Death of Salesman – The Meetings Industry Version

For some time now I have worried and written about how the relationship between meeting planners and suppliers has become commoditized.  The role of the salesperson – of sales in general – is increasingly being challenged.  In fact, here are the seven reasons why I think the traditional sales role is basically on life-support:

1. Fewer people are using their phone to talk:  Have you tried to reach someone at their desk lately? You almost always get voice mail.  And now there’s word that some companies are doing away with voice mail altogether. And ironically, with the move to cell phones, fewer people are using their devices for voice communication; just this past June phone manufacturer Ericsson released a study affirming that only 30% of time spent on all smartphone apps is on communication.  The fact we’re not talking means we’re not establishing relationships…
2. We’re more connected but less responsive: Recently a planner acquaintance made a plea on LinkedIn for a return to the “good old days” when suppliers aimed to return calls and answer emails within a set standard of time.  But I hear a similar complaint from the sales side too; planners push for quotes to be turned around within days or even hours, but don’t return the supplier’s call for weeks!  Have we really become too busy to be professional?
3. We’ve gone RFP-crazy: According to a meetings industry survey by The Hive Network earlier this year, 41% of suppliers said the number of RFPs they receive in one week has doubled in the last 5 years.  Twenty-four percent (24%) say it has tripled and 5% say the volume has quad-rupled!  Only 30% of those surveyed say their RFP volume has decreased or remained the same.  All we’re doing it seems is sending RFPs, completing RFPs and analyzing RFPs… To the point there is a movement to reign us in; check out the RFPSmart Pledge!
4. Brands trump personality:  This point definitely focuses on the hotel sector.  There are fewer and fewer true independent hotels these days.  A 2013 Wall Street Journal article reported that chain hotels then represented 70% of rooms (vs. 56% in 1988) with predictions showing chains growing to 80% within 10 years.  And the growth of brands comes with an increase in standardization (because it cuts costs), and the loss of individual freedom at the hotel level. Freedom to reflect a property’s unique attributes for meetings.  This makes some planners think of their meeting venues as a commodity.  During focus group research a few years ago, one planner insisted she hated to have to speak to a rep… “Why can’t someone make an Expedia for meetings?” she lamented.
5. The revenue management and “maximization mindset”: With more chains, the hotel business is increasingly run by revenue managers whose job depends on maximizing revenue for the property owner.  Hotel group pricing is being set by someone who often never has met the planner.  That person is like that infamous “manager” in a car dealership… Is it any wonder planners treat hotel rep like (used) car salespeople? There is no relationship!
6. The rise of third parties: What came first? Did site selection companies come about to help customers navigate the tricky waters of the commoditized accommodation sector? Or is the accommodation sector being commoditized because of site selection companies?  This is one issue that I am bound to get flak for… but I maintain: site selection companies would not exist if hotel companies were seen as keeping their customers’ best interests at heart.  Like unions formed to protect workers, site selection companies first came about because they did a better job of finding and negotiating hotel space.  So yes, these third parties have commoditized the industry.  But did we deserve otherwise?
7. The inability to create online content for nurturing and inbound marketing: treating prospects the way they want to be treated means that hotels, DMOs and other meetings industry suppliers would stop interruptive marketing (like calls, emails and the like) and have everything available online, only a click away.  But the reality is that most suppliers barely have enough time in a day to do their work (probably due to #3 above!), never mind create online content on an ongoing basis!  And budgets rarely allow for outsourced content creation.

For better or worse, the world has moved away from an outbound marketing model that favoured the traditional role of meetings industry sales rep as the “wheeler-dealer”… Now salespeople are squeezed between the client they so desperately wish to solidify a relationship with, and their number-crunching masters.  With consumers increasingly wanting to be in charge of the sales cycle itself, what is the future of the meetings industry salesman or woman?

I am not quite sure, except for this: I personally no longer feel that I can be part of this commoditized environment.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have moved on, and so has my company of 17 plus years... As of a few months ago, Greenfield Services Inc. has ceased to offer lead generation and inbound marketing services to the supply side of the meetings industry equation.

Yes, in part because we could see the "writing on the wall" but also because we just weren't having fun anymore... and what is there to life if we don't have fun?  Therefore this is our last post on this blog.

Rest assured that we have not abandoned our beloved meetings industry.  We are continuing to grow our association management practice, and refocused our energy on consulting services that support association and non-profit organization growth:

• Membership Marketing and Engagement
• Event Marketing 
• Engaging Meeting Design
• Sponsorship and Exhibit Sales

As of November 1, 2015, this blog will no longer be maintained.  Instead, check out our new blog on the newly re-designed Greenfield Services website!

Many thanks for your ongoing support since 2010... see you soon!

Happy Sweet 16 Greenfield: lessons from 16 years in business

Sixteen years ago today we signed incorporation papers for Greenfield Hospitality Services Inc. (now known as Greenfield Services Inc.). What a ride it's been helping hotels, DMOs and other meetings industry suppliers grow their business!

Now that we've blown out the candles on the cake, let's have a look at some of the changes in the meetings industry since our inception in 1997:

The loss of control to new channels of distribution: OnlineTravel Agencies (OTAs) have gained an impressive share of hotels and resorts' business since the late 90s. It has become increasingly difficult for hotels and meeting planners themselves to prevent convention delegates from checking Hotwire for cheaper rates and booking outside the group block.

And then there's the whole evolution of revenue/yield management, which could be a series of blog posts all on their own... The lesson? It's increasingly difficult for a hotel Director of Sales & Marketing to control his/her turf and truly make a difference with marketing tactics and leadership.

Competition from unexpected sources: in a recent MarketWatch article entitled "Will Aunt Mary's apartment lower Marriott's prices?" AirBNB was described as a real force to contend with in the global lodging industry, arguably the largest brand in the world with 660,000 listings, in 34,000 cities, and 192 countries (March 2014 statistics according to the AirBnB website itself). While many hoteliers are dismissing the "sharing economy" as a fringe trend, one pundit at the recent Hotel Association of Canada Conference referred to AirBnB, liquidspace.com and other sharing sites as a "real threat to traditional lodging and meeting facilities."

The lesson? The competition is no longer the hotel across the street or the city in that other province or state.  Technology is bringing pitting your hotel against competitors you never knew existed.

Salespeople who don't know how to sell: okay, I admit, this one is making me sound 100-years old, but I see too many hotel sales people nowadays just don't know how to sell. They send mass emails after a tradeshow, without even bothering to qualify the list to see if attendees have any potential for their facility or destination. They are afraid to pick up the phone.  They send inappropriate LinkedIn connection requests without attempting to forge a proper relationship with a meeting planner.

The lesson? The hotel industry probably only has itself to blame for this development. For years, hotel salespeople have been grossly underpaid and under trained.  And don't think this has anything to do with age; I've seen "veteran" salespeople be guilty of all the above behaviours.  We need to get back to basics, focus on relationship building and elevating the conversation.

Higher planner expectations and a diminishing regard for ethics: and then there are ever-demanding meeting planners looking for perks, points, and purses. We've always had planners looking for comps and upgrades for their group bookings but now there are increasing expectations for loyalty points and personal gifts. Recently I heard of "client appreciation" events that involved purse and shoe shopping! There seems to be an ever increasing competition in the planner-wooing business and I worry how such inducements simply are crossing the ethical line... Is it any wonder why, at the same time, planners are showing disrespect by no-showing at our events?

The lesson? It's getting harder for hotel and venue suppliers to garner respect.  But those who take the high road do win, in the end.  Keep planners accountable (by calling them on no-shows, for instance) and provide education, not just entertainment

That's four major developments that have affected hotels and meeting venues from our vantage point. We have more to share over the next few posts. We'd love to hear your thoughts about changes in the meetings industry in the last 16 years!

4 Reasons WHY We've Become Time-Starved & Crazy-Busy

Hot off the completion of the data gathering phase of the MPI Foundation's Canadian Economic Impact Study, one thing I can unequivocally say about Canadian meeting and event professionals, both planners and suppliers, is that they seem to be suffering from time starvation and overwork.

Based on my own experience I had a hunch time was becoming a scarcer resource, but talking to hundreds of meeting planners and meeting venue managers confirmed it.  This has been in the making for some time, and it is seriously affecting how we market and sell everything, from events to hotels.

Let's first examine why this may be:

We're Creating More Information

Google CEO Eric Schmidt was reported as saying that, "Between the birth of the world and 2003, there were five exabytes of information created. We [now] create five exabytes every two days. See why it's so painful to operate in information markets?" I'm not sure how much information even one exabyte represents, but from the company whose mission it is to catalogue ALL of the world's information, I take it it's a LOT.

To give but a small indication: the World Wide Web circa 1993 had 130 websites; in 2012, whoishostingthis.com reported there were 634 million websites. And according to Bowker, a leading American bibliographic firm, the number of books published also is growing, thanks to the explosive growth of self-publishing. 

Whether it's online or in print, humankind is producing more information than ever, and there is no sign this will slow down any time soon.

We're Accessing That Information Through More Channels

In a presentation at BizBash Elevate New York in July 2013, social media expert and professional speaker Gary Vaynerchuk asked event professionals attending his session how many of them watched TV with their smartphone nearby so they could answer emails or texts.  About 3/4 of the room's hands went up.  Then he asked how many watched TV with their phone AND a tablet or laptop; almost 1/2 the hands were raised!

At first I thought these people were "over the top", but then my own daughter pointed out that this is exactly what I did when we were catching our favourite reality show together:  I was watching, tweeting about the show, all while trying to finish work...

And I'm not the only one becoming more like my teenager.  According to techcrunch.com, "the number of mobile-connected devices [exceeded] the number of people on earth by the end of 2012. By 2016, there will be 1.4 mobile devices per capita." Not only is there more information, but now we're accessing it from multiple sources and multiple devices.  

We Have More Consumption Choices

With the internet smaller companies and retailers can compete with the giants.  And the giants have expanded their buying options to the online world too.  All this translates into more choice. 

Most consumers welcome having more options on what and how they buy.  But there is a dark side to this added flexibility.  Adrian C. Ott, author of The 24-Hour Customer, explains, "[In the U.S.] time use studies have shown that the amount of time spent purchasing goods and services has remained relatively constant since the 1960s. Viewed together the increase in the number available products, coupled with a relatively static time spent buying, presents a considerable challenge for executives. Ultimately, more and more goods and services are attempting to push through a small window of time."

...And So We Have the Paradox of Choice

In his 2004 book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, American psychologist Barry Schwartz actually argued that too much choice actually creates anxiety for most people.  And what happens when we're anxious and we lack time?  We shut things out. 

Adrian Ott asserts, "Businesses are stuck trying to get through to consumers that are actively avoiding them, or to consumers who are so over-saturated with marketing messages in media that they can't hear or see even the content that would interest."

So what are marketers to do when confronted with the mounting hurdles to getting buyers’ attention? How should meetings industry suppliers – hotels, DMOs, AV companies, DMCs, etc. – strive to engage meeting professionals in new business relationships?

We'll be exploring this very question over the next month in this blog.  Join the conversation by posting a question or comment! 

M&IT University, a New Education Series for #Eventprofs

The team at Canada's M&IT Magazine have announced a new series of events dedicated to meeting and event professionals.  

Because so much of the meetings industry's activities are centered in and around Toronto, M&IT University events are to be held in Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal.  Organizers say M+IT University aims to give meeting and event planners "high quality networking and CE credit education in just one amazing day!" 

Doreen Ashton Wagner, Greenfield Services' Chief Strategist, will be speaking on March 26 in Montreal. Her presentation entitled, "10 Meeting Trends To Watch This Year" is based on a research review of international, North American and Canadian studies in the meetings industry as well as related industries such as travel and tourism, adult learning, and human resources.

The session will be highly interactive, with a follow-up discussion allowing participants to "dig deeper" and tackle the most important trends and how they relate especially to event marketing.

The day includes breakfast, lunch and a cocktail reception to allow for formal and informal meeting time. For more information or to register please consult www.mituniversitycanada.com. 

Meetings Industry Suppliers: Are Site Selection & 3rd Party Planners Friends or Foes?

A few months ago Greenfield Services held its Meeting Industry Supplier Summit during the Canada Meet in Toronto.  A highly contentious issue brought forward by the Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) and hotel representatives who attended was the frustration with what they perceive as the "infiltration" of site selection and 3rd-party planning professionals in the relationship between the destination or host venue and the organizing entity.

All CVBs reported having some site selection professionals come to their city on familiarization trips, which were paid for by the CVB, only to see them go directly to the hotels with their Request for Proposals (RFP) – thereby “cutting out” the CVB who could then not “get credit” for the room-nights generated.

Some supplier professionals complained that some of these 3rd-party planners come on fams to "troll for business,” soliciting business from other meeting organizers.  Others voiced the concerns that 3rd-parties cut into hotels’ margins and driving up prices, without adding value.

Sales reps also complained about 3rd-party planners sending out dozens of RFPs, through online systems, to widely different types of destinations, and hotel types.  They felt site selection companies should do a better job of assessing what calibre of hotels and what rate range their client is willing to pay.

Much talk also took place about the “hurry up and wait” syndrome, where very tight deadlines are met for the RFP, but answers don’t come for weeks or the site selection rep stops communicating altogether. 

Finally a handful of Suppliers also complained about 3rd-party planners expecting way too many perks or concessions in the negotiation process.  One hotelier put it this way, “Why does the site inspection have to be in peak season when the program is in shoulder season – thought part of the site visit is to ‘see what the end user will see/experience’? And why ask for complimentary spa services or free golf when the program includes neither?”

Before you start thinking that this is just a “dump on 3rd-party planners” column, please read on.

I actually think the proliferation of intermediaries in the meetings industry is due to the fact hotels and CVBs too often have done a poor job of maintaining relationships.  And I believe hotel revenue managers have way too much power at many hotels; they just look at yields, and not at the relationship with meeting planners.

One site selection professional I spoke with told me about seeing her role as an "advocate" for her clients.  She related the example of one meeting where the organizer inadvertently had forgotten to account for some VIPs arriving earlier than the block reservation, and how the sales manager said she was unable to convince the hotel's revenue manager from charging almost twice the rate just because they were arriving one night earlier. The organizer could not get the hotel to budge until the site selection company stepped in.

From my experience, there are site selection professionals and 3rd party planners who abuse their status. They go on familiarization trips and never book anything, or they hit up hotels for perks they shouldn't be asking for. But there are just as many who are highly ethical, masterful at servicing and keeping in touch with their clients. Many seem to have more time to do so because often hotel and CVB sales managers are forced into too much administration work, endless meetings, and travel!

Ultimately, I see this as another case of suppliers and planners needing to elevate the conversation.   Hotel sales managers and CVB reps perhaps could use a reality check on the value they provide and the strengths of their relationships with clients. On the other hand 3rd-party planners and the companies they work for should take action against the unethical behaviour of some of their reps because they are giving everyone in that field a bad name.

There seems to be so much pent up emotion about this issue, with sales representatives afraid of speaking out for fear of repercussion.  Even site selection professionals who have witnessed unethical behavior by their peers seem reluctant to bring light to the issue.

Honesty and clarity are needed here, on both sides.  I urge you to have more and better conversations on this subject!

This article by Doreen Ashton Wagner was originally published in the October 2013 issue of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Ottawa Chapter Communiqué Newsletter. 

Big Data and How Meetings Industry Suppliers Are Falling Behind

A few weeks ago I received an email from my frequent flyer program, Aeroplan. It wasn't the usual points statements, or even one of their many partner offers.

This email was a summary of my entire relationship with Aeroplan since I first became a member. Have a look →

I was very much impressed with the extent of the information they had, and also the way this was positioned to me as a client. Somehow I felt it said to me, "we may have many customers but we value our relationship with you."

Around the same time my husband also received his statement in the same format, but obviously with different numbers.

Why should we care where this is going? Airlines and loyalty management programs have figured out how to use data, big data, and are looking to enhance their relationships with customers. This is something that sadly most hotel companies, CVBs and other meetings industry suppliers are grossly lacking when it comes to their relationships with meeting and event planners.

One audiovisual company recently admitted to me that most of their regional offices operate in silos. The Toronto office, the Ottawa office, and the rest of the country are not even connected! If they want to see who their biggest clients are, offices have to submit their figures to head office, and they will figure out who their "key clients" are. How antiquated!

Similarly hotel companies are handicapped by their clunky property management systems that don't feed adequate information back to their brands.  It's often further complicated by the fact not all properties have the same system because they are owned by different real estate companies!

The disparity in software systems and the dependency on old "legacy" systems (vs. faster, cloud-based software), prevent many meetings industry suppliers from properly managing relationships with meeting and event planners. With "big data" becoming easier and cheaper, unfortunately this means many meetings industry suppliers will find themselves falling further behind.

#Eventprofs: Suppliers Frustrated at Planner No-Shows

Last week Greenfield Services hosted a Meetings Industry Supplier Summit, in conjunction with Canada Meet Week, in Toronto.

The purpose was to bring together senior sales executives from hotels, CVBs and other venues, to talk about issues that everyone seems to suffer about in silence... from the difficulty to get planners to show up at events and dealing with no-shows, to ethics and the increasing influence of third-parties in the site selection process.

Because Greenfield Services works with suppliers and planners, we felt uniquely positioned to facilitate the discussion.  Since many salespeople are afraid of publicly putting their foot down, for fear of pushing planners into the arms of their competition, we offered to write about the outcomes too! This post is the first, and it focuses on what is a problem for almost everyone we spoke to: high attrition at promotional or client appreciation events.

This happens when planners RSVP and either cancel at the very last minute (i.e. within the window for the food and beverage guarantee) or simply do not turn up.

The anecdotal evidence is shocking.  This week alone there were many events taking place in Toronto around the Ignite Business Expo and Canada Meet Week.  We learned of one destination marketing organization having half of their guests no-show for their appreciation dinner (at a nice, high-end eatery) while a DMC with 80 RSVPs reported only 14 people actually showed up at the event!

Before anyone thinks this is an isolated situation during a busy week, American meeting planner Joan Eisenstodt wrote about the same problem last fall, Dear Industry Partners: I apologize.

So what is the answer?  Some suppliers suggested maintaining and sharing a blacklist of planners who chronically no-show (or say they have business to be invited to an event -- but that's a different story altogether).  Others boldly declared we should start invoicing guests when they don't show up.

While these might deter to a point, they are perhaps less conducive to building understanding between buyers and sellers.  There are no silver bullets, but what we need is more people speaking up and the creation of more honest dialogue between suppliers and planners -- who after all probably don't want the same thing to happen to them for their events.

We're compiling a list of best practices, from both suppliers and planners, that collectively could help alleviate the problem.  We invite you to add your suggestions in comments below and we'll publish the list by the middle of this week!

Update:  Thank you for your responses!  We're happy to provide this free PDF with all the wonderful suggestions we've received: 16 Tips to Minimize No-Shows at Client Events.

#Eventprofs Learn 3 Marketing Lessons from Céline Dion’s Debut in China

As North Americans were watching the Grammys, Canada’s best known diva celebrated the Chinese New Year with millions of new fans by performing in Mandarin on Chinese state television.

For those who had dismissed Dion as a has-been, take note: she’s just re-inventing herself.  Just like she did when she began her original 2003 Las Vegas show as star-in-residence at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.  

So what does this have to do with marketing and the meetings industry?  Plenty.  Consider this:

• Go where the competition isn’t: Dion and her team are astute business people. Looking at the crowded entertainment scene in the West, they chose to enter a market that is hungry for Western entertainers, and where few competitors have dared venture. This is something that meetings industry suppliers should consider: are you hunting where the business is?
• Step out of your comfort zone: Mandarin is reportedly a very difficult language and Dion has stepped out of her comfort zone by trying something completely new.  With B2B sales shifting in favour of more inbound marketing practices, hoteliers, destination executives and other event marketing professionals are wise to learn a new way to converse with the marketplace (for background on the changing landscape of B2B sales, read Advice for Meetings Industry Sales Reps: Understanding the NEW Sales Process).
• Seek partners with the inside scoop: But Dion is not doing this entirely on her own.  In this debut performance she partnered with Chinese soprano Song Zuying to sing a traditional Chinese folk song. This likely will earn the star major brownie points as she vies for this new audience.  The same applies for event professionals; when stepping out of your comfort zone to attract a new market, leverage your odds of success with partners in the know.

The world of meetings, conferences and special events is changing at an accelerated pace.  What are you doing to stay ahead of the curve?

Advice for Meetings Industry Sales Reps: Understanding the NEW Sales Process

This post is by Sales Expert Colleen Francis, who has been coaching our Greenfield sales professionals for several years now.  Many of our sales approaches and "tips" we learned from Colleen!

Welcome to a New Year! One that I think demands a new understanding of how we sell, and how buyers are buying. 

In recent years, buyers in the sales process have become increasingly educated, and with that, the sales process has undergone a transformation. In order for your team to be successful in selling, it's essential to understand and adapt to the new buying and selling process, which is now driven largely by the seller. The sales team has transitioned from leading the sales process to guiding it, and understanding this change helps to provide guidance for your sales reps in their role in the process. 

The Old Sales Process 

Let's start by taking a look at what a standard sales process used to look like. In a standard selling process, the salesperson was typically in control, driving the sales process from finding the right prospect through to the close. In the old sales process, the selling organization controlled about 70% of the sales cycle, with the client participating about 30% of the time through giving the selling organization information and helping to guide the development of the solution. 

A sales rep would begin with prospecting and research. By going online, looking for information and networking, our sales team would identify our targets in a process completely driven and controlled by the sales side. We'd then build rapport with our targets through smart, well-researched conversations. 

The next step for a sales rep was always qualifying the prospect. Through a variety of questions, sales reps would determine whether the prospect was a good fit for the product or solution and, if so, would move forward with developing a solution. This qualification was done from the sales side; knowing our solution, we'd research the prospect's business and determine whether the solution would work for them. 

The sales process would close out with a presentation and the closure of the business--a 50/50 give and take between the prospect and the salesperson. 

For years, this was a standard sales process, but in today's selling market, things have changed dramatically--and as a result, sales teams must adapt in order to fit the buyers' expectations and needs. 

The New Sales Process 

The new sales process still begins with research and prospecting, but an important transformation has taken place. Today, the research and prospecting process is dominated by the prospect. They go online, research who has solutions for the problems they're facing, read case studies and talk to their colleagues. 

This shift is so dramatic that recent studies show that only 3% of all new sales transacted are resulting from an outbound sales call from a salesperson to a buyer. Instead of waiting to be contacted by a sales rep, the prospect visits your website and determines whether or not you're qualified to do business with them, not the other way around. They request information, fill out "contact us forms" and download free materials. Prospects are taking action and reaching out to us more than ever before! 

As we move through the middle of the new sales process--qualification and solution development--we also see it is largely controlled by the prospect. Why? Because they have a better understanding of what they're looking for and what's available on the market than they ever have had before. 

Instead of leading the process, it's now the job of a sales team to guide the prospect through the process. A smart sales team will simultaneously make sure the prospect is a good fit for their business, but the new sales process dictates much more give and take at this stage. 

Presentation and closing phases still require a 50/50 effort from both the prospect and the sales team, but the tenor of closing a sale now involves guiding the buying decision instead of leading it, or facilitating instead of selling. 

By understanding the shift in the sales process and the increased control of the prospect, sales teams can better leverage this new decision-making and buying process. Solution selling is dead, and agile, engaging sales teams are the way to sell in the future.


Colleen Francis, Sales Expert, is Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions (www.EngageSelling.com). Armed with skills developed from years of experience, Colleen helps clients realize immediate results, achieve lasting success and permanently raise their bottom line.

Start improving your results today with Engage's online Newsletter The Sales Leader and a FREE 7-day intensive sales video eCourse: www.EngageNewsletter.com.

Lead Spam and the Commoditization of the Meetings Industry – Some Answers

Last week we discussed a disturbing trend observed in both the U.S. and Canada: the increasing number of multiple leads sent to hotels and CVBs, for the same piece of business, from competing third-party planners and site selection companies, often using multiple electronic channels.

This is what we’ve come to refer to lead spam.

It’s a situation that creates confusion amongst different sales contacts (for instance at a brand’s group desk and at property level), wastes time and often generates unnecessary work.  I see it as one more unfortunate move towards the commoditization of hotels, CVBs and even other meetings industry suppliers.  Soon, if suppliers don't wake up, organization will do away with sales managers and just replace them with people who can process electronic leads.  GONE will be the relationships so many meeting professionals love this industry for.

Scary scenario, isn't it?  But what can be done about the situation?

I questioned Kristi Casey Sanders, VP Creative/Chief Storyteller for Atlanta Metropolitan Publishing, publisher of Plan Your Meetings, billed as “a free educational and social resource for meeting and event planners.”  Kristi’s tweets were the ones that originally alerted me to this trend.

Is it ethical for third-party planners or site selection firms to field RFPs if they have not been given the mandate by the end user?

I'm not quite sure how this happens, but I don't see any gray area on this point. If you were not hired by the planner to source their meeting, intercepting the business and acting as a representative is confusing at best. I realize that the proliferation of non-professional planners in this industry may make some of them easy prey for this kind of poaching, but third-parties and site selection firms need to be direct about their intentions. And if they are going to send out RFPs on a planner's behalf, the planner should be contracted to them so they understand they shouldn't be asking other people to do the same thing.

Do end users – corporate, association and government groups – realize what burden this issue is placing on suppliers, potentially increasing the cost of doing business?

I don't think they do, unless they've been in an educational session that addresses it. They are outsourcing the work or using online systems where they can send as many RFPs to as many properties as they want. Or they're sitting by their email inboxes cursing hotels for not getting back to them, completely oblivious to the reason why so many RFPs go unanswered.

What are industry associations, MPI, PCMA, and others, doing to open up the dialogue and bring attention to the issue?

I know Mike Mason, the ZEO of Zentila is a tireless advocate for the end of lead spam. He's been leading sessions that address this and how to craft better RFPs for our 2012 PYM LIVE Events. He also is a prolific writer, who has written columns about this for different publications. But I don't know that this is on the association radar yet. The focus on education there tends to be mostly towards strategic meeting management, new trends in meeting design, technology and budgeting tips.

Lastly should the recipients of lead spam willing to DO to counteract this trend?  

I know that on the hotel side, a lot of properties are signing up with Zentila, an online sourcing engine that specializes in booking short-term meetings. The planners using the system are restricted to contacting only a handful of properties. Those properties see who they're bidding against and are notified when the business goes elsewhere, so it closes the loop and incentivizes hotel sales teams to reply to the RFPs within a 3-hour window. It was basically designed to solve the pain of lead spam and the circumstances that were creating it. 

I think on the planning side, meeting and event planners need to be more concise with their RFPs and stay involved in the sourcing process. Narrow your focus to what could work for your group instead of sending out a scattershot call for bids. 

If planners do outsource their site selection process, they need to ask their vendor how the RFP process is conducted.  Some large independent third party franchises teach their people to send massive amounts of RFPs out rather than targeting their requests with the philosophy that more options will increase the chance of securing lower rates. I think that all it does is perpetuate the lead spam problem and shows a disregard for what makes a group unique. That's why I (and many independent planners) draw a big distinction between these big-box third parties and boutique planning firms. 

Hoteliers often carp about how bad and incomplete the RFPs they get from planners are. But I hear the same thing from planners: that what they receive from the hotels aren't filled out or filled out wrong. The CIC tried years ago to standardize RFPs with APEX software to streamline the process, but the only really attractive user-friendly version I've seen is what Zentila launched this year.  

That's key: You've got to make things simple, easy and fun to use, otherwise the people planning meetings are going to continue to abandon this part of the process. When they do, it falls to the third parties and independents who are just trying to get business and make a commission, which creates the vicious lead-spam cycle.

We thank Kristi for bringing us these insightful comments.

Lead Spam and the Increasing Commoditization of the Meetings Industry

It started with a stream of tweets earlier this summer by PYMLive, the live event Twitter account of Plan Your Meetings (PYM), a “free educational and social resource for people who plan corporate meetings and events”:

What's going on with hotels: 2 yrs ago they were sucking wind. Today, RFP volume has increased by 300% from 2006-2007

Despite having 300% [increase] in demand, hotels only close 1/5 of what they had closed- less than 3% of RFPs [because] of lead spam! 

Lead spam is crushing hotel sales teams!

Hoteliers get the same lead from multiple sources because of third parties. It wastes time to answer all those leads

When I questioned what, exactly, was meant by “lead spam” @PYMLive explained:  “eRFPs [are] sent out to 18-20 properties [instead of] 4-8. One hotelier said that they'll sometimes get the same RFP from 3 [different third-parties].  The author was reporting from one of the Plan Your Meeting (PYM) Live 2012 event at the Westin in Charlotte, NC.

This got me thinking… was this yet one more sign of the increasing commoditization of the meetings industry?  So I posted a poll on LinkedIn asking, “On average, how often does your hotel, meeting venue or CVB receive the SAME lead from multiple channels or sources?”

With only 17 respondents, this poll won’t give us more than a tiny glimpse into the state of the industry.  But I thought it was revealing that none of the respondents said that lead spam was NOT a factor.  Two-thirds (11 of 17) said they encountered lead spam on average once to three times per month.  Three people said they faced this issue one to four times per week, and another three said five or more times per week.

Admittedly a few responses to a poll or posts on a social media platform do not make a trend.  But where there’s smoke, there is fire…

One-on-one conversations with colleagues and clients put a different spin on the story.  One corporate director of sales & marketing of a major hotel brand said her central reservation group desk is plagued with multiple leads for what is obviously the same piece of business.  She complained that it wastes countless hours of her staff’s time, and demoralizes them because they see responding to these leads as an almost total waste of time.  Processing these leads also erodes the group desk’s credibility with their hotels because very few ever convert to definite business.

At property level, one Midwest hotel director of sales confided that he had instructed his sales managers to ignore leads from certain third-party site selection companies.  “Especially when the group history doesn’t indicate a pattern of travel to the Midwest, why would we waste our time responding when we know they’ll likely go to Vegas or Orlando?”

The issue seems to be affecting hotels much more than Convention and Visitor Bureaus (CVBs).  This could be because some CVBs are measured on the volume of leads they produce, versus the number of room-nights they close.  Lead spam in some cases could be favouring some CVBs’ position.

I see this as an ethical issue that sooner or later should push the industry to action:

• Is it ethical for third-party planners or site selection firms to field RFPs if they have not been given the mandate by the end user?  I realize this is how some firms position themselves to get the business (“Let me get this out to our partner suppliers, and then you make the decision to hire us”), but is it right?
• Do end users – corporate, association and government groups – realize what burden this issue is placing on suppliers, potentially increasing the cost of doing business?
• What are industry associations, MPI, PCMA, and others, doing to open up the dialogue and bring attention to the issue?
• Lastly, but more importantly, what are the recipients of lead spam willing to DO to counteract this trend?  Will hoteliers finally stand up and say, “No more” or will they continue to bow down and hope to scrape by?  What should assertive meetings industry suppliers, those that don’t want to play these games, do to attract business that is genuinely qualified?

Stay tuned for next week’s post for some answers!

Generation Next: Are Demographic Shifts Having an Impact on Meetings?

Since 2011, when the oldest baby boomers turned 65, an average of 1,000 Canadians are reaching retirement age every day.  In the U.S. Pew Research reports 10,000 Americans are retiring each day -- a figure that makes sense since the U.S. has roughly 10 times Canada's population.  In both countries the recession may be delaying some leaving the workforce, but by 2014, the retirement wave is expected to hit.

While younger generations, commonly referred to as Generation X and Y, together outnumber boomers, they do not have the experience or aren’t necessarily interested in replacing boomers in certain sectors.  Industry groups from tourism to petroleum are warning of labour shortages starting as early as 2013.

So what does this have to do with meetings? If bringing people face-to-face is meant to facilitate learning and change, motivating and engaging employees, demographic shifts may represent important challenges to the way meetings and events are planned.    

In both her books, Rock Stars Incorporated (2007) and The End of Membership as We Know It (2011), American generational expert Sarah Sladek of XYZ University offers colourful descriptions of the factors that distinguish each generation at work.

Resistant to Change

She describes boomers as growing up in a time of affluence, “reared to pursue the American Dream.”  They show a preference for face-to-face communication and an appreciation for meetings. Boomers, Sladek says, generally assume “no news is good news,” managing their work accordingly. Because they’ve held a dominant position in society for so long, they may be somewhat resistant to change.

Canadian author Cheryl Cran echoes many of Sladek’s observations in her book 101 Ways to Make Generations X, Y and Zoomers Happy at Work. By comparison she says Generation X grew up with political and economic uncertainty, with Watergate, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 1990s recession. As children of divorce, they grew up self-sufficient and most hate to be micro-managed at work. Many saw their hard-working parents dismissed by employers, so GenXers insist on balancing work and family, looking at meetings that infringe upon their private time with a jaded eye.

Tech Savvy

Both authors similarly describe Generation Y: They grew up with a full schedule of activities, being rewarded “just for showing up.” Preferring frequent interaction with peers and supervisors, they are easily hurt by negative feedback. They are used to group problem-solving, expect to have a voice at meetings and to use the technology they are so familiar with. Just as with GenX, GenY workers “work to live” and not the other way around.

So what are younger generations looking for in meetings?

Last May a study funded by the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) Educational Foundation weighed in with results about what the “millennial generation” (GenY) prefers in their meetings, conventions and events. This research was based on a survey of over 2,000 GenY respondents, making it the largest study dedicated to what the younger workforce prefers in events.

It found that younger meeting participants favour a content-delivery style described as “edutainment”; engaging speakers who deliver shorter, quick-paced audio-visual presentations, peppered with opportunities for audience members to use mobile technology and games to interact with presenters and other attendees. The study found this “is consistent with research that indicates that [younger participants] often have short attention spans, hence the desire for concise, entertaining meetings.”

Seek  Benefits

The study also identified the need by younger meeting attendees to understand the purpose of an event. Asking “what’s in it for me?” they want to know what the meeting will bring them financially (scholarships or rewards), professionally (networking, advancement or job opportunities) or socially (community service projects or destinations with many activities and fun social events).

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be much research documenting what employers are doing to engage younger generations in meetings, to improve knowledge transfer and relations between generations. In our inquiries with meeting professionals, few could point strictly to generational differences for specific changes to their meetings.

Some believe value-based generational differences are over-blown. In a LinkedIn discussion on The Future of Meetings, corporate team building executive Kenny Zail insisted that “where people are in their life cycle is more important than what ‘Gen letter’ they are.” We turned to the field and asked Canadian meeting and event planners how their meetings may be evolving.

Some saw no impact. Jessica Ward, CMP, Manager, Events and Groups at MKI Travel & Conference Management in Ottawa says: “My clients have never asked me to tailor to Gen Y.  My medical events have very few Gen Y in the audience (if any). Government events, these days, are simply more focused on keeping costs down.”

Les Selby, CMP, CMM, of Planning for Success in Toronto, thinks younger generations are having some impact. “When I was at Aimia (formerly Carlson Marketing), I saw corporate client meetings getting shorter, not just to save money, but also because people are not willing to give up their personal time.”

Expect Perks

Technology seems to trump demographic shifts for some changes in meetings. “The biggest change that I see is in the demand for complimentary, fast, and dependable wireless internet,” says Ottawa-based Claire Fitzpatrick, CMP, CMM of CF Conference & Event Management Services. Many planners agreed with the PCMA study findings and felt that younger workers disengage if not allowed to use their mobile device at a meeting. “And they are shocked to be asked to pay extra for WiFi,” added a hotel manager on the promise of anonymity. “They see it as a right, not as an amenity. It’s tough when we try to get them to settle their bill upon check-out.”

Shawna McKinley, Director of Sustainability at Vancouver’s MeetGreen adds: “[WiFi] applies to the venue, and guest rooms. Mobile applications are also becoming an expectation. No one wants to pack an event program, or have to collect cards and collateral anymore. They are learning to rely on the app, and expecting it to be integrated with social media.”

Only a few planners felt that social media is being used effectively to promote meeting attendance.  More are using networks such as LinkedIn groups to encourage information sharing, said Les Selby. “I think GenY drives a lot of this change; they don’t want to be sitting in a dark room and having someone speak AT them. They expect to be contributing, want to give their opinion.”

More Interaction

Selby added that he has seen bigger budgets being invested in communication, some for more social media, some for content capture. This is to give participants the opportunity to interact. He observed attendees posting to discussion groups – “I did this and it didn’t work. Any advice?” This helped increase learning and the return on investment from information sharing at meetings.

Adrian Segar is a Vermont-based organizational consultant and author of Conferences That Work. He says he’s organized more participative events, for all ages, for the last 20 years. Unwilling to say these are driven for or by GenY, Segar sees the need for spaces that are more conducive to interactive and networked events, offering a variety of session formats versus auditorium-style.

The use of social media and more participative meeting styles may be more a function of the corporate culture, says Helen Van Dongen, CMP, CMM, National Director, Event Management at KPMG in Toronto.  In a conservative environment such as a professional services firm, there are still many meetings that deliver content in a lecture-style format and that eschew sharing information on Twitter or anywhere else.  “If I worked with a media company, we’d probably be having a completely different conversation,” she adds.

Changes Coming

Still, Van Dongen admits to some changes on the horizon. For an upcoming senior management meeting, they will be moving to a TED Conference delivery style where speakers have only 18 minutes to present, pushing presenters to be more dynamic. “It will either be a spectacular failure, or something that moves us forward on a new path.”

Most planners agree that they are more conscious of healthy and sustainable food and beverage choices. Fitzpatrick has found that, “in the past this was due in most part to cultural requirements but now it tends to be driven by young health and socially conscious attendees.”McKinley adds: “There’s an emerging focus on healthier options and food that is better for learning, stamina and wellness. I think in future as prices rise we may be forced to seriously look at new and different options, and evaluate portion size.”

While the verdict about who exactly or how younger generations are driving different meetings, one conclusion is certain: planners are best to execute events that suit the culture of the organization and its meeting objectives, with an eye to engaging all participants as much as possible.

This article was originally written for Corporate Meetings & Events Magazine, and was published in their Fall 2012 issue.  I have modified it for this blog by adding the U.S. references and links to each planner's public LinkedIN profile.

Think Magnets, Not Darts

The inbound marketing trend is finally beginning to sweep the hospitality and meetings industry. It isn’t too soon for it to begin sweeping away any parts of your hotel or CVB's sales marketing program that have outlived their usefulness.


Look to attract potential clients
vs. target them.

The opposite of inbound marketing, outbound marketing, refers to the collection of strategies that most of us grew up with as the gold standard for customer contact. We would deluge meeting planners with direct mail. Follow up with phone calls. Ply them with gifts. Swarm them at trade shows. Volume was the key to success, and the best message was a relentlessly consistent (and consistently relentless) one. As fax, then email and mobile entered the mix, we adapted those technologies to the proven way of getting sales done.

But somewhere along the way, we began to realize the outbound marketing model was broken. Customers came up with elaborate ways to avoid being “sold”. Regulators and procurement officers were nervous about all the free giveaways. And the best account managers realized the expectations were all wrong: instead of setting out to build genuine relationships that delivered real value, it was all about the quarterly sales targets, methods be damned.

You’ve no doubt heard the more recent business maxim that to get something back, you have to give something away. With inbound marketing, you get back the attention and engagement of your target audience—and, eventually, their buying power—by giving away something they need and want in place of a standard, outbound sales pitch. Offer them knowledge. Point them to resources. And make it clear that you ask nothing in return, that the conversation is its own reward.

Once your customers know why they want to talk to you, they’ll figure out the rest (and, yes, you can help them with that final step).  Inbound marketing is still a new enough concept that its meaning is sometimes in the eye of the beholder.  The important thing to remember is that focus has shifted from using darts to “hit” prospects, to one where you magnetize your communication and they come to you.

To read about Greenfield’s take on how the sales and marketing world has shifted; download our Discussion Paper, The Great Shift: Why B2B Lead Generation is Changing and What You Need To Do About It. Or join the discussion by registering for one of our webinars.

*This post marks the appearance of Greenfield's Chief Strategist, Doreen Ashton Wagner, who is speaking at the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Toronto Chapter's Education Conference in Niagara Falls, ON, on Monday, June 11, 2012.  She will be presenting the session: The Magnet vs. the Dart: Helping Meeting Professionals Create an Inbound Lead Generation Channel.

Handwashing and Green Meetings

As I wrote in my blog last week (see a Newbie’s View) my first-time attendance at the GMIC Sustainable Meetings Conference was one that led me to a lot of thinking about how the hotel and meetings industry needs to clean up its act.

One challenge is that we seem to have two groups in this industry: those who are at the forefront of the green meetings movement, and the rest of us.  When you mention "green meetings" many planners and suppliers in the second group think they have it covered. But do they really?  Just reading a few articles in an industry magazine won't make anyone an expert.

One of the presenters at the conference, Julie Baylor, made a very good case for how hotels need to go beyond just getting a “green” certification.

Maybe all this "green meetings fatigue" is because we don't know where to start. I know I felt like that. So when I came back from conference, one small thing I vowed to change was the number of disposable coffee cups that my staff are using.  Every Friday, when we took out the recycling, the bin was full of Tim Hortons cups and lids. Surely we could do better, I challenged our team.  And now the volume is reducing...

The success of any habit changing initiatives starts with simplicity. That's why I believe those in the green meetings industry need to consider the work of Joe Smith. Joe lectured at a TEDx Conference recently about the use of paper towels when handwashing. Viewing his video made me change the way I wash my hands!

If you haven't seen his lecture, please take the time to view it. You'll never forget it.

Could we not find excellent communicators like Joe Smith to teach us what to do and what not to do in our meetings and in our everyday work at the office to make a difference?

Hospitality and Meetings: Finding Ourselves in the Social Media Picture

It’s a research finding that Mark Twain, the irrepressible American author and humourist, might have described as “interesting if true, and interesting anyway.”

But it still caught our eye when Netprospex Social Business Report published its annual review of social media use by U.S. businesses. Working from a database of 12 million companies, Netprospex cross-referenced its contacts’ presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and came up with an index based on two criteria:

• Their social presence, based on the number of online profiles registered to a business address
• Their social connectedness, based on the number of Twitter followers, Facebook friends, and LinkedIn connections they’ve accumulated.

We can start by acknowledging the limits to the analysis. It’s a beginner’s mistake to assume that social media connectedness is all about quantity, when it’s really a matter of bringing together the quality contacts who can benefit from your product or service and help you advance your business.

Still, hit counts do matter, since your online voice disappears if you have no visibility or presence. So it’s useful to look at how our two favorite and related industries rated against others: hospitality & tourism and meetings & events.

• Event-related jobs were tied with product management as the fourth-most social job, ahead of advertising, communications and public relations, marketing, and sales. That actually struck us as being a bit high, but it may finally signal that meeting & event planners have adopted social as part of their event marketing mix.
• Hospitality and tourism fared quite badly in the survey. The industry’s top-rated social company, in a tie with Best Buy for 11th place, was The Walt Disney Company.  The next hospitality company was Starwood Hotels and Resorts in 66th place, well behind brands such as Campbell’s Soup, Hasbro and Clorox Corp.
• Overall, hospitality ranked as the 42nd most-social industry.  If we consider “tourism” in terms of travel-related companies or destinations, it didn’t even make the top 50.

Whether this is good news or bad depends on what you’re trying to achieve online. If you think hospitality and tourism should strive to reach the widest possible population with an undifferentiated message, we have a long way to go.

If you’re more interested in targeted outreach to a set of clearly-defined audiences, the numbers might tell a different story. One thing is clear though, if event planners are the fourth most social group out there, maybe it’s time hospitality and tourism organizations focus their social media efforts to this highly influential group.

Ready for a conversation about your inbound marketing and social media efforts?  We're ready to help you navigate the waters.

The End of the Hotel Room Block as We Know It?

The rumblings are just beginning, in informal conversations with industry suppliers, and with some of the associations and corporate groups that host conferences. There’s no research data to support it.

But we’ve been considering the possibility that we may be witnessing the end of the hotel room block for major meetings and events. If it happens, it’ll be hard to imagine a more seismic shift for the hospitality side of the industry.

You may have already seen the scenario in your own business. A major event reserves space for a large meeting or trade show, but organizers only commit to an official block of 500 or 1,000 guest rooms, saying they’ll take their chances with regular room rates. They still approach the CVB for deep concessions on convention centre rentals, arguing that participants will still book accommodations in the city. But the official hotels lose the certainty of having a large block of guaranteed room nights.

The problem is that the planners have a point. By making discount rooms available through an array of online booking sites, the hotel industry has eroded organizations’ ability to direct participants into their room blocks. A few years into the world Expedia, Hotwire, and getaroom.com, participants are savvy enough to shop for the best rates, and planners have a message for CVBs: if your idea of a successful city-wide convention includes a large room block, we’ll just move on to the next city. A few CVBs have told us they have no choice but to play along.

There may be a solution for hotels that are willing to offer more realistic rates for professional planners offering large blocks with longer lead times, then shift the rate as the supply of available rooms gets smaller. But with online distribution channels bringing hotel rooms to a new level of commodification, it may be a tough sell. One of the basic rules of pricing is that it’s hard to take a discount back once you’ve offered it. The question is: if this really is the end of the block as we know it, what will hoteliers do next?

Occupy Wall Street: What Will It Mean for the Hospitality Industry?

I’m not a political scientist or sociology expert, but my gut tells me this Occupy Wall Street is big.  Beyond Wall Street, it’s now Occupy the World.

As the owner of a small business currently with 17 employees, I agree with some of the premises of this movement.  They basically boil down to: when anything gets too big (as it business, as in government), people are prone to excess.

Too many get greedy and forget about their fellow human being.

But I do not believe that capitalism itself is evil.  The alternative is just as nasty; socialism and egalitarianism are just as prone to abuse – why else did people bring down the Berlin Wall?

It’s the extremes that cause us trouble.  “Everything in moderation,” my grandma used to say…

We could go on and on about political ideology.  At the risk of being accused of the very sin that big bad business people commit all the time, I ask, “What will this mean to the hospitality business and the meetings industry in particular?”  Only time will tell, but here are a few (random) thoughts:

- This movement is facilitated by social media, but the online world is no match for getting people out into the streets so that issues get attention.  Face-to-face is where it’s at.  Will we be able to get the world to understand the importance of the meetings industry?

- We may be in for another round of the AIG effect.  But let’s get beyond the “what will people think” mentality this time, and really get down to objectives and how having meeting will change the way people do things.

- Face-to-face doesn’t have to happen in a fancy hotel.  This should be a loud alarm bell for hotel developers to start thinking beyond the real estate deal and look at the long-term sustainability of their expansion projects;

- This kind of change will threaten some brands and be a boon to others.  Especially those that are willing to change the rules of the game.  Those like the Alt Hotel where they only charge ONE rate, for ALL their rooms, 365 days per year.  No upgrades, no discounts.  Pretty egalitarian stuff – check out our blog about this hotel industry-alterring concept.

So, hospitality and event professionals, what do YOU think this #OWS movement will mean to you and your organization?

Alt Hotel: A Game Changing Concept for the Hospitality Industry?

At a recent MPI Toronto event I ran into Jodi Spivak, a fellow event professional I’d met on Twitter last year.  Jodi now works with Hotel Le Germain Maple Leaf Square and she was eagerly telling us about the new hotel project she is also involved with at Pearson Airport.

From what I can tell, Alt Hotel is a game changing concept in the North American hospitality industry: they charge only ONE rate.  You read correctly – one rate, for every single room, every night of the year.  No volume discounts, no group discounts.

Jodi was telling me this in front of a Starwood Hotels director of sales, whose jaw dropped.  Imagine not having to play the negotiation game?  It’s ONE rate.  And not having to run to a revenue manager to haggle for a discount for a client who has more business down the road?  How refreshing!

Apparently there the Alt Hotel breaks a few more rules.  Employees can wear jeans on the job.  And they run a $1 per night contest where a guest who has reserved online wins one night of their stay for a buck!  I have not witnessed this new concept myself, but I sure will the next time my travels take me to the Montreal south shore.

The Germain Group first came up with the idea with their property in Brossard, QC.  They opened a second hotel in Québec City, and the Toronto property is slated to open in April 2012.

How soon before the copycats follow?  Judging from the face of that Starwood DOS, I say this is certain to be a game changer.

Hotel Marketing : Why I Feel Sorry for Chain Hotels

Why would anyone feel sorry for chain hotels?  Aren’t branded hotels the ones with all of the fancy programs and the big advertising budgets?  Wouldn’t chain-affiliated hotels have clout that independent's can’t compete with?

Yes, to a certain extent, they do.  But the chain advantage is eroding.  The internet has leveled the playing field with independents.

According to a June 2010 DemandGen Report, 78% of B2B buyers check out potential suppliers online before they pick up the phone.  This might be on the supplier’s website, through third-party sites or even social media.  And increasingly buyers are looking for brands with personality and unique appeal.  This is where chain hotels are increasingly at a disadvantage.

(Note: the names of specific brands have been omitted to protect the innocent and perhaps the not-so-innocent…).

Chain hotels rarely can have custom content on their website.  It doesn’t matter which brand you look at.  Hotels must fit the corporate mold, filling in the blanks so that information is presented on the corporate website in a uniform manner.

If individual properties offer unique programs, anything that would differentiate hotel A from hotel B, it is rarely available on the branded hotel’s page.  A meeting planner has to call a hotel to get that information emailed to them.

Case in point: I was visiting a wonderful Chicago hotel last November, and the sales manager who walked me through the site inspection had great knowledge of their hotel’s unique banquet production and cooking system.  She gave me excellent examples of how this gives them a competitive edge in their local catering market.  Is there any mention of this on their website?  No!  Unfortunately, the hotel has no flexibility to include this anywhere on their corporate-sanctioned website.

• If any chain hotel has a blog (a rarity), they are not allowed to connect it to their hotel page. 
• Many chain hotels, regardless of brand, are told social media is the purview of corporate headquarters.  If a hotel has a Twitter account it is often used strictly for leisure purposes (e.g. “come check out our weekend rates”).  Heck, I’ve even heard of corporate HQ types trying to “control the messaging” of some of their “field” Tweeters by issuing “guidelines”.  Did these corporate types not hear what happened in Egypt and Libya?  Contrast that with independents who have real personalities and even know how to have fun (check out the Drake Hotel on Twitter and The Lord Elgin’s bed-jumping video on YouTube).  
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is often entirely leisure-driven because it is controlled by corporate HQ marketing types whose job is only leisure and image focused.  Intelligent B2B marketing, with rich content generation that can generate leads, is rarely on their radar screen.
• Because they operate with clunky legacy systems like Delphi and Opera SFA, most hotel companies cannot run efficient lead nurturing campaigns with marketing automation tools that connect with their website interface and their CRM or PMS. 

We often hear hotels complain about the pressure on their rates and how the market is so competitive.  And unless they can differentiate their local flair and offer proof that they can be more than cookie-cutter buildings, chain hotels are doomed to suffer the highs – and lows – of the commodities they are becoming in the eyes of meeting planners everywhere.

Would love to hear from the hospitality sales & marketing pros out there!

The Future of Meetings

Recently Meeting Professionals International sent me a request to participate in a survey regarding the future of the meetings industry. Funded by the MPI Foundation this initiative is featured as part of a series of Thought Leadership Initiatives to help planners succeed today and tomorrow.

We all get lots of requests to complete surveys but for some reason this one drew my attention.  It came with a warning that this wouldn’t be a boring, multiple-choice questionnaire; it required essay-type answers and original thought!  It took me almost two hours for me to complete (good grief!).

But half-way through I realized that instead of just sending my answers to the Maritz researchers, I should copy them for our own blog.  If you haven’t had a chance to take the survey, read on.

What do you think is the future of the meetings and events industry? How do you see the meeting industry evolving? In other words, what significant changes are you seeing?

Because of rising prices, I see the meetings industry becoming more elitist. Airlines have applied strict yielding strategies, making some travel increasingly unaffordable. Hotel management companies are also under pressure from their ownership to increase returns. I think this will cause organizations to "regionalize" some meetings, especially for lower to middle managers.  It'll be too expensive to send them away, so they'll keep them closer to home.

This is already happening.  As opposed to one national meeting, companies are having 2-3 smaller regional meetings, where a number of attendees can drive.  By doing this companies also are reducing the length of meetings.

The more distant destinations will attract only senior executives who have the budgets for more expensive travel. I believe this has serious implications for destinations such as Hawaii -- demand overall will be significantly lower.  Incidentally all of these developments will be exacerbated by rising oil prices.

On the more positive side, the above will give rise to more virtual and hybrid events, creating a whole new set of jobs and businesses. Just look at the number of consultants who now specialize in social media strategies for meetings!

Because of the cost of meeting face-to-face is increasing, I believe the value of such meetings will increase in the eyes of participants. Whereas in the past participants would see their association's annual convention as "just another convention", in the future this may be viewed with more respect -- their ONLY opportunity to connect with colleagues.

As a side note I see companies increasing their individual travel budget for sales purposes. Bringing reps together with buyers in one-on-one meetings more often is becoming a “new old tool” in the arsenal of customer loyalty management.

How are you preparing for those changes in your business?

For one thing we are stepping up individual travel so we can meet with clients one-on-one more often. Because we have flexibility in scheduling, this allows us to book during shoulder periods, etc.

We are also developing new expertise to help our clients develop new business in creative ways. We've launching into marketing automation, content creation and social media so we can help facilitate their activities.

Lastly we're advising clients to develop stronger relationships with their local/regional markets as a more effective way of spending their marketing and sales dollars.

What do you see staying the same?

Does anything EVER stay the same? :-)  Let's see: the role of hotel brand Global/National Sales Offices and Convention & Visitor Bureaus in the meeting sales process I believe will remain relatively stable.

I think we will continue to have to fight to get the meetings industry recognized as such, and the value meeting professionals bring to the table. Our "right" to the seat at the table will continue to be difficult to articulate and quantify.  I'm saying this because I don't think we moved the needle in this last recession... The world still doesn't understand what we do (everybody was happy to bash the meetings industry, including the U.S. President!). We were caught unprepared. Shame on us.

The above is an excerpt of the questions and my answers.  So what are your thoughts on the Future of Meetings? Share your thoughts and comments below!