Meetings: Core Overview

Here are the critical issues involved with meetings, as well as the full range of related information and resources in the field, including listings for trade associations, suppliers, publishers, and online services.

T A B L E     O F     C O N T E N T S
Statistics Critical Issues Associations Suppliers How to Find Suppliers	Research Books Publications Online Services Trade Shows and Seminars

STATISTICS

Meetings are much more than speeches and small talk. They’re big business. Meetings are a $44.7 billion worldwide industry, according to the most recent Meetings Market Report (August 2004). In 2003, there were 801,300 corporate meetings, 155,600 association meetings, and 12,200 conventions with a combined attendance of 84,643,730, according to the report. An average of about 112 people attended the typical corporate meeting; the average attendance for an association meeting was 1,532.

Meetings Market Report is a biennial research report published by Meetings & Conventions magazine. Other highlights of the most recent report include:

• Corporate meeting expenditures accounted for nearly $15 billion. Average yearly corporate meeting expenditures were $262,000. Hotel and food and beverage costs contributed 56 percent of that total.
• Associations spent an average of $227,400 per average major convention.
• More guests are accompanying attendees to nonconvention association meetings, accounting for 18 percent of the total attendance at these events.

CRITICAL ISSUES

A well-orchestrated meeting can help a company become more productive and profitable and help it achieve specific business objectives. Major applications include:

1. Educating and/or firing up the sales force.
2. Training sales or marketing employees on the use of new technology.
3. Brainstorming new product ideas.
4. Introducing new products.
5. Building cross-functional teams that incorporate, e.g., sales, marketing, finance, engineering and manufacturing personnel.
6. Educating/motivating supply-chain partners.
7. Rewarding sales representatives or other employees for outstanding performance.
8. Introducing a new executive or department head to the ranks.
9. Presenting market research.
10. Presenting a company's new strategic mission.

Here are the critical issues involved in running a successful meeting:

1. Have clearly defined objectives for your meeting as well as a means of measuring the results. Take a careful look at the mix of employees, customers, and others at the meeting.
2. Develop a budget based on the relative importance of meeting your objectives.
3. Develop a meeting strategy that utilizes those tools most important to your objectives. Meetings for education and motivation have far different requirements. In planning the meeting, try to representatives from the various groups to be present at the meeting in your design process.
4. Determine what types of outside suppliers to use, based on your company's internal ability to manage the meeting and the size of your group.
5. No matter how serious the meeting, build in some sort of fun or other diversion. Consider giving small gifts, using contests related to the topic, or handing out information related to your meeting's location. Consider humor and an element of surprise, but err on the side of caution with these elements.
6. Don't skimp on presentation quality. No medium more powerfully reflects your company's image than meetings.
7. Provide useful, brief, post-meeting followup information to reinforce the message.
8. Build a feedback mechanism into your meeting and conduct surveys of participants.

ASSOCIATIONS

For related associations, go to the Industry Association Listings page.

SUPPLIERS

• Meeting facilities, including hotels, resorts, cruise lines, and conference centers, have special departments to help planners coordinate meetings and related activities, such as meals, lodging, transportation and recreation, audio-visual, theme events, meeting logistics, as well as specialized contracts and billing.
  
  
• Some airlines have special meetings and conventions departments to assist organizations with discounted fares, reduced cargo rates, specialized ticketing and billing, and creating customized promotional material aimed at attendees. Depending on their size, groups sometimes can qualify for bonus seats. Meeting planners should be warned, however, that most low-fare carriers and some legacy carriers are paring back on these offerings.
  
  
• Car rental companies often assign meeting specialists to coordinate discounts and customized promotional materials for people attending a meeting.
  
  
• Speakers bureaus can help book presenters and celebrities for a meeting.
  
  
• Destination management companies will organize ground transportation of meeting delegates, but they can also can set up theme events, visits to special attractions, restaurant dine-arounds and, especially overseas, get better pricing on hotels.
  
  
• Production companies help planners stage everything from multimedia presentations to Broadway-style extravaganzas.
  
  
• Convention/visitor bureaus (CVBs), chambers of commerce, and tourist boards can provide information on destinations and specific suppliers, although recommendations are often off-the-record.

HOW TO FIND SUPPLIERS

Once you have selected a destination, the CVB or tourist board can provide you with a huge amount of information and recommendations at no charge. Other sources of information include:

• Successful Meetings' SourceBook, a 450-page annual directory of meeting sites worldwide published in March. Available online after signing up free. Call VNU at 646-654-5000.
  
• Gavel is Meetings & Conventions magazine's annual directory, and is the most complete and comprehensive reference guide to every meeting facility in North America. For corporate, association, and incentive meeting planners, Gavel is an invaluable tool at the point of hotel and site selection. Call 201-902-2000.
• Official Meeting Facilities Guide (OMFG) is now a web based facility guide. OMFG offers in-depth profiles of more than 1,200 hotels, CVBs, and convention centers. Its format allows meeting planners to quickly compare rates, room dimensions, and other factors. The site also supports and impressive contact list of hotel chains, industry associations, and transportation suppliers.
• MPI's annual Directory, published each November, lists MPI members categorized by planners, suppliers, affiliation, and geographical location. It is available to members only. Call MPI at 972-702-3000.
• Meeting News annually produces regional meeting guides. The regions are East, West, Midwest, South and West/Southwest. Call Louis Magliaro, Vice President of Sales at 646-654-7321 or fax 646-654-7365. Regional contact numbers are available at www.meetingnews.com/meetingnews/about_us/contact.jsp
• Top 100 training companies ranking, an Industry Report, and a Salary Survey are annual supplements to Training magazine. Between the three, Training magazine is able to asses the effectivness of a large amount of training meeting facilities. Call 800-255-2824.

RESEARCH

• Meetings Market Report is Meetings & Conventions magazine's biennial report on the meetings industry. Regarded as one of the most authoritative studies of the industry, the study measures such factors as meeting expenditures, attendance, and the number of meetings held in a year. The complete 133-page report is published in the October issue. Call 800-553-8878 or fax 319-364-8094.
  
  
• Meetings Outlook Survey. This report is based on extensive interviews with 100 meeting professionals and is published annually by MPI and ASAE. The report identifies industry trends on such matters as use of technology, international meetings, avoiding or boycotting destinations, and return on investment. Call ASAE's Public Relations Department at 202-626-2723 or call MPI's Public Relations Department at 972-702-3000.
  
  
• Every two years ASAE publishes Association Meeting Trends, a comprehensive study of information on conventions, expositions, educational seminars, and leadership meetings. $107.95. ASAE also supports an online database of current articles to which non-members have partial access, and members have full access. www.asaecenter.org/Marketplace/BookstoreDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=15088. Call 888-950-2723 or fax 202-371-8315. 
  
  
• Meetings Market Survey is published annually in the March edition of Convene, the journal of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA). Call the PCMA at 312-423-7262, or their Customer Service Hotline at 877-827-7262 or fax 312-423-7222, or click on http://www.pcma.org/.

BOOKS

• The Essentials of Meeting Management by Richard A. Hildreth. Provides a comprehensive overview of the meetings industry and describes the responsibilities of the meeting planner. Includes checklists, graphs, and documents. Available on Amazon.
  
  
• Professional Meeting Management, Third Edition, edited by Barbara Nichols. This book addresses such tasks as working with convention and visitors bureaus, confirmation letters, financial management, liability and on-site communications. Available on Amazon for $18. This book is out of print.
  

PUBLICATIONS

For a list of relevant publications, go to the Industry Publications page.

ONLINE SERVICES

• Incentivecentral.org is a true portal to the incentive business sponsored by top associations involved with incentives and by leading suppliers. Incentivecentral.org was created to provide business management with objective and thorough information on all aspects of the incentive industry, including critical issues, resources, case studies, incentive benchmark tools, and how-to and reference articles. For more information call Karen Renk at 630-369-3772; go to http://www.incentivecentral.org
  
  
• EventSource is a great site for planning events, meetings, conferences: http://www.eventsource.com.
  
  
• MeetingCity has merged with MeetWeb, and they are now TravelChoices (http://www.travelchoices.com/). TravelChoices is a compendium of timely, worldwide information and resources for planners of meetings, incentive programs, trade shows, and other off-site events. Its databank contains information on more than 10,000 service providers to the meetings industry worldwide. It also offers packages and suggestions for travelers with a location in mind.
  
  
• The Web site of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) at http://www.pcma.org provides news, education, information about the industry and about careers in meeting management, a job bank, a meetings databank, a library of publications, information about meeting technology, a space verification service, and many products and tools useful to meeting planners. The site received Tradeshow Week's Editor's Choice Award for Most Comprehensive Site.
  
  
• MPIWeb has won awards for its excellence. The Web site of Meeting Professionals International (see Associations), it was selected as a model and benchmark for associations who are trying to enhance their meetings and conventions through the use of the Internet in the ASAE Foundation's "World-Class Web Sites" study. The site also received an award from ExpoWorld.net. MPIWeb provides interactive capabilities for its members, and enhances and prolongs the association's meeting experience through online pre- and post-meetings discussion, as well an through online video. The sites's Meeting WOW (Meeting WithOut Walls) feature allows MPI planner members to put their meetings on the Internet, and features speakers, personal schedulers, message centers, online registrations, and audio/video straaming of general sessions. MPIWeb is a valuable information and networking resource for meeting planners and suppliers. Go to http://www.mpiweb.org
  
  
• ASAE Web Site. This home page features information about ASAE's publications, mission, members, educational services, and access to ASAE-ASSIST, a database of more than 3,900 records, books, articles, conference papers, and surveys. Go to http://www.asaenet.org
  
  
• PlanSoft Network has merged with seeUthere, and they are now OnVantage. Their new site (http://www.onvantage.com/) is a comprehensive multimedia information and communications network for the meetings and hospitality industries. It allows you to search databases of meeting facilities and industry suppliers. It also allows promoters of hotels and events to pay to be advertised through priority placement. OnVantage also sponsors events, a list of which it keeps on the site. Call Susan D'Elia for press inquiries at 650-344-1260. Call 877-405-5553 for more information about OnVantage's "Marketview Marketing Packages."

• Two meetings information malls have launched, in addition to the Web sites offered by the magazines above. Both sites are similar in that they offer limited abilities to search for facilities as well as some articles. You can find them at http://www.mmaweb.com and http://www.mim.com. The latter, the Meetings Industry Mall, "stands out as the most comprehensive, planner-pertinent Web site in existence," according to Meeting News magazine.
  
  
• If you're looking for a job or for a job candidate, check out The Meeting Candidate Network, at http://www.meetingjobs.com, which offers a highly targeted approach to executive search for meeting, incentive, and special event professionals.
  
  
• ResortSource site provides professional travel planners and individuals with the ability to search an extensive database and access detailed, updated information about 800 resort and hotel properties in North America and the Caribbean. Go to http://www.resortsource.com.
  
  
• DMC-NET is a planner's Internet link to destination management companies. More than 650 DMCs are listed from around the globe. You can search a DMC by company, name, city, country or contact. Go to http://www.dmc-net.com/.

TRADE SHOWS AND SEMINARS

For a list of Industry Events, go to #9510, Calendar of Industry Events.