Taking Responsibility

Taking Responsibility Groups are increasingly jumping on the corporate social responsibility bandwagon By KATIE MORELL

Take yourself back about 10 years and imagine sitting in an event-planning meeting where someone brings up the term "corporate social responsibility." Chances are, that person would have been met with a boardroom full of blank stares. Instead, team building was all the rage—the more zip lines and ropes courses the better. But as the economy went south and public scrutiny around lavish corporate meetings intensified, companies looked for activity alternatives.

It’s not that socially responsible activities weren’t being done in concert with meetings more than a decade ago. They were—the buzz phrase just hadn’t been invented yet. Today, corporations and associations are touting their community activities and often incorporating them as mandatory components in a meeting’s agenda.

Jennifer Miller, general manager of the San Diego and Los Angeles locations of Access Destination Services, a destination management company, says she saw CSR programs really bust out in 2009, after first bubbling up in 2007 and 2008.

“We almost survived as a company on CSR programs alone in 2009 and 2010,” she says. “Times were tough, but we were calling groups and asking them not to cancel meetings because if they did, they wouldn’t have been able to help people in need with their community programs. It got so big that we had to we add two people to specialize solely in CSR in our company, and it’s been going strong ever since.”

Groups Making A Difference Corporate social responsibility programs come in all shapes and sizes. A group can set up a bike building workshop in a ballroom for inner city youth, volunteer to paint houses for Habitat for Humanity…you name it. But as Miller explains, groups more and more want to push the envelope.

“I’m seeing groups want to dive into local organizations and really get up close and personal with the people they are helping,” she says”

For example, Miller and one of her client organizations recently set aside a day during a meeting to help refurbish a military family’s home. About 75 meeting delegates rotated through the site and facilitated work ranging from fixing screen doors and replacing blankets to landscaping outside areas.       Read More...

Case Study: Helping Youth In Maui By KATIE MORELL

Back in October, about 90 attendees from around the world descended on Maui, Hawaii, for a five-day incentive program. Spirits were high, each person worked hard to earn the trip, and many brought along spouses and partners. Group gatherings ensued, but on one particular day, attendees experienced something a little different.

The head of events, Nola Conway, president of Global Destinations Marketing, a corporate meeting planning company out of Beverly Hills, Calif., rounded up the group for a four-hour corporate social responsibility program benefitting Maui’s youth.

“The group left the hotel at noon and went to a club for children ages 9 to 17 years old,” she says. “The facility is a place mostly for underprivileged kids to go after school from 3 to 6 p.m. While there, they are encouraged to participate in computer classes, sports programs, arts classes, etc.”

Conway worked in concert with Island Partners Hawaii, a local destination management company, on putting the event together. Each participant had the option of choosing one of five tasks.