Incentive - January 2008 - (Page 18)

COVER STORY “The meeting wraps up with a recognition ceremony where every winner walks across the stage and recieves a trophy presented by their regional president.” — Karen Bennett, AT&T important items to consider to get the right balance,” says Faye Beauchine, executive vice president of global meetings, incentives and events for Carlson Marketing in Minneapolis. “You want people to come away from a program feeling charged, and that is entirely achievable if an incentive that features a meeting is planned correctly and properly executed.” A closer examination of the AT&T Summit shows a strategic convergence of incentive travel, motivational meetings and special events. After achieving stellar attendees. In addition to viewing a special video, made in collaboration with Apple, which showcased the special features of the highly anticipated iPhone, the group saw the witty new “Vegas” commercial before its public broadcast and also learned about the latest technological tools, such as Video Share, before anyone else in the company. “When the chief marketing officer is talking about new applications, what happens is that the sales reps begin to understand that they are the ones hearing something special for the first time,” says Bennett. But the meaningful moments don’t end there. “The meeting wraps up with a recognition ceremony where every winner walks across the stage and receives a trophy presented by their regional president.” Post-trip surveys of participants confirm the strong motivational appeal of the AT&T Summit. Specifically, the statement, “I am proud to have earned the AT&T Summit distinction,” generated a 9.9 out of 10 response across all regions, while the statement, “I enjoyed being recognized in front of my regional management” garnered a 9.6 ranking. Stadler of Maritz stresses the importance of conducting surveys for the purpose of fine-tuning future incentive programs. “Asking a group of high achievers what appeals to them allows for the building of optimal content and programming,” she says. For AT&T, their reward and recognition program has residual benefits, such as inspiring others in the wireless division to perform better. “We encourage the winners of the AT&T Summit to lead by example. They are ambassadors, if you will, and we count on them to rub off on other sellers and lead with best practices,” says Dennis Magraw, Sightseeing tours help Viega North America excite the top-selling distributors it sends to a German trade show sales performance and securing a high customer-satisfaction score the year before, the qualifying sales reps— depending on their region—traveled in March of 2007 to the Montage Laguna Beach in California or the JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes in Florida. Upon arrival, the special guests were treated to a welcome reception followed by a buzz-worthy business meeting the next day. Access to exclusive content kept the meeting interesting for AT&T Summit eam-building activities can be popular with corporate incentive program managers, as they provide a business case—other than just rewarding top performers—for the cost of an incentive trip to an exotic destination. But that’s exactly why event planner Harith Wickrema, president of Philadelphia, Pa.–based Harith Productions, prefers to use them in meetings with an incentive component, rather than in pure incentive travel programs. “Incentive participants don’t like structure, they want to enjoy themselves,” Wickrema says. “I do them more at meetings than incentives.” At corporate meetings, however, a properly planned teambuilding event can add lots of fun, excitement and relaxation to the agenda. Usually, Wickrema says he sticks to the classics: beach TEAMING Up for Fun T Olympics, Jeep tours, and team-based scavenger hunts like one he recently ran in Marrakech for a client. All three have the benefit of combining physical outdoor activities that are particularly desirable to corporate groups that have spent part of the day at a resort destination sequestered in a meeting room with very vacation-like activities, like beach and water sports, sightseeing, exploring and even shopping. All three of these types of events allow for friendly competition, as they break a group up into smaller or larger teams—Jeep tours often involve pairing up two couples or four coworkers—which can compete in a variety of sub-contests. This, in turn, offers the ability to award prizes in a large number of categories, creating many winners who can be recognized at a dinner party. —Leo Jakobson 18 | Incentive | January 2008 | incentivemag.com http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - January 2008

Incentive - January 2008 Contents Editor’s Note: Out of SITE In The News Cover Story: Include a Meeting, Improve Morale Case Study: DHL Delivers Recognition Incentive Primer: How To Use Promo Products How Bob Nardelli Rallied Chrysler’s Dealers Incentive Interview: Ken Blanchard Says Be Nice TV’s Extreme Makeover Motivates Giving Pre-Employment Motivation The Daycare Dilemma Happy Employees Shouldn’t Mix with Sick Employees Incentive Research: Consumer Promotions Report In Her Shoes: Winning Approval Of Flextime Travel News Field Report: Barcelona Field Report: Bermuda Golf: Follow The Pros potentials Here and Now Watches As Jewelry Awards: Online Gift Cards Tech Gadgets for 2008 Last Word: Stanley Bing Bashes Bully Bosses

Incentive - January 2008

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