Marriott To Add Conf. Ctrs.
<H3> Targeting Small Meetings</H3><H1> Marriott To Add Conf. Ctrs.</H1>By Lauren Bielski
<B>I</B>n a move designed to offer meeting groups a choice of several types of venues, Marriott announced in mid-March that it will almost double the number of conference centers in its portfolio, adding 20 facilities to its roster of 28 to better address the needs of small groups.
The rollout is in keeping with Marriott's tenet that it should own a customer's entire range of business, whether that customer be a road warrior or a CEO at work in a Marriott-sponsored "war room," said Susan Morris, national director of sales and marketing for Marriott Conference Centers, based in Washington, D.C.
"In line with the approach we took with customizing hotels for different types of transient travel, we are trying to view our meetings business as similarly capable of segmentation by offering a facility geared for small groups," she said.
The company plans to launch Marriott-branded facilities incrementally over the next seven years. Morris estimates that three properties will be opened in 1996, including the newly constructed MeadowView in Kingsport, Tenn., with another three to follow in 1997.
Although she indicated that the brand team, headed by Marriott Conference Centers vice president and general manager Terry Harwood, is evaluating opportunities in second-tier cities, none were named in the initial announcement.
Marriott-which defines small meetings as those with 100 participants or less-also will be promoting its centers' state-of-the-art facilities, which are designed, operated and priced for productive conferences. Harwood noted that the meetings industry has shown consistent growth from 1991 to 1994, climbing from $75.6 billion in direct spending to $82.8 billion. Marriott expects the market to hit $90 billion in 1997, with small-group volume contributing significantly to the growth, he said.
"We'll be the conference-center evangelists, spreading the good word about the benefits of holding intimate, work-intensive gatherings in more of a specialized 'retreat' atmosphere," Morris said. She pointed to the two existing Marriott-managed facilities-the IBM-owned Palisades in Palisades, N.J., which recently hosted an educational summit with President Clinton, and the Wye River at Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., where Syria and Israel are continuing peace talks-as typifying the sort of places where "transformative thinking gets done."
The Marriott Conference Center brand, established in 1995, offers a flexible but uniform pricing structure that breaks down total meetings costs-including food and beverage-on a per-attendee basis. That makes the budgeting process easier for both part-time and seasoned meeting planners, Harwood said.
Marriott Conference Centers will offer the traditional services that meeting planners expect at such properties, including fax machines and copiers, audiovisual equipment, appropriate lighting, comfortable seating and continuous break-style menu options.
Even while Marriott expands its presence in this market, planners have been slow to respond to the obvious advantages of a facility dedicated to conferences, Morris acknowledged.
"The International Association of Conference Centers has only 175 members throughout the country, and research data that we've obtained indicates that planners use a conference center only about 7 percent of the time," she said. But Marriott is hoping that its growing presence will shift those numbers.
As Marriott's strategy plays itself out, facilities will be selected on the basis of meeting the criteria for location and amenities. Marriott will build some properties, but the majority will be either acquired outright or run on a management-contract basis. The group will seek to acquire properties within 60 miles of major metropolitan areas, with substantial dedicated meeting facilities and 100 to 350 rooms.
Also on the roster is the renovating properties already in the portfolio, including "soft redos," refurbishing pools and golf courses, and adding rooms.