Incentive - June 2008 - (Page 17)

Participants 1.BRIAN MARTENIS Managing Director Incentive Worldwide Travel 2.MARCELL KING Senior Manager, Sales ACI Gift Cards (Exclusive gift card provider for Amazon.com) about a dozen leading incentive planners, travel and merchandise providers and corporate incentive managers and brings them together in New York for a wide-ranging discussion about the state of the industry. This year’s roundtable, held in the Millennium Broadway hotel in Times Square, was a particularly good one, with some surprises, some contrarian positions staked out, and some controversy. We think you’ll find it’s worth the read. The May 6 roundtable lasted nearly two hours, so what follows is just a selection of what was said. A longer version is available online at www.incentivemag.com/roundtable08. In addition, an extended excerpt as well as the full transcript are available at w w w.incentivemag.com/roundtable2008; a podcast version of the audio recording of the event may be accessed at w w w.incentivemag.com/podca sts. Enjoy! Editor’s Note: Since the Roundtable was conducted, Pamela Valdez has left Millennium and taken a position at the New York City convention and visitors bureau, NYC & Company. Every spring, Incentive magazine gathers 3.STEVE MASELKO VP, Individual Incentives and Gift Cards Marriott 4.NORMA JEAN KNOLLENBERG Owner and CEO Top Brands Inc. 5.PAMELA VALDEZ Director of Travel Industry Sales Millennium UN Plaza, New York Millennium Biltmore, Los Angeles Millennium Broadway, New York 6.BRETT HATCH Global Corporate Gifts Manager Maui Jim Industry on the Move Incentive Roundtable Brett Hatch, Maui Jim 7.TIM HOULIHAN Vice President, Reward Systems BI May 6, 2008 What trends are you seeing in the incentive business? What’s new, and what’s on the horizon? BRETT HATC H : We are definitely seeing a trend towards the green movement. Over in Europe, 75 percent of the planners will even shun or avoid an area that’s not eco-friendly. More and more companies are really bandwagoning. MARC E L L K I N G : On the gift card side, we’re also seeing increasing use of the green effect in terms of leveraging electronic codes [that can be used like a gift card online] and email access codes and mobile gift cards. N O R M A J E A N K N O L L E N B E RG : I think overall the biggest movement right now is the whole eco thing. On the merchandise side, we’re being asked to provide merchandise that fits into that theme. Everybody wants it. 8.GAIL FITZGERALD Vice President, Hotel Sales & Marketing CityCenter Las Vegas Q 9.DAMON RIDDLE Senior Retail Finance Analyst American Suzuki Motor Corporation 10.MICHAEL ARKES CEO Hinda Incentives 11.DENNIS BORST President and COO Patriot Marketing Group 12.GLORIA LANDOW President Group Travel Specialists Moderators Jennifer Juergens, Incentive magazine Leo Jakobson, Incentive magazine Alex Palmer, Incentive magazine People want to contribute in some way. Businesses see [incentive programs] as a great way to do it, because it gives them a theme that they can play upon. D E N N I S B O R S T: On the employee side of incentives and recognition programs, what we have noticed is that there’s a real movement towards wellness programs. [Also], we have created two products—ecofriendly employee ride share, and alternate transportation programs—that operate online, and for the most part those have been door openers for us over the past couple of years. MICHAEL ARKES: We’re also seeing clients asking for merchandise that is green. We work with the company to develop a corporate responsibility theme. I think the other thing is that the recession hasn’t bitten our business. It seems like the recession has been industry specific. So, construction isn’t in good shape, retail isn’t in good shape, but there’s a lot of industries that are in good shape or haven’t been impacted, and that seems to be incentivemag.com | June 2008 | Incentive | 17 http://Amazon.com http://www.incentivemag.com/roundtable08 http://www.incentivemag.com/roundtable2008 http://www.incentivemag.com/podcasts http://incentivemag.com

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

Incentive - June 2008 Contents Editor’s Note In The News Cover Story: Seventh Annual Industry Roundtable Incentive Interview Case Study Soft Incentives Empowerment and Engagement The Incentive Career Incentive Primer Travel News: Where To Go and What To Do The Cook Islands Field Report: Bermuda Potentials: Here and Now 50 Top Motivators: The Best of the Best Electronics: High-end Audio Equipment Gift Cards: Should One Be Enough? Advertiser Index Off The Cuff

Incentive - June 2008

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