I just joined up at the experientialforum.com, which is run by the International Experiential Marketing Association (IXMA). Since experiential marketing encompasses everything from sales meetings to trade shows, I thought this might be interesting–it’s definitely active, and I’ve already heard from several familiar names in the meetings biz. Will let you know if anything useful pops up.

Thanks to Rich Westerfield of the Westerfield Group for mentioning it on the MIMlist!

From Tamar Hosansky’s editor’s note in the June issue of Medical Meetings:

“Maybe it’s because all four of my grandparents were immigrants, or maybe it’s because I grew up in a neighborhood created for United Nations diplomats and their families, where I was surrounded by people from around the world — but anything that stifles the free flow of communication among different countries sets off my internal alarm. And that alarm has been sounding continuously as I read about the ever-growing list of security measures for inbound visitors rolled out by the government since 9/11.

“The roadblocks to obtaining visas are formidable, and getting more so. I am concerned that physicians from poorer countries, unable to afford the costly visa application process, will lose the invaluable opportunity of attending U.S. conferences.

“The good news, as we report in this story, is that the medical meeting planners interviewed say that their international attendance is actually increasing. However, one organizer adds a cautionary note. She helped plan a meeting that brought 600 Chinese healthcare professionals to Boston in June 2001. The logistics of organizing a similar event in today’s environment would be daunting, she says. I remember how excited I was when MM covered the conference — its purpose was to give Chinese and U.S. participants the chance to forge partnerships that would improve healthcare in both countries. How sad it would have been if that historic meeting had been canceled.

“The effect of the ‘culture of no,’ as it is called, extends beyond meetings to the wider healthcare community. The UCLA Medical Center had to replace one of its pediatric heart surgeons, a Pakistani, because of visa delays, according to a November 11 article in the Washington Post. The same article reports that at the Mayo Clinic, foreign physicians and scientists have been prevented from traveling abroad to professional conferences. An April 21 editorial in the Boston Globe warned that the United States may lose its preeminence as a center for science researchers. According to the National Science Foundation, 57 percent of post-doctorate research fellows in the United States are foreigners with temporary visas. But those numbers are declining, as researchers now choose to work elsewhere.

“Of course, security is a paramount concern, but I think it’s important to question the measures taken in the name of safety and to take action if the rulings threaten medical advancement and patient care. I hope you will join forces with the International Association for Exposition Management and the other travel organizations that are lobbying for a fast-track visa program. Don’t wait until you see a dip in international attendance, get complaints from foreign doctors trying to travel to your meetings, or run into problems collaborating with sister societies around the world. Pay attention now. Disease knows no boundaries — neither should medical education.”

I would add to her words only that, while of course of importance to medical professionals, the repercussions stretch far beyond healthcare–this affects all of us.

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Attention association planners: According to an article in Operations and Fulfillment magazine, you only get two chances to make a good impression—or rather, make two bad ones and your attendees might be out of there.

The article talks about a newly released customer service survey commissioned by billing and CRM product/service provider Amdocs. Among the key findings, says the article:

- More than 75% of consumers would hang up on a call to customer service if placed on hold for longer than five minutes.
- More than 80% of consumers polled would rather visit the dentist, pay their taxes, or sit in a traffic jam than deal with an unhelpful representative.
- 75% say they will tell friends and family about negative customer service experiences.
- 85% of consumers report that negative customer service experiences will drive them to switch providers.
- Consumers believe that a loss of business is the biggest motivator for companies to improve their customer service.”

So the next time an attendee whines to you about the room temperature, or the food, or that their bed is too hard, grin and bear it—-or follow the advice in this article from ICP magazine.

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All the corporate scandals of the past few years have had people in an uproar over corporate responsibility, or the lack thereof. Then I read in Sunday’s Boston Globe that when headhunting firm Christian & Timbers reviewed 7,000 executive resumes, they found that 71 percent lied about how long they worked at previous jobs; 64 percent said they accomplished more than they actually did, and more than half claimed degrees they didn’t actually have.

The scariest part, to me, is that the article concluded, “Yet many companies, even after they discover misleading information such as distorted graduation dates or forgery of responsibilities, still have an interest in hiring the candidate.” Riddle me this, Batman: if we know going in that they are liars and cheats, why are we so surprised when they lie and cheat on the job?

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There are some great ideas on ConventionPlanit’s site, compiled by and for planners. The best part, to me anyway, is that you get to vote on your favorites.

For what’s up there now, I guess I’d go with the majority vote, which is to hold a pre-con meeting with your on-site team, and get them in the mood by incorporating locale-related décor and food and beverages.

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Food for thought from this week’s Society for Hospitality Management’s training bulletin:

“Times are changing. Success is no longer as simple as a solid bottom line. While profits are still critical to an organization’s survival, the ways to achieve them are not so straightforward. Consumers expect superior quality and friendly service. Employees expect employers to value them, pay them well, and provide meaning in their work. Communities expect the businesses that line their streets to contribute time, effort, and money to their improvement. Fulfilling these expectations and turning a profit is no easy task. Even if an organization finds ways to please each group, it must be quick enough to respond to changes in technology and smart enough to anticipate new directions in the marketplace. The saying “You snooze, you lose,” has become the rule of the day. Those companies that are too slow or too cautious to adapt do not survive. It is the organization that runs on passion that inspires its employees and invigorates its customers that prevails.”

All I can say is “amen to that!”

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We’re within a year or two of full recovery for the hospitality industry, according to a survey of executives attending New York University’s 26th Annual International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference, held at New York City’s Waldorf=Astoria Hotel this week. Sixty-two percent said they believe a return to 2000’s average daily rates will be here by 2006, and that revenue per available room was the key indicator for when the boom times begin to return.

They said that the biggest potential roadblocks to that recovery were, not surprisingly, potential terrorism attacks (51 percent) and the economy (35 percent). Revival of corporate travel (63 percent) and the rate of job growth (22 percent) are the factors cited as having the greatest effect on the pace of recovery.

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A guest blog from Susan Hatch, executive editor of Corporate Meetings & Incentives:

The National Business Travel Association white paper on meeting consolidation kicked up some dust on the MIMlist meetings industry listserv last week, with one planner “shocked and appalled” by what she took to be Meeting Professionals International’s endorsement of a paper she believed implied that “business travel managers can more effectively manage meetings; therefore meetings departments should report to business travel departments.”

Paranoid much?

The NBTA white paper is a service to the meeting planning community, and MPI should be envious that it doesn’t have its name at the top.

I recommend you read it for yourself. The work done by NBTA’s Groups and Meetings Committee, chaired by Madlyn Caliri, global hotel and meetings program manager at AT&T, and Tracey Wilt, purchasing consultant, travel and meetings services for Xerox Corp., focuses on two key areas: 1) building a business case for a “strategic meeting management program” (identifying opportunities for process improvement, risk management, cost savings, etc.) and 2) best practices in corporate meeting consolidation (standards for meeting approvals, data collection, sourcing, etc.).

The NBTA’s meeting committee was launched in March 2003 to address the reality that some NBTA members–travel managers–are being asked to also manage meetings and events, and the association formed an alliance last August with MPI. The consolidation white paper is the meeting committee’s first product. Sure, it’s useful to a travel manager or a purchasing professional who needs to take control of meetings, but I would argue that it’s just as useful to meeting managers who want to keep their jobs. If your department isn’t tracking and leveraging your company’s meeting spend, you can be sure that there’s another department that will.

Data collection and strategic sourcing may not have been in the job description you started with, but for corporate meeting planners who want to stay in the game, ignore it at your own risk. The meeting planning community is fortunate that NBTA has made its white paper public, and I for one look forward to reading its upcoming research on insourcing versus outsourcing, developing meeting policy, technology options, and more.

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Move over pharma: Now that so many foods are making health claims, is it any surprise that organizations like the California Walnut Commission are getting into the healthcare education game? (Walnuts are supposed to contain Omega-3 fatty acids and other “good” fats.) CWC, for example, is sponsoring a curriculum at an Alabama hospital to teach nurse practitioners about healthy fats, according to this article.

“In addition, physicians employed by food companies are presenting information at medical conferences. This month, at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists annual meeting in Philadelphia, James Greenberg, an obstetrician gynecologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, made a presentation about the benefits of cranberry juice cocktail for preventing urinary-tract infections. Dr. Greenberg is a paid consultant for Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. Ocean Spray says it has long conducted research and marketed health information to consumers, but that in the past couple of years it has refocused energies on physicians.”

With all the new regulation relating to what pharmaceutical companies can and can’t do in relation to medical meetings (go to mm.meetingsnet.com and search for PhRMA Code, OIG Guidance, AdvaMed Code, and Standards for Commercial Support for articles on the regs), it seems it would just be a matter of time before food company sponsorships and speakers will come under fire as well.

Or maybe not. According to the article, “The new approach to food marketing comes at a time when regulators are making it easier for companies to advertise health claims about their products.” While they used to only be able to advertise their products’ health benefits if the FDA agreed there was conclusive evidence, as of last year FDA began to allow “qualified health claims” for products that just have limited and preliminary scientific evidence.

“Consumer advocates say the marketing tactics are raising some of the same ethical concerns that have drawn widespread criticism in the pharmaceuticals industry. For years, drug-company sales representatives have lavished gifts upon doctors, including golf vacations, cash and expensive dinners in an effort to get doctors to prescribe specific brand-name drugs. While the food-industry marketing tactics aren’t at that level, gifts, grants and sponsorships from food companies given to doctors or medical organizations are triggering similar concerns.”

And it gets even more convoluted, says the article, with food companies working with pharma to bundle coupons for their products in with drug samples given to docs. And they’re exhibiting at medical conferences now, too.

Oy vey.

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I just heard about a new company called hotelnegotiating.com, which offers one-on-one contract negotiation coaching to event and meeting planners. They don’t negotiate the contract for you or offer legal advice, but they do teach you how to become a better negotiator and work with you on specific contracts, according to the website.

If anyone tries this new service out, please let me know. I’d love to know if it’s as useful as it sounds on paper.

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