The mother of all public relations disasters for the meetings and incentives industry, the AIG junket at Southern California’s St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in 2008, spawned seemingly instant as well as long-term changes.
“Almost overnight I had clients tell me we had to re-evaluate costs and address concerns over the perception of the site selected for the meeting,” says Ken Schmaltz, president of New Milford, Conn.-based S&A Event Services.
Since that fateful incident, planners have learned lessons, perfected best practices and changed behaviors to adapt to a post AIG-incident world.
New Normal
Scaling down events, selecting destinations closer to home and staging shorter meetings and incentive programs are commonplace these days thanks to the AIG Effect and the recession.
“The biggest lesson learned from the AIG experience, beyond not holding meetings at locations deemed more as leisure resorts than conference hotels, is to determine the ROI for the client holding the meeting,” says Rennette Grace, an independent meeting and event planner in Duluth, Minn. “There needs to be a stated purpose for the meeting that indicates how it will be beneficial to the bottom line.”
Bob Schuster, national director of meetings and events for CMP Meeting Services, says staying focused on all aspects of the meeting are imperative in the post-AIG debacle era.
“You must stay focused on the specific goals and budget at all times,” he says.
To meet budgets, groups have scaled down in a variety of ways.
Golf events, in particular, underwent intense scrutiny after the AIG media storm, and the result is many tournaments and events have been toned down.
Schmaltz says most golf events today have less frills and less budget.
“We still try to ensure that the quality of golf course and setting is top notch,” he says. “However, there’s a lot more scrutiny; on gift items, awards, parties and things like that.”
David Gabri, the president and CEO of Associated Luxury Hotels International, sees a silver lining in the cutbacks and emphasis on ROI.
“Extravagant is out, but quality is expected to parallel with the brands and purposes, for a very good reason,” Gabri contends. “The biggest thing the AIG incident did was to lead to the quantitative analysis of the many benefits of face-to-face meetings and programs that cannot be replaced.”
Schmaltz agrees.
“The focus on ROI has really highlighted the value of face-to-face meetings where people can socialize and form long-lasting relationships that enhance business possibilities,” he says. “And the AIG incident forced us to evaluate and improve on the concept.”
More For Less
In many ways, meeting planners are trying to do the same for less in the “new normal.”
“We have cut back on extravagant room gifts and other amenities, but not on the golf course experience,” says Chuck Lane, strategic consultant in incentive travel and public relations for Humana in Green Bay, Wis. “The goal is to make cuts without making it apparent to the attendee.”
At Humana, Lane says, the incentive program was scaled back from “four or five meetings a year to just one or two.”
“The incentive meetings we have now are still first class and top quality with certain cutbacks attendees hardly notice,” Lane says. “It’s a fine line in that you still need to create a great experience to boost morale and enhance motivation.”
Following the infamous AIG event, Lane says his events now assume a much lower profile.
“We tend to stay away from giant logo displays on-property and are much more discreet with our signage,” he says.
Site Selection
Many planners changed buying patterns to avoid public criticism over destinations and resorts that could be perceived as over-the-top lavish or wasteful.
“A lesson learned on site selection is that if it’s possible to gain benefits from less-costly regional meetings then clients will prefer those over larger, costlier, national meetings,” Grace says.
Schuster believes the venue is still an important component of the overall message to attendees.
“Time has simmered the AIG headline,” Schuster says. “Meeting at high-end properties has always been a good thing and sets the tone to the statement of goals, objectives and messages the stakeholders are looking to communicate.
Though it has been five years since the AIG event, Schmaltz believes perception is still a strong buzzword.
“Even groups with big budgets and money to spend are still concerned about the perception of their meeting and site selection to shareholders and others,” he says.
Edward Schmidt Jr. is a freelance writer who writes frequently about luxury golf resorts.
