When planning meetings, conferences and events, two key questions must be asked. The first: Why are we meeting? The second: Where are we meeting?
Responses to this pair of questions are closely intertwined. Why you're meeting certainly helps determine where you're meeting. Why, then, do so many planners leapfrog the first question in their hurry to answer the second? Many never really ask the question at all, choosing instead to meet in the same location year after year.
The permanent-destination model offers, it's true, certain benefits. But how can you decide where to hold your event before defining what your event truly needs to accomplish?
Planning around the organization's true purpose, a process that requires analyzing, anticipating and prioritizing desired outcomes, is essential. Gaining clarity on that purpose allows collaboration on subsequent decisions. Of those decisions, the most impactful is choice of destination.
Yet many organizations maintain fixed-destination policies or practices. On occasions when I ask planners why they meet every year in Chicago—or Orlando, or London—I most often hear, "It's always been that way."
Sometimes I hear: "Our city is a good central location, convenient for everybody." And: "Our board members (or certain executives) prefer to go there every year." Also: "We've got everything at the venue down pat. Why change now?"
Why change now, indeed? Destination rotation—as the no-fixed-location approach is called—offers key benefits that accrue to planners willing to forego the familiar and cast their net a little wider when it comes to site selection.
Benefits To Destination Rotation
Lower costs. When there is only one potential provider, that provider is effectively a monopoly, lacking incentive to be price-competitive. Your supplier should bid on your event, not take your business for granted. Expect lower fees when multiple suppliers compete.
Greater functionality. Take a fresh look at what you actually need from your destination today. Have you outgrown the venue? Have logistical needs changed since you began there? Are support services aligned with what you now require? Are staff attitudes, level of training and internal systems still suitable? Are there adequate breakout rooms? Do food and beverage services meet current expectations?
Fresh offsites and local attractions. Lead the troops off-premises. Explore the region's cultural attractions, famous landmarks and nightlife appeal. Create networking opportunities among local professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners. Turn the unique attributes of the city, region and country where you're convening into a series of compelling reasons to attend the event itself. Even if attendance is mandatory, everyone likes a good show.
Appeal of the new. When attendees relegate an event into the "same old, same old" category, the event goes downhill. Shake things up with new facilities, foods and faces. Let attendees enjoy a fresh experience every year.
Enhance productivity, engagement and collaboration. It's human nature to avoid over-familiarity. Fresh venues and offsite experiences help attendees be more productive, more engaged and more collaborative.
Additional Destination Benefits
The term "destination" specifically refers to both the venue, such as the conference center, exposition facility or business hotel, and to the city, region or country itself. When considering destinations, focus not only on concrete facilities but also the myriad resources, both concrete and human, outside the doors.
These resources include historical sites, cultural resources and architectural landmarks. They also include what I call signature locations: iconic parks, legendary streetscapes, famous theaters and other well-known places that connote the soul of a particular city or region. While siting activities in these places invariably requires additional planning, the effort significantly enhances attendee experience—and supports the meeting's true purpose.
The food and beverage category is a great opportunity to localize attendee experience and literally add local flavor. Cuisine can be one of the defining characteristics of any destination, an important—not to mention tasty—differentiator. Enable participants to sample local dishes and innovative approaches to national favorites.
Location rotation offers real opportunities to planners to be creative and imaginative as well as strategic and collaborative. Take the road less traveled to find remarkable and often inspiring destinations.
This report originally appeared in the Aug. 25, 2014, edition of Business Travel News.