Challenged with educating future generations, meeting membership organizations are reevaluating and upgrading course content and certification requirements. Many faith-based meeting planners fell into their roles accidentally, but they’ve realized the importance of career training and advancement. Some make the decision to get into the industry early in their careers. Universities are developing educational material on the intrinsic value of meetings and events in business. There are now advocates for the concept that students majoring in business at institutes of higher learning should be required to take an elective, special course or a minor in event management.

Where does the discipline of meetings and events belong in the contemporary academic curriculum and why? A little more than two decades ago, virtually any courses of study relevant to people in our industry were offered in the newly formed hospitality or tourism departments (the latter of which owed their name, their focus and their existence to the word “tourism” and its supposed ability to pull revenue into a given city)—or within some part of facilities management instruction. For many in the academic world, this is how courses of study on meeting and events are still understood: as footnotes to subjects like facilities management, as elements of other business-driven course offerings such as sports marketing or tourism, or perhaps as community college material in narrowly defined areas such as social and wedding planning.

In recent years, meetings and events have emerged as powerful tools for strategic messaging; public relations, marketing and advertising play a more important role. Clearly, well-planned, well-executed, well-branded events are having an impact on the bottom-line, forcing academic institutions to reassess their course offerings. Considering the glacial speed at which any kind of structural change tends to unfold within long-established academic silos, the shift that has taken place during the past decade has been remarkably fast, and is accelerating. There has been a real reassessment of the business case for meetings and events as an academic discipline in its own right. What follows are some of the most interesting voices and intriguing insights from the emerging academic discussion on how, where and why to teach people to become meetings and events professionals.

Janet Sperstad: Educating clients on the value of meetings is key

Joe Goldblatt: Women will change the dynamics

Elizabeth Rich: We are in the communication industry

Patti Shock: Projections point to strong growth despite setbacks

Tim Brown: We are waiting for academia to catch up

Amanda Cecil: It goes beyond ordering large amounts of cheese Danish

“The Great Shift” is the second article in our Rethinking Meetings series. In future issues, we’ll explore change as it affects the design of convention and conference centers, hotels, seating and setups, production and programs, food and beverage, travel and every other aspect of what we do in connection with events. We invite you to think about how you can use concepts presented in this series, discuss them with your teams and organizations, and share your insights with us. Email editor@collinsonmedia.com or add your comments on our wall.

What simpler way could there be for event organizers who want their conferences to make a difference then to jolt attendees into action with coffee? “Everyone wants the opportunity to help transform lives, and for many of us jumping on an airplane and going on a mission trip is either too scary or just isn’t feasible, but there are simple things we’re doing already in life that we can transform into being missional and help build the kingdom,” says Robert Crow, community and relationship director, Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Company.

Click here for videos of giveback organizations covered in this story

“One of those things is making sure the coffee you drink is helping people and not exploiting them.”

Thousand Hills sells Community Trade coffee, which is based on the company’s goal to build relationships with farmers in Rwanda, Thailand and Haiti by providing them a fair wage for their coffee and equipping them to become better farmers. Using coffee from Thousand Hills could be a first step in aligning every part of your conference with your organization’s mission.

Common Vision
When developing giveback elements of your conference, the most important decision is choosing which programs best match your group and your conference’s mission. Thousand Hills found connection with the mission of Story Conference, a gathering of practitioners from a variety of creative fields who want to inspire and equip the next generation. “Story believes that the Christian story revolves around everything you do—that every action you have revolves around that story,” says Crow, including the coffee you drink.

The company has worked with Story, as well as Orange Conference and Catalyst, to share its Community Trade philosophy. At conferences, the company brews coffee, sells Rwandan lattes and merchandise, and distributes information about the impact of purchasing its coffee. Bulk orders also can be purchased from Thousand Hills that come with materials and videos to educate attendees. Crow says 135 pounds of coffee supports a farmer for a year. That’s the equivalent of 2,700-4,000 cups of coffee, an amount easily consumed during many conferences. Founder Jonathan Golden speaks at conferences and churches about sustainability as a solution to poverty and using coffee to build Christ-centered relationships in the communities it serves.

Better World Books funds literacy programs and donates a book to organizations around the world for every book purchased from the social enterprise. It is the official bookstore of TED conferences. “Our values align,” says John Ujda, vice president of marketing for Better World Books. “The concept of TED is spreading ideas to change the world. And what Better World Books believes is that books are a good way to spread ideas and we’re trying to improve the world.”

The bookstore, which seeks a social, economic and environmental profit, exhibited more than 300 titles from TED speakers and books recommended by influential TEDsters like Bill Gates at TED2011 in Long Beach, Calif. Other conferences can partner with Better World Books by sponsoring book drives at events or using the online bookstore, betterworldbooks.com, for purchases.

“There’s a halo effect for having Better World Books as your bookstore, rather than any other bookstore that is strictly for profit,” says Ujda, who also urges organization’s working with social enterprises to be willing to compromise on fees and other costs. “Be conscious of the value their brand brings to the game, and be willing to make some tradeoffs because of what comes with that.”

Lights, Camera, Action
Sometimes passive changes that encourage attendees to contribute to causes aren’t enough. Some organizations plan entire events around giving back.

Christ in Youth recognized an opportunity to educate more than 60,000 attendees at more than 100 events a year about social ills around the world by using a medium that was familiar to its participants. “The students we see are really part of that Millennial Generation,” says Chris Jefferson, director of organizational advancement for CIY. “They are 10 to 18 years old. Everything they have seen in education or entertainment has a video screen or a computer. Even at live events, they look up to see a replay on the video screen.”

CIY produced several short films and a feature film that are shown at the organization’s youth events, Know Sweat (now called Engage: Service), Move, SuperStart, Believe and Mix.

After a video presentation, a speaker expands on the topic and at the end of the week-long or weekend events, students can accept a challenge card to come up with a creative idea either individually or as a group to meet the need on their card. The challenge might be related to a global issue in the movie, such as not drinking anything but water for a year to raise money and support for clean water in Africa, or closer to home, like collecting 500 coats for the homeless in their community.

The result? Two middle school girls raised $24,000 in one year for clean water in Zambia, Africa, by selling hand-sewn decorative birds after seeing “Zambia’s Song” at Know Sweat. A couple of teenage boys sold T-shirts at concerts and music festivals to raise money and awareness for victims of sex trafficking in Southeast Asia after watching “Baht,” a movie about the issue, at Move. There are hundreds of stories about students who were challenged at the events to make a tangible difference for others.

Each summer, CIY chooses a single organization to support. “We try go beyond the event in a way that is real and lasting and impacts communities here and around the world…rather than scattering support to four or five different organizations,” Jefferson says. This past summer, the organization focused on persecuted Christians around the world through a full-length feature film, “Love Costs Every Thing.” Representatives from the Central Indian Christian Mission spoke and interacted with students during events. “[Students] immediately know who the money is going to support,” says Jefferson. “These are real people whose lives are being impacted.”

The films and additional resources are available from CIY for other groups to use at their events. “Video clips become a powerful teaching moment as razor-sharp illustrations, than become products of an event,” Jefferson says. “A five-day event with video elements is its own living breathing thing…the video has the opportunity to encourage greater involvement.”

For the past two years, youth ministers at the Worship Center in Lancaster, Pa., have hosted events supporting Sweet Sleep, a faith-based organization that provides beds for orphans in Moldova, Uganda and Haiti, to educate their students about living conditions around the world. In September, almost 80 fifth through eighth graders participated in Under the Stars, a lock-out event during which kids sleep outside in cardboard boxes in order to raise money. “It was a hands-on experience to help others in need,” says Heather Bivins, Worship Center student ministry pastor of Route 56, the fifth- and sixth-grade ministry. “Even if it was just for a night, they could step outside themselves and see the rest of the world.”

Due to rain, the event was moved inside, but the kids listened to speakers, played games like hauling water through an obstacle course and carrying mattresses on their heads, and slept some. They raised enough money for 80 kits for orphans in Northern Uganda that include a sleeping mat, mattress, mosquito net, blanket and Bible in the child’s language.

“[The kids] were excited to know they could help someone they would never meet,” says Bivins. “Eighty kids’ lives were forever changed, plus it was a lot of fun.”

Sweet Sleep provides promotional and educational materials, videos and an event plan for each of its programs. Under the Stars is recommended for high school and college students, but Bivins recommends choosing programs in which the format can be adapted to fit the needs and culture of your group. She combined aspects of Insomnia, a lock-in event that encourages participants to stay up all night to experience an uncomfortable night similar to what others around the world face, and Under the Stars. “Also, I would start promoting earlier,” she says. “In promotions, I’d explain more about who we’re helping and what we’re actually doing at the event.”

Other Sweet Sleep fundraisers include Bed Races, Nickels for Nets and Build-A-Bed. Event organizers can get creative. At Rejuvenate Marketplace this year, Tri-Valley CVB sponsored a station where attendees could make stuffed animals for the orphans who receive a bed from Sweet Sleep. Attendees stuffed 200 “buddies,” which were donated to Sweet Sleep and Next Door, a local women’s shelter, and purchased enough Sweet Sleep T-shirts and jewelry made by women in Uganda to purchase 40 beds for orphans in Uganda.

Increased Demand
Convention and planning executives in various cities say the demand for volunteer activities in conjunction with meetings has led them to create lists of local organizations that need help and welcome volunteers. “It’s becoming more and more common,” says Judi Quesonova, director of convention services for the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau. “I think more companies and organizations are doing it because they want to leave their footprint on a local community.”

That increase is expected to spread, keeping meeting and convention planners on their toes. Quesonova reasons that an organization that does it in one city is likely to do it in each city in which it holds events, prompting a change in how conventions are planned. Community projects, while noble, present their own challenges. Many tourism bureaus assign specific staff members to work with individual companies on giveback activities, but it becomes just another task on the long list of responsibilities for those staffers who often juggle multiple convention clients. If a client requests ideas about a local charity to work with, the staff member must be ready to make suggestions.

“Getting the client with the right group is the biggest challenge,” Quesenova says. “It has to be a good match. These events can be used as part of the convention programming as a teambuilding exercise. You’re going off-site and you’re helping the community, but you’re also working together as a team. So it’s important, if the client wants that, to match them with the right organization that will allow them to do that.”

Houston’s CVB dedicates a service manager to work with each convention client, Quesenova says. Besides serving as the primary liaison with the client on meeting logistics, the person also helps plan a local charity event.

Arvie Murff, director of special events and conferences for Aglow International, says the religious organization, which has locations and ministries in more than 160 countries around the world, partners with local ministry chapters and CVBs in each city in which conferences are held to identify local charities in need of help.

For its worldwide conference in Houston last summer, Aglow worked with the Houston CVB and targeted Redeemed Ministries for outreach. Aglow donated more than $15,000 worth of retail gift cards from Target, Wal-Mart and other local grocery stores. It also donated journals and Bibles. “For us, it’s basically about wrapping our arms around those who are in need to show them that they have the love of the Lord, and that they have not been forgotten—and not just forgotten by people that know them, but by strangers as well. Everyone is important,” Murff said.

The publicity surrounding post-Katrina volunteer projects in New Orleans helped spread the adoption and popularity of community giveback programs as an opportunity for meeting participants. “These types of projects are powerful tools for teambuilding and create unforgettable meeting memories for attendees,” says Jennifer Day from the New Orleans CVB. “This type of work is so positive, and really about the essence of a national and global community. After the storm, the city’s nonprofit organizations exploded with assistance and in turn their capacity and skill set has truly fine-tuned their ability to accommodate groups large and small and to create customized experiences to fit the client’s needs.”

—Andrew Guy Jr. contributed to this article.

We’d like to publicize your good works. Tell us about your meeting or convention giveback program or experience. Contact editor@collinsonmedia.com.

When considering hotel and meeting venues in international destinations, it is important to craft a request for proposal that includes as much attendee demographic and historical information as possible, even if the meeting was not held in that country previously. It is also important to provide an estimated per person budget, keeping in mind that most international properties include breakfast with the room rate. Many countries also package the meeting requirements into a separate rate often referred to as the daily delegate rate (DDR). This rate would include the meeting space, coffee breaks, lunches in the restaurant, writing materials and basic audiovisual such as a projector and screen. If you are looking for a private lunch not in the hotel restaurant, you might incur a surcharge on top of the DDR.

The hotel also will require international groups to pre-pay the cost of the meeting space in full. Transportation and tour companies require 90 to 100 percent pre-payment. Many international properties will charge a fee for payment by credit card. Inquire what the supplier’s policy is and request that the fees be waived.

Contract concessions typical in the United States, such as complimentary meeting space and a 24-hour hold on that space, are not the norm and should not be assumed. It’s important to allow more time for the contract negotiation process when dealing with foreign countries. Ping He, CMP, director, global sourcing and partner relations for Experient Inc., suggests building in more time to account for time zone and language differences as well as forming a relationship with the sales person. “Salespeople are not as incentivized to close the deal as they are in the U.S.,” he says.

When writing the RFP and negotiating the contract, be careful not to use words that would be understood by American suppliers, but unclear to service providers abroad. For example, requesting a “light lunch” might have a different meaning in Latin America and even more so in Asia. It is better to provide the number of courses required and use basic descriptors such as a meat, poultry or fish entree, starch, vegetable and dessert. “Use simple English in your communication with non-English speaking countries,” he says. “We know what ‘How many rooms have been picked up?’ means in the states, but a manager of a small Italian hotel will not understand. Say instead, ‘How many rooms have been used or actualized?’ and you will get a quicker response.”

Paulette Hopkins, president of the Hopkins Alliance, suggests contacting the destination’s tourist board and working with a local destination management company to help navigate cultural disparities. “Research the country’s holidays and bank holidays,” Hopkins says. “Unlike America, other countries honor their holidays and most businesses are closed.” She points to an example where the word “weekend” does not always mean a Saturday and Sunday for Muslim countries. “For most Muslim countries, ‘weekend’ means Friday and Saturday as Friday is a Muslim holy day,” she says.

While planning your budget, be aware that hotel room rates, meals and services will include a value-added tax or VAT, which could be as much as 15 to 20 percent. Because visitors or non-residents of the country do not technically owe the tax, groups can request a refund to reclaim all or part of the charges. It is important to request that the VAT amount be separated so you can keep track of the charges and file for a refund. “I recommend working with a VAT reclaim services company,” she says. “It can be a complex process and take up to a year to reclaim.”

Airport entry fees and visa requirements are also budget considerations. Argentina, for example, charges a $140 entry fee, which is valid for up to 10 years and multiple visits. A passport is required to enter and leave most foreign countries and if your attendees include young adults, it is important to verify that they have this essential travel document. The U.S. State Department strongly advises American citizens to register their travel abroad with the Department of State. Registration makes it possible to contact the traveler in the event of a family emergency back in the U.S. or to alert of a crisis in the visiting country. Note that U.S. medical insurance is generally not accepted outside the country, but short-term policies can be purchased for travel abroad.

When considering a hotel, venue or mode of transportation for your group, remember that the Americans with Disabilities Act is a North American requirement. Historic hotels, which are often smaller in European destinations, may not contain elevators or be accessible to attendees with special needs. International shipping requirements also vary from country to country. To avoid delay of your shipment in customs, it is best to use a broker based in that country who is familiar with the guidelines and has influence to move your materials if necessary.

Learn more about international travel with these tips.

“Six hours is one thing. Six days is another,” Bell says. He’s referring to the six days this August after Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz canceled his speaking appearance at GLS due to pressure from an online petition urging him not to speak. Bell had to find a replacement before GLS opened for a live and simulcast audience of 66,143 people.

The incident and its aftermath highlighted the risks and benefits of high-profile speakers. In those six crucial days, Bell and his team responded to the crisis in a manner that generated news and brought almost universal admiration to GLS.

The conference, of course, went on without Schultz. Twelve other speakers addressed 7,424 attendees during the two-day conference at Willow Creek Community Church’s Barrington, Ill., campus Aug. 11-12. The event was also simulcast at 217 locations across the country. A total of 165,000 attendees are expected to watch custom telecasts of the event at global locations around the world throughout the year.

Here Bell shares the thought process that resulted in WCCC Senior Pastor Bill Hybels’ carefully crafted response to the cancellation and the lessons learned. Watch Pastor Bill Hybels’ response in video here.

When did you first learn Howard Schultz might back out?
The first hint came about six days before, and it put us in scramble mode. There were many conversations back and forth, and it was official Monday before he was to speak on Friday. That’s when I was able to land Patrick Lencioni, who we’d had before.

How were you able to get another prominent speaker so quickly?
I knew [Schultz backing out] could happen and I’ve known Patrick for some time because he had been here before, and I was able to get to him right away. We were very, very fortunate he was not traveling that week. That came out of relationship. We try to build relationships as much as possible. We spend a lot of time trying to get speakers. We spent the last five years trying to nail down Howard Schultz. I spent five years trying to land Colin Powell. I was his assistant’s dripping faucet. The same thing with Pat Summit. Going after speakers is a team effort. I’m accountable for it, but actually Bill Hybels was the connection for Colin Powell. He was at an event where Powell spoke, and was able to land him. It’s as much an art as it is a science as how we get to the speakers. We do as much relationship connecting as we can.

How did you decide on the summit’s now viral response?
For several days, we met as a planning team, sharing ideas about what we would do. Bill Hybels, who is the leader of the movement and founder of the event, as well as the host, was going to interview Howard.Obviously, he’d be the one to address this. Initially, we were not happy. There was an immediate, knee-jerk reaction, and then, thank God, we had time to think, “Well, that wouldn’t be helpful.” It gave us time as a team. Bill began to work on a statement. We went through a few different revisions with multiple persons on our team, people Bill trusts personally, then some of the other church folks. One of the final cycles Bill made was with elders of the church. It concerned the church because people don’t separate Willow Creek Association and Willow Creek Community Church. It was very important to the church. We care about everybody, our doors are open to all, and some of what was said is just not true, but we don’t want to get mean-spirited about it. When someone comes at you with an untruth, a reaction in a spirit of meanness and “get even” isn’t right. A final thing—someone told Bill that he might want to think about the fact that in this world of tweeting and blogging, [the media] can take any sound bite and make it a headline. The headline chosen can make it a statement even if that’s not what was meant. It was quite a process.

A YouTube video of the statement was posted on the WCA blog the same day Hybels addressed the summit, which today has 50,000 views. Did you expect such a strong reaction?  
I can’t even think of a critical thing that we’ve heard. It’s been overwhelmingly positive. It’s been one of the best teaching moments of the whole event. The way it was handled in that moment is a lesson learned by everyone—taking the high road, turning the other cheek. How do we think Christ would respond?

Like Schultz, many of the GLS speakers are well-known leaders. How do you select the lineup?
We have a thorough conviction that all truth is God’s truth, so we can learn from all different segments of society. So at the core of the summit faculty are highly respected leaders who are world-class in what they do, whatever their area of expertise. We have a core group of highly respected pastors around the world so we want to bring in other elements, learning from all kinds of disciplines: business, academics, the sports world— we’ve even had political and military leaders—and there are lots of compassion-type organizations that have been represented. We look for someone doing something remarkable, having significant impact in their fields, someone who can share hands-on lessons. [We balance] people who are actually in the trenches and academic people who study leadership concepts. We never bring non-faith-based speakers to share about faith-based topics. They share about leadership principles.

How does this support the summit’s mission?
A planning research team works on this stuff year-round. We know what we’re getting ourselves into. Sometimes we have to make judgment calls. We’re unapologetically Christian without question, and we don’t want to dumb anything down. We want people to be stretched. Of the number of things we’ve learned over the years, one is that the best learning happens when there’s a level of disequilibrium. Ashish Nanda is a Harvard Law professor and is of an Eastern faith. He talked about the risky business of hiring stars [in 2006]; he was a real value-add that was phenomenal. Henry Cloud isn’t a faith-based speaker; he’s a clinical psychologist. His 30-minute session had great takeaways. He had practical handles and skill development leaders can use everyday.

Are you always looking for celebrity or a buzz-factor?
There’s always a certain level of “Oh, wow, he’s coming!” But it’s very difficult to get people at that caliber to commit. We’ve had former presidents [Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter], Bono, Jack Welch—and there’s a certain buzz factor that comes with that.Typically, we always have a surprise session when we have an experience where people are just blown away. After this many years, the level of confidence of attendees is: “I’m going to trust these guys because they deliver consistently. I might not know this person, but I’m going to come and see.”

Is scheduling high-profile people or speakers outside your ministry area worth the risk or controversy?
It’s worth it because some of the best learning happens with disequilibrium. You look back at a very painful thing and you wouldn’t choose to go through it again, but it’s a biblical principle that good can come out of the ashes. We’re more effective down the road.

There is a lot of disequilibrium when things don’t go as planned, but sometimes those are the most memorable times. They’re the fun stories later on. You look back and see how it landed, the moments of humor. It brings teams closer together. We all have times we wish for a do-over but sometimes it works out and we say, “Wow, God helped us there. God protected us.” [Schultz] not coming may have had a bigger impact in terms of takeaways. We wish he could have come though.

Advice for other planners: I think it’s probably wise to go through exercises just to say, “What if?” To think of what some plan Bs could be. What could be a contingency plan? We all face that [as planners] because there’s always a tension in my mind; someone’s always by me with a radio, [saying] “So-and-so has landed,” but it’s wise to think what if so-and-so doesn’t [arrive], and have a couple answers in your back pocket.

With technology today things can be captured [on video]. If something’s been a smashing success somewhere else, get some rights and have it as a plan B. Hopefully, you don’t have to use it, but it’s there.

Inspiration: I see what I do as a calling, and that’s what motivates me. And what really motivates me is when I see the impact of my small part in it. My purpose statement is: This one thing I do with a cheerful attitude that honors Christ and my family, my personal mission is to create life-changing tools, training experiences and life opportunities that motivate God’s people to become difference makers.

Favorite planning resources: Trusted team members and people who are in it together, who have a shared passion, a shared vision, who care about it as much as you do, who look at it as more than a job. It’s a cause.

Favorite book: The one I’m reading at the moment…that’s like if I had to narrow it down to one Scripture. Some books in the past I think of are “The Blessing” by Gary Smalley and John Trent. This summer I read, “Get Capone.” It was a fascinating read. Typically anything Jim Collins writes, classic books, “The Discoverers,” “The World is Flat.” One I’m into right now is “The Wilderness Warrior.”

Favorite quote: From John Wesley, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

The whole concept of meetings—whether conferences, conventions, events or other forms of gathering face-to-face—has changed. The scope is larger, even if the attendee list or timeline is shorter. Tim Sanders, a “people-centric” business expert, says, “The only reason to have an event is to change the world.” Think about it. Hasn’t that idea crept into our subconscious and the language of meetings, much like the slide into touch screen technology?

We’ve shifted from talking about logistics to meetings architecture. We are now confident that meetings make a difference, to local and global economies, to workers and executives.

We promise innovation. We seek out influencers or cultural architects rather than simply speakers. We talk about engagement through social media, immersive learning, creative experiences and authenticity. We push for convergence conferences.

Still, the heavy lifting, the difficult aspect of change, smacks most of us in the face every time we begin the planning steps that lead to the next meeting: the will to make a conscious effort to implement change and then follow through on its execution. Plans and resources (education, equipment, training, testing, time, etc.) are necessary for deployment, but the first step before anything happens is acceptance—acceptance that we need to push or prepare for change.

Click on the image to read "Way Outside the Box"

Inside and outside the industry, there are creative pioneers who urge us to embrace social media, look for inspiration from the culture at large, think about content delivery as performance art and get more visual with presentation. Scott Klososky asks us to think how Cirque de Soliel would deliver a business talk; to think about how they changed the delivery of a circus. “We need the same change in the experience of content delivery at events,” he says. Jeff Hurt wants us to start planning for screens and stop planning for platforms. “It’s time for you to adopt this 21st century technology and prepare for screening,” he preaches. “We are fast becoming people of the screen.” If you don’t grasp what he means, read his blog.

Our industry has its rebels, even if they are not on the front lines with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Take for example Joan Eisenstodt, a well-respected educator and consultant, who has long challenged meeting planners and facility managers to consider the different learning styles, needs and safety of attendees when designing room spaces. She says most meetings are boring and is not shy about calling out colleagues to join her efforts to shake up the status quo. Then, there’s Keith Johnston who aggressively delivers sharp criticism and insightful ideas.

Finally, most industry thought leaders point to TED and other social and information exchange conferences as evidence that people are the greatest event resource. Not the over-the-top ballroom, the top chef menu, the big name speaker or the most popular seminar presenters. Instead, it’s the people most of us still think of as our attendees or our audience who we need to embrace, turn our meetings over to, enlist—tapping into their ideas, enthusiasm, experience, networking contacts, problem-solving skills, money and muscle.

On the following pages, those pioneers mentioned above and others with relevant expertise open up about what changes they think are essential now. In future issues, we’ll explore change as it affects the design of convention and conference centers, hotels, seating and setups, production and design, education, food and beverage, and every other aspect of what we do in connection with events. We invite you to think about how you can use these ideas, discuss them with your teams and organizations, and share your insights with us.

Get Strategic | Ashley Muntan

Encourage Discussion | Glen Guyton

Explore Creativity | Billy Kirsch

Abandon Fear | Keith Johnston

Concentrate on Content | Amita Patel

Create Social Experiences | Jeff Hurt

Collaboration is Key | Jeff Shinabarger

Make it Magical | Joan Eisenstodt

Meet the experts

In college, Peter Maher was an English major with a passion for music, earning extra cash at restaurants by performing in the front-of-house on weekends and cooking in the back-of-house during the week. His time in the kitchen led to a career as a chef, but after 15 years he wanted more time with his young family. He moved to sales in computer programming services in 1992. Then, in 2001, he returned to music, managing a music school with 650 students. He continued to perform, mostly in churches, and that same year, everything changed. He volunteered to help during a National Association of Pastoral Musicians event and was hooked. The association hired Maher to plan its events.

Like many faith-based planners, Maher came into the industry sideways. After nine years as program coordinator for NAPM, his role has grown and evolved. As director of convention operations, he is an equal decision-making partner where events are concerned, especially for the annual national meeting and trade show, which typically draws 3,000 delegates and 130 exhibitors. While Maher’s full-time planning role officially encompasses a complete range of event management responsibilities, he unofficially wears other hats, like that of tech advisor.

When you ask planners how they landed in the industry, their answers are often circuitous stories like Maher’s. Ask them why they stay in the career, and many will answer: They love their jobs. This is certainly true in the faith-based community, where so many of the planners arrive at their jobs unexpectedly after volunteering with their churches. Some continue to organize events for their churches or organizations part-time, while others assume full-time responsibilities. Still others have started their own planning businesses. Whether they plan meetings in their free time on the weekends or they’ve committed to 40-, 50- or 60-hour weeks, they are seeing their jobs change. Technology, education, certification and expectations are adding to the demands, but it’s hard to find a more devoted group of planners.

A DIFFERENT WORLD
Alisa Wolfe has worked in event management for 18 years. She moved into a faith-based position this past year, and notices a difference between it and other sectors. Wolfe is the event coordinator for the Jewish Family Services of Broward County in Plantation, Fla., but she’s also the public relations and marketing assistant. Forty percent of her day is spent on marketing, PR and fundraising, and the rest on event management.

Because faith-based organizations often depend heavily on donors, sponsors and grants, planners usually are forced to do even more with less, starting off planning an event with meager resources and adding elements as funds arrive. Wolfe says that within faith-based organizations people are more humble. “We’re family,” she says, and the focus is on helping people. “Doing our jobs well doesn’t change our salary in faith-based planning. It means helping more people.” The events are different, too. There are fewer awards and recognition, and more focus on raising funds for causes like domestic abuse or poverty.

Wolfe began her career as a legal assistant but changed her track when she answered an ad for an office manager for a destination management company. She was intrigued by the contracts she saw and began observing the salespeople and their events. Soon she was learning on the job, and transitioned into sales. She developed a specialty in talent and music entertainment, taking on larger clients with up to half a million dollar events.

Wolfe says she didn’t really need any certification to get big-name clients because of the reach of her company, but she says in corporate and third-party event planning, the Certified Meeting Planner designation brings value and respect. Official CMP certification is less common in the faith-based world, but on the rise.

MAKING IT OFFICIAL
This year, more than 900 meeting and event professionals earned the CMP designation, according to the Convention Industry Council, which administers the CMP. “With the economy, there was a lot of competition for the same job,” says Christina Buck, CMP program director at the CIC. “People were searching and also had time on their hands, and saw the value in investing in the CMP, materials and study programs, instead of doing a masters program.” She attributes the steady climb to several factors: a growing demand for CMP qualifications listed in job descriptions and postings; more international countries recognizing the designation; and the variety of planners now seeking the designation, including those in the faith-based community.

Of the 413 registrants for Rejuvenate Marketplace, 27 hold a CMP designation, or about 6 percent.

Peter Maher has his sights set on certification. Each year, he takes the time to work toward his CMP, though he hasn’t completed the process yet. “It’s an affirmation that I can do this job. A [governing] body has set up a set of standards. I know I’ve achieved it, in my heart,” he says, even though he doesn’t have the paperwork to prove it. He has more than enough Continuing Education Units to apply, but like many planners, it’s hard for him to find the time to finish.

Marcus Brewer also sees the value in certification, but time constraints hamper his ability to gather enough experience and CEUs to qualify. His full-time job is as a research engineer with Texas Transportation Institute, but he’s serving as the part-time state office coordinator and main point of contact for the Texas State Association of Free Will Baptists. Planning the association’s annual meeting each June and the smaller board meeting each January takes up 50 percent of his time; the other 50 percent goes to maintaining the state directory, newsletter and website, as well as fielding inquiries from churches looking for new pastors. He enjoys “switching gears,” he says, spending time planning on the weekends and evenings.

Brewer can’t qualify for the CMP certification, which is only open to full-time planners, even though he has been on the job since 2003. He’d like to see an authority body create a certification to recognize his abilities and experience, one for which he and other part-timers could qualify.

But not all part-time planners feel the need to make it official with a CMP designation. For Stacy Robinson, event planning is also outside her primary profession, and she has no plans to pursue certification. She’s the founder of the Robinson Agency, a Christian speakers bureau, and she fields inquiries from faith-based planners. Most people contacting her are laypersons volunteering for the first time at their churches, and they’re open to any planning suggestions Robinson offers. She‘s learned a lot during her 25 years as a volunteer planner. Next February’s national conference for the Christian Women in Media Association in Nashville, Tenn., will benefit from her time and experience as planning committee chair.

CHANGING TIMES
Robinson began planning at a church level in 1985, and she’s seen plenty of changes in the industry. She cites the use of email as making “a significant difference in how we communicate.” It’s eliminated a lot of wasted time and phone calls, and helps with volunteer coordination, she says. Now Skype and group spaces (like Google docs) provide additional options to bring people together more easily, she adds, making planning a little easier.

Dezzie Jackson says technology has “opened doors to learning more of what’s going on in other states and cities.” Jackson founded the Women of Faith Outreach Ministry and plans monthly fellowship meetings for 50. Her housing coordinator duties for the Illinois/Wisconsin Diocese include site selection and hotel negotiation for an annual April meeting that consistently has about 125 attendees. She also does international missionary work.

Jackson, 70, has been volunteering for 20 years as an event coordinator, meeting planner and housing coordinator for various Christian church groups. She first ventured into the industry when she worked part-time at a relative’s Chicago travel agency, overlapping her final few years at Illinois Department of Veteran’s Affairs as a veterans service officer, a job she held for 30 years.

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Her volunteer role began when the church discovered her travel agency work and asked her “to do the same for the Lord.” Jackson makes a major distinction between planning she did for a range groups at the travel agency and what she does for the church. For her, the calling to serve her church makes it easy to volunteer her time to do what she was paid for at the agency. Robinson even spends time on vacations to take in sights and venues where faith-based groups may like to go, then reports back to those she feels will be interested.

The biggest change she’s seen is that cities and CVBs are starting to recognize the importance of faith-based planners. She’s glad to be invited on familiarization trips to destinations she may never have considered for events. “I didn’t know there is a Billy Graham museum right here in Illinois,” she says.

MAKING THE JUMP
D’Wayne Leatherland, CMP, was studying journalism in college when he started working part-time for a church’s denominational headquarters in Kansas City, Mo. “The experience presented so many opportunities to practice and explore the meetings industry, from board meetings to membership or delegate citywides,” he says. “It was a real incubator.” He bypassed his original career interest when event planning took root.

Fifteen years later, Leatherland used his experience to launch his own company, Leatherland Consulting. Since its beginnings in 2008, his independent planning firm has increased its portfolio to 100 percent faith-based planning. Leatherland believes the CMP designation helped him establish credibility and a sense of professionalism. “People realize this is my vocation, not avocation,” he says.

He says faith-based planners often doubt themselves “because so much of what they do is ministry,” but argues that they should feel confident in their profession alongside other planners. Leatherland sees the role of the faith-based planner evolving and focusing on professional development. He’s glad to see a movement toward greater awareness of certification.

Chariolett Johnson has been part of that trend. Her CMP is just months old, and already it’s given her a confidence boost. “I know what I know, even if I refer back to my reference books or colleagues,” she says. Having her CMP gives her a knowledge base and “expands our appreciation for others who help us, such as AV people. It gives us perspective on what they do and what they require, which helps them help us by having the right information, knowledge of terms, and being able to express what our needs are.”

The CMP was a requirement for Johnson’s new full-time planning position at the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists. As assistant to the vice president, Johnson’s title doesn’t say event planner, but 95 percent of what she does is event management, whether advising directors on RFPs or contract processes, handling registration, working on-site as event staff or managing an entire meeting. With 12 to 25 events ranging from eight to 6,000 attendees each year, there’s plenty to keep her fully occupied.

Johnson is a rare breed who says she wanted be a planner her entire life since working on church events and concerts when she was younger. She started as a computer science major but her cooking skills led her to catering, where she quickly changed courses to marketing and management for event planning when she realized event management could be a career. Though not common, some young people are realizing a desire to get into hospitality and planning early in their career. (Read about one of them, Chris Turner, in “A Day in the Life” here.)

After college she’s continued to study, qualifying as a professional bridal consultant, obtaining her Certification in Event Management from George Washington University, and then her CMP. Now she’s working on becoming a Certified Special Events Professional. In the 15 years she’s been planning events, she has seen the role become more widely recognized in faith-based organizations and is pleased to see a greater realization that a capable planner has the skills to research and qualify the ROI of an event, justify it and not just do a little marketing here and there. Certainly her colleagues would agree.

So whether your group consists of thrill seekers who love the sensation of plunging to earth in a speeding rollercoaster or less adventurous types who’d rather take a gentle spin on a carousel, these entertainment meccas can be a great place to build camaraderie while combining a little business with tons of fun. Here’s the low down on several family friendly amusement parks across the country that truly understand the value and importance of meetings and events, especially those of faith.

Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari, Santa Claus, Ind.

With its wholesome, family friendly reputation, Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus, Ind., has become a favorite repeat destination for many faith-based organizations that like the idea of mixing a little business with a lot of holiday spirit. As the first themed park in the U.S. (pre-Disneyland), the formerly named Santa Claus Land now boasts a fun assortment of Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Fourth of July-themed rides, water slides and attractions suitable for all age groups. With a personable sales team that makes every effort to make groups feel welcome and special, Holiday World also offers seven event spaces that can accommodate a range of events, large and small.

“Faith-based groups appreciate visiting Holiday World because our park is based on Christian principles,” says Paula Werne, Holiday World director of public relations. “We believe in service, whether it’s greeting visitors with a smile and a kind word, offering free soft drinks all day long or providing free Wi-Fi and sunscreen.”

A fan of the park since childhood, George Dooms, founder and president of Triple T Youth Ministries, has been bringing his organization’s annual Tiger Teen Salute summer event to the park for more than three decades. Besides being a great venue for organized group prayer times, meetings, meals and fun, Holiday World fosters a Christian atmosphere, says Dooms, who is comfortable bringing his 20-50 teens, group leaders and their families to the park.

“The neat thing about Holiday World is it really is the cleanest and friendliest park we’ve ever been to,” he says. “The facility that they have lends itself so much to what we do and it certainly is a welcoming place to come. I’ve never been around any [sales] group that is more astutely aware of the details and is willing to pull out the stops to make sure we’re happy.”

Six Flags Over Texas, Arlington, Texas

As the saying goes, everything’s bigger in Texas and nothing could be closer to the truth than Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, a sprawling, 212-acre water and theme park that boasts more than 100 rides, shows and attractions. Besides state-of-the-art coasters with death-defying twists, turns and drops, the park draws in all types and sizes of meetings and event groups due to its comprehensive variety of event spaces, including two pavilions, three indoor theaters and an amphitheater.

According to Sharon Parker, communications manager at Six Flags Over Texas, the park is no stranger to hosting groups as large as 35,000 people and has even executed full-scale church services for up to 10,000 worshipers.

“Our professional meeting planners pride themselves on creating customized packages to suit the individual meeting planner goals,” says Parker. “Where else can you have the Looney Tunes characters or the Justice League greeting your guests as they arrive at the park? From teambuilding activities to unique meal options and thrilling rides, an event at Six Flags Over Texas will create lasting impressions with event attendees. It’s a wonderful mixture of Texas history and modern-day thrills.”

The massive park, which is celebrating its 50-year anniversary, is also within close proximity of 42 hotel properties ranging from full-service to budget conscious. Arlington has become an entertainment headquarters, as Rangers Ballpark and the massive Cowboys Stadium have been added to the neighborhood, bringing with them plenty of parking, restaurants and attractions.

Wild Adventures Theme Park, Valdosta, Ga. 

Looking for a family friendly theme park with a wild side? Then look no further than Wild Adventures in Valdosta, Ga., a 170-acre amusement, water and wild animal park rolled into one. Besides 15 water attractions, eight roller coasters and more than 50 thrill rides, the park is also home to hundreds of exotic animals, including giraffes, zebras, black bears and Asian elephants. But when it comes to meetings, the park boasts several exclusive event spaces in the heart of the action, including two meeting rooms, a catering pavilion and a 2,300-seat amphitheater.

Able to accommodate events as large as 10,000 people, the park hosts hundreds of groups annually, including schools, family reunions, girls scouts, boy scouts, churches and band festivals. The park’s sales department is well-versed in the practice of meetings making a point to work one-on-one with every group to customize event packages.

This willingness to go the extra mile for meetings is what keeps bringing the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ North Florida Fellowship back to Wild Adventures year after year for its annual Christian Leadership Training event, which hosts approximately 550 middle and high school athletes and coaches each September. Steve McHargue, FCA area representative, says the park is a perfect match for the event for several reasons: its accommodating sales staff, family friendliness and ownership by a faith-based company.

“It’s a one-stop destination as far as youth organizations,” says McHargue. “You’ve got great facilities, all the meals are at the park, you don’t have to move or transport, then at the end of the training the kids have an opportunity to hang out and develop relationships with kids from other schools. We’ve done leadership training events forever but to have a theme park that would open its venue for us, that’s a win-win for us as leaders and for the kids because at the end of the training there’s this huge reward for them.”

Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park, Denver, Co.

Located in the heart of downtown Denver, the historic Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park is an intimate, 70-acre park that packs a big punch when it comes to hosting meetings and events. With three dedicated event areas, including five pavilions, a ballroom and an arena, the park offers ideal facilities for groups ranging from 10-10,000 people, says Cindy Hann, Elitch general sales manager.

“Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park is a wonderful place for faith-based groups because it brings people together in a fun and entertaining way,” says Hann. “We also offer section and full-park buyouts for the magical experience of having the theme park exclusively for your group, so we’re definitely the place to be for your private event or group outing in Denver.” Catering packages also are available for groups choosing to use one of the pavilions.

Michael Embrey, executive director of FunME Events, can’t think of any better place to be each May when he hosts his annual Elitch Gardens Music Festival in the Park, which attracts more than 100 musical groups and 6,000 attendees. In fact, his event has been such a success at Elitch, he’s been hosting it there for an entire decade.

“It’s a great destination because they’ll bring in major acts in their arenas and concerts,” says Embrey. “They have a great [sales] team and the park hosts everything from school groups to corporations, military groups, home school groups, school bands, choirs and orchestras—they run the gamut. The uniqueness about Elitch is it’s more condensed so you don’t have far to go between rides, which makes it that much more fun for the visitor.”

Quassy Amusement Park, Middlebury, Conn.

Perched on the scenic shores of Lake Quassapaug in Middlebury, Conn., the historic Quassy Amusement Park is a charming theme and water park featuring many of the amenities one would find at a larger park, packed into a more intimate setting. Besides two-dozen thrill rides and attractions, waterslides and a beach, this 20-acre, country-fresh park also features event facilities suitable for a wide range of meetings and events.

Besides an idyllic picnic grove, Quassy offers three catering facilities, including two pavilions and a patio area that can accommodate groups ranging from 50-2,000 people. Since they’re separated from the public, the exclusive facilities allow groups to focus on their own activities while serving as a home base where attendees can reconnect with each other throughout the day. Besides enjoying customized meals that are cooked fresh on-site, groups have the option of bringing in their own activities and entertainment, including music, motivational speakers and teambuilding events.

It’s that kind of flexibility and willingness to work with each group’s individual needs that sets Quassy apart from many larger theme parks, says co-owner George Frantzis. “We take into consideration the denominations we’re dealing with and we work with that,” says Frantzis. “We tend to be a lot more flexible than a lot of corporate organizations that might not be as willing to bend on what they do, so when you work with us internally, we’re here to make your day as special as possible. We bend over backwards for our groups and as a result we probably have an 85 percent return rate, not only for churches and camps but also on corporate.”

In keeping with that success rate, Reverend Rosalyn Samuels of Marantha Baptist Church said she’ll be bringing her congregation back to Quassy for its annual July outing. After their first outing to the park’s annual Gospel Day event this past summer, Samuels and her group of 70 church members had such a great experience they plan to make Quassy their event venue of choice.

“It was wonderful,” says Samuels. “Gospel Day was great, the entertainment was great, the food was delicious and all the hosts really helped us out step by step. They gave us fliers and announcements in advance, so we didn’t have to do anything but collect money. The children enjoyed themselves riding the rides, the older people had a good time and there was enough activity to keep everyone satisfied. We’re definitely going back next year.”

Ten years ago, planners sent postcards and, if they were really tech-savvy, email announcements to get people to register for events. Now, they’re reaching potential attendees with mass text messages and promotional YouTube videos.

“In the past, national campaigns went out over two networks and hit everybody,” says Maurilio Amorim, CEO of The A Group, a full-service marketing and media firm specializing in Christian and nonprofit markets. The current move is to micro-campaigns that target specific groups via specific mediums, says Amorim. The shift is a result of the explosion of social media, web-based tools and the use of mobile devices.

No longer passive consumers of information, people play an active role, subscribing to RSS feeds and following Twitter users to get the information we want, when we want it and on the device we choose. Marketing events is getting more complicated, but also more exciting. Planners would be smart to incorporate the following advice into their marketing plans.

1. A robust website is a must.
What’s the first thing most people do when they hear about an event or, for that matter, anything they want to learn more about? They Google it. And what they’re looking for is a website with information. If your event doesn’t have a website, it needs one. If it isn’t a good one, you should invest a little money to improve it.

An event site should have registration information, persuasive messages on why to attend, destination facts, attendee blogs and speaker Q&As. “It should have strong calls to action on each page and connect with visitors emotionally,” says Christopher Uschan, director of Internet marketing for Omnipress, the leading producer of educational meeting materials. Uschan recommends providing a list of 10 reasons to attend to help employees convince their supervisors that an event is worth the cost and time away from the office. “Give potential attendees the tools to negotiate because the money’s probably not coming out of their pocket.”

A website should also include post-event resources, such as blogs, articles and highlights from keynote speeches. “Get the content out there for three months after the event,” says Uschan. “Every two weeks you have a new piece of content that drives people back to your website, [which becomes] marketing for your event in the future.”

2. Social media is your friend.
It’s time to stop saying you’ll get around to social media—it’s not going anywhere. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and blogging can help you connect with potential clients and attendees on a personal level. For planners new to social media, establishing a presence on social networks begins with selective strategizing, says Liz King, social media entrepreneur and owner of Liz King Events. You don’t necessarily need to be present on every tool.

“Look at what [your audience’s] interests are, what their goals are and why they would use social media,” she says. An organization with a number of young professionals might find potential event attendees on Twitter, but an organization that skews older might consider LinkedIn first based on user statistics for those outlets.

With social media, consistent communication is key. “Social networking is not as effective if you can’t [regularly] update,” says King. When planners use social media, they’re generally focused on their message and what information they want to get across. They’re also focused on boosting friends and followers in an attempt to justify social media costs or find new clients. “Take a step back and remember that the power is in relationships,” advises King. “If planners can only update two to three times a week, maybe Facebook is the best option. With LinkedIn, it’s acceptable to [update] weekly.”

Planners already active in social media can take the next step and brand themselves as authorities. Avoid selling to your target audience; create dialogue instead. “As you form more relationships, people remember you and start to think of you as an expert,” says King. “The bigger your network gets, the more difficult it is to connect with every person, but I suggest following up with people who follow you, who engage on Facebook, who watch videos and respond to comments and, whenever possible, meet face-to-face. When you’re not coming from that marketing/sales perspective, people are much more receptive to hearing what you have to say.”

Allow attendees to share an event registration link on Facebook or other social media sites after they sign up. If they’re connected to a number of industry peers, sharing a link creates impressions and gets others interested. “I can send as many emails as I want and will typically reach about 20 percent of my target audience,” says Uschan. Talking about your event is great; getting other people to talk about your event is even better. This becomes especially important after an annual event has had a few successful years, and the objective becomes getting people back year after year. King recommends having speakers and attendees blog about the event on a semi-regular basis. “Think of it not as an annual campaign but a yearlong campaign,” she says.

3. Don’t ignore email marketing.
Social media is the new kid on the block, but email is the direct marketing juggernaut. To best market using email, keep messages clean and concise with a peer-to-peer mindset. “If you’re in a hotel lobby and you ask me what I do or what our company does, I give you an explanation,” says Uschan. “Then you go to my website and you get the standard ‘we provide world-class service’ copy. That’s not what I sound like in the lobby. Don’t speak to me like someone in the marketing communications department who [only] writes in big words.”

Don’t spend unnecessary dollars going after new clients when you’re more likely to have greater success by emailing already-established connections. “People often forget about ‘low-hanging fruit’—the audience you already have a relationship with,” says Amorim. “It’s much more difficult to get brand-new clients through marketing than it is to incentivize your supporters, giving them tools to recruit for you.”

4. Not all print is dead.
“Sometimes email marketing doesn’t work,” says Amorim. Direct-mail pieces can be expensive and they’re competing with and struggling against new marketing tactics. “But you’ve got to measure success not in ‘trendy’ or ‘cool’ but in actual cash and results,” Amorim adds. “A mix of marketing [that includes] direct-mail campaigns, depending on the event, will help you assess what has worked well and why.”

Today, direct mail is effective for the same reason email campaigns were a decade ago. “My email inbox has 150 inbound messages a day,” says Uschan. “But when I look at my mailbox, it’s one or maybe two pieces per day, and 10 years ago, that was flipped around. If I get something in the mail worth reading, I’m going to read it.”

5. You get what you pay for.
Consider your audience’s demographics when looking into paid advertising such as TV, radio, Google or online spots. “It’s expensive to do a traditional marketing campaign today, like buying air time, so think about your audience. Is it a Google AdWords campaign that matches your product?” asks Amorim.
Google AdWords helps you micro-target, says Uschan. “For example, for someone looking for engineering education, my website might not show up, but I might have a Google ad for the 2011 Mechanical Engineering Conference. You can target [an ad] to keyword searches. You can set your budget for $100 a month, two to three months before your event. You’re only set back $300 and you can measure results.”

Uschan also recommends placing banner ads strategically on websites that already have your audience’s attention. “I’m amazed at the number of associations that don’t have house ads for their events,” says Uschan. “Don’t place the ad on just one page and expect that to be the only place I look. Also, industry bloggers and community websites within your industry [are] areas to place banner ads. Set up an agreement with the blogger to place an ad on [his or her] page; give them a discount to the event.”

6. Think ahead.
Marketing tactics continue to evolve, and it’s important to keep up with the trends that will continue in the near future. First, relationships and the social aspect of events will take center stage.

“We’re moving from a broadcast mode and returning to a two-way mode,” says Adrian Segar, a 30-year planning vet and author of “Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love.” “People want to have relationships with the people whose events they’re thinking about attending. They want to be able to ask questions, get answers. They don’t want to just see static information.” King echoes this sentiment. “It’s going to become much more about the relationship. It’s our responsibility as event planners to make sure that people can figure out who else is coming to our event and that they have consistent emotional contact with the brand.”

Amorim believes marketing will become extremely individualized. “Search engines and social media aggregators have information on people that will allow [marketers] to customize information. I was in Singapore not long ago, and there were signs [in the mall] to ‘turn on your Bluetooth if you’d like to get a coupon for this.’ I see that continuing.”

Gone are the days of the hard sale. In the future, personal connections will precede the proffering of services. “I see more mobile videos as a way to get information in front of people,” says Uschan. “People spend a lot of time in front of their mobile devices but no one wants to be sold to anymore. They didn’t want to be sold to years ago. Smart marketers will realize that and connect with their potential attendees on an emotional level.”

Read more advice about marketing events here .

As a fifth-generation boat pilot, Troy Manthey knows very well the impact that meetings and conventions have on the economy. His family has been operating tourist passenger vessels since 1884. Manthey entered the business in New Orleans in 1978 and for the past 10 years has run a 150-passenger and a few 20-passenger yachts out of Tampa, Fla. Conventions alone account for up to 40 percent of his business.

“We wouldn’t even be here without it,” Manthey says. “A meeting planner can call and book a hundred seats within a 15-minute conversation. It has a tremendous impact.”

Those in the industry have long appreciated the economic impact meetings provide, but a recent study painted a clear picture of just how important the industry is to the welfare of many Americans. In 2009, meetings generated a total economic impact of more than $900 billion. In terms of contribution to the GDP and number of workers employed, that makes it bigger than high-profile industries such as air transportation, gambling and auto manufacturing—a fact not many people are aware of, except the millions of people who work in the industry every day.

Behind the Numbers
Manthey is one of the 1.7 million workers the industry supports, according to this year’s Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy study by the Convention Industry Council. And his business is one of hundreds of thousands of small businesses around the country that exist largely off the support from meetings. The survey provides empirical evidence of the importance of meetings and events to local economies. But it’s the people behind the numbers—the fishing boat captains, restaurant servers and small business owners—who really matter.

Barry Freed says his Michigan-based company, Art Craft Display Inc., depends on the meetings industry. Art Craft has been in business for 55 years, providing event furnishings, displays and support services such as floor-plan design, convention management, freight handling and labor to event planners.
Freed’s company has more than 160 employees and three locations in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing.

“At least 85 to 90 percent of our business is with conventions and meetings,” he says. “We wouldn’t be here without it. It’s so important for so many companies, especially the service industry.”

Click on the image to read "Spotlight on: New Orleans"

Art Craft Display works with an average of 700 to 900 meetings per year in its three market cities. Freed says the industry has always been important in Michigan, but it often has been underappreciated and overshadowed by the auto industry. But now that industry has taken a nosedive, and the impact of meetings and conventions is becoming more apparent.

“People working on the auto industry lines likely had no idea what conventions or trade shows brought [to the state],” he says. “It is an economic key in Michigan and a lot of people aren’t aware of it.”

In Florida, travel and tourism is the state’s No. 1 industry. More than 80 million people visit the state each year, accounting for 22 percent of total tax revenue, according to Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing corporation. Tourism employs more than 1 million workers in the state, many of whom are part of the meetings industry.

Manthey’s tour company, Yacht Starship, has 40 employees. He relies on weddings and regular visitors, but said the ease of booking groups from conventions in Tampa plays a large role in keeping his yachts afloat. The Tampa Convention Center sits on the bay in downtown Tampa, and Manthey pulls his yachts up to the dock to take groups out for dinner cruises and receptions. Group business provides more stability for his company. “Conventions are just easy. It’s the most cost-effective, convenient part of our business,” he says.

“We likely wouldn’t have enough business to survive without the meeting component,” he adds. “That accounts for almost half of our business and we adjust our schedules to cater to them.”

Faith-based meetings have made this summer in Phoenix the best on record, outpacing the town’s usual stronger seasons and providing jobs in a sector that normally cuts back in the hot summer, says Donn Oswald, associate director of convention sales for the Phoenix CVB. “Seasonally we run pretty steady—January through May and September through December—and hotels drop staff and run pretty lean and mean in summer,” he says. “We can’t do that anymore because of what these groups contribute, occupancies are running so high. They’ve definitely made an impact, and that’s providing jobs through the summer.”

One job certainly wouldn’t persist without meetings: planners. Michelle Minyard has been in the industry for 20 years, most of them spent at the New Orleans CVB and Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. She started her own meeting planning business two years ago and helps companies find hotels, facilities and transportation in the Big Easy. She says that while those in the industry have long appreciated what meetings and events do for the city, some didn’t understand the full impact of the industry until 2005. After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans didn’t host any major conventions for almost a year.

“Conventions are the economic engine of New Orleans’ tourism and the trickle effects of it are monumental,” Minyard says. “It is my lifeline. People finally realized what it meant when they saw Bourbon Street empty.”

Dependent Cities
In some cities that live off tourism, it’s often hard to distinguish meeting and convention delegates from regular tourists. Las Vegas, for example, hosts more than 18,000 business events per year, from 10-person meetings to the annual Consumer Electronics Show that attracts 120,000 attendees. In total, more than 4.5 million delegates come to Vegas every year, bringing with them more than $4 billion in non-gaming revenue that helps support more than 35,000 jobs, including that of Chris Meyer, CMP, vice president of sales for the Las Vegas CVA. While gaming and tourism are tremendous visible economic drivers in Las Vegas, Meyer says meetings keep the neon lights glowing.

“When they travel to a destination, they just spread money around because they’re doing so many activities,” he says. “We use an average of $1,059 per convention delegate, and that is a conservative number.”

As Minyard suggests, in New Orleans, tourism and conventions are the lifeblood of the economy. The city hosted 725 meetings last year that collectively brought more than 900,000 people to town. Nikki Moon, vice president of convention sales for the New Orleans CVB, says the meetings spend flows into all types of businesses, even during low season: “The impact meetings have on the economy and employment is massive. It touches so many people and businesses beyond just the hotels and restaurants.”

The city, which expects more than 72,500 attendees for faith-based events alone in 2012, knows the value meetings bring beyond the bottom line, perhaps better than any destination in the country. “[Faith-based groups] bring an intrinsic value that is hard to put into words,” says Jeff Anding, CMP, director of convention marketing for the CVB. Since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has led the way in a voluntourism trend that includes church groups and individuals on vacation. “But when a convention comes in, there’s this concerted organized, huge effort that comes with that, and it’s a huge outpouring that’s hard to describe,” he says.

Meetings can make an even bigger impact in smaller cities such as Grand Rapids, Mich. Doug Small, president and chief experience officer of the Grand Rapids CVB, sees his organization as an economic development agency. Measured by room revenue, 2010 was the city’s biggest year for tourism, up 11 percent over 2009.

“It is amazing how those dollars turn over and continue to affect the small businesses,” Small says. “It’s not just hotels and restaurants; it’s second- and third-tier businesses that see a big impact.”

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Businesses benefit from direct spending at events, but they also benefit indirectly from the exposure they get from visitors during their stay or from a trade show. Houston often hosts events in the oil and gas, tech, medical, education and finance industries, which also are prevalent industries throughout the city. “[Events] allow local companies that are exhibitors to get a home field advantage and to showcase their products at greater cost efficiency,” says Greater Houston CVB President and CEO Greg Ortale. “A lot of people don’t understand how much business happens at trade shows. Last year, Houston hosted 237 conventions that attracted more than 480,000 delegates and translated into an economic impact of almost half a billion dollars.

While large conventions generate local buzz, Ortale points to the importance of more frequent, smaller conventions and meetings. The 1.8 million meetings included in the study averaged 114 participants per meeting.

“A lot of people don’t realize the majority of conventions are not the big monsters. They’re going to be a lot smaller with people spread out all over town,” he says.

In mid-sized cities like Grand Rapids, the impact of small meetings and conventions is a lot more visible and recognizable. The annual ArtPrize event, which attracts artists and art fans from around the world, has an average $4 million impact on downtown businesses. Small says the publicity from the event is priceless: “It’s only two years old, but the press and media coverage of this thing is unbelievable. It puts a spotlight on Grand Rapids that I can’t buy with 10 years of budget.”

Getting the Word Out
At the beginning of the economic downturn, politicians quickly came to the rescue of America’s automakers, bailing out failing corporations such as GM and Chrysler. Yet at the same time, government officials cracked down on the meetings and events industry. The media demonized large corporations such as AIG and Wachovia for spending taxpayer dollars from bailout funds to pay for their events. In 2009, the meetings industry contributed $106 billion to the GDP. By comparison, the auto industry contributed $79 billion.

“It’s a quiet giant and a very powerful thing for people to get their arms around,” Meyer says. “Until this point, we never had the empirical data to point to.”
The auto industry has a footprint in every American home, but meetings and conventions are rarely in the public eye. Because conventions usually take place in centralized locations in market cities, locals aren’t always aware of their presence. And though their impact reaches so many businesses, it isn’t always visible. Deborah Sexton, president and CEO of PCMA, partly attributes the industry’s invisibility to a lack of promotion and educating the public.

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“As an industry we haven’t done the best job of articulating the importance of what meetings mean to the overall economy: why people meet, the reasons they meet and the benefits connected to that,” she says. “We need to better educate the public on the fact that meetings provide benefits not only to our economy but to U.S. productivity. I’m committed to [making] sure we get this clear, concise message out so they can really understand what this industry means.”

On a local level, some organizations already have begun to convey that message.

In Grand Rapids, the CVB works with the local media to host meetings and press conferences to present findings and announce new conventions it’s landed. “We’re very transparent and want to show to the community that we’re out there working. And [the local media] seems to be very interested in talking about what we produce for the community,” Small says.

In New Orleans, the CVB established the Tourism Matters campaign. The CVB publishes a bimonthly, 16-page publication celebrating the people and success stories of the city’s $5 billion tourism industry. It lets locals know how conventions find their way to New Orleans, highlights CVB member companies and lets readers know what meetings are coming to town.

“We’re trying to get the word out locally and bring home the importance of visitors and the dollars that they bring,” Moon says.

—Jennifer Garrett contributed to this article.

Corporate bookings of upscale properties fell dramatically, causing resorts to modify business plans and marketing efforts. Prices dropped, incentives increased and a new target market emerged for full-service resorts: faith-based groups. Resorts typically are cost-prohibitive for most faith-based groups, which operate on tighter budgets. But the rules have changed. Faith-based meeting planners who take the time to look at full-service-resort options find some with reasonable rates and value-added features that appeal to both planners and attendees.

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A New Market
For the first time in its history, the Catholic Campus Ministry Association held this year’s national convention at a resort. “In the past, we’ve utilized more hotels and convention centers,” says Chrysta Bolinger, director of member services and communication, who helped organize the event at the Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort in Clearwater, Fla., in January. “But more recently, when we have our bidding process and send our RFP out, we’re getting more responses from the full-service resorts. They really have been very competitive with their pricing and willing to work within the budget that we set. It’s been a little bit surprising, but also very refreshing,” she says.

The response from attendees? Overwhelmingly positive. The resort had more than enough meeting space—40,000 square feet of flexible space, a 1,200-seat grand ballroom, outdoor reception areas and smaller executive meeting rooms—and attendees took advantage of 10 acres of beaches, pools, restaurants and on-site activities including beach volleyball, parasailing and kayaking. Bolinger says attendees especially liked the marina across the street where they could arrange a boat ride or dinner cruise when they had free time. She says the planning team has already begun the bidding process for the next convention, and “we’re getting a lot more full-service resort responses than before…People want that business during the first week in January when it doesn’t seem like anyone is holding a meeting.”

The Seventh-Day Adventist Church is following CCMA’s lead, organizing a January event in Florida next year. The Adventist Ministries Convention is set for Jan. 15-18 at the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor. The meeting provides training every other year for individuals employed by Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and it’s booked by AdventSource, which provides planning service for the church. An important consideration when planning the event is the availability of activities outside the meeting for people of all ages. Like many faith-based meeting attendees, Adventist Ministries Convention delegates often travel with their families. Resorts provide a lot of entertainment options for them.

“A lot of them will fly in a couple days beforehand, or plan to stay a couple days after to take advantage of the different services at the resort,” says meeting planner Lindsay Peterson. “But in saying that, we also do look at the space in terms of how much meeting space is going to be available. This is not just a paid vacation for them.” AdventSource Executive Director Brad Forbes adds, “With the full-service resort, there are lots of opportunities not only for recreation networking, but also for more business-type interactions, meal options and that sort of thing. That’s all built into it, so you don’t have to give them a list of the 10 closest restaurants.”

AdventSource has had prior success with full-service resorts and the one-stop-shop approach. In 2008, the convention was held in Arizona at the Hilton Tucson El Conquistador Golf and Tennis Resort, which was well-received by attendees. Last year, the event was more traditional and took place at two hotels and a meeting facility. It didn’t work out as well as the resort convention. “It was a good conference,” says Forbes, “but people really liked the [Tucson] space and how that worked for us. We’re looking forward to trying that again.

“For many years the full-service resorts just weren’t even in the ballpark,” adds Forbes. “We would have loved to have gone there, but we just couldn’t afford them. The last couple times and even going forward into 2014—the rates we’re getting at Innisbrook, for example—are really comparable to a full-service hotel. Plus, we’re getting living space there that our people really like.”

Filling the Gaps
For resorts, the corporate market usually drives business, but faith-based groups are filling gaps throughout the year. “We always will have need times,” says Mark Unick, destination sales executive for Marriott’s MeadowView Conference Resort and Convention Center in Kingsport, Tenn. “There are certain times for our location in northeast Tennessee—the months of January, February and March—where we need to have group business. And so we are, for lack of a better term, wheeling and dealing in order to try and encourage organizations, specifically the religious-based groups, to come to our region during those wintertime months.” In addition, periods around holidays like Memorial Day, Labor Day and Fourth of July are unpopular for corporate customers, which opens opportunities for resorts to offer lower prices and incentives to faith-based groups.

MeadowView reaches out to faith-based groups directly through advertising, direct sales and at trade shows such as Rejuvenate Marketplace. Unick says the resort’s semi-out-of-the-way but very driveable location is well-received by faith-based groups that would like to focus on the conference agenda without a lot of distractions. During the past two years, the resort has undergone a $35 million facelift that includes a new executive conference center and meeting space totaling 65,000 square feet. The meeting space is owned by the City of Kingsport, which helps promote MeadowView through the local CVB by linking the resort with area attractions such as Bristol Motor Speedway, whitewater rafting, the Bays Mountain Park and Planetarium ropes course and zip lines, and the Gray Fossil Site and Museum. These partnerships often result in discounted or free admission for MeadowView meetings attendees.

Church of God 7th Day’s Catch the Vision Youth Conference regularly uses MeadowView as its host property. Unick says the event organizer approached him several years ago, wanting a meeting location centrally located on the East Coast, relatively rural and with everything under one roof. “We have hosted [the] conference every other year for the last three years and are looking at putting them on the books again for 2012,” he says. “Attendance comes from Florida, New York and everywhere in between. It happens over one of our needs times, the Fourth of July weekend. It’s a great piece of business for us.”

Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center‘s Vice President of Sales Randy Miller says Nashville does a lot of the work for him in attracting faith-based groups. The city is home to religious publishers Thomas Nelson and R.H. Boyd, numerous contemporary Christian record labels and the Southern Baptist Convention. It’s also a focus city for low-cost air carrier Southwest Airlines. “While our lifeblood is big groups, we’ll do 1,000 meetings a year that are 200 rooms on peak and smaller,” Miller says. “We give the attention to the small groups to make them feel like they’re the only group in the hotel. Those attendees have the amenities of a big, mega-resort at their disposal, yet they get all the attention they need in the meeting itself, so it really, really works.”

Larry Blackmer, vice president of North American Division of Seventh-Day Adventist Church, needs a lot of space for the church’s annual conference, which averages 7,000 attendees. “There are not many venues in which you can put that many people under one roof…We put two to a room, and we book two other hotels across the street,” he says. His primary motivation for booking at Gaylord has been space, but his attendees appreciate the resort amenities. Many travel with families who love the river-filled atrium with fish and boat rides, or the shopping mall next door.

Blackmer also books about 30 to 40 small-, mid- and large-sized meetings each year, usually between one and six years out. These meetings take place at all types of venues, including regular business hotels, full-service hotels, full-service resorts and convention centers. He has seen a drop in resort prices due to the economic climate, but cautions that some of the prices have begun to rise again. He offers some advice for planners: “A full-service resort takes a lot more expertise to book. You have to worry about things like resort fees, parking, merchandising fees and advertising fees to put signs up in the facilities. All of those things you very seldom see [in advance]. I had one that charged for every outlet used in the facility for electric. So you have to be a little more careful in full-service resorts.

“Also,” he adds, “you have to make sure the resort itself isn’t going to overshadow the event you are planning. For example, if you’re at a golf course…and something is not a required meeting, how many people are going to be playing golf rather than going to meetings?”

On the other hand, Blackmer says attendance is sometimes higher at resorts because of the extra amenities. “Then what you have to do is plan in your scheduling the time for people to use the resort. Otherwise, you get complaints that ‘Yeah, you went to a resort, but it could have been in Siberia because you were in meetings all day.’”

Read how to avoid the legal pitfalls of planning meetings at resort properties in attorney Barbara Dunn’s how-to article.