New IACC President Shoots For Member Standardization - 2001-02-26

<B>New IACC President Shoots For Member Standardization</B>

By Chris Davis

Countering the complexity of hotel negotiations, the new president of the International Association of Conference Centers is encouraging members to fold as many technological and supplementary amenities as possible into their per-attendee complete meeting packages.

Joseph Sebestyen said today's meeting buyers seek a higher degree of budget certainty and don't have much lead time to negotiate every last meeting detail, offering conference centers an opportunity to increase their share of business by pricing as simply as possible. "We want to make the CMP more inclusive," Sebestyen said. "Once the conference center and client agree on the CMP, it's the end of the negotiating conversation. The planner can focus on the meeting and not be surprised at the end with a $28 charge for a cup of coffee."

Sebestyen, an 18-year industry veteran, in January began his two-year term at St. Louis-based IACC's helm and will preside over his first IACC annual meeting March 24 to 28 at The Woodlands, outside of Houston. He is also the general manger of the United States Postal Service's National Center for Employee Development, a Marriott Conference Center-managed property in Norman, Okla.

At the annual meeting, IACC likely will discuss modifications to its mandated standards and recommended guidelines for features of member properties, with an emphasis on Internet connectivity. Currently, the association recommends that member centers allow for Internet hookups in meeting rooms, but does not contain language as to connection speed or capacity. The issue is complex, Sebestyen said, as many conference centers are older properties for which wiring upgrades would be costly.

But conference center tech has evolved to where standards are developing for pricing such capabilities, Sebestyen said, as more than 50 percent of IACC's members have wrapped projection systems into the CMP, which charges attendees on a per-head, per-day basis for all event guest rooms, meeting rooms, food and some ancillary charges.

"A lot of conference centers are giving meeting planners lists of the technology items they have onsite and allowing clients to select five features as part of the CMP," Sebestyen said. "We're trying to make the CMP take advantage of the technology individual properties have, without forcing a one-size-meets-all approach on each client. It offers more value to planners because the CMP is then tailored to what they need."

Expanding the services included in the CMP allows for not only simpler negotiations but also better budget forecasting, Sebestyen said, and he encouraged centers to include as many non-technological amenities as well.

"We can offer buffet service, or even transportation to offsite events," Sebestyen said. "That surprises some planners but if we can make it fit, it will help to make us both more successful. It's why we encourage planners to tell us everything they need, even offsite, so we can try to package it instead of the planner needing to look outside."

Sebestyen also hopes to see more research conducted and requests for proposals sent through IACC's redesigned Web site (www.iacconline.org) and, eventually, the ability for corporate buyers to purchase meetings online--a process that might be made easier by the flat-charge aspect of the CMP. "Planners can send RFPs to whichever centers they want, but the other centers don't have the ability to search sent RFPs and interrogate those planners," Sebestyen said. "We can't send planners junk mail as a result, and that adds more value to the site. It's a bona fide lead-generating service for us."

As for buying meetings online, Sebestyen said it is a goal of IACC's but not one that will be imminently realized. "When we reach that stage, planners may be more inclined to buy online with the CMP than through negotiating everything, since it's more easily understood and it takes the guesswork out of what you're paying," Sebestyen said. "We need to make it as easy as possible to sell the way planners want to be sold to. Those that do so will be the ones who get the business.