At the recent Professional Convention Management Association's 2010 annual meeting in Dallas, the message from top industry leaders (to over 3,000 meetings professionals in attendance) was to beef up your communication skills -- particularly when it comes to telling the story of the value of meetings.
What's behind the push to speak out? It’s because industry leaders are still trying to fight perceptions that meetings are frivolous. This despite the massive public relations efforts undertaken last year by the U.S. Travel Association, the NBTA and other industry groups, lobbying before Congress and the White House and the commissioning of several successful studies showing the ROI of meetings.
It should be clear to everyone that speaking out on behalf of the business value of meetings is going to be an ongoing job. Attendance at some types of large meetings continue to falter (9-15% down, says the American Society of Association Executives and the Center for Association Leadership). Plus, perceptions linger that some meetings in particular, such as incentive gatherings, are negative. In a recent article, Brenda Anderson, CEO of Site, the incentive professionals association, predicted that, as a result of stubborn negative perceptions; meetings and incentives in 2010 will focus less on luxury and more on adding a service or sustainability component.
I think those are pretty good ideas and strategies to add to any meeting.
So how can you speak up for meetings this year? My experience in global program management has taught me that communication to a multi-layered audience is a requirement for any SMMP to be successful. You can’t just communicate generically to the masses a single time and feel confident that your program benefits and processes are now
mainstream within your company.
Keep in mind, you have a large audience with varying WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) factors at play. For example, the messaging to the C level will be different than communication to planners and administrative assistants. Meanwhile, you'll want to de-emphasize the cost savings and compliance messaging to Marketing and Sales (they don’t care, and will run the other way). The methodology and timeliness of your layered communications should also vary to ensure that your SMMP is not forgotten or ignored. Also keep in mind that, if your company is growing by mergers and acquisitions, you will also have a lot of new employees that need to learn about your SMMP -- and possibly get training.
It is a best practice to make it a regular practice to remind everyone from meeting planners to CEOs of the effectiveness of your SMMP -- in meetings policies, email blasts, company newsletters, executive dashboards with metrics, conference calls, training road shows...whatever forum applies. If you've measured ROI for past meetings, remind your audience of those findings, and by all means, continue to measure and internally publicize your meetings ROI figures.
For my part, whenever I meet with existing or prospective clients, I make it a practice to convey the strong role that meetings play in helping to grow businesses, educating employees and building strong business relationships. Whenever I can, I try to relay the key statistic that for every $1 dollar spent on meetings, $15 is returned.
Communicating meetings value is a never-ending job, but it is requisite for any SMMP to be successful. As I always advise all of our customers and prospective clients, never underestimate the time requirements for change management. Effective on-going communications can be a huge asset and catalyst to shortening the change management timeline and getting compliance on track.
What's behind the push to speak out? It’s because industry leaders are still trying to fight perceptions that meetings are frivolous. This despite the massive public relations efforts undertaken last year by the U.S. Travel Association, the NBTA and other industry groups, lobbying before Congress and the White House and the commissioning of several successful studies showing the ROI of meetings.
It should be clear to everyone that speaking out on behalf of the business value of meetings is going to be an ongoing job. Attendance at some types of large meetings continue to falter (9-15% down, says the American Society of Association Executives and the Center for Association Leadership). Plus, perceptions linger that some meetings in particular, such as incentive gatherings, are negative. In a recent article, Brenda Anderson, CEO of Site, the incentive professionals association, predicted that, as a result of stubborn negative perceptions; meetings and incentives in 2010 will focus less on luxury and more on adding a service or sustainability component.
I think those are pretty good ideas and strategies to add to any meeting.
So how can you speak up for meetings this year? My experience in global program management has taught me that communication to a multi-layered audience is a requirement for any SMMP to be successful. You can’t just communicate generically to the masses a single time and feel confident that your program benefits and processes are now
mainstream within your company.
Keep in mind, you have a large audience with varying WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) factors at play. For example, the messaging to the C level will be different than communication to planners and administrative assistants. Meanwhile, you'll want to de-emphasize the cost savings and compliance messaging to Marketing and Sales (they don’t care, and will run the other way). The methodology and timeliness of your layered communications should also vary to ensure that your SMMP is not forgotten or ignored. Also keep in mind that, if your company is growing by mergers and acquisitions, you will also have a lot of new employees that need to learn about your SMMP -- and possibly get training.
It is a best practice to make it a regular practice to remind everyone from meeting planners to CEOs of the effectiveness of your SMMP -- in meetings policies, email blasts, company newsletters, executive dashboards with metrics, conference calls, training road shows...whatever forum applies. If you've measured ROI for past meetings, remind your audience of those findings, and by all means, continue to measure and internally publicize your meetings ROI figures.
For my part, whenever I meet with existing or prospective clients, I make it a practice to convey the strong role that meetings play in helping to grow businesses, educating employees and building strong business relationships. Whenever I can, I try to relay the key statistic that for every $1 dollar spent on meetings, $15 is returned.
Communicating meetings value is a never-ending job, but it is requisite for any SMMP to be successful. As I always advise all of our customers and prospective clients, never underestimate the time requirements for change management. Effective on-going communications can be a huge asset and catalyst to shortening the change management timeline and getting compliance on track.
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