Meeting News - March 9, 2009 - (Page 40)

Planners Guide to Florida continued from page 22 ed the meetings and incentives industry in a negative light.” Gina Thiemann, president of Florida Destinations & Incentives, a Tampa-area DMC, said the perception problem corporations face is not just with their stockholders and potential investors. Said Thiemann,“If you are an employee of a big corporation and you sit down at a banquet table at your annual event and you see a big, expensive centerpiece, you are probably going to be saying to yourself,‘They haven’t given me a raise in a couple of years and they can afford to spend $100 on this flower arrangement?’ It’s not exactly a good way to build morale.” Orlando planner Stacey Paul Barabe, CSEP, president of Exhilarate Events Inc., said the perception issue is a double-edged sword for her corporate clients. “They want to be perceived as spending money prudently, but yet at their events, they want to project the message of ‘Hey, we are strong; we are solid; this company has a future,’” said Barabe. “Consequently, they are using every bit of leverage they have with hotels to make sure the event spaces appear as elegant as ever, even if they are not spending as much for it.” At a recent sales meeting for 700 employees by a Fortune 100 pharmaceutical company at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort, Barabe was asked to replace the usual centerpiece flowers with displays about the company’s social responsibility, including posters depicting the company’s contribution to more than 600 charities, its recycling and conservation efforts, and its efforts to make life more meaningful for its employees. Yet there are more signs that organizations are under duress as a result of the public’s lynch-mob mentality of meetings. One planner, who requested anonymity, said she got around her group’s stakeholder ban from using any property bearing the word “resort” by getting the parent company of the property at which the group stayed to prepare her invoice. Another planner said she was asked by a group to bill for “teambuilding activities” when, in fact, they involved only drinks and a room for a cocktail party. “I would never do that,” she said, “but it just shows what pressures these groups are under” in the current economy and public court of opinion. H 40 MeetingNews March 9, 2009 www.meetingnews.com http://www.hiltonsandestinbeach.com http://www.hiltonsandestinbeach.com http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - March 9, 2009

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