Where Are Your Attendees Flying From?
Regardless of where you choose to locate your meeting, each delegate’s cost to attend will depend on where they’re coming from – and which airlines are serving their home airport, reports a recent Wall Street Journal article.
“If you fly out of Pittsburgh, you pay 77% less, on average, for a domestic airline ticket for trips of the same distance than if you fly out of Cincinnati,” notes Scott McCartney. “Memphis is 38% more expensive than Nashville. And Newark is 18% more expensive than New York’s LaGuardia Airport.”
The reason for such wide disparities? McCartney says it has little to do with airline costs and everything to do with competition. The presence of discount airlines such as Southwest or AirTran makes all the difference.
According to Department of Transportation figures, Cincinnati has the highest average domestic fares among the nation’s 100 largest airports, based on fares from the first quarter of 2007. Delta carries 80% of the flights leaving Cincinnati, but unlike Atlanta, another Delta hub, the airline faces no competition from a discount airline. So travelers suffer. Based on McCartney’s research, it appears that the efforts of some large airports, such as LaGuardia, that have worked to recruit discount airlines have paid off well for travelers.
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New Tool Tames Meeting Costs
Ever felt like you were sitting in a meeting that was a waste of your time? Of course you have. And it may have crossed your mind that time is money, so you were also wasting money – either your own or your employer’s. Now, with a new tool from Payscale.com, meeting attendees can figure out exactly how much money it’s costing them to sit in unproductive meetings.
The tool, Meeting Miser, monitors the cost of workplace meetings based upon the location and job titles of meeting attendees, helping workers answer the question: Are your meetings worth every penny? To use Meeting Miser, you simply enter the geographical location and the job title of each attendee. Then the real-time ticker calculates the salary cost of the meeting by pulling approximate wage data from PayScale's database.
“As it ticks, the meter can also be projected alongside PowerPoint slides – an element sure to startle some life into a ho-hum presentation,” writes Douglas MacMillan in BusinessWeek.
Learn more about Meeting Miser at: http://www.payscale.com/about.asp?pg=news&sub=pr&pr=1070.
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Discovery Networks Launches Corporate Sales Group
Discovery Networks has created a new group to serve the corporate market for promotions, incentives, rewards and gifts – a nearly $50 billion industry. The new group, Discovery Corporate Sales, is an extension of Discovery’s multi-million-dollar e-commerce division, offering a wide variety of DVDs, fan gear and a distinctively designed selection of toys and science-related merchandise for people of all ages.
“We believe that the involvement of a television network in the corporate market provides unique opportunities, both for businesses and Discovery,” says Andy Blacker, Vice President, Discovery Commerce. “The combination of our programming and wholesome brand appeal with our offerings of DVDs, fan gear, toys and unique products offers corporate customers an enriching arsenal of promotional items, gifts, rewards and communication tools to help engage their customers, channel partners or employees.”
Discovery Networks, known as the world’s largest nonfiction media company, currently offers a wide range of products, including DVDs of such popular programs as Planet Earth, Animal Planet, Dirty Jobs, and Deadliest Catch, as well as an assortment of attractively priced technology tools, toys, puzzles, games and brain teasers ideal for use in consumer, channel partner, sales and employee programs, along with fan gear that can help jazz up a theme party or event.
According to Blacker, part of the impetus for entering the corporate market came from the fact that the network was already doing a significant amount of business in the corporate market without even trying. “We had organizations coming to us to find out how they could use our products and programming in their programs,” he says.
Blacker believes that the corporate marketplace not only offers Discovery an important new source of incremental business for its e-commerce group, but also a unique opportunity for Discovery to build closer relationships with its audience. “Every time an organization promotes a product or DVD with our brand, it’s because they believe their audience will be motivated by it,” he explains. “That’s an important marketing byproduct we don’t get in the consumer business.”
Discovery Networks has engaged Selling Communications Inc., a leading marketing agency in the incentives, motivation and e-commerce field, to assist with strategy development and implementation.
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Members Often Have Hidden Talents
When planning for the International Technology Education Association’s (ITEA) Annual Conference in Salt Lake City, event organizers wanted to schedule a hard-hitting keynote speaker who would really attract their target audience. To find one, they didn’t have to look any further than their own membership.
Barbara Morgan, ITEA member and crewmember of the Endeavour space shuttle mission last August, is lined up to speak at the conference and is sure to draw a crowd. As a technology educator and an ITEA member, Morgan will be speaking to her peers and will naturally know what kinds of information they’ll be interested in hearing about. And as an astronaut who’s recently completed the 119th flight in space shuttle history, her unique perspective is likely to interest the audience immensely.
When planning your next meeting for a SMERF group, don’t assume you need to spend thousands of dollarsto attract big-name speakers. Instead, take a page from ITEA planners and seek out members of your organization who have interesting stories to tell or unique experiences that may be educational for the rest of the group. Sometimes attendees will connect best with the speakers they consider their peers.
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Spas Go Mainstream
According to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 39% of high-end hotels currently in the works will include spas – more than double the number planned five years ago. And according to a recent article in the New York Times, much of that demand is due to group business. Apparently, groups have realized that the golf course isn’t the only place to network and do business – and the spa is more relaxing. “Golf isn’t relaxing,” Terry Markwart of Canon told the Times. “It’s very competitive, and you have to get up early in the morning. It adds more to the stress.”
While spas were once viewed as the ladies’ domain, that image has been replaced with one of health, wellness and stress reduction for both men and women. “After being in meetings for three or four days, people just want to relax,” says Terry Blumenstein, an independent meeting planner who helps companies plan sales meetings. Spas offer the perfect atmosphere for relaxation – and continuing conversations begun at the meeting.
Want to make your next meeting a spa meeting? Take a look at http://www.BestSpasUSA.com or http://www.SpaFinder.com to find the spa that’s right for your group.
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Brands and People Performance Expo Scheduled for May 7-8
With its focus on Brands and People Performance, the New York Incentive, Rewards & Recognition Show (May 7-8, 2008) is delivering what major brands have sought for years: a true brands show focusing on how brands can help organizations meet their people objectives, and on how people can power brands.
With its prime location at the spacious and centrally-located Hilton Hotel & Towers in midtown Manhattan, and an audience of leading end-users and marketing agencies, this is the first true opportunity for vendors, buyers and industry experts to work together to show corporate American the exciting connection between brands and people. We listened to the marketplace and are committed to improving the vision of a “boutique” brands show, creating a unique venue for resellers, incentive companies, agencies and end-users who are truly interested in brands and how they can be used to accomplish their objectives and address their motivation and productivity issues.
In 2008, the NYIRR Expo – also known as the “Brands and People Performance Expo” – will take this theme to the next level with the addition of top-tier speakers and more education about brands and how they power America. So far, exhibitors representing over 100 leading brands have already committed, and we expect exhibit space will soon sell out.
1-to-1 Marketing and brands guru Don Peppers will deliver the keynote presentation at this year’s show on May 7, as well as function as a key contributor to the show’s marketing and publicity campaign, underscoring the critical connection between brands and people. On May 8, noted author Mark Schumann will discuss key points outlined in his recent book, Brand from the Inside, co authored with Libby Sartain. The 2008 Education Track, headed by Rodger Stotz of Maritz and other leading incentive company executives and branding experts, will also include special training on how to implement more effective programs for customers, channel partners, salespeople and employees.
The 2008 Show will also expand its popular “What’s New” series on key brand categories to include product demonstrations and special events designed to help buyers enjoy the sights, sounds and excitement of leading brands. Exhibitors will have a unique opportunity to display and present new products, giving buyers the ability to touch, feel and taste the power of brands. The way we see it, themore we educate the buyers about the power of brands, the more motivated they’ll be to promote the use of brands to their management or customers.
For an exhibitor prospectus, contact Jim Kilmetis at 914-591-7600, ext. 229, or e-mail jkilmetis@sellingcommunications.com. For information on attending, go to http://www.nyirr.com.
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