The International Association of Conference Centers has launched an initiative to inspect each of its 235 member properties worldwide to ensure each comply with the association's criteria for membership. IACC, using a third-party inspection firm, will evaluate 57 properties this year and another 57 in 2005, said executive vice president Tom Bolman. Two properties currently are being inspected, he added.
The initiative, announced last year as a way for IACC to more clearly differentiate the offerings of conference centers and hotels
(Meetings Today, Feb. 10, 2003), eventually will include not only every current IACC property but also all new applicants.
The onsite inspection process, conducted by Fairfax, Va.-based Bare Associates International, is followed by the online posting of an assessment of the examined conference center's performance, available for viewing only to the property and IACC, Bolman said. Should the property fail to meet all qualifications, specific remedies and timeframes for amelioration have been established.
"If the BAI site visit reveals frailties, the inspector will tell the general manager," Bolman said. "There is a standard operating review and an appeals process. Otherwise, there is a remediation timetable of six months to five years. The intent here is not to lose members."
The BAI inspections, when completed, should offer the added benefit of a comprehensive database of each center's capabilities, providing the association a base of data with which to examine its universal criteria. For now, the IACC board of directors is considering relaxing some criteria that may be unnecessarily stringent, Bolman said, pointing to minimum conference table width as one example.
Separately, IACC also has commissioned a member satisfaction and needs assessment survey, Bolman said, scheduled to conclude Oct. 6. "We're in our 24th year, and the association is going through the maturation process of becoming bigger and more sophisticated," he said. "We want to make sure we're on the right track and that the quality initiatives we're looking at are as important as we think."
One goal of the needs assessment is an examination of IACC's annual conference, held each March. Bolman said attendance of late has slipped slightly, leading the association to consider regional or other alternatives. "We hit a high of 500 attendees two years ago, but this year we were under expectations and what was budgeted," he said.
The survey, conducted by Chicago-based Association Laboratory Inc., will include interviews with IACC staff, extensive interviews with a small but representative cross-section of association members, an additional 50 telephone interviews with other members and an online survey available to the full membership.