<B>CIC Taps Power As CEO</B>
By Chris Davis
<I>McLean, Va. - </I>The Convention Industry Council has named a Bass Hotels and Resorts conference sales veteran as its new president and CEO, and charged her with continuing the industry umbrella organization's quest to develop standardized processes for many meeting industry functions.
Mary Power was appointed and began work last month as the new CIC head, replacing Garis Distelhorst, who resigned in November to become head of a private firm. Power, a 20-year industry veteran, most recently as Bass' U.S. director of conference sales, said she also hopes to help the organization's profile grow.
"No one seems to really know the full scope of what we do," Power said. "The CIC does so many things, like administering the Certified Meeting Professional certification and issuing the CIC Manual, but we tend not to toot our own horn. I'd like to see us evolve into the voice of the industry, which is what the goal of the organization was when it was formed."
Part of that will be shepherding the continuing development of the Accepted Practices Exchange, or Apex for short. After several years of planning and deliberation, Apex now has the beginnings of a budget, with committees studying methods of possible recommended standards for industry terminology, post-event reporting and, in upcoming years, contracts and requests for proposals (Meetings Today, Sept. 18, 2000).
Though all involved operate with the best of intentions, the process likely will be difficult because of the different perspectives of the stakeholders, including corporate and association meeting buyers, hoteliers and an array of third parties, which include independent planners and related suppliers.
Nevertheless, Power said, the fact that input is being solicited from every corner of the industry increases the chances of developing standards that will be adopted by everyone.
"That's why Apex is about accepted practices," Power said. "It pulls a lot of the various interests together to work for common standards and goals. We want to get everyone speaking in unison about the language we use, and the buy-in needed to have everyone use it.
"Everyone is investing tremendous amounts of money in computer software and technological programs, and we'll all be more effective with that if we're all speaking the same language," Power added. "If everyone agrees, then technology providers would have to make it work for us. But this is voluntary compliance, and we'll never be Big Brother."
The inherent trickiness of the standardization process, however, is why the CIC first has chosen to focus on post-event reporting and industry terminology, where there are fewer fluctuations in form.
"We want to start with easier processes so people can quickly see the benefits," Power said. "Contracts will be the most challenging, but even if there would be a structure for 90 percent of a contract, then you would have to tweak only 10 percent instead of looking at each in a totally different fashion. We'd still be way ahead of the game."
Power said the CIC officially has begun the process of developing its first new Economic Impact Study since 1995, which will examine the impact of the industry on the national economy through intense auditing in 15 to 20 cities of various sizes and extrapolating the results to the total economy (Meetings Today, Nov. 13, 2000). The survey is being conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"It's a vehicle to help people really understand the value of the meetings industry," Power said.
Unlike Distelhorst and some other previous CIC heads, Power does not come from a background of association management, though she has been a member of several industry organizations.
"I've spent my whole career dealing with meetings and associations, so I understand how an association works," Power said. "As a supplier to that community, I have a good outsider's perspective and no preconceived notions about how something should be done because that's how it was done in another association. I've also been a member of or an exhibitor at 19 of the 29 CIC organizations, so I understand the varied membership.