Meeting News - February 2, 2009 - (Page 16)

MN Exclusive Research Planners Play Pin the Program on the Destination. Yikes! MN asks meeting planners what convinces them to take a meeting abroad, and their answers are across the board chief concern when booking a meeting overseas. novice to the planning of an international The top considerations, in order, were location, meeting might assume that the process accommodation quality, and security/safety. would require much more thought—and Planners interviewed for this article struggled overall, be significantly more complex—than with the idea of “random” site-selection. organizing a domestic program. “Oh my god, my heart is stopping,” said Carol Yet, according to a recent survey of 465 meet- Krugman, CMP, CMM, an Easton, MA-based ing planners by MeetingNews, those assumptions educator and meeting consultant.“I’m horriﬁed.” are wrong. An astounding, overwhelming Said Teresa Peek, a Chicago-based independmajority of survey respondents (82%) said ent planner: “I’ve not heard of random selecMN Exclusive they select international destinations for Research tion; that’s scary. Many factors should be taken meetings “randomly.” Further, more than into consideration for selection, such as the half of planners surveyed (60%) said that they type of group, type of meeting, purpose, ease of organize international meetings only six to 17 ingress/egress, attractiveness of a destination, etc.” months out. Added Eli Gorin, planner of many internaAnd, despite the economic climate, most meet- tional meetings and founder of gMeetings Inc., ing organizer respondents did not cite cost as the a meetings management ﬁrm in Aventura, FL,“I spend most of my planning time in researching destinations. I don’t just take a dart, throw it on the map on my wall, and say ‘where it lands, I go.’ Percent indicating each of the following are “Extremely “My destination selection is based on the meetImportant” key factors considered in selecting an intering objectives and where the attendees are coming national destination: from that will make it feasible for them to arrive 76.2% Location to without having to travel excessively. It also 71.5% needs to offer the amenities my client wants, with 64.9% Quality of 56.3% accommodations regard to restaurants, tours, etc. 62.1% Security/ safety 55.8% “There has to be a rhyme or reason for select61.4% Quality of service ing a destination,” Gorin said,“and not because it 54.9% looks pretty or has an interesting name.” 53.0% Appeal of 53.8% desination As for lead time, planners and industry partic57.7% Air access ipants explained why it’s relatively short-term. 51.3% 53.9% “Given volatility in both the political and ecoReputation 48.7% nomic landscape of many destinations, planning 38.2% Accommodations 42.8% costs too far out is risky,” said Greg Poulos, president 44.8% Size of meeting of Blueﬁn Productions, an AV ﬁrm in Boston. 39.4% facilities 31.3% Noted Peek: “There are variables for associaAir costs 34.9% tions and corporations that affect attendance, etc; 33.5% Ease of 32.1% entrance/exit it’s not always good to be contracted far out.” 28.5% And technology facilitates quick booking, she Catering costs 29.3% 21.6% said.“With today’s instant communication, there Exchange rate vs. 28.2% U.S. Dollar isn’t a need for long booking windows. Market24.8% 2007 Survey 21.1% Climate ing and print materials can be produced faster 18.5% 2008 Survey than they could before,” she said, “and the InterStrong ties in area 16.1% net shortens advertisement of the meeting.” 14.1% Cultural 14.6% attreactions As for cost, at ﬁrst glance it’s surprising that, 11.3% Size of City 9.0% today, cost would not be the number-one con0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% sideration when booking a meeting overseas. Source: 332 of MeetingNews survey respondents But as several industry observers noted, organBy Rayna Katz A Random Selection How do you usually select international destinations? 2008 Survey Results Randomly Past experience Based on availability Speciﬁc rotation Based on potential business Based on cost 0% 81.9% 54.2% 41.0% 52.0% 47.0% 39.0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Source: 346 of MeetingNews survey respondents Location, Location izations intending to bring a group abroad already know they’re looking at an expensive proposition. Instead, they want to focus on value. “Cost is always an issue, but I think planners want to test the waters before scaring off a potential venue by discussing budget up front,” said Debbie Baker, director of sales at Extras, a Las Vegas-based planning company. Also, Baker noted, “Because of the economy, costs are more negotiable now than ever.” Added Krugman: “It’s about value, not cost.” For Poulos, the signiﬁcance of the location and safety are intertwined. “If the location is perceived to be unsafe, attendance at the conference will be very low, but if the location is safe and familiar, then higher attendance is more likely. According to Gorin, concerns over quality of accommodation and security are often baseless. “If there isn’t a U.S. brand name hotel chain, it doesn’t mean that there are no good hotels in foreign cities,” he said. “And when people say, ‘I would never do a meeting in XYZ country because it’s not safe,’ my questions to them are, ‘What are you basing your facts on? And tell me the name of any major metropolitan area in the United States where there isn’t a dangerous section you would urge your clients to steer clear of.’ “You should devise the same type of security plan for international as you would domestic,” Gorin told planners, “with just a few more steps to take the cultural differences into account.” H Contact Rayna Katz at rayna.katz@nielsen.com www.meetingnews.com 16 MeetingNews February 2, 2009 http://www.mimegasite.com/mimegasite/research/index.jsp http://www.meetingnews.com

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