Planners Expect More Mtgs.

<B>Planners Expect More Mtgs.</B>

By Chris Davis

Despite persistent data indicating that hotel occupancy and room rate increases have slowed, hoteliers likely can't blame the corporate meetings market: The continued health of the domestic economy yet again has led most planners to predict increases in total meetings and the money their companies will spend on them this year.

According to a Meetings Monitor survey of 169 corporate planners, nearly 54 percent polled believe their companies will hold more meetings than in 1999, and more than 60 percent believe meeting spending will increase this year.

The forces behind the trend offered by respondents are disparate, but most connect to a single theme--the overwhelming and long-lasting economic performance of most of Corporate America again in 1999. The resulting increased sales, acquisition or construction in new markets and mergers with, or acquisitions of other companies, all typically will increase the number of meetings a company holds.

It is no different for Palo Alto, Calif.-based technology giant Hewlett-Packard Co., said Burlington, Mass.-based meetings program manager Rich Del Colle. H-P's spinoff of Agilent Technologies has created more internal meetings, and expenditures, as managers decide the details of service-level agreements between the two companies.

Under such an agreement, H-P is handling Agilent's travel and meeting programs for a fee, Del Colle said.

"You can't grow the way we do without having more meetings," Del Colle said. "It's not a gigantic jump in numbers, but there are more meetings on every front."

Increased meeting business means it is critical to make sure employees planning events are aware of the travel and meetings programs at H-P, which runs as decentralized a meetings program as anyone. "I need to gain visibility when this happens," Del Colle said.

About 36 percent of respondents said increasing domestic business was a prime factor in explaining the projected increase in meetings spending this year, while 22 percent--respondents could list more than one reason--said their companies are opening new sites, necessitating more events spending.

Several respondents indicated a merger was key in the projected spending increase, as is the case with Irving, Texas-based oil giant ExxonMobil, which merged in November.

"There should definitely be an increase," said Nancy Ayers, manager of consolidation for ExxonMobil Global Services Co. "Many of our employees held off on meetings last year because we initially believed the merger would be approved and made official in the second quarter of 1999. Now, the companies are coming together and people want to meet." Like H-P, ExxonMobil is seeing increases in meetings scheduled and expenditures in all categories, said Ayers, who is based in Fairfax, Va.

Training and sales meetings were pointed to by about 37 percent and 33 percent, respectively, as the types of meetings their companies are most likely to spend more on in 2000. Respondents could choose more than one type of meeting.

Expenditures will increase on small meetings of all types of less than 100 attendees, about 44 percent of those polled said. Larger conferences and conventions won't see much additional spending, as only about 14 percent of corporations said they'll up such expenditures.

One such corporation, though, might be Wilsonville, Ore.-based technology firm Mentor Graphics Corp. "We acquired some smaller companies and introduced new products in 1999," said corporate meetings and events manager Eve Edwards. "That inspired more meetings and will lead to higher expenditures for our huge annual international conference."

Since Mentor Graphics saw a flurry of activity in 1999, it is unlikely the number of meetings or level of expenditure will increase much this year, unless the company completes more acquisitions, Edwards said.

"Otherwise, we'll level off and stay right about the same in both numbers and expenditure," she said. "But it won't be a huge jump in any event. We've been going up a little bit each year--a slow, steady incline."

Corporate training meetings are the bread and butter of the Aberdeen Woods Conference Center of Peachtree City, Ga., said general manager Gail Burnette Drouillard, so the current economic landscape should keep meeting business strong. "We're still looking at a strong year in 2000, even though we got off to a bit of a late start like everyone else because of Y2K concerns," Drouillard said. "We've been very fortunate with all the mergers and acquisitions, since that only leads to more training."

But there may be less cheer later this year, Drouillard said, when moves by major local companies may have an effect. "There are some big companies around here laying off workers--BellSouth, Coca-Cola, Lockheed Martin--and that tends to show up in the fourth quarter of the year," she said. "If there's a hit, we'll have to wait and see."

Drouillard wasn't alone in seeing corporate meeting expenditures decline in the first quarter of 2000 as planners waited to see the effects of Y2K before booking.

"It was a little bit slow in the first quarter, but now it's opening up again since they've come back," said Dean Altvater, director of national accounts for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. "The rest of the year is looking much stronger for corporate meetings, certainly similar to 1999."

Other hoteliers are hedging their bets to a point, but without any dire concern of a marked slowdown of corporate meetings business.

"We think 2000 may be a bit of a slower period, but not tremendously significant in terms of dollars," said sales manager Tyler Adkins of the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City, Mo. "These trends happen, and it may not even be noticeable overall. But it seems with all the downsizing and mergers of late, that companies are holding off a little bit in terms of booking meetings."

Not every planner in America is scheduling more events, though, just as not every corporation is enjoying robust financial times. About 16 percent of respondents said their companies will spend less on meetings this year, with larger conferences and conventions and incentive trips the most common casualties. Most of such respondents pointed to a lack of improvement in their companies' financial situations or the closing of offices as the primary culprits.