Kathleen Quill, President & COO, CAE, CBA
National Association of Credit Management–Gulf States, Houston and New Orleans.
Do you find that your booking window (the time between starting the process of researching and booking a meeting and the actual event) is increasing or shrinking? Are you finding it harder to book rooms/meeting space in a short timeframe at hotels and other meeting facilities?
Not for what we are doing.
Is the duration of your meetings either shrinking or expanding? Why?
Staying same.
Is the attendance at your meetings shrinking or expanding? Why?
Expanding. It’s all about content for our members–better content = better attendance.
Did you have a smaller or larger budget to work with last year? If so, how much do you estimate it was decreased or increased?
Same budget.
Do you expect your budget to increase or decrease in 2017?
Nope. Same.
Do you expect your attendance to increase or decrease in 2017?
Increase in SOME market segments…We’ll be lucky if our oilfield service and supply sector doesn’t just disappear this year. Those companies have held on as long as they could, betting on improvement on the price of oil and driller activity. It hasn’t come.
Are perception problems (meeting at luxurious properties, resort destinations, etc.) a great concern for your organization? Do you expect any perception problems in 2017?
Yes! Although members don’t want “airport hotels,” their management is very sensitive to the appearance that they are going to a “vacation spot.” Las Vegas, for example, is a very hard sell. Again, content often wins against that perception; we just have to get the agenda out early enough and with enough detail.
Are you exploring the possibility, or have you already held, a “hybrid” meeting (meetings that combine live events with an Internet/digital component? If so, what are your observations?
No. It doesn’t really seem like a good fit, since we have lots of little meetings within our conferences, and they are only really together for the opening session.
Are you finding that you are scheduling more meeting sessions per day, and if so, is it at the expense of entertainment or events that are more social in nature?
No. We’re just scheduling smarter…like no breaks, just setups in the back of the rooms and they can get up whenever they need to.
Are you incorporating more, or less, activities into your agenda? If so, what types of activities are being added or cut?
Same. We are getting a little more sophisticated about our off-site events. In Las Vegas, we had a reception at the wheelhouse, put ’em all on the High Roller and then cut them loose. They liked it and we liked it.
Have you offered, or do you think you will offer, a CSR (corporate social responsibility) component to your meetings?
Argggg…..not really.
What are your thoughts on the use of drones at meetings? Have you considered this?
We have not, nor really thought about it.
Are sustainable (green) meetings something your organization has moved toward? If not, do you expect to implement more-sustainable meetings in the future?
We were already green!
Are you finding that attrition clauses are being enforced more or less strictly recently? Can you share any comments/observations about this?
MORE MORE MORE. I am not happy about per night attrition vs. aggregate. We have to be much more vigilant about matching rooming lists too. Bally’s just dinged us for attrition when an audit of the rooming list showed that we were OVER every night. But we had to audit.
How important is Internet bandwidth to your programs (i.e., Wi-Fi), and do you think hotels are being more or less flexible with their Internet bandwidth pricing? Any tips to share with your fellow planners to get free or discounted Wi-Fi for your meetings?
Important and the pricing is ridiculous. We are starting to make it an RFP criteria.
Do you feel this is a buyer’s or seller’s market? Any observations on this to share?
Sellers, for sure. The tide turns every decade or so, huh?
Do you find that you had less leverage on room rates during the last year? What are hotels and facilities telling you when you negotiate?
Less. They’ll sell it to someone, if not us, is their predominant attitude.
Are you using social networking websites for business purposes? If so, which ones and why?
Yes, we use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Each one reaches a different segment of our membership, we discovered.
Are you more optimistic, or less, about the meetings industry and the economy than a year ago? Why?
Ah, neutral. Please, please, oil prices come back up!
How do you think 2017 will shape up for the meetings industry? Where do you see costs (hotel, restaurant, venue prices, etc.) going? Do you think your budget and/or attendance will increase or decrease? Why?
We’re all contracted out for 2017, so we’re in good shape. Negotiating 2018 now--everything is a little more expensive.
What other trends are you seeing in the meetings world, such as changing attendee demographics (i.e., Millennials), or any other trends that are impacting your programs?
Really, content is king. When we have compelling training and education sessions that members can “sell up” to their management as immediately valuable to the company, attendance shows it. Sometimes we hit a super sweet education spot and attendance skyrockets (like the DOL overtime rules changes, or changes to state lien laws). We need more of those!
