International Meetings: 12 things you've got to get right

From site selection to cultural norms to financial intricacies, here’s a basic guide to what anyone planning an international or multi-cultural, faith-based meeting needs to know.

By Kate Burton

Whether it’s an annual conference for 400 in Manila or a small post-conference meeting tagged onto a larger convention in Mexico City, planning international meetings brings challenges beyond those of a U.S.-based meeting. There are taxes we don’t have here, contractual differences, accessibility and entrance requirements, and a host of other details that can’t slip through the cracks. And even when an international meeting takes place on home soil, there are special factors a planner needs to consider. Read on for the 12 things you must know to plan an international meeting.

Site Selection

1. Let your goals determine the site: As with any other meeting, the goals of the meeting should be a primary driver of site selection. As associate meeting planner for the Seventh-day Adventists World Headquarters, Sheri Clemmer plans the organization’s international annual council. The meeting, which draws about 400 committee members and 300 spouses from around the world, usually takes place in the Silver Spring, Maryland, headquarters. But every five years, the meeting goes outside the United States, most recently in Manila in the Philippines.

Since one of the main goals of the international annual council is to open the weekend worship events to local church members, Clemmer says, “That means we look for a destination we haven’t been to recently and one that has at least a 15,000-member base in the area. It’s a huge expense to hold a meeting internationally, as opposed to in the United States, so we want to make sure that local members can participate.”

On the other hand, as former events manager and now communication officer for the Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services, Karen Moul often plans business meetings for the CRS around larger conferences sponsored by other organizations, such as the International AIDS Conference, so the site is sometimes pre-determined.

2. Ensure the destination is accessible to attendees: With the recent cutbacks in airline capacities this past year, accessibility has taken on a whole new importance. If attendees are coming from all over the world, the number of flights from a variety of destinations is key, as well as the cost of those flights. Moul, who’s planning a global management meeting for CRS’s HIV program in Africa this winter, says the group considered Zambia and Kenya before deciding on Tanzania. “We crunched the numbers for how much it cost to hold the meeting in each site as well as how much it cost to fly attendees there from all over the world—at least 50 percent of our expenses will be the cost of flying.”

3. Check out entrance requirements: For international attendees, the ability to get a visa to enter the destination country can be a make or break criterion. African nationals, for example, can sometimes have problems getting visas for entry into certain Latin American countries. And even the United States as a destination presents its own challenges for attendees from less politically stable countries.

It’s standard for the host organization to write a letter of invitation to the invited delegates, which attendees can bring to their own embassy to acquire the visa. Sometimes an additional letter is required, essentially stating that the host organization guarantees the moral and ethical conduct of the attendee as well as ensuring that the attendee will return to their own country of origin.

In addition to a visa for entry to the country of the meeting, some attendees will need transit visas if they have to make connections in certain countries. “When we met in Toronto, some of our attendees were originally denied transit visas through Amsterdam, which is known for having advantageous refugee laws,” Moul says. “They were afraid that the attendees might stay instead of continuing on their connecting flights so we had to write additional letters to confirm we would vouch for those delegates.”

4. Make sure attendees can afford the destination: Affordability is, of course, always key, but if your organization is not paying for attendees, hotel prices in particular can become even more of an issue. “We have to be very conscious and cautious about the spending abilities of attendees coming from foreign countries,” says Kevin Brooks, coordinator of conference management for the Church of God International Offices, based in Cleveland, Tennessee. Held in various locations around the United States, the biannual international general assembly attracts 15,000 to 20,000 attendees from some 170 countries around the world. “There can be a tremendous difference for some attendees in the difference, say in a hotel room that’s $115 versus $160.”

Communications

5. Bring registration and housing online: “We started online registration in 2004,” says Brooks, “and by 2008, almost 60 percent of our registration was online. By 2010, we expect that to grow to 80 percent or more. They can see all the information they need online, make their decisions, and pay for it all with credit cards, which really facilitates the registration process for international attendees—my delegates in Indonesia, for example, are booking while I’m asleep!” In addition to registration for the convention, Brooks uses an online housing bureau so attendees can make all their hotel selections online as well.

6. Ensure connectivity at the site: While we assume that a U.S. destination will have high-speed Internet access and high-tech abilities, a planner can’t always make that assumption about an international destination. “In Manila, we were able to use our laptops as long as we had the right plugs,” says Clemmer, “but we looked at some destinations that would have required adapters and converters just to use a laptop.” Moul notes that it’s not just the planners who need internet access, but attendees as well. “We have people who are out of their offices for a week and halfway around the world—they have to be able to stay in touch,” she says. “In developing countries, in particular, connectivity can present issues so we check to make sure they have the bandwidth as well as connections in every room.”

Cell phones, too, can present issues. Clemmer notes that even though her cell phone was supposed to work internationally, it “didn’t work as it was supposed to” in Manila. To circumvent issues, they purchased 15 local cell phones for key staff and uploaded minutes as needed. She also pre-programmed important phone numbers into the temporary cell phones so everyone was easily accessible to each other.

Business Differences

7. Know the norms: It’s impossible to generalize about business practices outside of the United States for the simple reason that customs vary so much by individual country. In Japan, for example, it’s critical to know and respect the business hierarchy of the people you’re working with, while Australian business norms tend to be on the casual side, similar to U.S. customs. You can probably expect a swift response from an Austrian hotel, while one in Latin America might take a bit more time to respond. “In Asia, in particular, there are a lot of conventions about the way you do business,” says Moul. “The way that you greet someone, what you call them, who you speak to first…these are all things that can undo your meeting if you don’t know the proper protocol.” Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands is an excellent series of books outlining business customs throughout the world.

8. Follow the rules: One rule of thumb is that planners should expect to pay for meeting rooms, unlike in the United States, where they’re often complimentary if enough guest rooms or catering is booked. Cancellation and attrition clauses can also be very different from what a planner will find in the United States.

Clemmer says that she always has all contracts reviewed by legal counsel, and that contracts, regardless of which language they’re written in, are subject to the laws of the destination country.

However, if you’re uneasy about the contract or the terms, sometimes it might be best to bow out. Clemmer related her experience trying to plan a meeting in the Ukraine several years ago. While pointing out that it’s entirely possible business practices have changed since this episode, she says, “At the time, I couldn’t get them to give me a contract that I felt confident would stick. I was ready to sign four years in advance of the meeting, but they told me they couldn’t do it till 18 months out. I went back later and there were still some questions whether they’d have the sleeping rooms available. I finally had to move the meeting somewhere else because I felt they just didn’t have the right things in place to do that kind of meeting at that time.”

9. Find a local liaison: If you’re lucky, your organization might already have an office in the destination, like Moul, who has had the luxury of local offices in such diverse destinations as Tanzania and Bangkok to recommend hotels and other vendors. Clemmer, too, had a local office that was able to help with her meeting in Manila.

In addition to the local office, she worked with a local travel agency. “It was very interesting because we weren’t permitted to work directly with the hotels to even negotiate our own contacts,” she says. “Because they were local, they were able to get far better rates than we could. If we went in as an outsider, we would get different rates for everything from food and beverage to hotel accommodations and shuttles.”

This is a phenomenon that’s also common throughout Latin America. In addition to a travel agency, planners will find the help of a destination management company (DMC) or professional conference organizer (PCO) can be invaluable in a foreign country.

Finances

10. Be prepared to pay in advance: Unlike in the United States, many international destinations require large advance deposits and sometimes even payment in full before the actual meeting or convention. “That’s one of the differences we didn’t like,” laughs Clemmer. “We had to pre-pay anywhere between 75 and 100 percent of most of our expenses in Manila before we even landed,” she says, citing shuttle services, hotels, and convention center fees as examples.

11. Decide how you’re going to pay: If possible, the simplest strategy is to pay through a local office, which is what Clemmer did for her meeting in the Philippines. “All the invoicing was done in the Philippine peso and was paid by our division office there, then charged back to the main office,” she says. However, that’s not always possible. Carol Krugman, co-author with Rudy Wright of the 2006 book Global Meetings and Exhibitions, says one common approach is an “options contract,” which gives the organization the option to purchase foreign currency at a pre-determined price in a certain time period. Another possibility is a “forward contract,” which is an agreement to purchase a certain amount of funds at a pre-determined price on a specified date. An intermediary plan, called “layering,” allows planners the ability to purchase currency at intervals.

12. Don’t forget the additional costs: There are multiple costs that might be involved in an overseas meeting beyond the standard costs. Shipping and customs can add considerable costs and require advance planning and paperwork. Clemmer eliminated most of those needs by purchasing whatever she could on site. If you need to ship significant materials, a freight forwarder and/or customs broker can help guide the way.

Translation is another possible additional cost, both written translation for printed materials and simultaneous interpretation for the spoken word during the event.

Depending on the exact location, you might find other additional expenses. Clemmer, for example, says that she doesn’t provide transportation when in the United States, but that she has arranged for shuttles in some foreign destinations, such as Manila, where the traffic is so heavy that she didn’t want attendees to have to walk or find their own transportation.

On the flip side, you might also be able to save some money if you plan properly. Many countries outside of the United States include a value-added tax (VAT) on a range of meeting expenses, often including hotel accommodations, food and beverage, transportation, and more. Throughout most of Europe and some of Latin America, those taxes can be reclaimed or waived for host organizations as well as individual attendees, saving thousands of dollars off initial projected costs. In Mexico City, Moul found her hotel extremely helpful in guiding her through the process of having the VAT waived. A VAT reclamation service can also guide a planner about which countries charge VAT, as well as under what circumstances it can be reclaimed or waived.

Photos: COG/Cameron Fisher; Sheri Clemmer