Mtg. Pros Talk Centralization
<B>Mtg. Pros Talk Centralization</B>
<I>Program Structure, Web Focus of MPI Event</I>
By Chris Davis
As industry pros converged on Nashville's Opryland Hotel for Meeting Professionals International's Professional Education Conference, new survey results showed the spread of hourly charge-backs and vendors unveiled the newest Web and hotel offerings that target the corporate meetings market.
A study released at the conference benchmarking best practices of MPI's "Circle of Excellence"--comprising the group are 25 Fortune 500 companies, none of which are in direct competition with each other--showed no prevailing consensus as to how meetings programs are internally organized. While 68 percent of the Circle companies have centralized meeting planning responsibilities, those heading such programs reported to departments as diverse as marketing and communications, sales, public relations and estate services.
About 48 percent of the respondents said their departments have some sort of charge-back procedure, the most popular being set hourly charges or lump handling fees. Other companies based charge-back fees on percent spent.
Restrictions on site selection were reported by 57 percent of respondents, the most primary of such being geographic, followed by image-related and price-related restrictions.
Only 43 percent measure and document the return on investment of their meetings, with surveying all attendees by far the most popular method.
Said MPI CEO Edwin Griffin Jr., "There's a huge disparity in how companies measure ROI, if they do it at all."
* * *
The first Web site dedicated solely to meetings auctions, the latest meetings-technology wrinkle to emerge (Meetings Today, Nov. 15), has cropped up: Mpbid.com, which will challenge EventSource.com and StarCite, said founder and president Jim Etkin.
Unlike the other two, Etkin's site will allow third parties to partake in the process, with Mpbid receiving 60 percent of the commission paid by hotels. The site also receives 10 percent commission on straight planner-hotel transactions. Also, unlike EventSource and StarCite, Mpbid doesn't line up properties before the bidding starts, so planners can't research participating properties beforehand. But Mpbid auctions last longer--up to nine days.
* * *
Every single planner and supplier, out of 1,200, surveyed by J .D. Power and Associates for a study by MPI and Twinsburg, Ohio-based PlanSoft Corp. has access to the Internet--a sharp contrast to just 12 months ago, when planners complained that some hoteliers didn't have e-mail.
"All of us were surprised by the numbers, but it's true," said MPI COO David DuBois.
About 46 percent of planners surveyed said they research meeting sites over individual hotel or chain Web sites, much more than on MPI's site (27 percent), individual CVB sites (17 percent), or PlanSoft (17 percent). DuBois said he expects that to change, as planners begin using one of several sites dedicated to facility research and selection.
But the Internet's impact on the industry was very powerful in 1999, as 77 percent of facility executives reported more online leads and RFPs in December than in June, with an average increase of 42 percent.
* * *
Those companies planning to implement their consolidated meetings program globally would fare best by beginning in the United Kingdom, Belgium and The Netherlands, said Beth Truett, senior vice president of global business solutions for Philadelphia-based McGettigan Partners.
"Those three are the most user-friendly areas for consolidation," Truett said, citing her company's ongoing research of the topic. "Not only because of the common language and cultural similarities, but they also have a history of many corporations with a successful history of successful corporate travel consolidation operating there."
There is less of a likelihood of meetings consolidation success for global corporations headquartered in France and Germany, Truett said, as nationalistic tendencies there are more of a factor.
* * *
Japanese luxury chain Nikko Hotels International, beset during the past year by the need to sell off some American properties, is back on its feet and targeting the corporate meetings market, said manager of worldwide sales Angela Lawrence.
The chain has created a worldwide, independent group sales and marketing division and an online RFP to handle small, high-end meetings, Lawrence said."It's different than five years ago, where planners could build relationships at specific properties," Lawrence said. "Now it's one relationship, one response, one resource. The one-stop shop has been the greatest impact of the hotel-consolidation trend."
To attract planners to the worldwide sales office, Nikko is offering 100 room nights to the planner who books the most through the department at 12 participating properties.
* * *
Corporate planners weary of the growing practice of paying and negotiating for meeting space aren't likely to find any relief in Europe, said Vanessa Cotton, managing director of The Event Organization Company of London. "It's fairly standard practice across Europe, so much so that it may come as a shock," said Cotton during a PEC workshop.
Cotton also said European property sales managers are more willing to negotiate each and every aspect of the cost of a meeting. "Don't keep your budget a secret, because it's a waste of time these days," she said. "If you can only afford sausage, don't ask for a quote for pheasant.