All associations have taken a hard look at their meeting expenses, and The Endocrine Society is no exception. When estimates for a shuttle service - to run during the morning and evening peak as well as in a continuous loop throughout the day - came in at six figures for its 91st Annual Meeting, ENDO 09, held June 10-13 in Washington, D.C., "we started looking at ways we could save," said Wanda M. Johnson, CMP, CAE, senior director of meetings and education. "We looked at the hotels in our 25-hotel room block that we absolutely had to shuttle to, because we felt the distance was too great [to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center]. We came up with a secondary plan to shuttle to the hotels that were really the outliers."

Then the society's executive director issued a challenge. "He felt that since Washington, D.C., is our home city and we know it relatively well - and with the public-transportation system in the city and the fact that it is walkable - that we really didn't need a shuttle," Johnson said.

After what she called a "long and arduous process," the decision was made to offer no shuttle service at all at the annual meeting. "It was not a decision that I agreed with," she said. "My team's angst was off the scale. Our director of meetings, Beth Strelitz, and I were definitely feeling that the attendees were going to be upset. We'd always offered them a shuttle." Somehow, she said, The Endocrine Society was going to have to "alleviate the anxiety that someone coming to the city for the first time might have about not being able to go to the front of the hotel and hop on the shuttle."

Johnson said she and her team were committed to finding an approach that might not necessarily be a "win-win," but would make the best of a bad situation. Their solution was to arm attendees with as much information as possible. Johnson said: "We put together walking maps, or information guides, that told attendees how they could get to the convention center from the hotel using public transportation, or if they wanted to walk, what would be the best route to see some sights of interest along the way, ... how much the Metro fare would cost, everything we could think of. Because we realized that information was going to be the key." (See sidebar above.)

The second strategy was to "scream from the rafters that we were [starting] a green initiative by not having shuttles," Johnson said, "and that people should bring comfortable walking shoes, an umbrella, and be prepared to get themselves from the hotel to the convention center and back each day." Its Web site, it electronic news-blasts, its confirmation letters - any communication that the society had with a registrant was an opportunity to reinforce the shuttle-free message. (See Web box and sidebar on p. 17.)

Johnson also got buy-in from the CVB, Destination DC, so "ambassadors on the street" could direct people to the convention center, and taxis would be available, "especially when the exhibit closed each day and the exhibitors left en masse," she said. "We knew that [the exhibitors] may not want to be part of our green movement, and we needed to have a plan."

Luckily, the weather cooperated (but complimentary plastic rain ponchos were offered on site, just in case). And so did the 8,700-plus attendees and exhibitors - one-third of whom were from other countries.

"If we had five complaints about the lack of shuttle, I'm exaggerating," Johnson said. "We even had a couple of people who complimented us. So it was a surprising outcome, because we honestly thought we would have people livid with us. And they weren't."

Dear ENDO Attendee:

Registrants for The Endocrine Society's 91st Annual Meeting - ENDO 09 - received a reminder e-mail prior to packing for their trip with directions to the convention center from their specific hotel:

"Don't forget your umbrella (or pick one up at the ENDO Store), pack your walking shoes and plan to enjoy the sights in Washington! ENDO 09 is ‘going green' by eliminating shuttle bus service.

For your convenience, we've attached a map. These maps are also available online and will be available upon check in at your hotel. For additional assistance, see hotel staff with welcome buttons."

Take Away

"The lesson we learned is that what we have always viewed as a must, isn't," said Wanda M. Johnson, CMP, CAE,senior director of meetings and education for The Endocrine Society.

"We'll be in San Diego next year, and because of our hotel package, we won't need a shuttle. But now when we go to other cities where we've normally said, ‘Oh, we've got to have shuttles,' we're going to take a hard look at it and say, ‘Where is the outer limit?' And I don't think we will ever automatically run a shuttle again to every hotel in our block as we've done in the past. Those days are over."

‘The Amazing Hotel Step Challenge'

"We were a little uncomfortable about whether the walking directions we would get from Google Maps or MapQuest were going to be accurate [for ENDO 09 attendees],"
said Wanda M. Johnson, CMP, CAE, senior director of meetings and education for The Endocrine Society. So Fred Moxley, the organization's meetings manager, devised a one-day scavenger hunt for the approximately 55 staff members who were going to be involved with the meeting, to give them the opportunity to walk from the hotels to the convention center themselves.

Johnson said: "We told [each four-member team], ‘You have to get to Dupont Circle,
you have to walk from Dupont Circle to your assigned hotel, and then walk from your assigned hotel to the convention center. Along the way you have to find certain items and answer questions, and take pictures.' For instance, when we got to our hotels, we had to take a picture with a hotel staff person in front of the hotel."

Team members not only verified the route with the directions they had received, but
made notes if they saw that there was an easier way to get there, down to whether they should walk on the right or left side of the street. "Whatever nuances you saw, you made note of these, and we then incorporated these notes into the final walking instructions/information sheets that we sent to the registrants," she said. "And at the end of the day, when everyone got to the convention center, we did our convention center tour."

Not only was it "a fun way to engage the staff," Johnson said, "it brought to light any possible challenges that we were going to have with the hotels that were pretty far out, so that we could be honest about what the attendee was going to experience and also give them some tricks of the trade."

Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene.

Innovative Meetings is sponsored by the Irving, Texas, Convention and Visitors Bureau, www.irvingtexas.com.