When the 18th-century author Samuel Johnson wrote, "Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire," he could have had Bill Peeper in his sights.

Peeper's retirement party last year at once crystallized the single best and worst moments of his career. The high point: seeing more than 800 business leaders, colleagues, and friends from the community lauding the former president of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau. The flip side: realizing how difficult it was going to be to step aside from a 36-year career and an industry about which he is still so passionate.

Still, it hasn't taken long for him to become involved in new projects (including co-authoring a book, Managing Destination Marketing Organizations, with author and educator Robert C. Ford), while he eases back from the routine 12-hour workday. In a wide-ranging interview with Convene, he assessed how the meetings industry has changed, what it can do better, and why it's so special.

How did you find your way into CVB life?
It was a fluke. That's how people got into the bureau business 36 years ago. I was a graduate of Ohio University, with a public relations major, in the Air Force and stationed in Dayton, Ohio. I was returning from Vietnam with an early out that allowed me to transition from the service over six months. Having an interest in government affairs, I went down to the chamber of commerce to express my interest in becoming an intern, and it happened that the guy I was talking to had been two years ahead of me in the PR program. Dayton was building a small convention center, but had no one to sell the thing. That's what I did, and the rest is history.

What moment really brought home the meaning of "hospitality"?
It happened when I worked at the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau for the legendary Ed McNeill. I had been in the business less than four years and with Ed for about three months, and I was still wet behind my ears. I don't recall why they were in town, but there I was having cocktails with Ed, Fairmont's Peter Goldman, and the Lewin brothers (Henri and Warner), who were with Hilton. Listening to those giants talk about the industry was just staggering. Believe me, I didn't say a word, not with that crowd.

I started to understand the essence of the business. The Lewins and Goldman were iconic "hoteliers" and didn't work for a company that was managed by accountants. These were real pros who understood that in the hospitality world, you make your money and reputation by the service you provide. And you could tell just by the conversation that they were tough business guys, not used to taking a lot of excuses. It was all about the customer.

How has the CVB executive's role changed during your career?
It's very different today. The CEO was always viewed as the best salesperson in the organization. Now, you had better be a darn good manager who also understands sales. And you're not just managing internal operations, but community stakeholders and industry relations.

On top of that, the evolution is reflected in the name "destination marketing organization." It used to be that we rarely went far beyond the narrow focus of growing the convention center. But bureau executives are sitting on committees in their communities and advocating how to enhance the destination and city. Meanwhile, the level of accountability and demand for transparency continues to grow.

What's happening in the hotel-bureau relationship?
Contrary to what most people think, the goals and metrics of success for hotels and bureaus are not always in sync. We're all concerned about heads in beds, but with different windows of time. Hotels are tasked with maximizing revenue. Bureaus, on the other hand, build a longer-range foundation for citywide business (not always the best business for a hotel), layering on top mid- to short-range business. As independent owners put more pressure on hotel management companies, this issue will continue to ferment and create conflict for both bureaus and hotels.

Is the transition to a digital world making the CVB's work easier … or harder?
It certainly is easy to push some buttons and talk to a thousand people - as long as they push the right buttons on their screens. But planners are so inundated from member constituents, bureaus, and vendors that more and more of them are not pushing those buttons. On the other hand, the digital world has made it easier for them to send out a blanket RFP and scan the whole market. Click … click … click. Now 10 salespeople, whose time is incredibly precious, are chasing that RFP, when maybe half the cities are not really on the priority list. In Orlando, we measured the conversion rate from lead to booking, and in fact conversions were down because leads from blanket RFPs were going out.

So where does this leave the bureau in the chain of information?
The whole information model is changing. Before the Web, one could reasonably argue that bureaus were the single keeper of destination information. Not anymore. Part of a CVB's job is to disseminate information, and that is one of the metrics by which it is measured. It used to be: How many requests for information were received and how many kits were sent? Now it's: How many visitors came to the Web site, what was the average length of time they spent there, and how many pages did they visit? The CVB today is hard-pressed to compete with Expedia, Travelocity, the local newspaper, and all the other sites out there. Unfortunately, CVBs never embraced the idea of a single, collaborative, well-funded travel information portal.

Meanwhile, hotels have established magnificent client databases on group performance - rooms, plates served at meal functions, attrition rates, you name it. DMAI's [Destination Marketing Association International] confidential convention reporting system (now called MINT) gathered a lot of this data for CVBs, which would give it to hotels when they were targeting specific groups and validating their meeting's history. Now hotels simply go to their corporate database. This isn't a bad thing, but it's made it even tougher for CVBs, as I have never seen a hotel share any performance data with a CVB!

What surprised you during the writing of the book, Managing Destination Marketing Organizations?
The incredible complexity in managing a bureau in today's marketplace! Like most people, the time to reflect on and analyze the job you are doing is almost non-existent. You're dealing with the "bonfire du jour." When I was able to step back and discuss the issues with my co-author and management professor Bob Ford, it forced me to consciously become aware of how we do what we do. I daresay it is the toughest single job in the travel industry because of the diversity of stakeholders and demands placed on the CEO today.

Because bureau executives are organization managers, our book suggests that bureaus do an alignment audit with goals and missions. One bureau I know surveyed its hotels on what kind of business they want and when they want it. Here's the kicker: The bureau cut room nights produced when it redeployed its staff to chase business the hotels said was most valuable to them. There was a lot of discussion with board leadership. Was the bureau out of its mind to purposely cut room production? The answer is, "No, it's not about room nights. This is what members want and need from us, and our job is to serve them."

How can destination marketing organizations work more effectively with meeting planners, and vice versa?
Bureaus must become fanatical about customer relations and service, and that's an attitude issue that is hard to standardize. Bureau salespeople have to be better listeners, do better research, and respond in a timely manner. They have to ask planners what their needs are, if they're not hearing them. On the other side, planners just don't know what they will get from one bureau to the next, which in many cases is due to the financial and human resources available. Most CVB people work hard and are stretched thin. You would be amazed at the enormous number of last-minute "crisis" requests, even after the service team has been asking planners what they need, and sending reminders with no response. That goes back to the need for some standardization. However, too much standardization makes for a robotic process and attitude, and that will diminish the personal relationships so many in the industry treasure.

What would you like to see the meetings industry do better?
I'd love to see the industry embrace to a much greater degree the great work of the Convention Industry Council [CIC]. We have to move away from "my way of doing business," losing huge efficiencies by not standardizing. This goes all the way back to the attempt by DMAI [then the IACVB] to create a standardized housing procedure. The work by CIC is very valiant, but it's moving at a frustratingly slow pace.

Who were the primary influences in your life and career?
I was the first in my family to graduate from college, and my parents sacrificed significantly for it. They were a huge influence in my life. Then there's the high school teacher who put a rope around you and made sure you stayed in line. I am still in touch with that individual, who was a business teacher at my high school. I never actually had him as a teacher, but he was the advisor to the Hi-Y club. And Ed McNeill, a dear friend who took a chance on a young kid from a tiny market, was a tough, hard, wonderful mentor. He is retired in Orlando, and we get together frequently.

What business activities are you working on now?
My co-author and I have five speaking engagements, and we're trying to sell a lot of books! I am also involved with development projects for three entities. They are very exciting, but I can't discuss them. Many people in the meetings industry profess something special about the connections they make with colleagues and competitors. Why is this so? It's because of the wonderful interaction on both sides with people who are very social. It's a pretty pleasant industry! We're not trading commodities; we are all working to create a wonderful experience for the end user, and when nice people try to do nice things, it's a lot of fun. And people outside the industry can't believe we get along with competitors.

What would your industry colleagues be surprised to learn about you?
People would never believe that I could be a beach bum in a heartbeat. We live on a lake with an actual sandy beach, and I practice [the beach bum thing] on occasion. I also love jazz and classical music. And I really enjoy cooking, and not just everyday dinners. I have been known to make a rather delightful lemon meringue pie from scratch, and my repertoire of favorites includes a really good crab soup.

Taking It on the Road

Peeper will be sharing insights from his book Managing Destination Marketing Organizations: The Tasks, Roles and Responsibilities of the Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive next month at both the Missouri Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus Annual Meeting and the Florida Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus Destination Marketing Industry Summit. In his session, he promises to share the good, the bad, and the ugly - the good things as well as the bad things CEOs do ... and some of the potentially ugly things CVB executives may have to deal with in the future, based on conversations Peeper has had with hotel and association executives. To find out more about the book, go to www.managingdestinationmarketing organizations.com.

Contributing Editor Maxine Golding is an award-winning writer, editor, and publishing consultant.