Content was king at the Sunday opening general session of MPI’s MeetDifferent, held Feb. 7-10 at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center.
A stark and serious departure from a typical meetings industry opening program, which often features a motivational speaker and feel-good association presentations, MPI’s well-received One+ Real Time session got down to the serious business of dealing with the grim realities of a dismal economy and the specter of federal legislation buckling down on many corporations that hold meetings and events.
“We have been staggered by things that have affected not only our industry, but every industry,” said Larry Luteran, chairman of MPI and senior vice president, group sales and industry relations for Hilton Hotels Corporation. “The result is a paradigm shift.”
Luteran said the short-term goal of those in the meetings profession should be survival, with a longer-term goal of facing the global forces that affect the industry.
“I suggest our new battle cry in the meetings industry should be ‘survive and thrive,’” Luteran said.
Personal finance expert and television anchor Terry Savage moderated the proceedings, which included noted economist Don Reynolds, U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow, Maritz Travel President and CEO Christine Duffy and panels of industry experts detailing how the U.S. and the world got into the current economic mess and how the meetings industry should react.
“The status quo won’t always do it,” Savage advised. “Our very survival is defined by how we redefine our entire industry.”
Reynolds, former chairman of the board of Pension & Investments Committees, said the economic crises was primarily caused by an excess of consumer credit spending and a “Tinker Bell” housing market that doled out unrealistic loans to buyers whose incomes couldn’t afford them, and that recovery will begin when the ratio of income to loan amount settles to traditional levels.
“It’s a global type of an event, and a solution will be a global solution and not entirely a U.S. solution,” Reynolds said. “I liken it to being a drug addict, and the drug was cheap, easy money, and the pusher was the banks.”
While the income-to-home loan ratio is settling to its traditional level, Reynolds said the bottom has not yet been hit, but is near.
“You can write off 2009, but don’t write off 2010,” Reynolds advised.
A Message to Planners
During one of the panel discussions, Craig J. Ardis, director of global event management for Zimmer Inc., told audience members they should deal deftly with the large number of cancellations that are currently roiling the industry, with the latest example being Wells Fargo, which recently announced it is scuttling all of its employee recognition programs in 2009.
“The key to this is what you do with cancellations,” he said. “Manage it down and communicate to stakeholders how you managed it.
“Hotels are sometimes willing to negotiate their rates down because they want that business next year,” he continued.
Fellow panelist Walter Akana, a senior-level career consultant and personal branding strategist, stressed that now more than ever is the time for meeting planners to develop their personal brand and strengthen personal relationship skills.
Government Education
The opening general session’s +Plus Point segment featured Maritz Travel’s Duffy and U.S. Travel Association’s Dow, who discussed a potentially hostile legislative atmosphere toward the meetings industry and the recent industry collaboration to address it.
“AIG was a customer of ours,” said Duffy, in reference to the hailstorm of media criticism rained down on the insurance and financial services giant that held a meeting at a luxury resort after receiving government bailout funds. Duffy added that the industry as a whole is at risk from potential government legislation that could tie Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout funds to limits on meeting and incentive expenditures.
“People were tying meetings and events to executive compensation,” she said. “If you restrict their meetings and events then that puts them at a disadvantage, and how do the taxpayers get their money back?
“The 2.4 million jobs attached to this industry are critical,” she continued. “I don’t think the government connects the dots that canceling these meetings and events leads to [a loss of jobs].”
Dow and Duffy are leading an industry-wide collaboration to both lobby the U.S. government and dispel via a dedicated public relations effort what they see as public misperceptions about the business value of meetings and events.
“We have to define the issues,” Dow said. “This is a comprehensive lobbying campaign and communications campaign to let people know it’s safe to go back in the water.”
A crucial part of the effort is to develop specific metrics to demonstrate the value of meetings and events, before the government imposes what could be vague guidelines affecting TARP recipients and publicly held companies.
“We as an industry have not done our homework, so shame on us,” Dow said. “We’ve got to set the tone so the media looks at these meetings and [recognizes] the ROI.’”
Duffy cited the cost of the recent presidential inauguration to make a point.
“That inauguration was a $150 million meeting where the president shared his vision with the American public,” Duffy said. “How is that any different from a company CEO saying how they’re doing this or that for their employees or customers?”
