Posted by Will Ng Responses (5)

There is now a lynch-mob mentality, a witch hunt, as Roger Dow calls it, of business meetings and events by both the media and the public, and the mob has taken on unexpected new sources.

As we delve deeper into the latest mess surrounding Chicago-based bank Northern Trust's golf event, imagine my surprise—and distress—to find that bastion of journalism TMZ broke the story. When did celebrity gossipers become "real" reporters? Sure, it's fun to jump on the bandwagon and kick an industry while it's down!

So as major news outlets pick up on the story and are still dissecting all the little sordid details of the golf event provided by an unabashed TMZ, the good news is the Keep America Meeting petition has surpassed 10,000 signatures and grown to include new industry groups, such as the Association of Destination Management Executives, the Financial & Insurance Conference Planners, and Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International. MeetingNews, Successful Meetings, and Incentive magazine also have joined Keep America Meeting, and the petition has caught Bill Marriott's attention.

Meanwhile, members of MeetingNews' and Successful Meetings' online community, MiForum, http://groups.google.com/group/MiForum, are mounting their own letters to senator John Kerry's office in response to his plan to propose a bill to end "extravagant spending practices of U.S. banks" "relying" on TARP money. I put on quotes since the government reportedly requested Northern Trust to take bailout money. Said Kerry, after finding out about the Northern Trust golf tourney: I'm sick and tired of picking up the newspaper and reading about another idiotic abuse of taxpayer money."

So are we!

The Keep America Meeting petition now reports that it has sent the mainstream media and elected officials U.S. Travel Association coalition-backed correspondence explaining the need for meetings. It also has added downloads at its site, www.keepamericameeting.org, including print ads, e-mail buttons, logos, and other promo materials.

Keep America Meeting is also constantly updating its Facebook fan page, at www.facebook.com/pages/Keep-America-Meeting/50701582803. Please join!

Posted by Kinley Levack Responses (0)

There is a fascinating post on Folio's blog about Hachette Filipacchi Media dropping its Magazine Publishers of America membership and what the future might hold for associations. Tony Silber, general manager of Folio, a brand covering the magazine publishing industry, writes:

... as you comb through your budget trying to make the least damaging and least painful decisions, you see a line for association membership that may be $10,000 or may be $50,000. And in the case of the large companies, it’s certainly over $100,000.

There’s no way—no way—when you see that line that you don’t ask what the value is that you’re getting. Yes, you get lobbying for postal reform. Yes, you get research proving the value of magazine advertising. Yes, you get events with quality programs and valuable networking.

But in a time when all you want is to drive revenue with as lean a business as possible, those benefits are less compelling. Especially when you have to pay for virtually everything the association provides in addition to your dues. And that big, fat budget line becomes an easy target.

What publishers are looking for is not participation in committees and abstract reports and golf tournaments. Those are fine most of the time, but not now. Publishers want tools and resources that will keep them focused on effectively driving revenue in their markets.

So how do planners combat this? The question of "Can we afford to be a member?" is likely to hit across industries and it's up to planners to show that you are doing your part to keep association meetings and events valuable, timely, and irreplaceable. Be sure that you are listening to members and responding to exactly what they need today--because today's needs are very different from last year's, no matter what industry you're in. How are you working with association leadership and members to show that you're on the ball and that under no circumstances can your members afford to let their membership lapse?

In this case it also doesn't matter the cost of membership--although it's a quicker impact to slice $10,000-plus off of a budget sheet, it still helps if you're able to slice $1,500, or $500. We initially heard from hotels and destinations that while corporations were cutting back on meetings and events, the association market was stable. But if companies and individuals end up in a position where they question the value of association membership, we could be at the beginning of a second wave of attrition and/or cancellations, in addition to dysfunction within individual associations.

Posted by Will Ng Responses (4)

In the past week, I’ve been hearing about and seeing the terms “recognition events” and “tone deaf” a lot, labels that have been respectively slapped on incentive programs and the organizations that had scheduled them, like a pair of albatrosses.

With first AIG, then Bank of America, and now Wells Fargo succumbing to the media sharks, and now with Congress debating restrictions on travel and meetings for bailed out companies, is there any doubt left that the meetings and incentives industry is under a full-scale attack and in the fight of its life?

There are finally signs that the industry is mounting a response, and a concerted one at that. Last month at the Professional Convention Management Association’s annual meeting in New Orleans, the major meetings and travel trade groups announced plans for a unified initiative to make the government and public more aware of what meetings really are about and the economic impact they have. That initiative to lobby Congress was reiterated yesterday at Meeting Professionals International’s MeetDifferent annual conference in Atlanta.

While this concerted effort among the industry’s top trade groups is noble and to be applauded, the hang-up is that it is going to take a year to 18 months to complete, with all the fractured industry-wide data and research that needs to be sourced, compiled, and packaged.

Frankly, the industry can’t waste any more time.

Many out there agree. As Dave Lutz of Velvet Chainsaw Consulting wrote in MiForum: “We all need to do whatever we can to spread the word. Write your congressman, newspaper, blogs, listserves, petitions, whatever it takes.”

Some are doing it, like Keep America Meeting, a grassroots petition whose goal is to collect 1 million signatures and deliver them to the White House, Congress, and Fortune 200 captains of industry. You can join the petition at www.keepamericameeting.org.

While that is happening, one (or, better yet, all) of the industry trade groups needs to reach into its pockets now and underwrite a promotional blitz. I’m talking a blitz of radio spots, newspaper ads, and television commercials explaining, unequivocally, what meetings and incentives are, how they benefit hardworking Americans, and consequently why they should be valued—not dumped on like some cause celebre. These promos need to be on the air and in print immediately, on the major TV networks in primetime and in major metropolitan newspapers. Heck, get them on YouTube.

To quote Successful Meetings editor-in-chief Vincent Alonzo in his February column, “As an industry we’ve done a terrible job explaining to the public at large exactly what role meetings and incentives play...”

It’s time for the industry associations to step up now, not 12 months or 18 months later, and take back control from the mainstream media. Or, we’ll be seeing more full-page ads from companies trying to defend themselves—like Wells Fargo did yesterday and Sunday—on a regular basis.