I began 1987 by traveling to New Orleans with a client for a site inspection—it never occurred to me to ask if the levees would hold.
In 1987, my business was 6-years-old, and I purchased my first computer, keeping my IBM Selectric typewriter “just in case.” I don’t remember what the computer was, but I do remember it used WordStar as its word processing software.
Although my world became somewhat technological, most other planners
and vendors were not yet computer literate. I found myself having to work with typed—vs. keyboarded—contracts and other documents. Nothing was easy.
Although the scientific and academic communities were using the Internet, our industry was not. It would be three more years before I was Internet-enabled, and many more before it was common to communicate with industry vendors or colleagues via the Internet. We were still behind the times, and not moving very quickly.
What has happened in our industry in the 20 years since this magazine began publishing in and for our industry? What changes have we seen? What have we learned and what lessons did we ignore along the way?
Risk Management
Looking back to 1987 and the years since, I was reminded of the disasters that should have alerted our industry—and our world—to better prepare for risks. In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded. In 1987, a severe earthquake struck Los Angeles, and again in 1994. The San Francisco Bay Area received its most-recent massive earthquake in 1989. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded because of a terrorist bomb. In 1990, the first Gulf War began. In 1999, everyone prepared for all computers to crash at the stroke of midnight as we entered a new millennium.
Fast-forward to more recent times, and even the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the 2005 nightmare of Hurricane Katrina were not enough to make our industry smarter and better prepared for emergencies and disasters.
Today, facilities and meeting planners lag far behind in awareness of, and preparation for, disasters wrought by both people and nature. Each day we put hundreds of thousands of guests and meeting participants at risk because we have forgotten history and allowed ourselves to become complacent. Shame on us. Will it be another 20 years before we work to make people safer at meetings?
Another risk we all manage is that of contracting with various meeting facilities and vendors. In the past 20 years, I’ve seen a few well-written vendor-generated contracts and some people who are willing to work through the language to ensure an understanding by all parties to the contract. We seem, though, to still believe that anyone can plan and book a meeting, and that training for meeting planners and vendors about the intricacies of legal language and conditions is not needed.
The contracts being signed today are often as minimal and as sloppy as they were 20 years ago. I can’t figure it out. Maybe the recent release of the APEX (Accepted Practices Exchange) Contracts Panel report will help others learn more.
Travel
Remember TWA? The original Pan Am? Eastern? Braniff? There were once so many airlines and so many routes serving both first-tier convention cities and those in the second and third tiers, and even smaller markets.
Airlines had been deregulated by 1987 and yet travel was still pretty simple. As fuel, equipment and labor costs increased, and as smaller low-cost carriers came into being even before the ’80s, the “legacy carriers” began to disappear.
After 9/11, airlines took a huge financial hit as people could, at first, not fly, and then chose not to fly. Routes were cut and only those that were the most profitable were flown. Wildly fluctuating gas prices and fuel-inefficient vehicles added to the woes of people traveling to meetings and further added to the airlines’ financial woes.
And yet, people traveled. Even the hassle of taking off shoes, sweaters, belts, jewelry, and being faced with the choice of leaving our toothpaste at home or checking it have not deterred most travelers. That’s lead to an increase in hotel occupancy.
Hotels
The ebb and flow of hotel room rates fascinates me. We call it either a “sellers’ market” or a “buyers’ market,” depending on the rates and one’s ability to negotiate—and from which side of the table one participates in the negotiations.
Business, meeting and leisure travel are all strong, and rates are at an all-time high.
Recently, when trying to book a room for a client in New York, I was quoted a $649 rate for standard room without a view in a “big box” hotel.
The rate at which hotels are changing owners, and in some cases management companies and “flags” (brands), has, along with higher occupancy levels, impacted meeting negotiations for rates and meeting conditions. Owners want a higher return on their investment. They should—they are in business to make money, of course.
At the same time, we planners have had to learn some tough lessons as we try to get a “good deal”—whether it’s dollars or conditions for the meeting.
Once dependent on relationships, we have had to leverage buying power vs. friendship to negotiate for our meetings.
The owners have mandated a specific return; the hotels want to make money for their owners so the properties remain stable. It’s much tougher now to negotiate the conditions we need to make our meetings succeed.
Meeting Success
Buzzwords make me smile.
ROI (Return on Investment) and ROO (Return on Objectives) are the current buzzwords bandied about the industry.
Few companies and organizations are looking at more than their financial return. When we select sites and negotiate meeting contracts, facilities still want to base the amount of space assigned to a group on the number of people and not on the educational or meeting objectives.
Planners don’t push the issue because few have taken enough time to discuss the meeting’s or event’s objectives with management, and because fewer still have learned enough about adult education to understand the impact of the site and the setting on a meeting or event.
In spite of all this, I remain optimistic that our industry will move forward in the next 20 years.
In 1987, I had a milestone birthday; in 2007, it will be another. I hope to be around in 2027 to celebrate another milestone, and in the ensuing years experience more changes and watch as our industry matures.
