Greenfield Services Co-Founder Named to M&IT Magazine Hall of Fame

Greenfield Services is proud to announce that its co-founder Doreen Ashton Wagner has been named to the M&IT Magazine’s Hall of Fame in the Industry Innovator category. This award recognizes an individual planner or supplier who has implemented a service or product that has increased productivity and/or modernized our industry.

Below is the text of her nomination:

Doreen Ashton Wagner has been an innovator since she founded her company in 1998.

At first she saw a niche in offering outsourced, project-based, data cleansing and lead generation services to meetings industry suppliers.  One of the firm's earliest clients was Rogers Media, then-owners of M&IT Magazine, after the company purchased the Executive Travel Show series in 2001.  Greenfield was hired by the show producer to update a list of over 22,000 meeting and event professionals across Canada.  The firm then employed just five people, and it took three months for the list to be cleansed according to a strict research protocol, supported by a proprietary database platform.  This approach has since been formalized as The Greenfield Data Cleansing System™.

From those humble beginnings the firm gained more meetings industry clients, especially Hotels and Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) looking for online and phone research to help identify new meetings and conventions business.  The Greenfield LEAD Process™ was born of these efforts to produce timely, valuable meetings information on a consistent basis.

In 2008, Ashton Wagner started observing a shift in the nature of the business-to-business sales process.  The recession, the increasing role of the internet in the purchasing cycle, and the commoditization of the site selection process was eroding the traditional relationships that existed between meeting venues and planners.

In 2009 she devised the Greenfield Funnel Activator™, a marketing system that helps meetings industry suppliers initiate and nurture new business relationships through a combination of personal outreach, data management, and permission-based email communication, supported by marketing automation software.  This system has been further enhanced with the integration of social media management and content marketing, which help users attract more inbound leads.

Since 2010 Ashton Wagner has written extensively about these market shifts, starting with this blog and monthly e-newsletter (still published today), and her landmark webinar series in 2012.

Clients who have benefitted from Greenfield Services’ dedicated, proprietary approach include Fairmont, Hilton, Marriott, IHG, Cineplex Entertainment, AV Canada, and every major DMO in Canada.

Last but not least, this candidate was a key participant in the team that executed the landmark study of the economic impact of the meetings industry in Canada (CEIS).  Her in-depth knowledge of the venue side of the meetings industry helped the research team navigate the complicated data gathering process which led to the successful completion of the study according to UNWTO guidelines.  This study was the first of its kind in 2007 and it has since been duplicated in Mexico, the USA and the UK. 

According to the then-CEIS Project Manager, Mitchell Beer, “When the project ran into serious difficulties with primary data gathering, Greenfield Services was just about heroic in deploying key expertise and staff hours to solve the problem. To this day, I believe that MPI Canada—and anyone else in the global meetings community who has since conducted a WTO‑based EIS—owes Greenfield a lifetime debt of gratitude for shepherding this first economic impact study to success at a critical point in its execution.”

The third iteration of the study is now taking place in Canada, with the candidate and her company’s involvement once again.

Doreen joins fellow inductees:

- Ralph Strachan, President & CEO, The Stronco Group of Companies (Industry Veteran); 

- Bettyanne Sherrer, CMP, CMM, Principal, ProPlan Conference & Events (Planner); 

- Trevor Lui, Director of Operations and Sustainability, The International Centre (Industry Builder); 

- Sheila Wong, CEM, Partner and Vice-President, Business Development, BBW International Inc. (Industry Volunteer); 

- Judy Healy, Hospitality and Tourism Management Department, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University (Industry Mentor); 

- Danyelle MacCulloch, Base Consulting Inc. (Industry Rising Star)

Congratulations to all we’re so proud of you!

Reducing our Footprint and Doing Good at the MPI Ottawa Golf Tournament

(Left to right) MPI Ottawa's Riccarda Galioto, Co-Director
of Community Outreach & CSR, and Ryan Young, VP Finance,
accept a $640 cheque from Doreen Ashton Wagner
for  the Chapter's  official charity,
the Ottawa School Breakfast Program. 

This past week Greenfield Services sponsored a hole at the 14th Annual Golf Tournament of the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Ottawa Chapter.

The organizing committee had challenged sponsors to come up with creative ways to be kinder to the environment with this event, held at the picturesque Fairmont Chateau Montebello resort, which has an Audubon International-certified golf course.

The Greenfield Team took up the challenge by selling $5 mulligans on the course's difficult 14th-hole.  No disposables were used, making this a simple, low-impact promotion for the environment.  Even the hole signage will be re-used, thanks to innovative work by another sponsor, Miller McConnell Signs.

The company matched donations dollar-for-dollar and all proceeds went to the Chapter's official charity, the Ottawa School Breakfast Program.

For more news and pictures of the event, see the Chapter's Facebook page.

A Meeting Planner's View: What an Outdated Mailing List Says to Your Customers

This post is by guest contributor Cara Tracy, CMP, CMM. Cara is a meetings industry professional who has been on the supply side of the industry, as well as the planning side. She offers great advice to hotels, CVBs and anyone else who provides proposals to meeting planners -- check out her blog.

Want a surefire way to waste money, kill trees and show how out of touch you are with your customers? Use an old mailing list!

When was the last time you updated yours? I received a promotional brochure from a meeting industry supplier last week that was addressed to the person who had my job sixteen years ago. Sixteen years, people.

Now one could argue, the brochure made it to me so the supplier accomplished one of it’s goals. Yes—it made it to me because my predecessor’s title was also on the mailing label. The person in my office who sorts our mail doesn’t have a list of former employees that goes back that far.

But here’s the issue … I received it and the first thing I noticed was the addressee and the next thing I thought was “Boy, are they out of touch!” Not “Wow! What a great promotion!” or “This would be great for my next meeting.” In fact, I don’t even remember who sent the piece.

Guess it didn’t meet the rest of their goals, did it?

If you insist on using snail mail to reach out to your customers, keep your records up to date. I assume you make regular solicitation calls. As part of that process, confirm the customer’s information, including designations (they may have earned a new one recently and it’s a nice way to honor them.) Or have an assistant or an intern make calls to verify information. If that is the only purpose of their call, I recommend they call the client’s main switchboard rather than taking up the planner’s time.

How do you feel when you receive mail addressed to a predecessor or with wrong information on the mailing label? What else can you do to ensure this doesn’t happen to your customers?

And of course, Greenfield Services can help you update that mailing list... Give us a shout!

When Rebranding Misses the Opportunity

Recently I received an email from a trade show display company that we have done business with over the years.

The email was to tell me all about their new name, brand and logo.  I really like this company but unfortunately their communication left me thinking, "so what?"

What does their new name and logo have to do with me? Who cares if they've changed their colors and have a fancy name?  Of course one might say that it's important to inform your clients that you have changed names, but I thought this was a missed opportunity.

Why not tell me about new resources that you have also made available to your clients along with this rebranding process? Point me to your new website where I can find ideas for my next trade show.  Provide me with content that will help me have a more successful exhibitor experience.  Maybe even connect me with other like-minded clients who have used your services and are willing to share case studies or tips for live events.

With business-to-business clients being increasingly critical of what enters their email box, don't squander an opportunity to provide value to clients. Make sure that you offer information that will make your clients' life easier; because unless you save them money, time, or effort, you're not providing value.  And if you're not providing value, you're just pushing a commodity.

Planners & Venue Managers: the Canadian Meetings Industry NEEDS YOU!

Meeting planners and Canadian event venue managers are asked to show their support for the meetings industry by participating in the third edition of the Canadian Economic Impact Study of the meetings and events industry (CEIS 3.0).

The online questionnaire is now OPEN and may be accessed here.  We are seeking event professionals' help by answering the survey and spreading the word to colleagues.

Supported by the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Foundation, the MPI Foundation Canada and its partners, this survey will quantify the number and economic impact of business events that took place in Canada in 2012.  

Anyone who organized a business event anywhere in Canada in 2012, regardless of their home country is invited to participate. Respondents need not be a member of MPI, nor are they required to be "professional" meeting planners.  

Similarly, all Canadian venue managers -- from hotels, resorts, convention facilities, conference centres, universities and even special event venues like museums and theatres -- who hosted business events, are encouraged to participate.

It is recommended that respondents have their organization's 2012 year-end results on hand for easy reference. To view a PDF of the planner questionnaire, click here.  Venue managers may download a copy of their survey here.

The MPI Foundation awarded this landmark research project earlier this year to the consortium headed by Maritz Canada, along with The Conference Board of Canada, the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council and Greenfield Services Inc.

This is an important endeavour that will enable the Canadian meetings industry to articulate its value to governments, investors and other stakeholders, and help advocate for a favourable business environment.

If you are active in the Canadian meetings and events industry, we hope you will respond to the study and help us spread the word to colleagues.

Social media efforts to publicize the project are underway.  Watch for periodic updates in the various LinkedIn Meeting & Event Groups, and tweets with #MPICEIS.

Should you have any questions regarding this study, please contact Doreen Ashton Wagner of Greenfield Services Inc. by email or by calling 1-866-488-4474, ext. 4512.

Is Your Content Marketing Worthy of a Royal Baby?

For the record this is NOT Queen Elizabeth II's
great grandchild.  To read more official royal news see
http://www.dukeandduchessofcambridge.org/news-and-diary

Content that is valued by your target market is an essential component of a sound inbound marketing strategy. A useful tactic for creating meaningful content is newsjacking, the process which David Merman Scott defines as "inject[ing] your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business."

This is what I have done with this post, making an allusion to the birth of the son of Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge. What does this have to do with your hotel, DMO or meetings industry business?  You should be using newsjacking to create content and attract attention of meeting and event planners to generate leads!  

Here's how:

• Use a newsworthy event to create a special package, service or theme at your hotel.  Hotel marketers sometimes will do this for leisure packages, so why not for meetings? I searched for a royalty-themed meeting package for this post and found none (now here's an opportunity!), though recently there were great examples around The Great Gatsby movie premiere (see 5 Swanky "Great Gatsby" Hotel Packages).
• If you're not ready to venture into current affairs, create your content by leveraging an industry event. Talk about the "top trends" your catering manager observed when he/she attended the ISES Conference  or what your takeaways were from the latest meetings industry event your sales team attended.  Our own Meagan Rockett does this regularly, reporting "takeaways" from the CSAE events she attends.
• To really gain the attention and respect of meeting and event planners, give them newsworthy material they can relate to in their work.  Use an event in your city that has some sort of fame or notoriety, and interview the people who make it happen.  If I were at Tourism Toronto, for example, I would want a meeting planner story about the logistics behind the Toronto International Film Festival.  It's like having a celebrity spokesperson for a weight loss program; everyone is interested because there is a famous person (in this case an event) behind it!

Creating content fit to attract the attention normally reserved for royalty might be a tall order, but a little creativity will go a long way to elevating your marketing to a greater level of differentiation from your competitors. 

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.