Shorthanded As Ever, More Planners Call In The DMCs

<B> Shorthanded As Ever, More Planners Call In The DMCs</B>

By Chris Davis

With meeting lead times getting shorter and corporate staff resources getting tighter, the trend toward outsourcing meeting details to destination management companies is on the rise.

According to the most recent Meetings Monitor survey, exactly half of respondents use DMCs when planning meetings, most often for ground transportation and off-site event planning. That's a substantial increase from a Monitor two years ago, when only 44 percent of respondents said they retained DMC services (<I>Meetings Today,</I> May 19, 1997).

In today's hectic climate, many planners barely have time to manage the meetings for which they are responsible, much less find, contact and negotiate with suppliers in cities not their own. DMCs know more about their cities than outsiders do, and have relationships with local vendors that often result in better rates and terms. For planners, the question is whether the savings and convenience are worth the fees.

"In the mid 1990s there was more anti-DMC attitude, as some planners thought they could handle all the details themselves and that using a DMC was a waste. But now, that attitude is changing, and it will continue to do so," said Michelle Rubin, meetings and special events manager for Champion International Corp. of Stamford, Conn. "I never subscribed to that attitude, and if my internal clients do, I explain that the DMCs are the experts and will make it happen. I think the trend towards increased DMC usage will increase even further."

While arranging ground transportation and off-site event planning are by far the most common DMC usages--by 84 and 64 percent of planners who used DMCs, respectively--both figures have slipped from the 1997 survey. Conversely, DMCs are handling more international services and hotel contract negotiations, though neither figure tops 30 percent.

Rubin, though, said she "never uses DMCs for hotel negotiating or site inspection. I call on them to arrange ground transportation, off-site venue selection and catering, and anything that takes place outside of the hotel confines--entertainment, music, magicians. DMCs can be your right-hand people."

Others rely on DMCs to compensate for internal staff shortages. At PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York, for example, "one of the big drivers is planner availability," said meeting manager Barbara Cummins. "If we have to hold an event at a time when our resources are stretched, we recognize the value of the DMC. There's a cost for that, but the cost is instead of hiring a temp or another planner."

Kraft Foods conference services manager Andrea McGrath of Northfield, Ill., uses DMCs primarily for ground transportation and off-site events, and factors in the state of a city's motorcoach market. If there is a single dominant motorcoach company, she's likely to contact it directly--but if not, "it's easier to go to a DMC and let them source things out."

Barbara Cappa, president of San Francisco-based Cappa & Graham, has seen the corporate piece of her DMC business increase to about 40 percent over the past few years, and cites downsizing as the reason. "Corporations cut back on their meeting planners but not on their meetings," she said. "One or two planners can't handle all the meetings on their own. We're doing a lot more events than we've ever done before."

But Eileen Leddy, manager of travel and office services for The Venator Group of New York, no longer outsources to DMCs at all. "When I wanted some really creative ideas for things to do with the executives in the city, ideas that I couldn't get from the hotel, I would call a DMC. But we don't have those kind of meetings any more," she said.