MPI Debuts Benchmark Tool - 2001-02-26

<B>MPI Debuts Benchmark Tool</B>

By Chris Davis

The Meeting Professionals International Foundation has developed a corporate benchmarking tool that will measure the levels of attendee and senior management satisfaction with a given event by comparing post-event evaluation data with benchmarks culled from an extensive survey.

Corporate planners who pay for use of the tool will receive a PowerPoint presentation comparing data from their meeting with the foundation's benchmarks, after the planner submits completed, foundation-supplied questionnaires to event attendees. However, it will only compare the numbers to the benchmarks, and will not suggest improvements to the structure or content of a given meeting.

The new tool, called Meeting Quality Evaluation, is based primarily on a 1998 survey of corporate meeting expectations (Meetings Today, July 20, 1998). The foundation unveiled the evaluation tool at MPI's annual Professional Education Conference held last month in New Orleans.

"This is not a panacea or a total tool," said MPI Foundation executive director Robert Eilers. "But it allows planners to compare their meetings to other meetings, and it's closely identified to what the attendee and the planner want."

During the surveying process, the foundation learned that corporate senior management judges the success of a meeting by how well it provides concrete plans, efficiently conveys a consistent message, builds commitment, motivates and leads to greater productivity. Attendees, however, consider a meeting successful if it motivates, covers the agenda as promised, is paced well, offers tools and resources and allows for interaction with employees from the appropriate departments.

The foundation developed a 25-question post-event evaluation tool that covers attendee and management views about a meeting based on those qualifications for success. The foundation divides meetings into categories by content--sales, management or education/training--and benchmarks the responses.

"This is, in essence, an accidental product," Eilers said. "We did not set out with the intention of creating this tool. We were looking for gaps between senior management expectations and attendee expectations to develop an educational program and tools based around that. This tool came out of it."

The MQE was constructed with the assistance of MPI's Corporate Circle of Excellence, a group of about 30 high-level meeting buyers who meet occasionally to share opinions and deconstruct such meeting concepts as return on investment. "It is not a total ROI tool because we don't tell the planner why the meeting was good or poor, but the Circle may enhance the tool, so recommendations and advice to improve the meeting could be provided," Eilers said.

The tool isn't optimal for corporate meetings of less than 25 people or an executive board meeting because the small number of attendees can't provide a statistically reliable cross-section of opinions relative to the national benchmarks. Plus, the price of the tool ($400 for a meeting involving no more than 200 attendees, with $1 per attendee more than 200) likely wouldn't be cost-efficient for small meetings.

Even though corporate meetings vary widely in terms of their settings, from a no-frills gathering at an airport property to a flashy event at a resort, Eilers said the benchmarks are relevant regardless of the surroundings. "All sales meetings, for example, have basic criteria that are important to corporations," Eilers said. "However, the tool is not designed to slice and dice among types of sales meetings. We hope that we will process enough questionnaires to create a data pool that is even more specific for different types of meetings."

The foundation currently has aggregated data from post-event questionnaires from more than 400 corporate meetings to develop the benchmarks. Data from future meetings will be added to the aggregate, "which will impact the ratings of excellence and standard," Eilers said. "Basically, the tool is a moving target."

Uncasville, Conn.-based resort and casino Mohegan Sun announced at PEC that it would pay for the evaluation for any meeting between 50 and 800 attendees, beginning in March 2002 upon completion of its $1.1 billion expansion.

<CENTER>* * *</CENTER>

The recent spate of hotel mergers and their effect on meeting contracts was discussed by a high-level panel of hotel executives at PEC, with the conclusion that consolidation itself is not the fuel behind the seller's market.

One concern offered to the panel is that widespread consolidation has left some chains with multiple properties in the same cities, theoretically decreasing competition and keeping rates higher, said Starwood senior vice president of industry relations Dave Scypinski, whose chain is represented in several locations by more than one hotel. "If there's a Sheraton and Westin in the same city, they will compete for meetings," Scypinski said. "If it's a multi-property meeting, it can be synergistic and we would benefit by having attendees in both. But they compete for meetings of similar size and quality."

Steve Armitage, Hilton senior vice president of sales, agreed. "Same-city Hilton properties compete every single day," he said. "The sales managers at those properties are primarily concerned with their own properties."

Other concerns included the problem of meeting contracts at hotels that are sold and reflagged after the deal is signed but before the event is held. Marriott vice president of segments and promotions Mark Sherwin said there usually isn't much trouble if the contract addresses that possibility, but there are times when new terms must be worked out. "The trouble is when there's unwritten agreements between the planner and the hotel or the new flag has different procedures that they want to implement," Sherwin said. "That often leads to further negotiation."

<CENTER>* * *</CENTER>

MPI announced that 43 members attained its Certification in Meetings Management designation, bringing the worldwide total to 159 since the program debuted to fanfare and controversy in 1998 (Meetings Today, July 10). That controversy, primarily centered around concerns that the new designation would dilute the more widely held Convention Industry Council-administered Certified Meeting Professional, since has subsided substantially. Participants of the week-long CMM program said there are significant differences in structure and goals between the designations.

<CENTER>* * *</CENTER>

MPI chairman-elect Jerry Wayne was set to become the first industry dot-com executive to take MPI's helm in July, but that distinction now looks unlikely. Wayne has left attendee management Web site B-there.com, where he served a six-month stint as executive vice president for association and trade show markets, to join three Louisville, Ky., properties--Galt House, Executive Inn and Executive West--as executive director of sales and marketing, effective March 1.

Wayne succeeds current chair Evelyn Laxgang at MPI's World Education Congress in Las Vegas in July. B-there founder and CEO Peggy Lee said the split was amicable.