If a majority of incentive meeting planners would like to forget the past year ever happened, it’s not surprising. What with perception issues surrounding meetings in general—and incentive meetings in particular—this segment of the industry has faced some of the biggest challenges of all.
"We’ve been through an unbelievable year and we are starting to come out the other side of it," says Brenda Anderson, CEO of Chicago-based SITE, the major industry organization for incentive planners. "We’ve spent a lot of the last year untwisting the difference between executive excess and motivational events."
Planners of insurance meetings, which are often incentive-related, have been in the thick of the fray surrounding perception issues, according to Steve Bova, CAE, executive director of Chicago-based Financial & Insurance Conference Planners (FICP), the main industry organization for insurance meeting planners.
"Incentive meetings have wanted to fly under the radar this year," he says. "There is a misunderstanding by the general public—not quite knowing the incentive industry to begin with. People could not relate with the high-end rewards that were common with our industry. That is the segment of our industry that has been hit the hardest."
Changing Tides
While some companies cancelled 2009 incentive meetings altogether, those brave enough to maintain meetings schedules altered a few things—namely the length, location and type of group gathering.
"Programs are getting shorter and group sizes are getting smaller," says Andjela Kessler, president and CEO of Atlanta-based Incentive Travel & Meetings. "We recently had an incentive program that for years had about 500 participants. This year we had 87 participants. Those are the reductions."
Bova has seen a reduction in the length of meetings as well, saying, "maybe a three-night was cut back to a two-night."
Locations where incentive meetings are taking place have changed significantly as well.
"This year, many meetings were relocated to city or airport locations rather than resort properties," Bova says.
Jessica Phillips, director of worldwide accounts for Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, says the hotel side of the business has felt the shift.
"We’ve seen a huge pickup in our airport hotels," she says. "People want to come in, have a meeting and fly out. Meetings are getting smaller and shorter, but there are still meetings. There are more meetings in second-tier cities like St. Louis, Jacksonville and Denver—a lot in the central U.S. because those places are just easy to get to."
SITE’s Anderson says that while incentive meetings regularly lean toward exotic, far-away locations, this year has been a bit different.
"A down economy tends to bring people closer to home," she says. "You see more meetings in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean."
In the past year, incentive meetings have also turned toward the greater good, increasing the popularity of corporate social responsibility (CSR)-centric events, according to Anderson.
"People still need to reward top performers, but it is how we are doing that that has changed," she says. "I know of a company that took their top performers to a local community in Africa and worked with people in town directly. That type of CSR is very popular because you are giving back to a community."
Planners are getting more innovative with incentives, often addressing lifestyle issues, Kessler says.
"We are now doing more fitness programs and nutrition education as part of an incentive or meeting," she says, adding that she also sees a blurring of the lines between traditional meetings and incentive programs.
"Before now, incentives were very separate from meetings," she says. "Now we are seeing them combining a lot. An annual meeting would be separate from a President’s Club program. But now we might have an annual meeting with a President’s Club on the side. It is easier to justify as part of a meeting."
Value of Meetings
The challenges associated with defending meeting expenses are nothing new to planners, but Hyatt’s Phillips says planners are now working even harder to bring meetings to the front of executives’ minds.
"Planners are trying to educate their executives more on what meetings bring to the whole organization," she says.
Anderson says proving return on investment (ROI) has never been so crucial.
"The ROI aspect has never been more important," she says. "There is a need for greater transparency."
Due to widespread layoffs in the industry, Anderson says competition is fierce.
"We have seen a new level of competition in our space," she says. "Companies who have been only focused on outsourcing are now focusing on full-service. There are also more independent planners out there."
In addition to an increase in competition, Bova says planners need to exercise creativity—even with shrinking budgets.
"One of the biggest issues planners are facing is being able to help their companies accomplish what they need to in their meetings," he says. "They need to be more creative. Meetings need to take place, but if their budgets have been reduced, they need to accomplish the same things with less money."
Bova explains that with responsibility comes opportunity.
"Meeting planners need to measure the return on objectives, asking themselves, ‘Did we do what we wanted to accomplish in this meeting?’" he says. "By rising to these challenges, it has elevated the position of the meeting planner to become more involved in strategic positions within their companies.
"The need to meet has not changed, but the culture of meetings, the importance of the meeting planner has been strengthened. People have become more sophisticated in their jobs and those who will be most successful will be able to feed off each other and be creative in what they are doing."
Looking Ahead
While the last year has cast a dreary light on incentive meetings, things are looking up, according to Hyatt’s Phillips.
"2009 was substantially down compared with the past years, but I do see a light at the end of the tunnel," she says. "We all have to be more positive. People are doing meetings and incentives again. We see bookings in 2011, 2012 and 2013; 2010 is still down, but not as much as 2009."
FICP’s Bova and SITE’s Anderson see the same trends.
"There is a lot of optimism," he says. "More now than there was earlier in the year. Next year is going to be better than 2009, maybe not as good as 2008 because we are still not out of the woods yet, but people are focusing on revitalization."
"We are seeing a lot of activity," Anderson says. "2011 is very busy and we are seeing the second half of 2010 picking up. The first two quarters of the year are not where we all want to see them, but we are seeing activity come back."
Incentive Travel & Meetings’ Kessler isn’t so sure.
"I’m not optimistic," she says. "I would have already seen the changes if there were changes to be. By now we would have had people booking substantial programs for fall 2010 and we don’t see that happening.
"I think right now the industry is very much in the ‘wait mode’ because of the healthcare bill," she continues. "People don’t know where they will be. They certainly are not going to budget money for a 2010 program when they have no idea where they are going to stand in the whole scheme of things."
Whatever happens in the future, one thing is clear: The industry will never be the same.
"The ‘new normal’ will begin toward the end of 2010 or in 2011, but we don’t know what that ‘new normal’ will look like," Bova says.
Anderson concurs.
"It is an evolution," she says. "We can’t do things the same way we did things before."
—Katie Morell, a former Meetings Media editor, is a freelance writer based in Chicago.
