolved to incorporate social media networking? Can they work hand-in-hand? Using social media and in-person networking is really leveraging networking to the fullest.

“It is knowing how to use technology to connect with others, then taking it to the next level and meet in person or have a FaceTime meeting,” Tolstoi-Miller says. “It is easy to get caught up in joining LinkedIn groups, Facebook pages or having a million connections, but if you don’t become an active participant, it all means nothing.”

Know Where to Go

The key to successful networking is to go where your prospective clients, existing clients and competitors go. If you are looking for high-end clients to book your luxury venue, don’t go to a Meet-Up. Go to a higher priced ticketed event where your target market will be.

“Most networking takes place at events that aren’t actually positioned as ‘networking’ events,” Powers says.

And remember, networking is 24/7.  It is about being aware of your surroundings and having the ability to have great listening skills.  “So if you hear someone talking about their upcoming wedding then you need to have the ability to politely join the conversation. Some of the best networking is not done at networking events but on the grocery line, your kid’s soccer game or airport,” Tolstoi-Miller says.

Beth Bridges, author of Networking on Purpose: A Five-Part Success Plan to Build a Powerful and Profitable Business Network (iBridge Enterprises, 2013) and  founder of The Networking Motivator in Clovis, California, explains that meeting and event planners need to go where people are like-minded. “This doesn’t mean people who are the same as you, it means people who are there to meet people and build relationships, too,” Bridges says. “Chamber of commerce and association meetings are some of the best because they are designed and promoted as networking organizations or at least as a source of those opportunities.”

Conferences can be very good as well. Here’s what Bridges has learned from attending many events across the country: “Yes, you’ll meet a lot of people. And you should connect with them at the event and follow up with connecting on social media. But, you’ll probably only stick with one or two people after an event.

“In other words, you’ll talk to and connect with perhaps dozens of people,” Bridges says. “One or two at most will stay connected with you over time, especially when you’re at a distance. Keep that in mind when you attend these events and you won’t be disappointed afterwards.”

Key Steps to Take

Some key ways to make the most out of your networking efforts:

• Develop your contact spheres. These are a groups of business professionals who have a symbiotic or compatible, noncompetitive relationship with you. In any networking situation look to make two to three solid contacts with whom you can learn something special about the other person — both from a personal and business perspective. Do not just hop from one person to the next trying to collect as many business cards as possible —that is counter-productive.
• Diversify, diversity, diversify. You need breadth and depth. Participate in different kinds of groups. A diverse personal network enables you to increase the possibility of including connectors, or linchpins, in your network. Linchpins are people who in some way cross over between two or more clusters or groups of individuals. In effect, they have overlapping interests or contacts that allow them to link groups of people together easily. For example, consider networking with people in the community who are meeting others including realtors, bankers and insurance people. You also should consider networking with companies with a common connection to your products and services.
• Share new ideas. When networking, you adopt new methods for success within your own position through the sharing of new ideas and approaches to issues. Everyone is always looking for new ideas and concepts. Lend your expertise.
• Find your niche. You need to find your niche and the people who fit your business. You know your product and you also hopefully know the people who need your product or service. Once you find your market, concentrate on becoming involved, be a regular so they see your face constantly, and be reliable. You are your product. If they trust you and your dependability, it shows them that your company also is dependable.
• Create a feeling of trust. Experts agree that the approach to networking must be about building relationships based on providing value and gaining the trust of others. It is not about getting immediate business. Not enough business owners realize this, and they go into networking with the mindset of getting business instead of building relationships.
• Be very specific about what referrals you want. Identify specific people to whom you wish to be introduced. Personal introductions can open doors for you that would’ve otherwise remained closed. If you don’t know the name of the manager of another business you wish to meet, find out — then ask specifically for a referral to that person.
• Meet with each person in your networking circle one-on-one. To deepen the relationship, meet with each person away from the general networking session, to dial up the focus of your networking efforts.

To really maximize the energy of the partnership you’re forging with your referral sources, it’s critical to spend time with them. Just going to a social function or sitting side-by-side at some type of conference or networking event isn’t enough. You have to be face-to-face, talking and exploring commonalities and complimentary aspects of each of your businesses to be as powerful a referral source for each other as you can be.

As the vice president of brand strategy at J Public Relations, one of the country’s top luxury travel PR agencies, Amy Ogden works with hotels and resorts across the globe.

“One of my networking recommendations is to arrive early,” Ogden says. “This is easily my favorite networking tip. Arriving early allows you to slowly and confidently meet people as they arrive — when they are seeking someone to chat with. Over the course of the event you end up being the ‘mayor’ of the room. You know many of the guests and end up introducing new people to the mix. Even the most talented networker’s heart skips a beat when they walk into a crowded and loud room. Arriving early takes away the anxiety and sets you up for success.”

Ogden also recommends that you have real conversations. Don’t look at every guest as a dollar sign.  “I excel at networking because I legitimately love meeting new people,” Ogden says. “Some women I’ve met at networking events are now my closest friends today. Take a real interest in the person. The business comes later.”

Finally, follow up. When Ogden has a networking event, she schedules time the next day for focused follow-up.  This is often a quick email connecting or setting a coffee or lunch meeting.

“It sounds obvious, but if you don’t follow up, you may as well have skipped the event altogether,” Ogden says. “Follow-up is everything.”

On the Horizon

The future of networking will continue to focus and emphasize the importance of face-to-face events.

“These days instead of hopping on a call, more and more people are connecting via Skype or Facetime. Seeing someone’s facial expressions, gestures and body language is such an integral part of the communication process, and in this era of technology, people are hungry for human contact,” Powers says.

Networking will further evolve through members-only groups, social clubs and in terms of technology, Powers believes more apps will begin to appear, connecting people by interest, need and geographical location the way dating sites already do.

Bridges says new and evolving technology will make it much easier to keep track of who you know and will help remind you of who you need to reach out to. It also means you will never have an excuse for forgetting someone’s name.

“Your glasses could scan someone’s face and remind you of their name, company, the last time you saw them and what they’ve recently accomplished in their business,” Bridges says. “On the negative side, it could make interaction a little less sincere. So as the software evolves, make sure that you add as much genuine humanity and authenticity as you can to your networking activities.”

Technology will continue allowing people to connect in an easier and faster way. “But as technology continues to expand, my concern is our ability to connect with others on a human and empathetic level by hiding behind our computer or phone,” Tolstoi-Miller says. “I don’t want the next generation to lose the effective communication skills and emotional intelligence that makes us evolve as humans.”

Lamagna agrees. “Networking is assisted by technology but planners need to remember that just as the events we plan are predominantly live, networking should be, too,” Lamagna says. “Nothing can replace face-to-face connections and interactions. Our audiences are becoming more savvy so we need deeper and broader partner networks so we can innovate, collaborate and inspire our guests. The deeper the bench, the more options we can offer.” C&IT