News Hospitality Making Meetings Matter: Companies, economy put focus on quality over quantity or location
Making Meetings Matter: Companies, economy put focus on quality over quantity or location
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By Lisa Mackinder | M&C
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Destinations like Crystal Mountain, whose meeting facilities are shown above, have been experiencing more interest in their meeting and event space. As the economy improves, more companies have started to book events, although some have honed their focus to smaller groups and meaningful settings. PHOTO COURTESY OF PFIZER |
WEST MICHIGAN — Two overriding themes appear to describe the general status of the meetings, events and conference industry: First, they are still happening, even increasing in some instances, and second, they have changed under the constraints of the economy.
According to Denise McGinn, president of Association Guidance in East Lansing — which provides a wide range of management and conference services — much takes place by way of webinars and video training right now. But don’t be fooled. Those tools haven’t replaced face-to-face gatherings. McGinn explained that those technologies have extended reach, allowing people in places like the Upper Peninsula to receive the message. She made it clear that meetings, events and conferences are still taking place.
“People that were coming are still coming,” McGinn told M&C.
As a veteran public speaker and author in leadership development, event registration, conference and meeting planning, McGinn offered insight on how this economic downturn has impacted the industry as compared to past declines. Without hesitation, she said the current economic downturn was worse than others she has seen. But despite that fact, she pointed to bright spots.
For the past 17 years, the Michigan Safety Conference (MSC), hosting 3,000 attendees and including 200 exhibiting firms annually and consisting of a 170-person planning committee, has retained McGinn’s services. According to McGinn, the 2010 MSC conference drew increased attendance from the prior year, despite not only the struggling economy but also the burden of cost being put on individual employees.
“We found out from volunteers that employees are paying their own way,” she said, noting that workers probably still attended the conference in order to keep their current jobs or look for new ones.
So far, this year again looks promising. McGinn said that sponsorship is up, attendance is up and request for proposals (RFPs) are trending in the same direction.
“We’ve seen more RFPs in the last year than ever before,” she said, adding that she believes the coming year will bring positive results.
Challenging economies transform industry landscapes and dictate changes to conferences, like budget, location and length. According to McGinn, the economy spawns close examination of every line item. In light of the poor economy and uncertain of how attendance would play out for the 2010 MSC Conference, McGinn shaved costs by cutting class descriptions out of the 2010 MSC booklet and publishing only class titles. Attendees were pushed to the website for additional information. She said that alone saved between $8,000-$10,000 on printing costs.
To save dollars, she has seen similar associations put on joint events, which provides vendors with less to sponsor. For McGinn’s nonprofit events, nothing has been canceled. But being left to private and public funding, she has seen more nonprofits taking advantage of social networking to drum up funds.
“The government subsidies they used to get are gone,” said McGinn.
Amy Young, co-owner of Grand Connection in Grand Rapids, a company that provides reservation management, destination management, event management and meeting planning services — told M&C the industry has seen a rise in events, meetings and conferences. If all factors remain constant, that trend is expected to continue, she noted.
Young said with a decrease in the construction of new hotels, demand has risen.
“Preferred dates might be booked short term,” she said. “The last couple of years it was completely open.”
According to Young, there has been a shift behind the reason for holding an event. Three components have merged into one — networking, education and motivation.
“Those things used to be all separate,” said Young. “Typically motivation was separate and more and more it has combined education with reward.”
For instance, a company might reward employees by flying them to the home office for learning and then allow for free time afterward. Young believes that travel remains a big motivator for employees — especially when times are tough.
“Your great ideas and meetings happen when people are relaxed,” she said.
Julie Edwards, group sales manager at Crystal Mountain Resort & Spa in Thompsonville, told M&C that business is increasing. She also noted that companies have changed the way in which they spend dollars.
“It’s coming back differently,” said Edwards. Businesses have discovered they don’t have to hold events in places like downtown Chicago. They might shave the guest list down from 150 to 50 people. And Edwards emphasized businesses are striving to throw meaningful events. She said that might entail going cottage to cottage for dinner or holding an outside dinner venue, having team building exercises and giving attendees an opportunity to take advantage of the spa or new fitness center.
“They want to make every part of that meeting count,” said Edwards.
Crystal Mountain has always attracted business from regional states, but Edwards said she’s has been getting calls from further west and southwest than in the past. She feels that the Pure Michigan campaign has helped. M&C
