Standing Up for Meetings

How to be an advocate for meetings

How do you get the boss not to cancel that meeting?

Being a meetings industry advocate to stakeholders like C-level executives, procurement managers, legislators and even your associates may be essential to your organization's well-being and even your own career. For those who wish to present a convincing story, MPI has developed as part of its Value of Meetings Initiative a Meetings Deliver white paper and user guide package. Included...

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Standing Up for Meetings

Industry leaders are devising new strategies for meetings advocacy

By RUTH A. HILL

In her recent presentation at Affordable Meetings National in Washington, D.C., Christine Duffy, president and CEO of Maritz Travel, characterized the recent meetings industry crisis as a major storm at sea.

"This storm has made some industry people fearful and others mad," she told the audience. "But we've all learned a few things from it. We've learned that meetings, events and jobs got cut because we've been invisible. We've done a lousy job of educating everyone from people in our own industry to federal policymakers about the value of meetings."

Duffy said "winds of damage" have come from several directions: the economic crisis, negative comments about meetings from leading government officials, and the AIG Effect that followed the revelation that insurance executives stayed at a luxury resort after their company took a federal bailout.

She said that hospitality companies and tourism destinations have incurred massive losses in the storm's wake, resulting in thousands of jobs lost. As examples, she said Maritz lost $150 million in meetings business that was cancelled between October and December 2008 and noted that Marriott International CEO Bill Marriott described 2009 as the worst year in the company's 81-year history.

Crises offer more than challenges—they also offer opportunities ...

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