Notes from the March 12th, 2010 GPPCMA Chapter Event

GPPCMA Event – March 12, 2010, 8:00 am – 10:00 am, Pennsylvania Convention Center

“State of the Industry” Panel Discussion

Moderator: Gregg H. Talley, CAE, President & CEO, Talley Management Group Inc.

Panelists:
- Kent Allaway, CEM, CMP, Vice President, Meetings and Trade Shows, Produce
Marketing Association
- Kathleen (Kitty) Ratcliffe, President, St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission
- Matt Sanford, Client Solutions, Gray Consulting
- Michael Schmeltzer, Managing Director, Passenger Sales, US Airways
- Deborah Sexton, President & CEO, PCMA and PCMA Education Foundation

On March 12, 2010, the GPPCMA Chapter held it’s rescheduled “State of the Industry” Panel Discussion. The panelists touched on a number of topics that are affecting the convention management industry that they are seeing first hand through their different roles in the industry.

Michael Schmeltzer of US Airways touched on how the airline industry has been affected by the economy. He said that airlines have cut back on the amount of flights offered, but planes are still filling up. He also said that they are noticing how business travel is bouncing back, which will bring fares back up. Michael also noted that US Airways is making more knowledgeable decisions when determining where and when to place their flights.

Kitty Ratcliffe spoke from the convention center and CVB side in terms of how they are adjusting to the economy to meet their client’s needs. While many clients are looking for cost saving measures, especially from convention centers, Kitty reiterated that costs still need to be covered. Convention centers react to customers needs and she brought up examples such as the green movement amongst organizations (recycle bins) and the need for more sanitation measures (like hand sanitizers) with the recent swine flu scares. Both of these examples are items that are not charged to any client directly, but that cost convention centers thousands of dollars, thus making it a lot harder for convention centers to give things away at no cost.

Matt Sanford from Gray Consulting talked about how corporate America is bouncing back from the economy in terms of meeting and how the integration of technology is becoming a growing trend in corporate meetings. He does, however, feel that technology will not be replacing the need for face to face meeting any time soon.

Kent Allaway of Produce Marketing Association and Deborah Sexton of PCMA touched on a lot of key issues from the association stand point as well as attendees trends that are affecting the convention management industry. Because of the economy, companies and organizations are allocating less and less money for their employees to attend education conferences which presents more challenges to associations to keep attendees coming to their meetings. Organizations now have to present the best educational and networking opportunities to justify why people should attend. Deborah referred to it as “Return on Time,” time spent at the conference and time spent out of the office. Attendees are also now more likely to attend more specialized conferences in their area as opposed to broad topic conferences because of the more specialized education that is offered.

Kent and Deborah talked about registration trends and how associations can no longer easily predict hotel guarantees, hotel pick-up rates and overall attendance projections from previous years because of the economy and because attendees are more likely to wait until much closer to the conference to register. Associations are also having to renegotiate contracts booked previously to decrease room blocks because of the increase in websites such as Hotwire, Expedia, Orbitz, etc. Attendees are now more likely to use sites like these to find cheaper hotel stays when attending conferences.

They also touched on the changing trade show floor and how companies are changing their marketing techniques when exhibiting. Companies are re-evaluating the conferences they are exhibiting at and how they are approaching attendees on the show floor to show a better return on investment.

In terms of social media, another growing trend that is affecting our industry, panelists agreed that social media outlets are being added to the marketing of meetings as well as attendees participation at some meetings and it is not only the younger generation that is utilizing it.