MPI Toronto Chapter Blog

National Meetings Industry Day - Key Messages

Yesterday, over 350 meeting professionals gathered at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto for National Meetings Industry Day. This year's theme People Power - Harnessing collective knowledge for economic success, allowed panelists and the audience to explore the opportunities and challenges of the current economic climate and the need to ensure that the industry message of the value of meetings is being heard by government, media and the general public.

The key points raised were:

• Metrics are essential. Meeting professionals must demonstrate to their companies and clients the value of meetings to the organization. Demonstrating the value (ROI) that meetings contribute to an organization's business objectives and bottom line is essential.
• Meetings Do Mean Business.  Government, media and the general public need to understand the economic impact of meetings and events. In Canada, we are fortunate that the MPI Canadian Economic Impact Study is available as a resource to us to demonstrate that economic value. We need to do a better job of communicating that message.
• We are in this together. National Meetings Industry Day - Toronto was supported by seven of the major industry associations. This speaks volumes. Now is the time for a collective voice, and collective action.
• Take Charge of the Future. In the US, they have developed policy guidelines for meetings. Leaders from key organizations representing the meetings, events and incentive travel industries united to issue guidelines on acceptable business travel practices to companies that have received emergency government lending. The guidelines, built upon existing corporate best practices, are designed to ensure transparency and accountability and protect the one million American jobs supported by corporate meetings and events.The standards support President Obama's recent call for the boards of directors of companies that have received emergency government lending to develop guidelines on conferences, events and employee recognition programs. (excerpt from https://www.mpiweb.org/cms/mpiweb/MPIcontent.aspx?id=23566)
• We Must Change Perceptions. How do we define this industry and what we do? The language we use to define our businesses and our industry is important. Think about your 30-second elevator conversation - Do you define the meetings and events business and your role in it? Do you explain how important meetings and events are to business performance?

If you attended National Meetings Industry Day we would love to hear your thoughts on the discussion. If you didn't attend and have an opinion, we'd also love to hear from you.

Nikki

The Power of Perks and Privileges

The October report on www.trendwatching.com/trends/perkonomics/ is on Perkonomics. The report highlights how 'perks' are being used to satisfy a consumers demand for convenience and status.

So what consitutes a perk? When you can buy your way into the lounge at the airport it seems to no longer be much of a perk... especially to those who were getting this 'exclusive privilege' as a reward for their loyalty and volume usage.

The report highlights that the benefits of offering 'perks'. Here is a cut and paste excert of what they had to say.

• Perks bring much-needed love (if not FREE LOVE), in upturns and downturns, potentially leading to more ‘brand love’.
• Perks help commodity-like industries stand out by conferring a (renewed) sense of uniqueness. Adding perks often requires the ability to partner with other products or services, so brands with the best partnering skills—and therefore access to the best exclusive offers—will win.
• Perks, when done well, foster customer loyalty.
• Perks can give you the leading edge when it comes to attracting first-time customers.
• Perks can make for great if not invaluable PR; customers will tell others—perks are excellent conversation starters—while the media (trend watchers included) love a good perk story.
• Perks can help make boring companies (insurance, anyone ...?) interesting again, and thus more desirable.
• Perks can help cultivate more desirable brand perceptions and associations—think anything from showing you actually care about your customers (gasp!) to showing you care about the environment, offering eco-perks.

(www.trendwatching.com/trends/perkonomics/)

As meetings industry professionals, we are used to some of the perks and privileges offered by service providers to the industry - club floor lounges, dedicated check-in lines, special reservation numbers, upgrades, etc. But how well do we use perks and privileges at meetings and events to build loyalty and new customers amongst meeting attendees? The possibilities could be endless in terms of what is offered, and may also be another opportunity to attract sponsors.

This summer at a music festival I attended, they had 'exclusive' parking for Volkswagen drivers - very clever sponsorship on the part of Volkswagen. And although I am not a Volkswagen driver... I still remember the offering, and here I am blogging about it. 

What interesting perks and privileges have you offered or are you considering offering at your meetings and events? Add a comment and let me know what you are doing, or are planning on doing in the near future.

Nikki 

Pecha Kucha - PowerPoint with Adrenaline

So what is Pecha Kucha anyway? 20 ppt slides, 20 seconds per slide = only 6 minutes and 40 seconds and the presentation is done! Sign me up... where can I attend those sessions? The Youtube clip embedded in this blog is a great demonstration of pecha kucha in action.

In today's world I have less time to do anything so give me the information NOW, I said NOW because I'm multi-tasking and I can't stop because there is a list of 100 things that I have to do so I have to keep going and going until... Well, I think you get the point.

Pecha Kucha would seem to fit right in with the need for information quickly. And while this format may not be appropriate for all meetings, it offers an interesting element of high-visual, succinct presentation which may just offer the necessary shake-up to the talking head syndrome that a lot of conferences and events suffer from.

I am hoping that readers of this blog will be able to offer further insights into pecha kucha - have you used it? How did it work? Did it enhance or hinder the  meeting? What was the learning curve for the presenter?

For more information check out these sites:

• http://meetingsnet.com/technology/pecha_kucha_powerpoint/
• http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog//2008/04/a-primer-on-pec.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecha_Kucha

Nikki