behind the scenes

When Strategy Is A Luxury

More than 400 meeting planners took the time to complete this year's Meetings Market Survey. This is a lengthy and involved survey, so each and every response is appreciated. It is remarkable that, after checking off answers to dozens of detailed questions, so many respondents took even more time to type in their responses to several open-ended questions.

The one that drew the most responses - and ire - was, "What is the one industry issue that most concerns you?" Planners repeatedly voiced their dissatisfaction with the current seller's market mentality:

• "Greed of the hotel owners. Charging higher and higher gratuities." 
• "Cut-throat nature that is occurring between the buyers and sellers."
• "The trend by hotels to forget that it was association business that got them through the recent recession."
• "Facility salespeople do not seem to keep in mind that the pendulum ALWAYS swings the other way." 
• "Hotel salespeople are so concerned with RevPAR that they forget that this business relationship will last well past the meeting being negotiated. Planners remember!"

How things have changed in two years. Peter Yesawich, chairman & CEO of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell (YPB&R), noted that cost factors were further down the list when 900 association and corporate meeting planners answered the same question for the YPB&R Portrait of North American Meeting Planners in 2004. Their first concern was much more strategic: how to keep the content of their meetings relevant for attendees (see story on p. 54).

Strategy can take a backseat when you are struggling to manage costs, a conclusion borne out in a separate study conducted by Deborah Breiter, Ph.D., late last year (see story on p. 60). When she surveyed planners to find out how they choose destinations, costs surpassed all other considerations as the top criterion. They did not see political, technological, social, and environmental factors - necessary to the creation of a strategic plan - as significant. As she said, "In this industry, planning professionals need to think strategically - to be aware of trends outside their own organizations that could affect the success of their events." Rising costs and all, that's something planners can't afford to lose sight of.