Buyers Boost Use Of Resorts For Executive Gatherings
<B> Buyers Boost Use Of Resorts For Executive Gatherings</B>
By Chris Davis
Spurred by a resilient domestic economy that has bolstered many corporate coffers, planners can afford to direct their companies' executive board meetings to top resorts--and the resorts are building and adding amenities specifically to accommodate them.
Since many companies today aren't in the throes of a financial crisis, there hasn't been any significant push to cut back on the cost of executive board meetings. While unlimited corporate excess has not been in vogue for some years, the customer demand for these highest of high-end meetings doesn't appear to be slowing down.
For planners, board meetings mean fine resorts--and lots of recreation. Especially golf.
"We hold our executive board meetings off site, in places like Miami, but they need to be at upscale resorts and there needs to be golf available," said Arlene Macchia, manager of travel and meeting services for AlliedSignal Inc. of Morristown, N.J.
A former president of the National Business Travel Association who now spends the majority of her time planning meetings that involve the chairman of the board, Macchia said that like many boards, AlliedSignal's "likes properties where we can be self-contained. It makes life very easy when you have the whole building to work with."
Still, there are times when board members or other top executives need to take their meetings on the road to destinations not as glamorous as the top resorts. "If we're opening up a new plant or an office, we might want to have a meeting there at its opening. We'll look for the highest quality property at the given location, but we won't stay there too long. It's more difficult in that case to find a golf resort," Macchia said.
The least of the AlliedSignal travel department's worries is arranging board members' air transportation. "We have our own planes and most of our board members have their own planes," Macchia said. "We are very concerned with security, though I can't say that it's more so now than in the past."
The Reader's Digest Association often holds its executive board meetings at its Pleasantville, N.Y., headquarters, said director of meetings and special events Barbara Griswold, but when they do venture off site, it's only for the crème de la crème of New York properties.
"There are just two locations that I'll use, and they are the highest-level properties in New York City," Griswold said. "Where I hold a board meeting would depend on what space I can get at one of those properties."
Griswold would not consider a property that didn't have a history of hosting successful executive board meetings for her or for other companies. "You go to places that have had experience doing these kind of board meetings, because their representatives are tuned in to what they're all about," Griswold said. "It's not like a typical meeting. There needs to be a high degree of confidentially. Everything that could go wrong can't. There's no room for error in the food and beverage requests, the noise level, the security of the meeting and the audiovisual equipment."
In the competitive pharmaceutical market, Eli Lilly & Co. of Indianapolis tries to keep its executive board meetings austere--at least to a point. "We try to be cost conscious because they are trying to set an example," said manager of travel and corporate meeting services George Odom. "We try to keep normal standards all the way around. We do a lot of the meetings here in Indianapolis, and there's no set standard of service," as other companies often demand. "We try to treat them as VIPs, but without the black limousines and all that."
Like most large companies, Lilly relies on corporate jets--both its own and those of its board members--to transport attendees to the meeting destination.
While many companies still look only at resorts as potential sites for their executive board meetings, because of the available amenities and service levels, the resorts' hold on this segment of the meetings market is always a tenuous one, subject to the vagaries of the economy and a company's financial standing, insiders said. In less fortunate times, these types of meetings are prone to cost cutting and might be scaled back or held at less expensive properties.
For many companies, though, today clearly isn't that day. "Economic times are heady and the resort properties are forging forward," said industry analyst Don Massagli of the Chicago branch of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Executives at financially thriving companies today have more of an opportunity to take advantage of the recreational amenities--especially the golf courses--and service that resort properties offer, while still holding high-level meetings at their conference facilities, than in less optimistic times.
That doesn't mean that price isn't still a factor in choosing a meeting site, though. It just might not be the most important one.
"Cost is going to be an issue even when our CEO wants the meeting," said Amy Powell, senior meeting planner for Ralston Purina Co. of St. Louis. "But service is the primary consideration when we're choosing between resorts for those meetings. The second most important factor is how well the hotel is kept, and third would be the recreational amenities, because at that level of meeting, they will recreate."
Powell said she always asks about the date of the last renovation at every site she is considering as a way of ensuring that the facility and amenities are up to date. "It's very important to us to know that the facility is up to par, even at five-star properties," she said. "I try to go back to properties that I've used before or get recommendations from other planners to make sure."
When executives choose to hold a meeting at a resort property, they sometimes will ask the planner to deal with a specific property or restrict the area where it should be held.
"They may request a property or have a particular area in mind, like Scottsdale, depending on the time of year," said Maria Sithens, senior coordinator of events and trade shows for Merant Software of Mountain View, Calif. "Without a specific request, the driving factors are the type of property and the amenities they offer, including golf and tennis, and the location of the attendees, because these tend to be small groups. We won't go out of control with cost, though."
The Atlantis Resort and Casino in Paradise Island, The Bahamas, opened a conference center last month that should attract the type of executive board meeting whose attendees budget plenty of time for leisure, officials said. "Executive board meetings is a market we can count on," said Tim Roby, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Atlantis owner and operator Sun International. "If there was a major dip in the economy, we would probably see that segment affected--but otherwise, it's strong and solid."
The Skytop Lodge in Skytop, Pa., is banking on executive board meetings, having built a $5.7 million, 20-room inn last year specifically for that market. "We thought that it would attract the high-end meeting because of the smaller size and greater amenities, and we put all our eggs in this basket," said director of sales Bob Baldassari. The inn has performed well, drawing executive board meetings from corporations in New York City and New Jersey's Pharmaceutical Row, he said.
Baldassari believes that service will attract the executive board meeting more than the resort's location or the amount of amenities it can offer. "We kept the inn to only 20 rooms so that when executives hold a meeting, they can take over the inn and be the only focus, not just one of 15 other meetings," he said.
If location is the primary factor in choosing an executive board meeting site, Baldassari acknowledged that he may be at a disadvantage, with the northeastern Pennsylvania location of Skytop. "We are trying to overcome a destination-oriented problem," he said. "We need planners to think that they don't have to put their executives on a plane and fly them to an exotic destination for that kind of high-end service."
Two of the largest conference center and resort chains, Benchmark International (see story, page 24) and Dolce International have been on a binge of acquisition and development of late, further increasing offerings to this market.
"The high-end meetings market is driven by more factors than just the property," said Burt Cabanas, president and CEO of Benchmark, based in The Woodlands, Texas. "It's often driven by location, because usually the CEO or the company president will be the one to decide where to go. But it's also the ability of the property to deliver the meeting without mistakes."
While proximity, easy access and recreational activities all are critical factors, "the planner often will choose the property they know will make the least number of mistakes," Cabanas said. "Conference center resorts concentrate on meetings, so it's a market we're able to get."
Buyers also want a resort to be nimble, because executive board meetings have a tendency to involve extensive logistical changes as the meeting's beginning draws near, said Walter Banks, owner and CEO of the Lago Mar Resort and Club in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
"Resorts have to be able to respond quickly, because the executives often are taking care of things back at work while they're here," Banks said. "The staff must handle changes quickly, because the velocity of change in that market segment in terms of logistics is amazing.