It’s nearing the end of 2011 and many businesses have already started planning their 2012 gatherings, whether it be an annual meeting for an entire company, or a private weekend away for a board of directors.

The first thought meeting and convention organizers need to keep in mind is the intention of the event. What’s the expected outcome?

An event budget has the same dynamic. “It can, I suppose, be a little of a chicken and egg conversation: Does the objective set the budget or the budget drive how the objectives are pursued?” says Bill Zeinemann, director of marketing and events at Monona Terrace in Madison.

He explains that a business first must determine whether they are using the meeting to make a profit, break even, or be an investment in education and training with dividends down the road. Establishing intention and the expected return on investment is the first step and then leads an organizer to a location and budget.

Many resources are available in Wisconsin, and free of charge, to help planners make these decisions and take advantage of the affordability and accessibility of venues around the state.

Location, Location
“Wisconsin is a convenient location,” says Dave Fantle, deputy tourism secretary for the State of Wisconsin. “It’s in the center of the country, within a few hours’ flight from either coast and is drivable from many parts.”

This factor, he says, holds much value for event organizers and meeting planners. In the post-recession days, he explains that the popular convention resort communities such as Orlando and Las Vegas were hit hard. “Wisconsin has always been well positioned,” he notes. “You can get down to business in Wisconsin destinations. No one’s going to look at a meeting that comes to La Crosse and think it’s going to be frivolous.”

However, after picking a destination, finding a venue to host a business or organizational event is one of the biggest challenges people face. “Most people start at Google,” says Christine Shimasaki, managing director for empowerMINT.com and the Event Impact Calculator at Destination Marketing Association International.

“Sometimes in their search, they start to get an abundance of information, and don’t know how to pare it down,” she adds. “The trend is now looking at how planners can start to streamline that part of the planning process.”

Resources are available, especially through local convention and visitor bureaus, to aid event planners with these needs. Their services are free, paid primarily through hotel occupancy taxes, so that they can work with planners, to draw meetings and conventions to their area.

Professionals at visitor bureaus can help narrow location options based on the needs of the specific group, including size, travel needs, and most importantly, their vision for the event.

They have access to local information, from transportation to dining establishments, events for spouses/children and meeting spaces.  They know how to position a meeting and create the most value, offering a hope for better negotiations when the time arises. 

Five Factors That 
Create Value
“You can save money by negotiating, but before you can go into negotiations, you need to understand the value of your meeting,” says Shimasaki. “Contrary to how some event organizers feel, not all meetings are created equal and don’t have the same desirability for the venue.”

There are five factors she gives which create a more valuable meeting, which offers a planner more leverage during the negotiating process.

1. Time of Year: While it’s obvious a meeting in Florida in the middle of February will be more difficult and expensive to book than in June, the time of year is a factor for all states, based on peaks in tourism. Wisconsin is no exception. “It doesn’t sound glamorous to meet in the Midwest in the winter, but all of those locations have things for your group to do and see during those non-peak seasons,” adds Zeinemann.

2. Arrival and Departure Patterns: Sunday arrivals are much more desirable than, say, Tuesdays. “Arrival patterns matter,” Shimasaki says. “If you arrive on a Tuesday and take up a lot of rooms, then the hotel will not be able to sell them on Monday night.”

3. Amount of Meeting Space, Compared to Guest Rooms: An example Shimasaki gives is of a meeting at a hotel that boasts 400 rooms. If a convention only needs 100 rooms, but takes up all the meeting space, “you can see how that could be undesirable,” she explains. “Therefore you can’t leverage, as the biggest revenue potential for a hotel is the guest rooms.”

4. Meeting Track Record: “If you say you will need 200 rooms, you need to show a track record that you will use 200 rooms,” explains Shimasaki.

Zeinemann, who represents the Monona Terrace, completely agrees. “If a planner knows what the value of the meeting is, if they have some history on the meeting, facilities will take a very close look at that,” he says.

5. Total Revenue Potential: This relates very closely to the meeting track record. In addition to rooms, will the event consist of catered functions? What will be the audio/visual budget? “These are important revenue streams for venues,” she says.

“I hesitate to use the well-worn phrase, ‘win-win’, but both parties need to win in the transaction,” says Zeinemann.

Once an organizer has taken time to prepare a desirable meeting and researched a set of appropriate locations, they are in a much better position to save money and also plan the event they want, with less sacrifice. 

Practical Tips
The professionals at the Monona Terrace offer some very practical ways to save money and increase return on investment during an event.

They offer these tips because Zeinemann says he believes in fostering long-term relationships with their clients. “By communicating your needs and having a good relationship with your sales person/facility representative, you can save money for your group and have very successful meetings.”

During an event, there are a few things planners can arrange to help keeps costs under control.

•    Hire local speakers and presenters.

•     
Use the general session room for lunch, and save on rentals by recycling space.

•    
Choose a facility with a central location to shops and restaurants.

When working with catering:
Determine if another group is going to be meeting at or around the same time. Menus can be combined and food ordered in bulk, which may save on food costs as well as work in the kitchen.
And ask key questions such as:

•    
Does the facility offer water stations instead of water bottles?

•    
What do we really need? “Don’t play the numbers game” with food and beverage, says Zeinemann. He recommends asking the catering professional their recommendations and keeping to those numbers.

•    
Centerpieces? Do you really need them? Does the catering company have leftovers to repurpose?

•    
What about beverages? Beverages should be ordered on an “on-consumption” basis only.

•    
How will condiments be presented? Think about bulk condiments versus individual packages.

Meeting Locally
Fantle spent seven years at VISIT Milwaukee before joining the Department of Tourism, so he knows a thing or two about major meeting and convention events, as well as the resources available to planners.

“Planning a meeting or convention can be a slow dance,” he explains. It takes time to research locations, do site visits, review proposals, then schedule and plan the event itself.

Fantle encourages planners for Wisconsin companies to keep the dollars recirculating in our state by keeping meetings local. “You’ve got value in Wisconsin destinations and value is still important,” he says.

Some companies have made this decision over and over again, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy and saving themselves a bundle on transportation costs alone.

There are a variety of ways to save money on meetings and conventions in the upcoming years. Having intention, value and knowledge make a world of difference, right here in our own backyard. 


Online Connections

Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) offers a free Web-based service to meeting and convention planners titled empowerMINT. This resource “connects planners and their meetings to destinations and their experts” as the tagline reads.

At empowerMINT.com, those organizing meetings and/or conventions can be directly linked to convention and visitors’ bureaus nationwide, with the click of a mouse. They can search and compare based on individual meeting needs as well as find current promotions and hot hotel rates in the destination of choice.

“I think in this era, companies are very conscious about their meetings, cost savings and the efficiency of their meetings,” says Christine Shimasaki, managing director for empowerMINT.com and the Event Impact Calculator at DMAI. “In that light, we want to definitely communicate the value of using a convention and visitor’s bureau, which you can find at empowerMINT.com.”

Another online tool offered by the DMAI is the Event Impact Calculator, in partnership with Tourism Economics, which rolled out Sept. 15 for 60 destinations around the country. The purpose is to give convention and visitors bureaus (often called destination marketing organizations) a place where they can quantify the value an event will have on their destination’s economy. It measures the impact by who is doing the spending, industry (where it’s spent) and economic benefit (sales, jobs, wages, etc.)

By Jen Bradley

Jen Bradley is a freelance writer living in East Troy.

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