Celebration filled the air at SITE Global Conference 2023 in New York, where the global incentive travel association met to fete its 50th anniversary in the city where it all began.
Founded in 1973 at Manhattan’s Americana Hotel, now the Sheraton Centre Hotel & Towers, the then-Society for Incentive Travel Executives (now the final letter stands for Excellence instead of Executives and the association is based in Chicago) coined the very term “incentive travel” and reached a pre-pandemic high of approximately 2,500 members.
The 2023 Global Conference, held February 17-20 at the New York Marriott Marquis, attracted approximately 800 delegates—a sell-out that set an attendance record for the conference—including 30 past SITE presidents traveling to New York from countries around the globe.
The society’s 50th anniversary also came on the heels of welcoming a new CEO, Annette Gregg (formerly chief revenue officer for MPI), November 14.
[Related: SITE Taps MPI's Gregg as CEO]
“So, you know, I'm 90 days in and I've got it all figured out,” Gregg joked during a press conference. “We ended last year with a little over 2,100 members, and before the pandemic, we were at an all-time high of about 2,500. So, compared to some other associations, that was an okay drop, and we're pacing back ahead.”
Gregg added that SITE is attracting a lot of younger members to the association, and said her top priority is ensuring the financial stability of SITE by growing strategic business partnerships and creating new revenue streams. Like other meetings industry associations, SITE—and the incentives industry as a whole—took a huge hit during the pandemic.
Gregg said that the number of strategic partners that are spending more than $100,000 with the association has grown from 15 in 2021 to 21 currently. however.
A second priority is targeting key demographics for new members, whether that is based on geographic location or key sectors that currently may be missing from its membership roll.
Her third priority is creating and maximizing strategic partnerships with similar associations to leverage assets for all members.
“When you are a smaller, niche association, you have to be smart about what the work is that you're doing and how you're doing that work,” Gregg explained. “It won't do any of us any good if we commit to too many things and do them poorly. So, we have to find out what is our core competencies and lean into that and do it well. How we extend that reach and those resources are through partnerships. For example, we have just recently codified partnerships with MPI and with Destinations International. We have strategic partnerships with IMEX. These are crossover audiences and we’re looking at ways we can market each other’s assets.”
Gregg singled out education as a key area in which SITE members may benefit through strategic partnerships with other meetings industry associations.
“How can we share each other’s education?” Gregg asked. “No, I don't need to create 100 new educational assets. If a sister association has them and my members can get access, that just helps all of us. I think strategic partnerships are a way that we're going to be able to grow our member benefits in a faster way.”
Sustainability, RFPs and Paid Site Inspections
One of the biggest issues facing the incentive travel industry is sustainability, especially the massive carbon footprint of airline travel and luxury air travel such as private jets and helicopters for high-end incentive trips, fueling a backlash especially in Europe.
Many in the industry believe the incentive travel community must take much bigger steps to regulate itself lest governments enforce stringent sustainability policies on it.
“We’re in the middle of a strategic planning exercise, because there's no shortage of causes that matter, and with a small association, you need to prioritize,” Gregg said when asked about SITE’s sustainability efforts. “It will be part of our equation that we'll look at. We do have a very active sustainability committee. We have a chapter certification; we have RFP templates. My wish is to take that beyond the good work of a few really smart and well-intentioned people to open it up. How do we take this concept and good work that's been done and make it a little more widespread, where people can share ideas, maybe in an open forum, and share resources and it really becomes a way that they help each other solve problems instead of a top-down approach?”
Co-presenting a standing-room-only “Dialogue Den: Sustainability: Where Do We Start” session, Maritz Global Events’ General Manager, Environmental Strategy Rachel Riggs put it bluntly.
“As an industry, we need to show we’re doing this so we won’t be controlled,” she said. “It’s a long-term commitment and you need to be transparent. And as the younger generation gets into the workforce, they’re going to expect that, and they’re not going to go to your event if you’re not transparent.
“Use your voice, loud and proud,” Riggs emphasized, such as in demanding accountability from airlines and hotels, and advising planners to access resources from the Sustainable Hotel Alliance and the EIC to insert sustainability requirements in RFPs. “You have the power to make real change, so think about that in everything you do.”
[Related Podcast: Maritz Global Events' Rachel Riggs Talks Sustainability Trends, From SITE Global Conference]
Session co-presenter Benoit Sauvage, founder of Hospitality Sustainability Revolution, noted that SITE has just launched a sustainability committee, which currently has 13 members, but the association did not have a sustainability plan for the 2023 Global Conference in place.
Other hot topics in the sessions included many DMCs broaching the idea of requiring incentive planners to pay for site inspections or even RFPs, as they often include detailed ideas and branding concepts that can easily be used for another program if the original DMC doesn’t win the business. DMC operators also bemoaned the lead technology solutions such as Cvent that send RFPs to eight or 10 competing DMCs, increasing competition and the amount of time to respond with detailed program pitches.
Stirring Conference Keynotes
Inspiring keynote speeches were given by Amelia Rose Earhart, who piloted a plane around the world in honor of her iconic namesake, and Andre Norman, who relayed his incredible journey of being raised in poverty by a single mom with five brothers and sisters and serving 14 years in prison before turning his life around to become a Harvard Fellow and travel the world on a mission to help inmates and others suffering dire situations.
[Related Podcast: From Prison to Harvard: Speaker Andre Norman Wows Crowds With an Inspirational Keynote]
Closing Remarks
Filling the final couch slot on a stage designed to look like a coffee shop from the TV show Friends, Gregg ended the proceedings on a positive note: “There's no doubt we're facing some challenges with rising costs coming out of the pandemic, and everyone embracing virtual experiences and getting people excited about investing in our programs, but I definitely feel more optimistic than pessimistic, and I feel we have a real opportunity to be a solution to this isolated environment we’re coming out of.”
SITE announced its 2024 Global Conference will be held February 5-8 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Read next: International Incentive Travel Destination Comeback
