Meeting News - December 15, 2008 - (Page 64)

Live from the Forum @ MeetingNews.com TOPIC: AIG Resort Junket in Phoenix W e can all disagree about the pros and cons, but it appears that any hoped-for lessons from the last two go-arounds of this have not tested well. Jo Angela Maniaci, Owner, Special Events Planning LLC, Minneapolis Do you have a burning question to ask your peers? Log on to the MeetingNews Forum to get answers fast. meetingnews.com/forum I understand people are upset about a company that is getting a bailout. The problem is, these large ﬁnancial institutions need to provide industry training to make money. It’s called doing business! The majority of money that AIG puts up to have these meetings is ultimately covered and repaid to the company. Rodney Kinney, Director of Sales Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, Mesa, AZ Am I incensed at AIG and a little bit at the hotel? You betcha! AIG certainly could have made efforts with the hotel to ensure that the perception was one of working, not playing. As a government conference manager, I know all too well how dangerous it is to do anything that could put you on the front page—regardless of the legality of what you do. I am sure the hotel would have been savvy enough to know how to make this less glaring a junket. But it was more important for AIG to keep attendees fat and happy. And what the hotel perhaps does not realize is by treating this as a “business as usual” meeting, it is somewhat complicit in the publicity. Suellen Dickson, Associate, Conference Manager Booz Allen Hamilton, Washington, DC Perception it is! This is what I was taught in pharma. If anything were to happen, and suddenly our CEO was on the front page, how would it look? AIG should be avoiding this above everything. Hence, it could be losing business, and it needs to make money, not lose it. Rosaelena Ledesma-Bernaducci Independent Meeting Planner, Mountain View, CA Whether you agree with the government’s decision to bail out AIG, the fact remains it has committed to doing so. Our tax dollars are being handed over so the company can survive. So it is in our interest to see it survive. The best way to do that is not to stand in its way of generating revenue. How do most insurance companies make sure that their revenue ﬂow continues? They establish incentive programs in desirable destinations to reward top producers. While you can argue as to whether incentives generate revenue, it is clear that independent and contract agents are more likely to produce for a company that rewards them. Mark Jordan, President, Practical Communications Group, Media, PA Perception is real and will never go away in the mind of the beholder. This really does fall back on our industry, which is not good. Every time AIG has a meeting at a hotel from this point on, the public will condemn the company. Meetings are important for education purposes and for bringing AIG back to proﬁtable status in order to pay its bills and regain public trust. In the long run, if it gets condemned for having meetings, we as an industry will be hurt. Diana Maccia, Regional Director, HelmsBriscoe, Ocean Township, NJ Most of everything could be explained but hasn’t been, like cancellation charges, but it really showed poor judgment when the top executive blew off the sessions to go to the spa! Even if he wouldn’t personally learn anything at the sessions, he should have been there. Anne Carey, Independent Meeting Planner, Chicago I am a little torn on this. On one hand, incentive trips while you have to be bailed out by taxpayers is something that should deﬁnitely have been nixed or least dealt with up front. However, it seems to me that if it was an educational conference for clients or their industries, then it’s a whole different ballgame. This reminds me of how much we sneer and grumble about the misconceptions about how glamorous our lives as meeting planners are. Government agencies have to deal with this regularly; it was not unusual for any government meeting to not even be able to consider a city and sometimes an entire state because it was considered a vacation spot. I agree using other people’s money should not be in any way perceived as a paid vacation for attendees. However, it is also not fair to assume just because a meeting is held in Miami, Scottsdale, or Hawaii, it must be a vacation meeting rather than a legitimate business or educational event. Mary de la Fe, Conference Planner National Trust Main Street Center, Washington, DC Larry King invited the CEO of AIG to have his say, which was refreshing in deference to the media that just kept the bad news coming. The Scottsdale meeting was an educational program. The CEO shared the business model, built on brokers who move AIG’s products. Without education and incentives, its ﬁnancial products don’t garner the same attention. Gloria Nelson, Chief Experience Ofﬁcer Gloria Nelson Event Design LLC, Winneconne, WI It could be education, but the purpose of the trip was still an incentive. It is in the interest of the company to keep those people happy. It’s not the equivalent of joyriding, but is a necessary business practice. AIG held a normal, justiﬁable business-related event that is an important component of its overall marketing strategy to drive business through top producers for next year. And that’s what we as taxpayers want: AIG making money. Mark Jordan MEETING NEWS (ISSN 0145-630X, USPS No.356-010, December 15 2008, Vol. 32, No. 20 is published semi-monthly except for June, August, November and December, which is monthly, by Nielsen Business Media, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003-9595, tel. 646-654-5000. Subscriptions are offered free of charge to individuals actively engaged in planning meetings or conventions in the U.S. and Canada. The cost of a subscription to non-qualiﬁed subscribers is $79 in the U.S. and $95 in Canada (Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40031729). The cost of a foreign subscription, payable in U.S. dollars, is $195. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing ofﬁces. MeetingNews is a trademark owned exclusively by Nielsen Business Media. Copyright © 2008 by Nielsen Business Media Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this magazine, in whole or in part, is prohibited unless authorized by the publisher. 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Meeting News - December 15, 2008

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