Meetings Beat - 2006-07-17

MPI Global Board Releases Travel-Synergy White Paper
Meeting Professionals International at its annual World Education Congress in Dallas last week released a position paper by the group's Global Corporate Circle of Excellence addressing the synergies and equality between corporate travel and meetings departments. "Meeting professionals strive for the best approach to serving the broad objectives behind an event. Corporate travel managers, meanwhile, may feel they have no mandate related to the overall purpose of a meeting, but they can be consistently strategic in fulfilling their mandate for consolidation and cost efficiency. Each approach brings specific value to the larger organization and their combined impact is far greater than the sum of the parts," according to the paper. The paper—the fifth installment in a series developed by the GCCOE—includes a nine-step checklist for creating greater synergies between the two departments, but for the most part avoids specific recommendations due to the diverse management styles and needs of corporate readers. MPI members are receiving directives from senior management to share travel and meeting department resources and also are responding proactively to industry trends, said Betsy Bondurant, former co-chair of the GCCOE and associate director of meeting planning and trade shows for Amgen Corp. "It's not a matter of turf. It's not a matter of travel coming in and taking over meeting planning or meeting planners coming in and taking over travel organizations. It's how can we achieve the goals of the corporation and how do we enhance each others' knowledge and skill set," Bondurant said. The council pointed to its own collaboration with National Business Travel Association's groups and meetings committee on white papers as an example of synergies between travel and meetings. "With the relationship that not only travel and meetings departments have with each other, but also with procurement getting more involved in meetings management and travel management, there are a lot of synergies and we need to start talking about that," she said. More than 3,600 meeting planners and suppliers registered for the World Education Congress, the largest event in the organization's history, according to an association release.

PKF Conference Center Report Shows Strength
Conference centers in the United States enjoyed another year of tremendous growth in 2005, according to a report issued last month by PKF Consulting, in conjunction with the International Association of Conference Centers. Total revenue for the industry increased 13.7 percent from 2004 levels, while profits increased 39.2 percent, according to the company. "One element of the industry's success in recent years has been the increase in institutional ownership of conference center facilities," stated Dave Arnold, PKF CEO East. "Conference centers have been increasingly viewed as stable, relatively high revenue-per-guest yielding assets with potential upside given professional management." Institutional ownership, compared with such past typical property owners as universities, corporations or large real estate developers, present some challenges for the industry, according to Arnold. "Today's institutional owners view conference centers as profit centers that must produce a return with much less appreciation of the corollary benefits associated with the conference center concept," he said. According to the report, in 2005 a growing contribution of the increase in revenue for centers has come from non-conference demand sources. In 2004, 68.9 percent of all guest rooms occupied at the properties surveyed were booked as a conference package. In 2005, this share dropped to 67 percent. "The fact that total revenue grew 13.7 percent on a per-available-room basis, but only 7 percent on a per-occupied-room basis, is partially indicative of management's willingness to unbundle the complete meeting package rate in order to accommodate some nontraditional group demand," Arnold said. A growing dilemma is brewing in the industry over short-term profits versus industry traditionalists, he warned.

Hyatt Offers Meeting-Savings Card
Hyatt Hotels and Resorts last month offered meeting buyers a stored value card to accumulate and redeem dollar-based credits toward future meetings at properties in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Groups can earn $2,000 in credits for qualifying meetings held at the chain through April 30, 2007, the company said, and up to $2,500 per event when paying with an American Express card. The credits can be used toward future meetings for up to one year after the promotion ends. The amount of reward credits given to a buyer is tied to the number of paid room nights purchased by the group. According to the release, groups with 25 to 50 paid room nights earn $200 in reward credits; 51 rooms to 100 rooms earn $400 in credits; 101 rooms to 200 rooms earn $500; 201 rooms to 300 rooms earn $750; 301 rooms to 500 rooms earn $1,000; and groups larger than 501 room nights qualify for $2,000 in credits.