Successful Meetings - December 2008 - (Page 13)

> Corporate Events “This will absolutely have an impact on the industry, predicts Boyd. “Any conscientious CEO will look at [AIG] and say, ‘Holy cow, we are not going to be in this position.’ I had one program, an extravagant cruise in Europe, say, ‘No way, we are going to stay domestic.’ ” That executive, Boyd says, wants to be able to tell his shareholders: “Here’s where we were going, here’s what we did.” “We in this industry are not doing a good job of explaining the value of these programs as a marketing and ROI tool,” says Richard Gaeta, president of Marblehead, News & Analysis MA-based Premier Incentives. “During every downturn this is the classic replay: the image that [incentive programs] are boondoggles. Anything that drives revenue is positive. That is the message we have to get across to Washington, to Wall Street.” —Leo Jakobson & Vincent Alonzo SM: What sort of retooling are you doing? PESQUERA: Well, first and foremost we have new leadership at the helm of the department. Steve Crist joined us this year as the vice president of group and convention sales. We have also decentralized our sales operation for the first time ever in the history of Palm Beach County. We have a salesperson in Rhode Island taking care of the New England and New York area. We have somebody in Washington DC covering the Mid-Atlantic, particularly the association market. And we have somebody in Georgia covering the Southeast. We will continue to look for opportunities to get representation arrangements in the Midwest and the West Coast to expand our reach. SM: With the economic downturn and the climate heading into 2009, is there any opportunity for you to push Palm Beach County as a good value, secondtier city alternative? PESQUERA: We are, what we like to call, ‘affordable affluence.’ It’s amazing how people may think Palm Beach is only about high-end resort destinations, but we have a whole range of product here. Approximately 60 percent of our whole hotel inventory is either on what we call the I-95 corridor or off the coast. In addition to that, when it’s the value season, which is anywhere between April/May and Nov/Dec, we have tremendous opportunities for bookings throughout the county. —Corrie Dosh SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS DECEMBER 2008 http://www.3-2-1Connect.com http://www.3-2-1Connect.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - December 2008

Successful Meetings - December 2008 Contents Editor's Note Corporate Events On the Record Calendar Research Planner Spotlight Personal Success Technology Talk Food & Beverage Professional Development Quick Tip Tools of the Trade On Site: Retire Those Tired Power-Point Slides On Site: 12 Tips for Thriving on a South African Safari Deep Impact Recession-Friendly Speakers Showing Off Hawaii Insert Places & Spaces Mississippi Gulf Coast Fort Worth South Florida Beijing Gurus

Successful Meetings - December 2008

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