Successful Meetings - December 2008 - (Page 42)

College University M E E T I N G S A N D FA C I L I T I E S PLANNER & The University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia At one time, planners would have had to deal with each of these components as a separate entity, resulting in as many as six separate bills, he says. “Plus, each entity would be operating on its own with little pieces of information from the planners. If they were running late, for example, the other components didn’t know it.” Now each group is assigned a single program manager who is on site, handling planning, picking napkin colors, making recommendations… in short, offering the same level of attention to detail that a five-star hotel would provide. THE NUMBERS GAME University of Pennsylvania Conference Services also reports a mini-boom in business, hearing from more planners who are scaling down to a campus setting. The savings can be significant, according to Barta. “We are probably some- where between 65 to 75 percent of the cost of non-campus meeting rooms. When you factor in dorms, you can wind up saving more than 50 percent off the cost of an off-campus gathering,” he says. Barta also notes that his group is getting a growing share of corporate annual meetings. “They are tired of doing corporate meetings in hotels. And with the economy the way it is, having a meeting on a university campus shows proper management of assets,” he adds. “Absolutely everyone is paying attention to cost now.” Attendees like being on the Penn campus because of its collegiate environment and its convenience. “We are a very large and diverse campus with a very compact feel,” Barta says. Attendees can walk from the on-campus Inn at Penn and the Penn-owned Sheraton Philadelphia University City to any campus destination in five minutes. While 15 percent of the business is day meetings, many others are more ambitious. For example, every spring break, the University of Pennsylvania Conference Services runs a “University of Shopping Centers” for 600 attendees from all over the U.S. The learning tracks cover such topics as finance, shopping mall development, marketing, and revamping retail properties. The group also works with on-campus clients. Each fall, Janice Leberman, coordinator of the Zell Lurie Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, does a bi-annual meeting for 300 to 350 real estate professionals— including developers, lawyers, investment bankers, private equity firms, and others. Since almost 45 percent of attendees are Penn alumni, they love the campus setting and the opportunity to interact with current students. Because her fall conference is offered to alumni at no charge, however, there always tends to be some no shows. Conference Services worked out an equation to accurately guess the attrition rate for the meeting, which works most of the time. “Last year, it didn’t work,” Leberman says with a laugh. “We had an enormous turnout. Instead of the 250 we’d expected, we had 350. The caterer was having a melt-down!” Conference Services, used to putting out fires, pulled the students attending the meetings aside, promised them pizza and dessert instead of a full meal, and managed to get 50 pizzas delivered within an hour. “I don’t think that the members and professors had any idea that this went on,” Leberman concludes. NEW ENGLAND CHARM If a classic city campus has appeal for attendees, rural settings also prove to be powerful draws. That may be especially true in areas where there are few available meeting-level hotels and fewer conference centers. Franklin Pierce University, located on 1,000 acres in the heart of New Hampshire’s Monadnock Mountains, offers a serene setting for summer meetings and is an easy drive for attendees coming from anywhere in New England. (It’s an hour and a half from Boston, for example). The university opens to residential meetings only in summer, between July 10 and August 10 in 2009, offering dormitory accommodations and meeting rooms with capacities from 35 to 1,000 people. Local day meetings can be held on campus throughout the year. “Our summer meetings are typically educational programs, leadership programs for kids, and sports camps— both for kids and for outside companies,” notes Peter-Michael Kinney, director of conferences. He adds that Franklin Pierce also hosts religious retreats and family reunions, and that there is increasing interest in conferences. The setting is great for youth programs, Kinney notes. “We’re pretty much on our own here. It’s not like in a town or city, where there is a concern that attendees will wander off campus. Parents don’t worry as much,” Kinney says. The ability to be flexible is another plus. “We have a Jewish group that comes every year,” Kinney notes. “We completely 42 Supplier information at InfoNow on mimegasite.com I DECEMBER 2008 I SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS http://www.mimegasite.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

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.