<B>CIC Leads Standard Quest</B>
By Chris Davis
The Convention Industry Council officially has approved and commenced its long-discussed initiative to standardize practices throughout all reaches of the meetings industry.
Work will begin on the Accepted Practices Exchange program by the end of the year, when panels of at least 25 people from all walks of the industry consider standards for terminology and post-event reporting. The CIC's nine-member Apex Commission will solicit applications and appoint members of the panels, a process that should be completed within the next three months; actual deliberation on the two topics will begin immediately thereafter.
The Apex project eventually will include standardization efforts for RFPs, meeting and site profiles, résumés and work order panels, housing practices and contracts. None of those are slated before 2002, with contract-language standardization efforts likely to be commenced in 2004.
"We chose terminology and post-events as the first panels because they're not as controversial as some other topics, like contracts," said Mickey Schaefer, vice president of membership, meetings and conventions, administration and strategic planning for the American Academy of Family Physicians and chair of the Apex Commission. "We wanted some early successes and deliverables, and by the time we take on contracts we'll have been through the process. We'll be able to learn from the experience and have the infrastructure completely set."
The CIC, which changed its name from the Convention Liaison Council earlier this year, set its budget for the process at less than $200,000, Schaefer said. Much of the funding will come from the foundations of some of its 26 member organizations, including Meeting Professionals International, the Professional Convention Management Association and several convention and visitors bureaus. "We think the budget is pretty reasonable, given travel costs as well as legal and technological consulting," she said. The CIC will employ a project manager and technological consultant for the Apex initiative.
The nine industry panels, which will report to the Apex Commission, will each form subcommittees that will conduct the discussions and deliberations, Schaefer said. An effort is underway to enable the CIC's Web site (www.conventionindustry.org) to receive input about the considered topics. "We have a lot of stakeholders and we want to make sure we have plenty of input from all of them," Schaefer said. "We're hoping that at every annual meeting of our member organizations, there will be a discussion of Apex in the agenda."
Once the panel subcommittees reach an agreement on the industry aspects to be recommended for standardization, the full industry panel will vote on the recommendation. If a yet-to-be-determined majority percentage agree, the recommendations will be sent to the Apex Commission and finally the CIC board of directors for final approval. The terminology and post-event recommendations could be reached and approved by the end of 2001, she said.
A study commissioned by the then-CLC in 1998 showed that there was about 80 percent support in the industry for the Apex initiative.
"Support is growing," Schaefer said. "There is a sense that people have wondered why this has taken so long, but we want this to be a very deliberate and thorough process. I think there's more awareness in the industry and an enthusiasm."
CIC president Garis Distelhorst added, "If Apex is successful, these accepted practices--which will not be mandatory--should enable all industry stakeholders to increase efficiencies of operations through sharing information, avoiding the duplication of effort and streamlining systems and processes."
But much has changed since the then-CLC broached the concept of RFP and post-event report standardization in 1994. The Internet has become much more of an issue in the meetings industry, with at least one vendor, Newmarket International, developing an online RFP retrieval and conversion service that its officials believe will make the concept of RFP standardization irrelevant (see story, page 26).
"If a vendor comes out with a good product that does that, great," Schaefer said. "But it doesn't affect Apex. If such a vendor tweaked the product to officially conform to Apex practices, once they're created, that would help Apex and we could help them."
Before any such bridge is crossed, however, a lengthy period of deliberation and discussion looms. "This will wind up to be great," she said. "But it won't be easy.