PYM: Plan Your Meetings

Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino Vice President of Sales and Marketing Richard Harper says that contrary to popular belief, Las Vegas is not a ghost town. “In terms of occupancy, we’re still running in the mid-90s.”

The misperception, he says, stems from the fact that Las Vegas lost millions of dollars of potential revenue from meeting cancellations after President Obama criticized TARP-recipients planning to meet in the city.

Companies are still shy about bringing meetings to Las Vegas, but Harper says things are picking up. “It’s only a matter of time before a handful of high-profile companies decide to come to Las Vegas.” After that, he predicts, bookings will rebound.

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When did you start to notice the market turning?

For us, it really started back in August, when the news hit about AIG. Then there were some folks dealing with economic challenges in the fourth quarter, trying to protect earnings, and taking a wait and see approach. From that point forward to about the end of February, we were spending most of our time trying to hold on to conventions, keep them from canceling, and renegotiating terms, where appropriate, to save the business.

What was the biggest challenge you faced?

The tough part was keeping a team motivated with all these facets out of their control. They jumped on it, put their heads down and never wavered from putting the focus on the customer.

It brought our team, property, destination and industry closer together in a way we’ve never seen. It wasn’t Las Vegas versus Orlando. It was the meeting industry standing together. I think we’re all much stronger [as a] result of that.

How did you keep morale among your sales team high?

One day a week, I let them wear jeans. And there was a lot of communication, but it came down to pure honesty — bringing them into a room on a regular basis and saying, “This is where we’re at and what we’re dealing with, and we have two choices: We can [give up] or take a leadership role and show the rest of the destination, the rest of the industry why we’re the leaders we are.” It [wasn’t] a terribly hard conversation; there was no sugar coating, no false expectations. Now, we’re producing at a level I’m extremely proud of, but it very easily could have gone in another direction.

In other destinations we’ve seen luxury properties hurting because luxury is no longer “cool.” They’re sending RFPs from d/b/a names that say “conference center” instead of “resort.” Are you seeing that in Las Vegas?

All over the world, high-name high-profile properties are taking “resort” out of their name, and I think that’s a huge mistake. Don’t change [the] brand you’ve worked so hard to build.

If you want to reward your top employees, do you think they’re going to be rewarded by going to anything less than the top resort?

I think [luxury properties] should rally and get behind what they do exceptionally well. Don’t be embarrassed or ashamed — be true to your brand and know that this will pass.

Why should planners bring groups to Las Vegas?

Anything to do with perception is relatively short-term in nature. What the city is doing exceptionally well is reminding people of the value of doing business [here]. All the things that people loved about Las Vegas haven’t changed, they’ve just gotten more affordable.

Accessibility is key in this time-poverished world we live in. When you want to motivate someone, you want to get them out of the airport and into a suite immediately. When you get them into a resort property [here], you don’t have to create a themed event in a ballroom. You have the entire city of Las Vegas for dinearounds, shows and golf — [it is] right at your fingertips.

There were 48 million more global overseas travelers in 2008 than in 2000, yet 633,000 fewer visited the United States. That makes the seventh consecutive year where visits to the U.S. to remained below pre-9/11 levels.

Recently, a new legislation was introduced to combat this and put America back in step with other countries around the world. The Travel Promotion Act of 2009 is intended to stimulate U.S. economic growth, create thousands of new American jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenue for communities across the country.

“This is the jobs and growth package America needs,” stated Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “Travel promotion is common-sense legislation that places America on par with its competitors around the world without taking a dollar from U.S. taxpayers.”

The legislation calls for an overseas travel promotion program that is projected to bring in millions of new visitors, $4 billion in new economic stimulus, and $320 million in new federal tax revenue. The bill will not cost the American taxpayer anything, but will be funded by a $10 fee paid by overseas visitors (from countries that do not pay for a $131 visa to enter the U.S.) and matching contributions from the U.S. private sector. In addition, the act will strategically promote the U.S. as a premier international travel destination and communicate security and entry policies. The legislation is considered essential for the U.S. to keep up with the competition from other countries that are spending millions to attract overseas visitors.

The Travel Promotion Act is currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate and soon will be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. Similar legislation passed the House of Representatives in 2008, but did not receive a vote before the Senate adjourned.

To get involved, call or write your local legislator and get them to fight for this. For more information, click here.

Webinars, teleconferences, Second Life … meeting planners have a lot of options on incorporating technology to create hybrid or virtual meetings. But when was the last time you heard (or thought) about meeting at the movies?

On June 23 and 25, NCM will host Cinema Event Showcases in three cities to show meeting planners how to use cinema venues to deliver content, drive attendance, connect groups meeting in multiple locales and engage the audience. Each showcase will last 30 minutes. Planners have a choice of two showcase times. During the 12 p.m. showcase, lunch will be served; and during the 2 p.m. showcase popcorn and soda will be provided. Each meeting planner will get two movie tickets for attending.

If you’re interested, follow the links below for more information or to register :
June 23: AMC River East 21, Chicago, IL
June 23: Edwards Irvine Spectrum 21, Irvine, CA
June 25: Cinemark West Plano (Dallas), TX

CBS News recently posted this short video of Ben Stein defending the importance of business meetings.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Support what he’s saying? Go to the site and post a comment.

Visit Florida has launched a really interesting ad campaign encouraging state residents to invite friends to visit in order to boost tourism dollars.

Check out the video:

Last month, I spoke to a group of incentive industry professionals about proving the value of meetings and events. At the end of the speech, one planner stood up and asked, “Do you think that we, as an industry, should pull our advertising dollars from the newspapers, radio and TV stations to punish them for destroying our industry?”

He was referring to the negative press coverage of meetings that began with the “scandal” surrounding the AIG program held at Monarch Bay last year. It was an incentive program paid for by the revenues generated by high achievers, but it was mischaracterized as an executive retreat taken on the taxpayer’s dime, and got tied into the issue of executive compensation.

Overnight the meetings industry became front-page news. From then on, any company that had received bailout money was publicly eviscerated for holding meetings, events or incentive programs. And many companies with no relation to Troubled Asset Relief Program funds canceled meetings, too.

Some of the examples held up in the media were pretty damning, but a lot of the meetings that canceled after being criticized were legitimate business expenses essential to the company and its economic recovery.

Then policy makers (and the president) started getting into the act — there was talk of making it illegal for some companies to use money on meetings, events or incentive travel without it being approved by the government. That’s just ridiculous, and I’m glad that industry lobbyists were able to get the verbiage in the Kerry bill changed.

But you get the idea. A lot of the hysteria and havoc was wreaked on the industry because sensational, factually inaccurate stories were published, picked up, blown out of proportion and considered fact. And it was people like this gentleman, city workers, hotel staff and other hospitality industry veterans that were suffering as a result.

I like the idea of reporters objectivity examining all the angles of a story and fact-checking before just running a sensational headline. I also like the idea of punishing news companies that encourage their writers to be tabloid scribblers, not true journalists. So, I said, “If you can get a coalition together that will make any difference, do it.”

A few weeks later, I tuned into a Web-based conference held with industry leaders both national and international. One of the speakers was President and CEO of Maritz Travel Christine Duffy, whose company put together the Monarch Bay incentive for AIG. She said a Maritz Marketplace poll, conducted after the press censure began, found that 56 percent of corporate planners had canceled one or more meetings, and 56 percent of Fortune 1000 managers were postponing or eliminating at least a portion of their incentive programs scheduled for 2009.

So I asked her, “Do you think it would be a good idea for hotels and destination organizations to use their advertising dollars (withdrawing funds from TV news or newspapers) as retaliation for poor journalistic standards and sensational reporting that has damaged the industry?”

What she said surprised me. “I don’t think so,” Duffy said. “I think that we have to take responsibility for why the press reacted the way they did. And it goes back to the lack of education advocacy we’ve done as an industry to ensure that people understand what we do. [With] those advertising dollars, maybe the focus of those ads might shift so that part of what you’re investing in is telling the story of how these meetings, events and incentives matter.”

What do you think?

When we were in Austin in April, we had the pleasure of meeting Leah Lambracht. She had been told about PYM by a co-worker and was attending her first PYM LIVE Event. After the event ended at the Mansion at Judges’ Hill, we went to do a site tour of The Crossings. The site tour ended on their amazing patio, where we filmed this short interview with Leah. She had just joined our LinkedIn group, and went home and joined our PYMConnect social group that night. We hope you enjoy meeting Leah as much as we did.

Do you have a PYM story to tell? Or want to be interviewed at a future PYM LIVE Event? Let us know, and we’ll make your the subject of an upcoming PYM Planner Profile piece.