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MEETINGS
INCENTIVE TRAVEL
CONFERENCES
CONVENTIONS
EXHIBITIONS
SOURCING
DESTINATIONS
REWARDS
MEASUREMENTS
BUDGETS
PROCUREMENT
TECHNOLOGY
MARKETING
SOCIAL MEDIA
ATTENDEES
SHOW MANAGERS
CORPORATE
GOVERNMENT
ASSOCIATION
THIRD-PARTY
PLANNERS
SUCCESS
MARCH.APRIL 2015
15-03-19 2:06 PM
p01-03 Cover4.indd 1
REPOR
WHERE IS
THE INDUSTRY
HEADING?
MARKET
2015
EDUCATION IN BUSINESS EVENTS+TECHNOLOGY+PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT+DESTINATIONS+REWARDS+
PM 40069240
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Re
Su
Ter
Th
Th
Th
Th
CO
Ga
Th
Th
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Th
CO
Fo
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15-03-19 2:06 PM
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ARIZONA
Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
Fairmont Scottsdale Princess
Loews Ventana Canyon
Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa
Royal Palms Resort and Spa
The Wigwam
CALIFORNIA
Bacara Resort & Spa
Hard Rock Hotel San Diego
Hotel del Coronado
Hotel Irvine Jamboree Center
Hotel Nikko
InterContinental Mark Hopkins
InterContinental San Francisco
Island Hotel Newport Beach
Loews Coronado Bay
Loews Hollywood Hotel
Loews Santa Monica
Beach Hotel
Miramonte Resort & Spa
Ojai Valley Inn & Spa
Omni La Costa Resort & Spa
Omni Rancho Las Palmas
Resort & Spa
Pebble Beach Resorts
Rancho Bernardo Inn
Resort at Squaw Creek
Surf & Sand Resort
Terranea Resort
The Grand Del Mar
The Langham Huntington
The Meritage Resort and Spa
The Resort at Pelican Hill
COLORADO
Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa
The Broadmoor
The Inverness Hotel and
Conference Center
The Sebastian Vail
CONNECTICUT
Foxwoods Resort Casino
Mohegan Sun
FLORIDA
Fontainebleau
InterContinental Miami
InterContinental Tampa
Loews Don CeSar Hotel
Loews Miami Beach Hotel
Loews Portofino Bay Hotel
at Universal Orlando®
FLORIDA (con’t)
Loews Royal Pacific
at Universal Orlando®
Naples Grande Beach Resort
Ocean Reef Club
Omni Orlando Resort at
ChampionsGate
One Ocean Resort & Spa
PGA National Resort & Spa
Ponte Vedra Inn & Club
Ponte Vedra Lodge & Club
Rosen Shingle Creek
Saddlebrook Resort
The Biltmore
The Breakers
The Naples Beach Hotel &
Golf Club
Trump National Doral Miami
Villas of Grand Cypress
GEORGIA
Château Élan
Loews Atlanta Hotel
The Cloister at Sea Island
The Lodge at Sea Island
Golf Club
HAWAII
Halekulani
Mauna Lani Bay Hotel &
Bungalows
The MODERN Honolulu
Turtle Bay Resort
IDAHO
Sun Valley Resort
The Coeur d’Alene
ILLINOIS
Fairmont Chicago,
Millennium Park
InterContinental Chicago
Loews Chicago Hotel
Loews Chicago O’Hare Hotel
Sofitel Chicago Water Tower
The Langham Chicago
The Peninsula Chicago
LOUISIANA
Hotel Monteleone
Loews New Orleans Hotel
MARYLAND
Loews Annapolis Hotel
Royal Sonesta Harbor Court
Baltimore
MASSACHUSETTS
InterContinental Boston
Loews Boston Hotel
Ocean Edge Resort & Golf Club
Seaport Hotel & World
Trade Center
The Langham Boston
MICHIGAN
Amway Grand Plaza
MGM Grand Detroit
MINNESOTA
Loews Minneapolis Hotel
MISSISSIPPI
Beau Rivage Resort & Casino
MISSOURI
Hotel Sorella Country Club Plaza
The Chase Park Plaza
NEVADA
ARIA
Bellagio
Delano Las Vegas
Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino
Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas
MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
Monte Carlo Resort and Casino
Skylofts at MGM Grand
The Mirage
The Signature at MGM Grand
Vdara Hotel & Spa
NEW YORK
Langham Place, Fifth Avenue
Loews Regency Hotel
The New York Palace
NORTH CAROLINA
Pinehurst
The Carolina Inn
The Omni Grove Park Inn
TENNESSEE
Loews Vanderbilt Hotel
The Peabody Hotel
TEXAS
At&T Executive Education
and Conference Center
Hotel Valencia Riverwalk
InterContinental Dallas
La Cantera Hill Country Resort
Omni Dallas Hotel
The Adolphus
The Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa
UTAH
Little America Hotel
Montage Deer Valley
The Grand America Hotel
VERMONT
Stowe Mountain Lodge
VIRGINIA
Colonial Williamsburg Hotels
Lansdowne Resort
Salamander Resort & Spa
CURAÇAO
Santa Barbara Beach & Golf Resort
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Paradisus Palma Real Resort
Paradisus Punta Cana Resort
GRENADA
Sandals LaSource Grenada
Resort & Spa
WASHINGTON
Motif Seattle
Pan Pacific Hotel Seattle
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Loews Madison Hotel
Mandarin Oriental,
Washington DC
Omni Shoreham Hotel
The Washington Court Hotel
Willard InterContinental
MEXICO
LIVE Aqua
Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach
Fiesta Americana Grand Los Cabos
Paradisus Playa del Carmen
La Esmeralda
Paradisus Playa del Carmen La Perla
WEST VIRGINIA
The Greenbrier
PANAMA
InterContinental Playa Bonita
Resort & Spa
WISCONSIN
The American Club Resort
DESTINATIONS OUTSIDE
THE USA
PENNSYLVANIA
Loews Philadelphia Hotel
ANTIGUA
Sandals Grand Anitgua
Resort & Spa
SOUTH CAROLINA
Belmond Charleston
Place Hotel
CANADA
Loews Hotel Vogue Montréal
Pan Pacific Vancouver
JAMAICA
Half Moon
Sandals Grand Riviera
Sandals Royal Plantation
Sandals Whitehouse
European Village & Spa
OREGON
Sunriver Resort
PUERTO RICO
Gran Meliá Golf Resort
BERMUDA*
Elbow Beach Resort
Fairmont Hamilton Princess
Fairmont Southampton
Newstead Belmont Hills
Golf Resort & Spa
Rosewood Tucker’s Point
The Reefs Resort & Club
BAHAMAS
Atlantis Paradise Island*
One&Only Ocean Club
Sandals Emerald Bay
Sandals Royal Bahamian
ST. LUCIA
Sandals Grand St. Lucian
TURKS & CAICOS
Beaches Turks & Caicos Resort
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Visit ALHI.com and contact your local ALHI Sales Professional
or call our luxury group desk at 866-303-2544.
15-03-19 2:06 PM
+CONTENTS
features
36
FILLING THE ROOM
New data and expert advice
on how to build attendance
BY LORI SMITH
41
2015 MARKET REPORT
Our annual look at where
the industry’s heading
Text by LORI SMITH
Survey by GERALD BRAMM
& ASSOCIATES
41
17
4
34
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p04-05 Contents.indd 4
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+CONTENTS
columns
17
20
21
LEADERSHIP
BY PADRAIC GILLIGAN
BY LORI SMITH
EXPERT OPINION
BY SCOTT STRATTEN
BY LORI SMITH
ASK AN EXPERT
departments
6
What’s New on
MeetingsCanada.com
BY ROD CAMERON for AIPC
9
Contributors
BUSINESS MATTERS
11
Letter from the C-suite
12
Editor’s Comment
15
Event Wrap-Ups
16
Agenda
67
Gifts + Gear
7 1
Snapped
74
Find
CONVENTION FILE
BY MARK WARDELL
HARD WIRED
Brain dates and new microphones
BY CHRISTINE OTSUKA
TWENTYSOMETHING
Meet Chantal Champagne, Event Manager,
Strauss Event & Association Management
AS TOLD TO CHRISTINE OTSUKA
31
SANTA MONICA, CA
Giving groups a taste of California living
Maximizing your B2B marketing efforts
30
62
Using technology for the right reasons
Changing the perception of events
29
SOUTH KOREA
MICE in the Land of the Morning Calm
AS TOLD TO CHRISTINE OTSUKA
26
56
Confronting the sinister side of travel
Ditching the event Facebook Page;
when a speaker disappoints
24
destinations
GOOD FOR YOU
Slowing down to stay in the moment
BY CHRISTINE OTSUKA
34
CUISCENE
Expanding the possibilities of potatoes
BY DON DOULOFF
56
26
62
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p04-05 Contents.indd 5
5
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what's new on
NEWS
HOTELS
RISING
BUDGETS MEET
INCREASING
COSTS
The winter 2015
edition of MPI’s
Meetings Outlook
finds the industry
LE MERIDIEN VERSAILLES,
MONTREAL COMPLETES RENO
healthy. However,
planners will
APPOINTMENT
F&B
have to sharpen
their pencils as
costs on the
supply side rise.
SUSAN PROPHET
JOINS MPI
TEAM
ALGONQUIN
GETS NEW
EXEC CHEF
w
BLOG
Gerry Sandusky
Broadcaster,
Corporate
Trainer & Author
“All teams are groups, but not all
groups are teams. Calling a group
a team doesn’t make it one.
That’s the team myth.”
Listen in on the conversation or better
yet, join in! Follow us on Twitter for the
latest breaking industry news and updates
@MeetingsCanada
6
View and share event photos, ask for advice
from other planners and suppliers or react
to industry headlines on our Facebook page
(facebook.com/MeetingsCanada)
QUOTABLE
“Your brand is
the character,
the constitution,
even the soul
of your
company.”
Mark Wardell
President, Wardell International
“Building a Better Brand”
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p06-07 WhatsOn Website.indd 6
15-03-19 2:08 PM
#myphx
This is the moment it felt like you were
exactly where you were supposed to be.
You wouldn’t have guessed it. But you’ll never forget it.
p06-07 WhatsOn Website.indd 7
15-03-19 2:08 PM
WHAT ABOUT
THE INDUSTRY
INSPIRES
YOU?
VOLUME 44, NUMBER 2
MARCH.APRIL 2015
General Manager R O B IN PA IS LE Y
[email protected]
“I am inspired by the movement
towards greater collaboration
amongst industry partners.”
EDITORIAL
“The great grace under pressure
Editor
416.442.5600 x3254
LO R I S MIT H
Associate Editor
416.442.5600 x3255
CHR IST IN E OTS U KA
Art Director
416.442.5600 x3590
that is a characteristic of
planners and suppliers.”
[email protected]
“The people! Their passion
and dedication
inspires me.”
[email protected]
ART
“Haven’t been here
long but so far I’ve met
some lovely people.”
ELLIE ROBINSON
[email protected]
SALES
“The people, their passion
and their creativity.”
Senior Account Manager CO R I-A N N CA N U E L
Canada + USA [email protected]
416.510.6819
International Business A LA N N A MCQ UA ID
“Excitement, adventure,
Development Manager [email protected]
accomplishment and most
416.510.5144
of all—working with the best
people in the WORLD!”
INCENTIVEWORKS
Event Coordinator ST E P HA N IE HILTZ
416.442.5600 x5213 [email protected]
Event Coordinator
416.442.5600 x3213
ST E P HA N IE RA P KO
Event Manager
416.442.5600 x3214
LO R I W IN CH
“Seeing the
ideas come alive.”
Events Intern
416.442.5600 x5238
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS
Rod Cameron (AIPC), Don Douloff, Padraic Gilligan,
Tod Maffin, Amy Ruddell, Scott Stratten, Mark Wardell
[email protected]
[email protected]
JE SS ICA S ILIP O
[email protected]
“The endless learning and
growth opportunities!”
CIRCULATION + PRODUCTION + ONLINE
Circulation Manager B E ATA O LEC H N OW I C Z
416.442.5600 x3543
Vice-President +
General Manager
JOE GLION N A
Market Production Manager
416.510.6762
President
JIM GLIONN A
Production Manager (Online)
416.442.5600 x3221
NEWCOM BUSINESS MEDIA
“The industry’s ability to bring
together individuals face-to-face in
unlikely combinations, who then can
enact real change in the world.”
BOlechnowicz@@annexnewcom.ca
T RACE Y HA N SO N
THanson@@annexnewcom.ca
D E B B IE S MI TH
[email protected]
Meetings + Incentive Travel (M+IT) magazine receives unsolicited features and materials (including letters to the editor) from time to time. M+IT, its affiliates and assignees may use, reproduce, publish, re-publish, distribute, store and archive
such submissions in whole or in part in any form or medium whatsoever, without compensation of any sort. MAIL PREFERENCES: Occasionally we make our subscriber list available to reputable companies whose products or services may be of
interest to you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods: Phone: 1-800-668-2374, Fax: 416-442-2191, E-Mail: [email protected], SUBSCRIPTION PRICE:
Canada $77.95 per year, Outside Canada $108.00 US per year, Single Copy Canada $13.00, Buyers Guide $60.95. HST #10386 2405 RT0001. Meetings + Incentive Travel is published 6 times per year except for occasional combined, expanded
or premium issues, which count as two subscription issues. Meetings + Incentive Travel is indexed in the Canadian Business Index and is available online in the Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database. Contents Copyright Newcom
Business Media. Canada Post — Canadian publications Mail Sales Product Agreement 40069240 ISSN No. 0225-8285 (Print) ISSN No. 1929-6428 (Online). 80 Valleybrook Drive, North York, ON M3B 2S9. We acknowledge the financial support
of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
8
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
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contributors
17
21
24
34
PADRAI C GILLIGAN
Eyes Wide Open
AMY RUD DE LL
Ask An Expert
R O D CA ME R O N (A IP C)
How Far Have We Really Come?
D O N D O U LO F F
Side Show
“The people! The meetings
industry is a magnet
that attracts the most
amazingly talented and
creative people.”
“The opportunity to
work and collaborate
with the many creative
and resourceful minds
within our industry.”
“It’s an exciting industry
because by definition it
interacts with and supports
the whole spectrum
of human activity.”
“Planners’ endless creativity
and boundless energy, and
their fierce dedication to
putting together engaging
meetings and events.”
Contact Padraic at
[email protected]
Contact Amy at
[email protected]
Contact Rod at
[email protected]
Contact Don at
[email protected]
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
9
15-03-19 2:09 PM
The versatile Acadia Meeting Room, with
natural light pouring through floor to ceiling
windows, offers gorgeous views of Halifax’s
Historic Properties, and 2,800 sq. ft. of
flexible floor space. Perfect for business or
personal events, the Acadia Meeting Room
is part of our 22,000 sq. ft. of high quality
convention space that our client hosts
return to time and again.
Client: Marriot
Job Number: 5286 Marriott Acadia Meeting Room Ad
A S P A C E TO M E E T
ANY DEMAND
H ALIFAX M AR R I OT T H AR B OUR F RONT
1 9 1 9 U PPER WAT E R ST R E ET, H A LI F A X , NOV A SCOT IA
PH O N E 9 0 2 . 4 2 1 . 1 7 0 0 W W W . H A LI F A X MA RRIOT T . COM
FACEBOOK.COM/HALIFAXMARRIOTTHARBOURFRONT
TWITTER @HALIFAXMARRIOTT
15-03-19 2:09 PM
+LETTER FROM THE C-SUITE
HI, MY NAME IS JOE
Greetings.
ng
’s
Client: Marriot
Job Number: 5286 Marriott Acadia Meeting Room Ad
Pub: M&IT Magazine
Specs: 8.125” x 10.75” CMYK .125” bleed
Contact #: 902-835-3559
r
m
Please don’t mistake me for a new editor, I plan on leaving the content of
these pages to people far more qualified than myself. So why am I taking up
this space? In January my company, Newcom Business Media, purchased this
magazine as well as the IncentiveWorks show.
Typically, subscribers of a magazine know what articles they like and what
columnists they prefer. The corporate entity is just a logo in the masthead.
The reason this acquisition is different for you comes down to our publishing
philosophy: “We Serve Our Advertisers Best By Putting Our Readers First.” You
are the most important part of the equation in our business model. Without qualified readers, we have nothing to sell advertisers. And without top quality editorial,
you’re not going to turn the pages. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it?
I will be speaking to the advertisers separately, explaining to them why this
model is the right one and that it has served my family well, dating back to
1929 when my grandfather started working for Bus & Truck Magazine. I am a
third-generation business magazine publisher and very proud of our history.
Switching gears, the meetings, incentives and show industries are rapidly
changing and Newcom knows this all too well, producing trade shows and conferences in the trucking industry (Truck World in Toronto is one of Canada’s largest trade shows). There was a blog post on this magazine’s website recently
whose author posed the question, “Are trade shows passé?” I sure hope not! I just
bought IncentiveWorks and plan on keeping it for a while. But I think the intended
message was meant to suggest that what worked yesterday won’t necessarily
work tomorrow and if meeting planners and show organizers don’t stay on top of
these changes, your shows and events will get left behind.
Hopefully that’s where we come in. I’d like for you to read this magazine every
issue and be able to say to yourself, “I’m a better planner.” Our job is to educate,
inform and keep you up-to-date on the industry’s happenings. I look forward to
getting to know some of you, attending industry events, and becoming a better
planner myself. And I would like to hear from you. There is an open door policy
at Newcom, my contact information is easily found and nothing helps make us
better than getting feedback from our most important allies: you.
Thank you for reading.
J OE G L I ON N A
Vice President & General Manager
Newcom Business Media
(416) 459-2365 (Toronto)
(514) 213-4003 (Montreal)
[email protected]
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
11
15-03-20 12:20 PM
+EDITOR’SCOMMENT
THE PLANNER PARADOX
COMING NEXT ISSUE
2015 M+IT Salary Survey results; NMID
cross-country recap; meetings at sea;
and destination reports on Santa Barbara, CA and Nashville, TN.
STAY IN THE KNOW
Sign up for our newsletters,
delivered right to your inbox.
Weekly The top five must-read stories
of the week, plus industry blogs and
important dates.
Monthly In case you missed it, we
recap the most-read industry news
of the month.
meetingscanada.com/newsletters
Many years ago I was considering attending a trade show in Europe. When I
researched airfares, I discovered that extending my stay by two days would result
in substantial savings. Even when I added
in the cost of the extra nights of accommodation, the total was less than the bill with
the shorter-stay airfare. I thought it was
great. I would save the company money! I
presented the information to the decisionmaker, who dismissed it immediately. The
extra days had the whiff of pleasure, and
business and pleasure could not be mixed.
I’m telling you this story because the
still-existing corporate and cultural belief in the old adage of not mixing business with pleasure has resulted in what I
call “The Planner Paradox.” In reality, a
planner’s job is to create events (meetings, conferences, conventions, incentive
travel programs) that effectively combine
the seemingly contradictory elements of
business and pleasure. However, I have observed that any emphasis on the latter is
perceived as diminishing the power of the
former and the industry.
Meetings do mean business. They also
mean pleasure in the form of good food,
nice hotels, parties, stimulating education,
interesting destinations, etc. Look at the
new data from The Experience Institute
(page 36) on how people are making the
decision to attend conferences and exhibitions. Destination matters. Content and
networking opportunities top it, but where
an event is being held is a significant factor
in the decision-to-attend for a large portion of potential participants. But, Wendy
Holliday of Velvet Chainsaw is right in advising in that same article that organizers
must promote destinations judiciously.
Any whiff of vacation (i.e. pleasure) could
have deleterious results, particularly for
those who do not have power over the decision to attend.
Will this change? New research on Millennials, the demographic that will have
the largest presence in the workplace in
the coming years, shows an enthusiasm for
what is being called “bleisure”—a combination of business and leisure. They are also
the generation experiencing work environments that have pool tables and treadmills.
When this group hits the C-suite (in
some industries they are already there),
I think it will be recognized that far from
being contradictory, business and pleasure
are complementary—both essential to a
company’s or event’s success. I also think
that as a result planners will see a new respect for their ability to create ways to mix
business and pleasure.
I look forward to that day.
LORI SMITH
EDITOR
[email protected]
M+IT EDITORIAL MANDATE Meetings industry and travel publications are often offered free FAM trips, accommodations and gifts.
M+IT magazine only accepts those that will be featured in the magazine or online through editorial content. Destinations are chosen
through reader surveys and market research.
12
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
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NIAGARA FALLS - FALLSVIEW
15-03-19 2:09 PM
15-03-19 2:09 PM
+WRAPUPS
PCMA CONVENING LEADERS 2015
PCMA continued its experimentation this
year at its 59th annual Convening Leaders conference. About 4,000 industry
professionals gathered in Chicago January
11-14 to learn from thought leaders in and
around the meetings industry and experience innovations in meeting design.
This year’s theme, “Make No Little
Plans,” is part of a quote by Daniel Burnham, an American architect and urban designer, and event organizers took that to
heart.
From the opening reception at the
1
Museum of Science and Industry that saw
Chicago neighbourhoods come to life over
three levels, and indoor park complete with
street lamps, park benches and foliage, to
the opportunity to go behind the scenes at
the general sessions and see the Freeman
crew and event organizers at work, PCMA
had big plans for this event. Convening
Leaders also spread out around the city
this year. While the majority of sessions
took place in the West Building at McCormick Place, some programming was held
at two downtown Chicago hotels—The
CANSPEP
2015 ANNUAL
CONFERENCE
This year’s CanSPEP conference was held
in Saskatoon, February 26-28. As a first
time CanSpep event attendee the sense
of community and unity among this group
was apparent right away! The theme of the
conference this year was MEET – LEARN –
GROW. And that we did.
The conference began early Thursday
morning as the planner attendees headed
out to Wanuskewin Heritage Park for a day
designed just for them. The event began
with a cleansing ceremony called “smudging” and an opening prayer by an Elder, followed by a session about enhancing business with Aboriginal Culture and learning
about the rich contributions Aboriginal
people have made to Canada and how
awareness of their culture can be successfully integrated into events representing
Sheraton and the Hyatt Regency Chicago
—a departure from years past.
This year, PCMA organizers drew up a
different educational plan. Attendees saw
fewer breakout sessions in favour of an
expansive Learning Lounge, which featured shorter sessions and smaller group
sizes. In addition, TechCentral, which was
once only a small part of the conference,
was integrated into the Learning Lounge
and attendees had the opportunity to test
products, software, apps and attend techbased sessions.
Breakouts were separated into four
colour-coded tracks to better organize the
content being delivered: Event Technology
and Intelligence, Meeting and Experience
Design, Operational Strategy and Globalization. The educational program also
included eight Thought Leader sessions
and six Business School sessions with university professors discussing finance and
business strategies.
All in all, the changes to the education
content created more balance between
traditional and non-traditional learning
formats, but the noise level in the Learning
Lounge often detracted from the quality of
the learning experience.
And to provide even more value to conference attendees PCMA organizers have
made recordings of certain sessions available to all attendees for free for 60 days
following the conference. In the past, these
recordings were available, but not complimentary for attendees of the live event.
Next year, PCMA’s flagship conference
comes North, as Vancouver will host the
60th annual Convening Leaders January
10-13, 2016. –Christine Otsuka
Canada. A First Nations Dance ceremony
was performed over lunch before heading
into the afternoon sessions. The planner
day ended with a blessing by the Elder.
When I spoke to the event organizer,
Claire Belanger-Parker, about why she
chose this specific location for the event,
she said she felt it “was the perfect location to create a respectful learning environment and a chance to experience
something unique and for some, step out
of their comfort zone.”
This portion of the program set the tone
for the remainder of the conference, a supportive network, a safe learning space, and
the tools to help you grow.
The opening dinner was a ComiCon
themed event. Many attendees took this
opportunity to release their inner Super
Heroes and we all had a good laugh thanks
to comedian Kelly Taylor.
Day two offered more great education
and networking at the suppliers showcase
followed by a dinner at Champêtre County,
a Wild West-themed saloon in the prairies
that brought us back in time. After a sleigh
ride, a great home-cooked meal and some
good ol’ dancing we headed to the hotel
feeling like we really experienced the hospitality that the West is famous for.
To switch things up a little on day three,
the planning committee put together
“CanSpep Talks”– seven speakers, seven
minutes each! Both planner and supplier
presenters were pre-selected to educate
or entertain the audience on a variety of
industry related topics or personal stories
that shared challenges and successes. This
was a great way to get attendees involved
in content creation and it was also inspiring
to see our peers get up in front of the room
and take a risk!
The conference wrapped up with the
CanSpep awards gala. Robert Thomson,
AV Canada was awarded Supplier of the
Year and Rita Plaskett, Agendum, received
the Leadership Award.
If the goals of this conference were to
Meet, Learn and Grow, I think that I speak
for everyone when I say that this mission
was achieved! Next year’s conference will
be held in Windsor. –Cori-Ann Canuel
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
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+WRAPUPS
REVEAL 2015 SOCIAL
Talk about collaboration! This year
destination marketing organizations from across Canada came
together to host the first annual
REVEAL event. Instead of each
destination hosting their own event
which is how it was previously
done, REVEAL brought over 100
planners and 15 destinations under
one roof giving everyone more time
to network.
The event was held at the Lowertown Brewery in the Byward Market
in Ottawa the evening before CSAE
Tete-a-Tete and MPI Ottawa’s Charity Gala and included entertainment
from four musical acts sponsored by
Ottawa Tourism (Backbeat); Yukon
Convention Bureau (Can Caners,
Snowshoe Shufflers & the Legendary Sour Toe Cocktail); Destination
St. John’s (Spirit of Newfoundland);
and Travel Alberta (Dueling Piano
Show). Nine other destinations
were also represented at the event:
Fredericton, NB; Halifax, NS; London, ON; Moncton, NB; Northwest
Territories; Richmond, BC; Regina,
SK; Saint John, NB; Saskatoon, SK;
Winnipeg, MB; and Victoria, BC. Reveal 2015 was produced by CanPlan
Event & Conference Services and
Freeman Audio Visual Canada. –
Cori-Ann Canuel
+AGENDA
event spotlight
Keep on top of professional development and networking opportunities
in the business events community.
APRIL
National Meetings Industry Day
The Canadian chapters of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) will once
again celebrate the industry with a roster
of inspiring cross-country events. Here
in Canada members of the industry will
gather in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and
Vancouver to learn and connect through
a variety of educational and networking opportunities. This year, for the first
time, we will be joined in the celebration
by event pros in the United States and
Mexico. nmid.ca
Visit chapter sites for more information
on NMID celebrations:
Halifax – mpiatlantic.com
Montreal – mpimontrealquebec.com
Ottawa – mpiottawa.ca
Toronto – mpitoronto.org
Winnipeg - mpimanitoba.ca
Edmonton - mpiedmonton.org
Calgary - mpi-gcc.org
Vancouver - mpibcchapter.com
Meetings Industry
Euchre Tournament (MIET)
The Allstream Centre at Exhibition Place
in Toronto will once again host the Meetings Industry Euchre Tournament (MIET).
Offering beginner and advanced stream
tournament play, a casual dinner and
networking opportunities, the event
gives industry members the chance to
have fun while raising funds in support
of the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, a renowned leader in the fight
against cancer. miet.ca
ADDITIONAL INDUSTRY EVENTS:
APRIL
++ 14 Site Canada Social, Toronto, ON
++ 16-17 Convivium, MPI Montreal &
Quebec, Montreal, QC
++ 20-22 GBTA Conference, Toronto, ON
MAY
++ 7 MPI Ottawa Prix Prestige Gala,
Gatineau-Ottawa, ON
++ 19-21 IMEX Frankfurt, Frankfurt, DE
++ 26-29 Rendez-vous Canada, Niagara
Falls, ON
++ 30-JUNE 3 IPW 2015, Orlando, FL
JUNE
++ 7-9 MPI Toronto Education
Conference, Blue Mountain, ON
++ 14-17 PCMA 2015 Education
Conference, Fort Lauderdale, FL
++ 24-26 FICP Education Forum,
Washington, D.C.
FOR MORE INDUSTRY EVENTS, VISIT
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
FICP® – Financial & Insurance Conference Planners GBTA - Global Business Travel Association Canada MPI - Meeting Professionals International
PCMA – Professional Convention Management Association SITE – Society for Incentive Travel Excellence
16
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p15-16 WrapUpsNewsAgenda.indd 16
15-03-19 2:09 PM
EYES
WIDE
OPEN
+LEADERSHIP
Time to
confront the
sinister side
of travel
BY PADRAIC GILLIGAN
Amongst the priorities for her year as president of the Society for
Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), Rhonda Brewer, vice-president
of sales for Maritz Travel Company, listed shedding needed light
on the crime of child sex trafficking, a practice, according to research, that grows significantly before and during large events.
SITE intends to use its truly global membership (there are members in a staggering 90 countries) to support ECPAT International,
a global network of organizations working together to end child
prostitution, child pornography and the trafficking of children for
©Thinkstock
p17-19 Leadership .indd 17
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
17
15-03-19 2:09 PM
+LEADERSHIP
sexual purposes. SITE fully subscribes to Mark Twain’s famous
statement about the transformational impact of travel: “Travel
is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and
narrow-mindedness, and many
of our people need it sorely on
these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men
and things cannot be acquired by
vegetating in one little corner of
the earth all one’s lifetime.”
Yet SITE acknowledges that
there can be another side to
international travel; a sinister,
ugly underbelly that involves the
sexual exploitation of children
and their treatment as commodities to be traded across borders.
Rhonda Brewer deserves huge
kudos for leveraging her leadership at SITE to highlight this immensely important ethical issue.
And, SITE’s management team
should also be thanked for taking
on what will be a long-term initiative that only begins with its 2015
goal of creating awareness and
providing education on the issue.
These actions are all the more
impressive as the MICE industry
hasn’t exactly distinguished itself
for its pioneering pronouncements on ethical matters, preferring, most of the time, to behave
like the proverbial ostrich with its
head firmly in the sand.
RESOURCES
ECPAT International –
www.ecpat.net
“A Time for Ethics” by
Martin Lewis, Meetpie.
com, March 25, 2013
(bit.ly/Time4Ethics)
“Big debate: Industry
figures dismiss Russia
events boycott,” Conference & Incentive Travel,
August 28, 2013. (bit.ly/
IndustryDebateRussia)
18
Sochi: A Tipping Point?
The systematic, ongoing appalling treatment of the LGBT
(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender) community by the
Russian authorities and the subsequent general call for a boycott
of the Sochi Olympic Games did
lead to some MICE industry comment spearheaded, mainly by
Martin Lewis of CAT Publications
in the UK. On its online platform,
MeetPie.com (“A Time for Ethics,” March 25, 2013) Lewis posed
a series of searching questions
arising out of key aspects of what
we do as an industry—choice of
destination, choice of suppliers,
choice of clients, etc.
“Is this a tipping moment? Is
this a time for us to take a more
principled view of the world and
stop choosing destinations where
citizens are not free to choose
their destiny? And should we stop
handling clients whose activities
do not stand close examination?
Many companies are correctly asking suppliers to be transparent and
reveal their CSR credentials before
doing business with them. Isn’t
it time our industry added ethics
to the discussion and turned the
spotlight on some of the clients as
well as the supply chain?”
Lewis’s questions provoked
quite a reaction with industry
heavyweights including Motivcom’s Nigel Cooper and Spectra’s Paul Miller contributing
thoughtful responses. The common thread across all responses
being a strong intake of breath
and the statement: “This is a
very complex issue.”
The Complexities
But to say that ethics in the
meetings industry is complex
is like saying Bill Gates is rich.
Like Gates’ billions which, each
second, generate millions in
interest, the nuanced subtleties of any ethical discussion
expand and grow like rampant bindweed. Conversations
about ethics in business are
notoriously difficult to start due
to our widely different departure points and our plethora of
filters. They tend to end in anger, frustration or tears and so,
many of us simply avoid going
there much in the way we sidestep discussion about religion or
politics. But do these inherent
difficulties exonerate us from
engaging in the discussion?
Reasonable Responses
Conference & Incentive Travel
magazine reproduced extracts
from interviews with three
agency leaders in the United
Kingdom (UK) following the Sochi issue. All three dismissed the
idea of a boycott (“Big debate:
Industry figures dismiss Russia events boycott,” August 28,
2013). Interestingly, two of the
three respondents dismissed the
boycott because they believed it
would be ineffective, a lone “sulking voice crying in the wilderness:
“If the UK Government was
leading some kind of charge,
then fine—but it isn’t and therefore a boycott would only ever
be a personal view on behalf
of an event agency or an event
client.” – Simon Maier, TFI Group
“Unless you represent a sizeable portion of the buying population of a country or supplier, a
boycott is no more than sulking;
it doesn’t have any real impact. I
wish the UK meetings market was
a large enough customer of Russia to make a boycott significant
to the suppliers over there, but
sadly it is not.” – Chris Parnham,
Absolute Corporate Events
These match one of Nigel
Cooper’s comments at MeetPie
to Lewis’s posting:
“One agency, company, industry or even country acting alone
does not have the ability to make
a real impact.”
These are all practical, reasonable opinions which, I reckon, are pretty representative of
where most of us might stand.
We weigh the pros and cons of
the case as we see it and then
apply some typical “Art of War”
principles—can we rely on the
support of our allies to win this
battle or will we be standing
out there alone? Without the
Government or the meetings
industry weighing in, we could
so easily end up isolated, losing
the battle, and in the process,
our credibility too. Far too complex. Better stay out of it…
It starts with me
But somehow this all calls to mind
Martin Niemöller’s devastating
statement on Nazi Germany:
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Socialist. Then
they came for the Trade Unionists,
and I did not speak out—because
I was not a Trade Unionist. Then
they came for the Jews, and I did
not speak out—because I was not
a Jew. Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak
for me…”
SITE’s Rhonda Brewer has
taken a brave and courageous
step in grasping the ethics nettle and drawing our industry’s
attention to an underlying aspect of MICE that is sinister and
evil. Her initiative deserves our
full attention and our unqualified support.
–Padraic Gilligan is managing
partner at SoolNua, a marketing consultancy working with destinations
and enterprises on strategies for MICE.
www.padraicino.com
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
15-03-19 2:10 PM
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15-03-19 2:10 PM
+EXPERT OPINION
TECH
SUPPORT
Five ways to ensure you
are using technology for
the right reasons
Sometimes technology for your attendees feels like a doubleedged sword. The cost of event WiFi can take up half your budget,
yet it seems as though the first thing attendees use it for is complaints—often about connection issues.
Technology can help your event but can also greatly distract
from and hinder it to the point where we need to ask ourselves,
should we be using it, rather than can we be using it.
Here are five things to consider before deciding how techsavvy your event should be:
1 OLD RULES FOR NEW TECH
Believe it or not, I have keynoted tech conferences where the
emcee requested everyone turn off their phones. Some speakers
prefer this 1990’s rule because it forces the audience to pay attention to their talk. But it’s the speaker’s fault if their content isn’t
more exciting than Candy Crush. Their goal should be to make the
content so good that no one wants to check their phones, but so
compelling they want to tweet about it.
2 TAKING THE TECH PULSE
Creating hashtags and Instagram accounts because you want to
seem tech savvy is a great way to ostracize a non-tech audience.
I’ve done the same talk to audiences that generate hundreds of
tweets or no tweets depending on the group. Consider your audience and their comfort level with a platform before rolling out the
hashtag you want to trend. It isn’t a measure of success for every
audience.
3 CANADIANS ARE MORE TECH SAVVY THAN EVER
More than half of all Canadians, of all ages, own a smartphone. Just
because your audience wasn’t tech friendly five years ago doesn’t
mean they aren’t today. Ask them. Poll your attendees before the
event to get a better feel. And never use tech because you can—use
it because you should.
20
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p20 Expert Opinion_ScottStratton.indd 20
ENOVATING YOUR
4 R
DIGITAL PRESENCE
Google recently announced that
non-mobile friendly websites would
be penalized in search results.
Combine that with the percentage of connected Canadians and
realize that your conference site
needs to play nice with the 18 million smartphones in the country.
Mobile isn’t what’s coming next—
its what’s now.
SEE
SCOTT STRATTEN
SPEAK AT
5 HASHTAG #BEWARE
Conference hashtags have been all the rage
AUGUST 18,
for a while now. They are searchable, easy
2015
to use and work across social platforms. The
danger can be when people create their own
hashtags for your event or leverage yours for
spam. Most frequently, I see problems arising when events do not
properly monitor their hashtag in real-time. Because hashtags are
a real-time tool, they can’t be checked periodically or two weeks
after your event is over and they should never, ever be on a screen
behind a speaker—nothing is more distracting to the audience or
the person on stage.
Technology is wonderful, painful and not going anywhere.
Keeping these five points in mind will save you some online grief
down the road.
Scott Stratten is an expert in viral, social, and authentic marketing and one of
the “Top Five Social Media Influencers in the World” according to Forbes.com.
He has written four bestselling business books, the newest being UnSelling: The
New Customer Experience. See his keynote presentation at IncentiveWorks
August 18th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Illustration: © macrovector/iStock/Thinkstock
15-03-19 2:10 PM
+ASK AN EXPERT
DITCHING THE
EVENT FACEBOOK PAGE
And what to do after a speaker disappoints
Q.
A few years ago we created a Facebook event page for
our event. And while we see a few thousand attendees
at our event every year, our Facebook event page only
shows less than 100 people are coming. I’m worried the people
that do look at this page will think it is a poorly attended event
and if it doesn’t seem to be generating additional attendance or
interest, is it necessary to keep this Facebook event page going?
A.
It’s a great question and you’re
not the only person to wonder if
the time invested in setting up and
moderating a Facebook Event page is worth it.
Q.
Facebook event pages really serve two purposes:
1 | Collecting RSVPs.
2 | Spreading the word about your event.
Let’s look at each one in terms of your event.
those people with posts in their News Feed. (This is because you
can’t actually use that email list to send direct emails.)
At my digital marketing agency, engageQ digital, we’ve used
Custom Audiences and website retargeting to generate much
stronger attendance for events we’ve worked on.
Be sure to have your web person install Facebook’s conversiontracking pixel on the “Thank you for registering!” page so you can
directly measure ROI. You’ll then be able to see how much you
spent on ads and how much actual revenue those ads generated
in terms of event registration.
M+IT EXPERT
TOD MAFFIN
engageQ digital
1 | Collecting RSVPs. Your event likely has a separate website
for registrations. In this case, using a Facebook event page as
well duplicates this effort and can cause confusion for your attendees. If they “register” on Facebook, are they really signed
up? Probably not. Facebook doesn’t serve you well for this goal.
2 | Event awareness. Facebook used to give high “edgerank” (visibility on users’ News Feeds) to Facebook events. In the last year,
we’re seeing fewer such posts make it to News Feeds. As well,
while you can use advertising to promote these events, people
who click will land on the Facebook event page—when, really, you
want them to go to your main page. Far better to put your ad
dollars to direct people to your main site. Thus, Facebook events
don’t serve you well here either.
Our recommendation would be to drop the Facebook event
page, but use Facebook’s powerful “custom audience” targeting
to put posts about your event in the News Feed of past attendees,
people likely to attend, and other lists you may have acquired. Unlike email marketing, there are no “spam” rules on Facebook that
prevent you from uploading a list of email addresses and targeting
I’m responsible for hiring speakers for my annual conference and while the majority of the time our speakers get great reviews, every once in awhile a speaker
gets really terrible feedback and does not deliver the session
we discussed. But I’m never quite sure how to approach this
with the speaker post-event. How do I deliver this news and
what can I do to ensure this doesn’t happen with other speakers in the future?
A.
Like anyone, even the mightiest of keynote speakers have
their off days. Of course, we’d
rather that not happen at our conferences,
especially when your event and professional
reputation are on the line.
I’ve been there—more than once—it’s
not fun. I once hired a speaker that I had
heard on the radio. She was a fantastic
interview: charismatic, articulate and en- M+IT EXPERT
AMY RUDDELL
gaging—I loved her! Unfortunately, that Diversified
didn’t translate onto the stage and the re- Communications
Canada
sults (and evaluations) were disastrous.
Lesson learned? I usually insist on seeing
a video of the speaker prior to hiring them. The quality of video
production isn’t important; it’s how they resonate with you, and
subsequently with your audience. You should be able to gauge
within the first 25 seconds if they are a fit or not.
If the speaker doesn’t have video, you have to ask the right
questions. If you are dealing with an experienced speaker who does
not allow themselves to be recorded, then that’s okay—usually it’s
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p21-23 Ask an Expert.indd 21
21
15-03-19 2:11 PM
+ASK AN EXPERT
because they have a great talk they don’t want others seeing online, or it’s copyrighted, etc. There can be many reasons why a
speaker doesn’t have a video. It does not mean they are a bad
speaker. In fact, I know a number of excellent speakers who have
great reputations who just don’t have video!
Another option is booking your speakers via a reputable
speaker’s bureau. I work with a few, and I trust them both implicitly. Because bureaus often represent high-profile speakers,
there a misconception that it will be very expensive—it doesn’t
have to be. Many have newer speakers they have checked out
already and are eager to work with your budget. Some speakers, if they are local to your event, will even speak for free. It’s
rare, but it can be done. Especially if the bureau needs video for
that speaker! And if that’s the case, you should feel confident
the speaker will deliver a great talk. What if you are hiring speakers who are not professional
or just starting out and don’t have those types of resources
yet? The majority of my events are practitioner driven, so aside
from my keynotes, most of my presenters are not professional
speakers at all. I do ask for references and request their presentations months prior to the event. However, being on stage is a completely different animal.
You can tell when someone is giving their talk whether or not
they have that “It” factor; whether or not they have done the
work to create a great presentation. I think it is perfectly okay
to review “delivery”; it’s like an audition—but again...being on
stage is a skill, and becoming a great speaker requires lots of
work. Rome wasn’t built a day! And after all your research and due diligence, what happens if
the presentation just didn’t “cut the mustard”? It’s a tough position to be in; no one likes to deliver bad news. I prefer to wait a
few days to have the conversation, a cooling off period if you will. When I’m onsite running an event, I’m stressed. Throw a bad presentation and unhappy attendees in the mix, and that stress level
goes off the charts.
But, it is a conversation that needs to be had, both for you, and
for your speaker. Waiting a day or two gives you time to access
the situation and to arm yourself with the evaluation results. Data
removes the emotion from the conversation, clearing the way for
a candid, and hopefully, constructive conversation—one you will
both benefit and learn from.
DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION? Email [email protected]
and M+IT will call upon an expert to answer it in an upcoming issue.
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15-03-19 2:11 PM
+CONVENTION FILE
HOW FAR
HAVE WE
REALLY COME
Changing the perception of events
BY ROD CAMERON, AIPC
Ten years ago in an article titled,
“Ten Things We Need to Explain about Our Industry,” we
said that “we’re not tourism—
we really have relatively little to
do with the leisure sector that
makes up the bulk of the tourism product in most parts of
the world. In fact, we’re much
more connected to the areas
of business and economic development.”
At the time, many saw this as
heresy—even within the industry
itself. Today, it is almost universally accepted, at least amongst
ourselves, driven by a growing
awareness that the greatest
value of meetings, conventions
and other business events is
the role they play in supporting
economic, academic and professional advancement. In achieving this transition, we’ve managed to better align ourselves
with the reasons organizers actually hold such events, and at
the same time, with what are today the number one priorities of
24
governments and communities
everywhere on Earth.
Now, this distinction is more
important than ever—but still
far from recognized by those
same communities and governments who are amongst our
most important audiences. So
while we’ve achieved an important level of unanimity within
the industry, we still have a lot
of work to do beyond our own
borders.
The reason is simple: to the
extent that we as an industry
are indentified with economic
and social advancement, we
will be valued in a time when
those are urgent concerns. But
if our events are seen as simply
providing an excuse for a paid
holiday at someone else’s expense—which can happen when
there is too much focus on the
leisure side of a conference or
convention program and not
enough on what the event actually achieves—our importance
will be, at best, devalued and,
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p24-28 ConvFile_BusinessMatters.indd 24
at worst, cut off from the kind
of support that is required to
maintain the momentum of the
industry into the future.
We saw this happen in the
depths of the recent recession
when there was regular political outrage in many places
over the perceived spending
of public money on convention
participation. But it’s still alive
and well today in the form of
travel and meetings attendance
restrictions that are usually
amongst the first (and lengthiest) cutbacks imposed by many
governments in the face of ongoing economic uncertainties.
In fact, a recent survey of more
than 100 convention centres
worldwide registered government policy decisions as the top
perceived risk to their business
recovery and growth prospects.
Such a perception problem
won’t be solved overnight—but
as an industry, there’s a lot we
can do to start moving things
in the right direction. At the top
of the list is the way we characterize our destination products:
more emphasis on their business, professional, institutional
and intellectual qualities and
less on the golf courses and
nightlife would go a long way
toward convincing dubious
audiences of the serious intent
of meetings and conventions.
So would putting more focus
on what these events achieve
in terms of business and professional outcomes rather than just
how much spending they generate in the host community.
It was true then and it’s still
true now: we’re all about economic, professional and academic advancement—but while we
may have come to believe it ourselves, we still have a long way to
go in convincing others!
– Rod Cameron is the executive
director of the International
Wi
pre
lak
is
co
St
Association of Convention Centres
(AIPC), a global network of 170
centres in 56 countries. aipc.org
Illustration: ©Thinkstock
15-03-19 2:11 PM
10
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15-03-19 2:11 PM
+BUSINESSMATTERS
GETTING A PIECE
OF THE B2B PIE
HOW TO BUILD A MULTI-STEP PLAN TO MAXIMIZE
YOUR BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING EFFORTS
If your customers are other businesses, as opposed to end users,
then you’re engaged in business-to-business (B2B) marketing.
And chances are, if you’ve been at it for long, you already know
that excelling at B2B requires a slightly more complex marketing
strategy than business-to-consumer marketing (B2C).
This makes sense, of course, as the average business requires
much more time and process to arrive at a purchasing decision
than the average consumer does.
To maximize your B2B marketing efforts, you’ll need a strategy that meets the needs of both the business you’re selling to
and the individual (i.e. purchaser or VP) you’re dealing with at the
company. You’ll also need a multi-step marketing plan to help you
most successfully generate new business. Here’s how:
ONE
Think like your customer
We’ve already established that your customer is complicated.
With B2B, your customer is both the business you’re selling to and
the individual purchaser at that business. You need to make sure
you’re meeting the specific needs of both.
To simplify this process, start by asking: who is your champion?
Who makes the ultimate buying decisions, and what is their process? Even when decisions are made by committee, there is still
generally one person whose influence is strongest.
You’ll want a clear strategy in place so that you can be
sure you’re providing your champion with everything they
need to say “yes” to your product or service. To get there,
consider the following:
1 |Find out everything you can about your champion’s
purchasing process.
2 |Find out who they are as individuals.
3 |Find out what they need (from their department or colleagues) to make their purchasing as easy as possible.
4 | Find out what the company needs to make a buying decision.
BY MARK WARDELL
decisions, etc.) and the business as itself (i.e. size, industry, purchasing process, etc.) you’ll be able to tailor your efforts with far
greater success.
TWO
Develop a multi-step
marketing strategy
Business-to-business promotional activities should primarily be direct response in nature, but they should be multi-step in design. As
stated above, if your business prospects are actually shopping for
information, the job of your promotional activities should be to get
that information into their hands before trying to make a direct sale.
A multi-step plan involved a series of steps that serve to generate
increasing interest, which should ultimately lead to a potential sale.
For example, if you’re selling medical supplies step one might be
to encourage your business prospects to call for a free catalogue.
When you send the catalogue, step two might be to offer them a free
subscription to your newsletter. If they accept, step three might then
be to offer them a first-time customer special along with their first
issue. The sale might not actually happen until step four.
Prospects that enter your sales system from a well-designed,
multi-step marketing campaign are highly qualified. In fact, if your
marketing campaign is designed well enough, prospects may almost sell themselves.
Not surprisingly, Hubspot are masters at this. One tactic Hubspot uses is to offer free (very useful) business whitepapers, which
can be downloaded in return for contract information. They then
follow up with further offers, all designed to get a fairly easy “yes”
from their business customer—in an effort to guide that individual
to an eventual sale.
This year, invest time to better understand the needs of you
business customers. Along with developing a multi-step marketing plan that effectively generates interest among new customers,
you’ll be well positioned for higher B2B sales in 2015.
– Mark Wardell is president and founder of Wardell Professional Development
As you develop a robust profile on both your primary contact (i.e.
who they are, what their needs are, how they make purchasing
26
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
(www.wardell.biz), an advisory group that helps business owners plan and execute the growth of their companies.
Illustration: enisaksoy/iStock/Thinkstock
15-03-19 2:11 PM
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28
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA | 85264
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
15-03-19 2:11 PM
+HARDWIRED
THE NEW
MICROPHONES
It’s time to ditch the mic
stand. Today’s microphones
fit in your pocket or look like
they belong on your kid’s bed.
A SMARTPHONE
The free iOS and Android
app Crowd Mics turns an
attendee’s smartphone into a
microphone. The app includes
a text commenting feature
and live polling, which will
help create conversations
between all your delegates
and encourage participation
for even the quietest of attendees. Cost starts at $100USD
per month or event for 6-50
participants. crowdmics.com
A FOAM BOX
Catch Box is the world’s
first throwable wireless
microphone you can toss
around the room, from one
attendee with a question to
another. Not only is it bright
and colourful, it’s also fun,
injecting some play into a
breakout or general session.
Mic automatically mutes
when product is in motion.
Available for $549USD.
getcatchbox.com
BY CHRISTINE OTSUKA
BRAIN DATES
These days, content can be streamed, read online and consumed on demand. So what brings
attendees to a conference? The chance to
meet people. And while conference planners are used to putting their muscle behind
boosting attendance numbers, a Canadian
company has created a digital platform that
will help attendees learn from each other by
going on “brain dates.”
The concept, created by
Montreal-based E-180 is similar to matchmaking, but
for the mind. Here’s how
it works: After registering for the event,
attendees create their
online profile. But instead of being asked
to fill in their company
name and title (as is
the case with most conference apps), attendees
are also asked to input their
area of expertise, called an offer of knowledge, and be as specific
and detailed as possible. Rather than saying
“I know about marketing,” they might say, “I
know how to use experiential marketing to
refresh annual conferences of 700 participants or more.” Other attendees can browse
the offers of knowledge on the conference
app and request a 30-minute brain date during the event.
The brain-dating concept was used
at C2MTL in Montreal last year to much
success. The E-180 platform connected
4,000 attendees; there were 2,600 offers
for knowledge; 2,550 requests for knowledge, resulting in 1,800 brain dates.
“People travel thousands of miles to go
to conferences for the knowledge sharing,”
says Christine Renaud, CEO of E-180. “They’re
walking around with their glass of wine trying
to bump into their valuable stranger. Sometimes you don’t meet that person because
you don’t know where they are. So
we’re there to help you maximize the learning potential
of the conference to make
sure you meet the best
people that you could
to share knowledge.”
While the braindating system is run
through a traditional
conference app, E-180
also has on-site matchmakers to help facilitate
the brain dates, welcoming attendees to a designated
meeting area and helping them
find who they are looking for.
For most events, brain dating has a 65
to 75 per cent adoption rate with participants, and crucial to the program’s success is
whether event organizers allow time for brain
dates in the agenda.
“Relationship building takes time. So you
have to make time for it in the schedule,” says
Renaud. “People [event organizers] are afraid
they don’t bring as much value as they can to
their participants if they don’t put as much content as they can in their schedule, so part of our
job is helping them to change their habits.”
WHAT YOU NEED
A group of 1,000+ people
Time in the schedule for brain dates
WiFi in the venue
$7,500 for the first 1,000 attendees plus the travel
expenses of two to three on-site staff from E-180
A clearly marked brain date
meeting space with seating
conducive to conversations
Sponsors for the app to help
offset the cost
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p29-30 Hardwired_Twenty Something.indd 29
29
15-03-19 2:12 PM
+TWENTYSOMETHING
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Name: Chantal Champagne
Title: Event Manager
Company: Strauss event &
association management
Age: 29
Education: Tourism diploma from
the Université de Saint-Boniface
Associations (past and present):
PCMA, Event Professionals of Manitoba (EPM)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I got my start in the meetings industry
…
by surprise. I was looking for a new job after returning from a long
trip and a former co-worker sent me an event manager job posting and said I’d be a great fit. With my minimal event experience, I
didn’t expect that I would get the position. But am I ever glad I did!
These last three and half years at Strauss have been challenging
yet exciting. Jonathan Strauss, president of Strauss saw potential
in me, recognized my transferrable skills and gave me an opportunity and training, which I am extremely grateful for.
When people ask me what
I do for a living, I tell them…
I am an event planner—but I make sure to be specific as people
instantly assume that I plan weddings! I plan, coordinate and manage all aspects of conferences and events ranging from 25-person
professional development events to 300-person multi-day conferences. In my current position, my main focus is organizing annual
conferences for non-profit associations. I find it interesting how
little people understand of the planning process for these events.
Most people I know have attended an event or a conference, but
they are always in awe when I start explaining the countless details and logistics that need to be confirmed for a successful event.
One facet of my job I particularly enjoy is that I primarily work with
association volunteers who develop the content and main ideas
for the event and I help them turn their ideas into a reality.
The most challenging thing for me
when I began my career was…
learning about the industry and finding out about the small details. I came from a world of tourism development and marketing in which I had the opportunity to participate in conferences
and events, but now I was on the other side. There are so many
unexpected details in this planning process, and there are also
so many steps that can be taken to improve an event. I was finding it hard to trust that I hadn’t forgotten something. The approach I’ve adopted is putting myself in someone else’s shoes
to think about what else needs to be done. If I am contacting a
30
sponsor I think, “If I was the sponsor, what type of information
would be valuable to me?” If I was the speaker at a conference,
“What type of information would I appreciate receiving before
an event?” There is a lot to learn, but that’s what makes this job
fun—it keeps you on your feet!
I plan to make my mark by…
helping others who are new to the industry and sharing best practices. I have very recently discovered that there are many planners
who play the same role in an event as I do, and I realize that speaking
with these planners is a fantastic resource. This year I joined PCMA
as a member and attended Convening Leaders for the second time,
and moving forward I would love to get more involved in our local
meeting industry associations. This really is the best way to grow as
a planner. My long-term goal is to act as a mentor to my co-workers,
fellow association members or anyone who is new to the industry.
One thing most people don’t know about me is…
I am a travel addict, and no, travelling for work doesn’t count.
There is no better feeling than travelling the world with just a
backpack of your belongings. I have travelled through Australia,
South America, South East Asia, Europe and Canada. I enjoy living
on a tight budget, meeting new people every day and exploring
new cities by foot. I now have a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter
which means I’m not travelling much these days, but I certainly
can’t wait to travel with her someday.
In 10 years, I see myself…
planning. What I have learned about myself through this job is that
I love to plan and manage projects. I love to have spreadsheets and
lists and organized folders and I love to work with deadlines and
urgent matters. I love the challenge of planning an event without
any hiccups, which I know is nearly impossible, but I love to try!
I can’t say for sure that in 10 years I will still be managing events
for associations, but I do know that whichever path I follow, the
expertise, tools and goal-focused strategies I’ve learned through
event planning gives me a great competitive advantage.
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p29-30 Hardwired_Twenty Something.indd 30
15-03-19 2:12 PM
+GOOD FOR YOU
Mindful matters
Slowing down to stay in the moment.
BY CHRISTINE OTSUKA
Two months ago, I attended a session at an industry conference on
career development. The program described the session as one that
would help you turn the job you have into the job you want. I was
expecting to hear practical tips on finding your dream job. Instead,
the speaker had us sit quietly.
Matt Tenney, the session leader, told us we were going to do an
exercise to help us identify exactly what we wanted. In order to do
that, we first had to quiet our mind. We took a few moments to sit
up straight in our chair, blocking out the sound of other speakers’
voices booming over the PA system around us. We breathed deeply,
letting our minds relax and softening the muscles in our face, neck
and shoulders, staying focused and aware.
After a few minutes, we opened our eyes and took out a notebook and pen. We were asked to imagine our life seven years from
now, only we were not to focus on the job we wanted to have or any
of the realities that could prevent that from happening, but on what
kind of person we are in this imagined future, where we live, how we
feel and see what follows from that.
So I scribbled down some thoughts and feelings in my notebook.
And before I knew it, I had a clear picture of the life I wanted.
I was astounded. For months—years, even—I had talked myself in
and around all of the different options for my future. But after just a
few moments of calm, of mindfulness, the answer appeared before me.
I ended up taking pages upon pages of notes, and while the
session was different than I thought it would be, it didn’t matter
because it led me to the result I wanted. And it gave me a powerful
introduction to mindfulness.
BEING MINDFUL
Mindfulness isn’t a new concept, but it’s certainly a popular one.
Oprah touts it, business leaders tweet about it, there are books and
movies, apps and games all with the aim of getting others to be
more mindful.
But what exactly is mindfulness? The leading authority on the
topic, Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as “paying attention, on
purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.”
And really what that boils down to is actively paying attention to
what’s happening in the present, allowing things to be as they are,
letting go, and not passing judgment.
The problem is most people—despite their best intentions—
don’t focus their attention on the present or “live in the moment,”
as they say.
In fact, our minds don’t sit still. A 2010 Harvard University study found
that 47 per cent of the time our mind is lost in thought, ping-ponging
around our head and preventing us from being focused and happy.
So what is our wandering mind doing?
Good For Your Group
While it may seem like
an individual practice,
there are several ways
mindfulness can be
incorporated into groups.
Here are three options to
consider:
Illustrations: Thinkstock
p31-33 Good For You.indd 31
1. Group meditation
Meditating in a group
setting is very powerful.
Not only is there shared
energy, but group meditation
can strength connections
between participants and
be incredibly supportive.
2. Pre-meeting meditation
Mindfulness can be helpful
as a practice at the beginning
of meetings. Many large
corporations begin their
meetings with a few moments
of meditation to calm and
centre and as a result, the
meeting is more productive.
3. Meditation time-outs
Planners can include
mindfulness recordings in
meditation nooks around
their conference or event to
allow delegates the opportunity
to take a time-out or a mental
break from their schedule.
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
31
15-03-19 2:12 PM
+GOOD FOR YOU
We spend the bulk of our time ruminating on the past, overanalyzing conversations
with colleagues or worrying about future events that haven’t even happened yet.
This preoccupation with the past and the future causes unnecessary stress and anxiety
and our interpretations of these situations affect how we feel.
Dr. Mark Lau a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy expert in Vancouver uses the
“walking down the street” exercise to help illustrate this point. Imagine you are walking
down the street and you see someone you know well, so you wave and you smile and they
walk right by you. You might feel anxious or upset—why did they blow you off? Are they
mad at you? But none of that is based on fact.
“It’s natural and habitual for us to give meaning to any situation, but our interpretations and where our mind goes determines how we feel,” says Lau. Being mindful allows
you to stay in the present moment, let things go, and ultimately change the way you
relate to situations like this one.
Once you realize that there are the things that happen in life, and this other layer of stress
caused by our emotional responses to them, and you become mindful of those automatic
reactions, you can avoid causing yourself unnecessary and additional stress, says Lau.
There’s an impressively long list of studies that show the positive effects mindfulness has
on wellbeing. Not only has it been shown to prevent depression and promote happiness, but
being mindful positively affects the brain patterns underlying day-to-day anxiety, stress, depression and irritability so that when they arrive, they dissolve away again more easily. What’s
more, the benefits of mindfulness are so widely accepted that Canadian schools in Toronto
and Vancouver have made mindfulness part of their curriculum in an effort to help young
people deal with difficult emotions like anger and anxiety, and alleviate some of the pressure
that is felt—a program I wish was offered at my school growing up!
Meditation
Helpers
Headspace Take 10
This free 10-day online meditation asks
you to take 10 minutes every day to meditate with recordings and animated videos.
21-Day Meditation Challenge
Deepak Chopra and Oprah run free 21-day
meditation programs throughout the year.
Time commitment: 20 minutes a day for
three weeks.
Mindfulness Apps
There are plenty of ways to find your calm
on-the-go, from free apps like Calm that
allow you to meditate right then and there
to MINDBODY Connect which will provide
a list of meditation centres nearby.
DAILY PRACTICE
If you’re not inclined to take mindfulness training or formal courses, there are small things
you can do each day to improve your ability to stay in the present moment.
Eat with awareness. A good first step is slowing down some of the things you do
every day. If you sit down at the table to eat, chew your food slowly, taste and enjoy the
experience, rather than rushing through it or eating in front of the television or at your
desk at work.
Pay attention to your breath. When you wake up in the morning, take five deep
breaths and practice being in the moment. Pay attention to you chest, your belly, the
sound your body makes when you inhale and exhale.
Listen closely. When you engage in a conversation with a colleague at work, pay close
attention without planning what you’re going to say next or evaluating what they’re saying. Stay focused on their words.
Feel rooted in the floor. If you’re waiting for an elevator, take a moment to feel your
feet on the floor and notice what the sensation of standing feels like. Keep focused on
your body and being present in this moment.
Use your coffee breaks. Spend 10 minutes at your desk with your eyes closed and
check in with your body, your breath, and your thoughts. You don’t need absolute silence
to do this.
And finally, meditate. Meditation is the most formal way we can cultivate mindfulness.
It can be intimidating for first-timers but it doesn’t have to be.
Dr. Ana Bodnar, a clinical psychologist and yoga and meditation teacher who uses
mindfulness in her practice describes it this way: “In mindfulness meditation, we are
focusing on the breath, and when thoughts arise, we are gently letting them go, and
bringing our focus back to the breath. We are practicing being in the present moment,
rather than the past or future.”
And while most people think that meditation is about stopping thoughts or controlling
their mind, that’s not the case. “People tend to feel they are ‘not successful’ in meditation
if their minds wander, but this is a normal part of meditation practice,” says Bodnar. It’s
actually about stepping back, seeing the thought clearly and letting it go.
Easier said than done.
—Christine Otsuka is Associate Editor of Meetings + Incentive Travel
32
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
Illustrations: Thinkstock
15-03-19 2:12 PM
WHEN 1,000 PEOPLE DECIDE TO BE GENEROUS, VENUE IS KEY.
Like many who’ve beaten the odds, Kevin Collins chooses to give
back. This he does as Executive Director of Friends of We Care,
a charity comprising of 84 foodservice and hospitality organizations.
The group has sent 38,000 disabled Canadian children to summer
camps in its 31 years. For seven years running, Kevin has chosen
The International Centre as the venue to celebrate and thank its
members for raising over $1 million annually. “It’s the spacious,
superbly appointed venue, the team of professionals, and their
willingness to go beyond the expected that keep us coming back,”
says Kevin. “Our one thousand attendees enjoy comfortable
surroundings, terrific food and drink, and this puts them in a
very generous mood.” As for our part, we’re honoured to host
Friends of We Care, and look forward to their upcoming event.
Kevin J. Collins, Executive Director
Friends of We Care Foundation Inc.
internationalcentre.com
6900 Airport Road, Mississauga, ON
905.677.6131 / tf 1.800.567.1199
3 500+ EvEnts a yEar
3 $7 M rEnEwal Plan
3 500,000+ ft2 EvEnt vEnuE
3 5,000 frEE Parking sPacEs
15-03-19 2:12 PM
+CUISCENE
BY DON DOULOFF
SIDE SHOW
EXPANDING THE POSSIBILITIES OF POTATOES,
GRAINS AND ALTERNATIVE STARCHES.
Consider the
side dish. By definition relegated to a
secondary role, side dishes, if imaginatively conceived
and intelligently matched with a
protein, can animate a plate and make it
more than the sum of its parts.
On meeting and event menus, “side dish” typically means “potatoes,” usually mashed or roasted, but there are a slew of imaginative spins on the humble spud, along with alternatives to the
potato, designed to perk up attendees’ plates. And sometimes the
potato is served on its own and becomes the “star attraction.”
Debbie Cotton-Burinski, director of planning at Event Spectrum Inc., says poutine stations are big hits at events with latenight foods. In fact, the company has found that guests like to
have more fun with their food. Popular options include chef stations, cooking competitions and do-it-yourself stations where
guests can make their own "personalized snacks." Event Spectrum
president Cynthia Richards recalls that at a particular event, the “poutine bar was the most popular food station. With toppings like duck
confit and foie gras, the group loved the potato.”
Claire Fitzpatrick, CMP, CMM, principal of CF Conference &
Event Management Services, also notes the ongoing popularity of
34
the poutine bar
and the strong
appeal, at reception/stand-up style dinners, of bars offering, for
example, mashed potatoes in
martini glasses with sauces and gravies
ranging from lobster cream and mushroom
gravy to chili toppings, bacon and chives.
At the International Centre, in Mississauga, Ont., poutine bars
have featured hearty toppings such as short-rib gravy, shredded butter chicken and boneless goat curry with goat cheese
(“a huge hit,” said executive chef Tawfik Shehata). The venue’s
do-it-yourself bars offer up mashed potatoes served in stemless
martini glasses attendees adorn with the likes of red pepper salsa,
sautéed mushrooms and pulled-pork gravy.
In the planning stages (at the time of writing), according to
Shehata, was a top-your-own bar featuring three-inch roesti
(grated-potato pancakes) made fresh to-order on a mobile flattop grill, while attendees watch, and garnished with smoked salmon and sour cream, and perhaps stewed beef.
On the side-dish front, “fewer people are going with standard
roasted or mashed potatoes,” said Shehata, whose kitchen has created a side fashioned from thin-sliced, crisp potatoes arranged to
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p34-35 Culinary Scene1.indd 34
15-03-19 4:05 PM
+CUISCENE
Rostie Bar, International Centre
Pilaf de Quinoa, Fairmont Mayakoba
Potato Souffle, Fairmont Winnipeg
resemble an armadillo shell. Sweet potatoes augment
Yukon Gold spuds in a gratin layered with gruyere.
Also doing some intriguing things with potatoes
and alternative starches are a number of chefs in the
Fairmont hotel chain.
At Fairmont Winnipeg, executive chef Eraj Jayawickreme and his team take the lowly spud to lofty
places—potato foam, with fish and scallop dishes;
potato soufflé as a complement to game; and a garnish of translucent potato “glass” possessing a texture Jayawickreme describes as “very smooth and
almost paper-like” with the “faint taste of a regular
potato chip.” More elaborate still are two dishes, one
a mixture of butternut squash, pumpkin and rutabaga stuffed into “cannelloni” shells made from thinsliced potato substituting for pasta sheets, and the
other, truffle potato gnocchi with celery and walnut
pesto. Standing in for potatoes are root vegetables
in a hash the kitchen pairs with steak.
In Quebec’s Charlevoix region, at Fairmont Le
Manoir Richelieu, executive chef Patrick Turcot serves
orzo (large, rice-grain shaped pasta) with salmon, on
banquet menus.
Groups, however, are requesting healthier options,
challenging chefs to come up with alternative sides.
At the Fairmont Winnipeg, Jayawickrem said a lot
of individual attendees are requesting potato-free
meals. Accordingly, his kitchen has devised other options, such as quinoa—which “has a beautiful, light,
nutty flavour”—to accompany fish dishes. “We use
millet as a substitute for couscous,” said Jayawickrem.
“Millet is great for crusting food and with a light, nutty
flavour, it lends itself well to seasonings and takes on
the character of whatever it is cooked with.” Farro (a
type of hulled wheat) highlights a salad the kitchen
makes with sweet potatoes, almonds and cranberries
and freshens with curry vinaigrette.
At Fairmont Mayakoba, Riviera Maya, Mexico, executive chef Richard Silvester offers a range of healthy
options, including brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth, polenta, plantains and hominy. Creative sides
include Latin-style rice jazzed with bulgur wheat, mushrooms, eggplant, tomato, onion and cardamom; a risotto
anchored by red quinoa, barley, yellow bell pepper and
shallots; and quinoa mixed with orange lentils, smoked
paprika, yellow bell pepper, green beans and pecans.
Quinoa is also used in the International Centre’s
kitchen, where it’s mixed with feta and herbs into a
cake; used to stuff Cornish hen; and fashioned into
tabbouleh, said Shehata. His team also offers, as a side
dish to beef or chicken, a cake made with barley, chickpea flour, herbs, roasted jalapeno and cheddar. That
classic Italian cornmeal-based dish, polenta, is served
as a firm-textured side enlivened with roasted tomato,
garlic and parmesan.
—Don Douloff is a food and travel writer based in Toronto.
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
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35
15-03-19 4:05 PM
+HOW-TO
FILLING THE ROOM
HOW TO BUILD ATTENDANCE
E
BY LORI SMITH
very planner knows that attendance is the linchpin of
an event’s success. Fill the room and you’re a hero. Fail
to bring in the crowds and your job is on the line. But
building, maintaining and growing attendance is becoming increasingly challenging. Education is available
online. People are short of time. Management has to be convinced of the ROI of going to a conference, convention or trade
show before signing off on it. A new generation of attendees is
placing greater demands on all elements of major events. It’s
no longer an “if you plan it, they will come” world, if it ever was.
Understanding the make-up and motivations of today’s attendees is crucial to the creation of a marketing campaign that
will increase attendance. Fortunately for planners, new research
looking at what makes today’s attendees tick is now available.
“The Decision to Attend Study for Conventions & Exhibitions:
An examination of the behaviors behind the decision to attend”
was released this January by The Experience Institute® and its
partners, the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) and the International Association of Exhibitions
and Events™ (IAEE). The stated objective of the research was to
“identify the factors impacting the decision to attend relative to
the total visitor experience” with the intent of providing meetings/exhibitions professionals and destinations information to
“build attendance promotion strategies.”
36
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p36-40 Attendance.indd 36
In order to achieve this objective, The Experience Institute
surveyed members of 10 American associations. It received 7,171
responses from which it was able to construct a picture of the
factors that people consider when deciding whether to attend
an event—or not.
TODAY’S ATTENDEES
The study delivered good news for convention and conference
planners and show managers. Respondents fell into five groups:
Haven’t Attended (22.9 per cent), No Longer Attend (3.3 per
cent), Occasionals (23.2 per cent), Frequents (30 per cent) and
Always (20.6 per cent). These five groups represented four generations: Gen Y/Millennials (11 per cent); Gen X (26.7 per cent);
Baby Boomers (53 per cent); and Pre-Boomers (9.3 per cent).
Collectively they showed a workforce that valued—and wanted
to attend—face-to-face events. Likelihood to Attend (Propensity) questions revealed that 91.7 per cent of respondents were
likely or highly likely to attend versus 8.3 per cent who said they
were unlikely or highly unlikely to attend.
However, the meat of the study is in its exploration of factors that influence the decision to attend. It showed that the
top three attendance drivers are education, networking and
destination. Education or “staying abreast with profession/
industry” included program, content, speakers and exhibits,
Photo: Michele Piacquadio/Hemera/Thinkstock
15-03-19 2:16 PM
M
+HOW-TO
and was important to more than 90 per cent of respondents
“regardless of attendance frequency or generation.” Networking and “making connections” rated the highest with Millennials (84 per cent) who are in the contact-building stage of
their careers. However, 75 per cent of total respondents said
networking was “important.” Destination as a driver varied
according to generation and attendance segment. Eightytwo per cent of all respondents said destination was a factor
but in the “Always Attend” segment the number dropped to
57 per cent. Significantly, destination is important to 90 per
cent of the Never and Occasional groups. It also matters to
Pre-Boomers (individuals born before 1946), who were cited
as the group with the greatest “free will” to attend.
The study also revealed three key barriers to attendance:
cost, time and destination. In terms of cost, respondents mentioned “high and rising hotel rates, high registration fees, and
overall travel costs” as factors that had prevented them from
attending events. Overall, 61 per cent said cost of attending was
a barrier with Gen X and Gen Y respondents mentioning it the
most frequently (35 per cent of Gen X and Gen Y-ers said they
needed permission from “higher ups” versus 25 per cent of total
respondents). Another “cost” potential attendees considered
centred on how much time they had to invest in the event.
Forty-one per cent said “it was generally hard to get away” (58
per cent for Gen Y) and 23 per cent said the event’s “timing
doesn’t work for them.” Destination was also something that
didn’t work for some respondents. The research showed that
where the event was taking place was most important to Occasionals, Frequents and Pre-Boomers, groups the study’s authors
identify as “often on the ‘bubble’.”
We took the question of how to build a marketing campaign that would move people “off the bubble” and into your
conference/convention room or trade-show floor to Wendy
Holliday, vice-president of attendee acquisition & experience
for Velvet Chainsaw Consulting. She offered these tips to help
you build attendance.
1
TARGET THE RIGHT PEOPLE
Holliday says that the first step to event success is to clearly
identify the right target demographics. “We break it down
into three targets: individuals who represent how you’d like
to grow your conference [influencers]; followers [people who
will come because the first group is attending]; and then
people, who are not necessarily part of your growth target
mix but who you need to send a general message to,” she
advises. This analysis will help you select the most effective
marketing tools and messages. It will also guide the creation
of your education program, which says Holliday, “must be in
lock step with who you’re targeting.”
2
BE READY AT THE RIGHT TIME
Eighty-four per cent of the respondents to the survey said that
they make their decision to attend two to six months from the
event. Nine per cent decide a month out. Of the generations,
Gen X-ers are the earliest registrants while members of Gen Y
sign up last. Several respondents commented that it was important to have “easy access to and reminders of future dates
and locations…to allow them to get it into their budgets and/or
obtain approval to attend.”
Ideally, says Holliday, you should have relevant information up on your website and registration open six months out.
“You don’t have to have everything up and locked in,” she
says. “You want to be agile in addressing last-minute topics.
But the majority should be up six months out.” She acknowledges that being ready that far in advance of the event is
“probably going to be a transition for a lot of people” and
will require changing the time frames on many, if not all, elements in the operational timeline.
She also recommends approaching your alumni attendees
with an invitation and incentive to register at the six-month
mark. “You want to recognize the people who attended in the
past. You can send them something that says ‘Thank you for being a loyal attendee. We’ve opened registration early for you and
have these value-added opportunities.’ Maybe they get a better
room choice. Maybe they have access to a special lounge. You’re
encouraging them to register early at the same time you’re recognizing that they’re alumni and you’re rewarding them for that.
You don’t want to be the cable and satellite provider that only
gives something extra to new clients.”
3
DON’T JUST SELL, HELP
Prospective attendees don’t want to be “pushed” by event
marketing all the time, and Holliday encourages organizers
to help more than sell. She says that developing marketing
messages that reflect the attendee perspective is essential.
“It’s easier to list all the features [of the event] rather than
the benefits of attending. Instead of saying that there are a
thousand sessions, point out two or three [sessions] that will
appeal to me as an attendee and that I might get something
out of, that might solve a problem.”
As an example, Holliday says a “save the date” message
should be accompanied by something helpful: a recording of
one of the keynotes from the previous year or, a selection of
top session whitepapers or handouts—items that reinforce the
problem-solving content your event delivered. “You’re providing information [about your event] and you’re helping them
[potential attendees],” she says.
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
37
15-03-19 2:16 PM
+HOW-TO
4
PROMOTE THE DESTINATION WISELY
While The Experience Institute’s study reports that destination is
important to 82 per cent of attendees, Holliday recommends judicious use of destination-centred marketing, particularly pre-registration. “Part of really understanding who your attendees are includes
knowing whether they need permission to attend,” she says. “If they
need permission your marketing to them should focus on education,
networking and other business outcomes.” But, she points out that
marketing to attendees who do make their own decisions to attend
might require a more destination-focused campaign. “If they have
sole say over whether they attend—maybe it’s an independent business owner or a professional—they often bring their families and use
it as a vacation. But, again it comes down to your attendee. Someone
in the medical field where there’s oversight might not require permission to attend but will be sensitive to having the event perceived
as a vacation. That’s why I say, promote the destination wisely.”
Post-registration is another story. Once they’ve signed up,
Holliday says you definitely want to give them information about
the location—restaurants, sight-seeing, attractions, etc.—so they
have the best onsite experience possible. But, she points out,
“After they register, it’s not part of their decision to attend.”
38
halfpage-horiz-ad2.indd 1
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
5
MARKET 24/7, 365 DAYS A YEAR
Many people, myself included, who have to submit lists of
conferences for budget consideration in the fall, begin the
decision-to-attend process well before many events’ six
month-out mark. This means that smart event organizers
should have information available on their website and
other media outlets 365 days a year, and have an integrated
content marketing campaign.
Holliday says that while the latter isn’t new, it’s something not enough event planners are doing. “You don’t have
to come up with new content,” she explains. It can be content directly related to your event or content relevant to
your event and its past and potential attendees because of
subject matter. Regardless of the type of conference, she
says, “attendees want to learn and they want to network.”
As a result, “it’s imperative that organizers create opportunities for them to connect before, during and after the
event.” Doing so will keep your event top-of-mind and your
rooms filled.
Lori Smith is editor of Meetings + Incentive Travel.
15-02-23 3:21 PM
15-03-19 2:16 PM
15-03-19 2:16 PM
15-03-19 2:16 PM
2015
In January, research firm Gerald Bramm & Associates conducted Meetings + Incentive Travel’s annual Market Report
Survey. As always, its mandate was to discover how the
industry fared in the year just passed and gain insight into
where it’s headed. The results are on the next seven pages.
Meetings, which are the foundation of the Canadian
industry, are examined on pages 42 through 45. The research reveals information on the types of meetings being held; destinations; marketing tactics; measuring event
success; and how technology is being used at events—and
impacting planners.
Today’s incentive travel market is explored on pages 46
to 48. This section offers data on destinations around the
world; information sources; group size; program elements;
and the spend on incentive travel.
This year we made significant improvements to the survey. First of all, Bramm & Associates revamped the survey’s
questions. They then deployed it in a new (for us) software
program that made answering easier and faster. These
changes resulted in a better user experience and better
data. It also gave us more information. You can check out
what we learned about the Rewards & Recognition sector
on meetingscanada.com.
Understanding the market, its members, its challenges
and its opportunities is something all of us at M+IT take
seriously and believe is essential. Feedback, recommendations and ideas for next year’s market report survey are
welcome. — Lori Smith, Editor
REPOR
MARKET
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p41-51 Market Report2.indd 41
41
15-03-19 2:21 PM
+ 2015 REPORT MARKET
THE RESPONDENTS BY SECTOR CORPORATE/IN-HOUSE PLANNER MEETINGS
Eighty-seven per cent of respondents
are responsible for the design and exe-
33% SHOW MANAGER 3%
TYPES OF MEETINGS
PLANNED/EXECUTED IN 2014
73%
Face-to-face external meetings that
involved travel or off-site venues
cution of meetings, conferences, events,
Face-to-face internal meetings that
involved travel or off-site venues
shows and conventions. Collectively,
their survey answers show that 2014
64%
was a solid year with no real budget
surprises and that 2015 is shaping up to
be much the same.
49%
Teleconference services
to conduct meetings
According to 76% of respondents,
the number of meetings/events they
Webcasts to conduct meetings
will plan within Canada will stay the
29%
same (50%) or increase (26%) this
year. The number of meetings/events
they are planning within the United
2%
Virtual tradeshows or use of virtual
services to conduct business
States will stay the same (71%). And,
the number of meetings scheduled for
8%
None of the above
destinations outside of North America
will stay the same (72%). Similarly, the
vast majority of respondents (82%)
reported no decrease in the length of
meetings in 2014. That trend continues
AVERAGE NUMBER OF
MEETINGS PLANNED
PER RESPONDENT
with 85% saying there are no plans
to cut back on the number of days of
any meetings/events in 2015 and 90%
reporting that no meetings/events have
been cancelled.
2
10
The survey results also show that
2014 costs changed little year-over-
UNITED STATES
CANADA
year. However, in 2015 it’s expected
that planners will have to hone their
negotiation skills as flat budgets (forecasted spend for 2015 is a mere .035%
less than 2014 actual) are impacted by
the decline in the value of the Canadian
794
dollar, rising airfare and food and bever-
2014 AVERAGE ROOM
NIGHTS BOOKED
age prices, and hotel room and meeting
space demand outstripping supply in
many key destinations. ~ LS
608
2014 AVERAGE MEETING
ATTENDANCE SIZE
PLANNING & PROCUREMENT
91% of respondents are directly responsible for the negotiation and contract process with suppliers. Of the 9% not directly
responsible, 50% report that procurement has handled negotiations and contracts with suppliers for 10 or more years, with
the majority (36%) saying procurement has handled the process for more than 20 years.
42
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
25%
15-03-19 2:21 PM
NOT-FOR-PROFIT/ASSOCIATION/GOVERNMENT PLANNER 34% 29%
INDEPENDENT/THIRD PARTY PLANNER MARKETING METHODS/TACTICS
USED TO PROMOTE EVENTS
2015 MEETING/EVENT
DESTINATION OVERVIEW
(Respondents asked to check all that applied)
78%
Email Promotions
75%
Websites/Microsites
Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
60%
Print/Direct Mail
46%
Intranet/Internal Systems
25%
Blogs/Online Discussion Forums
22%
Telemarketing
10%
Voice Drops
2%
Other*
9%
MEXICO, EUROPE, UK AND IRELAND
4%
MIDDLE EAST
2%
CENTRAL AMERICA, AFRICA, INDIA,
SOUTH AMERCIA, SOUTHEAST ASIA,
SOUTH KOREA, NEW ZEALAND, CHINA,
JAPAN, AUSTRALIA
1%
OTHER
2%
CALIFORNIA
38%
FLORIDA
26%
ARIZONA
41%
18% NEVADA
TEXAS
18%
16% ILLINOIS
8% COLORADO
8%
LOUISIANA
13%
8% MASSACHUSETTS
6%
TENNESSEE
9%
2%
Saskatchewan
Prince Edward Island
16%
WASHINGTON, D.C.
31%
Newfoundland & Labrador
New Brunswick
1%
7%
32%
Nova Scotia
Manitoba
6%
CARIBBEAN
NEW YORK
Quebec
Alberta
10%
31%
Ontario
British Columbia
16%
UNITED STATES INCLUDING HAWAII
44%
CANADA
35%
99%
UNITED STATES
*R
espondents who selected “Other” listed fax, personal phone calls, media
releases, word of mouth, mobile apps, and referrals from sales team.
82%
CANADA
ALASKA
2%
HAWAII
5%
18%
Yukon
OTHER
CARIBBEAN
40%
20%
20%
10%
10%
10%
Bahamas
Barbados
Jamaica
Cayman Islands
St. Lucia
Turks & Caicos
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
43
15-03-19 2:21 PM
NUMBER OF ATTENDEES @ LARGEST MEETING LESS THAN 99 13% 100-250 27% 251-500 21%
SPEND DRILLDOWN
(2014 Actual vs 2013 Actual)
CATEGORY
Stayed
the Same
Not
Applicable
6%
43%
20%
7%
54%
4%
3%
33%
54%
13%
51%
22%
15%
45%
21%
Increased
Decreased
Airfare
31%
Audiovisual Services
35%
CSR Activities
9%
Décor
14%
Entertainment
19%
Equipment Rentals
21%
10%
58%
11%
Exhibit Design, Sales & Rentals
19%
9%
33%
39%
Food & Beverage
40%
10%
47%
3%
Hotel Rooms (for Accommodations)
39%
12%
44%
6%
Meeting Room Space (Hotel or Conference Centre)
31%
5%
57%
7%
Name Badge and Registration Services
12%
4%
61%
23%
Security Services
8%
5%
36%
51%
Speakers
22%
7%
56%
15%
Staffing Services
9%
4%
51%
36%
Team-Building Programs
6%
10%
31%
53%
Third Party Management Fees
10%
6%
34%
51%
Transportation (Local, Chartered)
21%
9%
56%
14%
Unique Venues (not hotel or conference centres)
15%
9%
36%
40%
WiFi
25%
6%
53%
15
ESTIMATED AVERAGE SPEND
ON MEETINGS/EVENTS
METHODS/TACTICS USED
TO MEASURE RESULTS
(respondents asked to check all that applied)
2014
$1,316,000
Attendee satisfaction ratings on a survey Attendance numbers
2015
$1,311,000
Financial revenue generation and/or budget adherence
Success in obtaining learning goals
Impact on driving sales
Other
Do not measure/No formalized measurements
MEASURING MEETING &
EVENT SUCCESS
82%
75%
61%
36%
22%
4%
8%
Who’s responsible for setting objectives?
44
Meeting/Event Planner
59%
Senior Management
59%
Board of Directors/Volunteer Committee
41%
Marketing Department
23%
Finance or Procurement
11%
External Company
4%
STANDARD VS INDIVIDUAL
EVENT ASSESSMENT
Standard format
for some events
and individual
assessments
on others
33%
Individual
assessments
for each event
Standard
format
for all
15%
52%
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
15-03-19 2:21 PM
501-750 11% 751-1,000 8% 1,001-1,500 4% 1,501 OR MORE 16%
PLANNERS & TECHNOLOGY
Respondents were asked what, if any, new technology or software has made their jobs
more challenging in the last two years. Many of their answers centered on the time
and cost associated with keeping up-to-date with and implementing new technologies. As one respondent wrote, the challenge is “technology changes so constantly
that we are always challenged. [There’s] always a learning curve in front of us.”
Currently many planners are learning how to best use event apps and social media
before, during and after their events. One respondent pointed out the need to effectively
compete against the second screen during events. “Attendees mobile devices can be distracting so we’re working to develop ways to incorporate options in agenda to use tablets,
smart phones and mobile apps to increase [attendee] engagement,” they wrote.
The cost of WiFi and the increasing demand for quality bandwidth also continues to be
an issue. Several respondents mentioned its high cost in event spaces while another called
the demand for WiFi at no cost to delegates a major “POI”—point of irritation.
Other POIs for planners on the technology front include dealing with the deluge of
emails received daily, cellphone roaming costs, registration system bugs, and the need to
get buy-in from management in order to increase use of social media.~ LS
TYPES OF
SOCIAL MEDIA
USED
91%
Twitter
71%
Facebook
66%
TECHNOLOGY USED AT EVENTS
LinkedIn
78%
46%
36%
Online registration
Social media
Mobile app for event
13%
25%
22%
12%
11%
Webcasting/live
streaming
Session polling
No technology used
Self check-in
Google+
13%
Instagram
7%
4%
2%
6%
Pinterest
Appointment system
Other
RFID/NFC
1%
WIFI
62%
of respondents agree with the
statement: My supplier partners
are working with me to make
the cost of WiFi affordable.
Foursquare
76%
of respondents strongly/somewhat
strongly agree with the statement that
WiFi is a necessity at their events so
they are able to justify its cost.
Snapchat
Other
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
45
15-03-19 2:21 PM
CRITERIA USED TO CUSTOMIZE REWARDS PROGRAMS INDIVIDUAL’S INTERESTS 69% AGE 58%
INCENTIVE TRAVEL
THE UPS AND DOWNS
OF SPEND ON GROUPS
It seems anomalous that average spend
is decreasing when average group size is
increasing—even very slightly as we see
in this year’s results. However, when we
looked at the data more closely we saw
that for the vast majority of respondents
(58%) spend will stay the same with an
average total for groups of $811,053.
Significantly, the 30% who say it will increase are forecasting an average spend
of $3,341,000, which could account for
the upward movement on the overall
average. The 12% who see a decrease
in the year ahead are forecasting a very
substantial $2,437,500. – LS
Average number of
incentive travel programs
expected to plan in 2015
4
TOTAL AVERAGE SPEND
Total Average Spend Per
Organization (Group Travel)
2015
FORECAST
2014
ACTUAL
$1,012,000
$1,053,000
$3,485
$3,516
$317,000
$384,000
$1,742
$1,891
Person (Group Travel)
Organization (Individual Travel)
Person (Individual Travel)
AVERAGE INCENTIVE
TRAVEL GROUP SIZE
2014 ACTUAL
207
191
AVERAGE INCENTIVE
TRAVEL GROUP SIZE
2015 FORECAST
SPEND DRILLDOWN — INCENTIVE TRAVEL
(2014 Actual vs 2013 Actual)
CATEGORY
46
Increased
Decreased
Stay
the Same
Not
Applicable
Airfare
63%
6%
25%
6%
Corporate apparel or logo’d items
22%
19%
50%
9%
Corporate Social Responsibility
16%
6%
34%
44%
Entertainment/Talent
19%
13%
47%
22%
“Experience” Programs (cooking classes, wine appreciation, art classes, etc.)
16%
13%
38%
34%
Food and Beverage
50%
9%
38%
3%
Guest Speakers
22%
9%
47%
22%
Hotel Rooms
53%
13%
31%
3%
Printing of Program Collateral
13%
16%
53%
19%
Room Drops
3%
16%
59%
22%
Sightseeing Tours
13%
9%
63%
16%
Sports and Recreation (golf, spa, etc.)
25%
9%
47%
19%
Spousal Program
3%
22%
47%
28%
Team-Building Programs
13%
9%
47%
31%
Third-party Management Fees
41%
9%
31%
19%
Transportation (local, chartered)
38%
3%
44%
16%
WiFi
28%
6%
50%
16%
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
15-03-19 2:21 PM
58% POSITION IN COMPANY NUMBER OF YEARS OF SERVICE 54% GENDER 54%
DESTINATION OVERVIEW
*respondents selected all destinations that applied
CANADA
EUROPE
UK & IRELAND
58%
USA
(including Hawaii)
67%
52%
21%
SCANDINAVIA
3%
INDIA
3%
SOUTH PACIFIC
MEXICO
9%
36%
CENTRAL AMERICA
CARIBBEAN
3%
58%
MIDDLE EAST
9%
AUSTRALIA
6%
SOUTH AMERICA
15%
AFRICA
9%
NEW ZEALAND
9%
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
47
15-03-19 2:21 PM
LENGTH OF INCENTIVE TRAVEL PROGRAMS (2015) OVERNIGHT 3% 2-4 DAYS 53% 5-7 DAYS 38% 8-PLUS DAYS + 2015 REPORT MARKET
SOURCING DESTINATIONS
2015 PROGRAM COMPONENTS
61%
Word-of-mouth/Peers
58%
Trade shows
52%
Destination website
49%
78%
Sightseeing
72%
66%
59%
50%
41%
31%
25%
22%
16%
13%
Spa
Golf
Food & wine appreciation
Adventure experiences
Cultural immersion
Art/music appreciation
Cruise
CSR component
Fitness
Other
Industry websites
DESTINATION DRILLDOWN
46%
CANADA
Industry magazines
46%
DMC
ONTARIO
50%
BRITISH
COLUMBIA
44%
QUEBEC
13%
42%
EUROPE
CVB
36%
Google/other search engines
21%
Corporate travel agent
ALBERTA
13%
NEWFOUNDLAND &
LABRADOR
6%
NOVA SCOTIA
6%
PRINCE EDWARD
ISLAND
6%
YUKON
6%
21%
6%
Incentive house
15%
Other
6%
None of the above
SPAIN
41%
ITALY
18%
FRANCE
12%
GERMANY
12%
PORTUGAL
6%
AUSTRIA
6%
MONACO
6%
UNITED STATES
Site Selection Company
48
6%
CARIBBEAN
43%
CALIFORNIA
33%
ARIZONA
29%
FLORIDA
29%
NEW YORK
24%
HAWAII
10%
LOUISIANA
10%
NEVADA
JAMAICA
33%
BAHAMAS
22%
BARBADOS
17%
10%
TENNESSEE
TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
11%
10%
TEXAS
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
6%
CAYMAN ISLANDS
6%
ST. KITTS & NEVIS
6%
5%
ILLINOIS
5%
WASHINGTON, D.C.
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
15-03-19 2:21 PM
S 6%
MAGGIE SCHOFIELD
Executive Director,
Calgary Downtown Association
Every day, there are more than 50 international flights to Calgary
from Asia, Europe and the U.S.
18 km of interior walkways connect delegates to downtown shops,
restaurants and arts venues.
HOSPITALITY
Calgarians embrace new people and new ideas with equal enthusiasm.
The city’s warmth and high energy are contagious, making it the perfect
place to introduce the unfamiliar.
MEETINGSCALGARY.COM
15-03-19 2:21 PM
ON WWW.MEETINGSCANADA.COM 2015 REWARDS & RECOGNITION REPORT
WHERE IS THE INDUSTRY HEADING?
This year’s market report survey results revealed a sturdy,
stable industry with only very minute shifts—up and down—
over 2014. But the winds of change are picking up. In March
2014, the Loonie was worth $.90 US. By July, it had climbed
back up to $.93 US. Today it sits at $.78 US. That’s a 15 per cent
drop in buying power in nine months and it’s had an impact.
More than one respondent said the decline in the Canadian
dollar’s value was affecting their meeting and incentive travel
destination decision.
The weakening of the dollar is compounded by the continuing transition to a supplier’s market. PFK Consulting Canada’s report on the country’s lodging industry shows demand
outstripping supply in most of the major markets, a trend that
will continue to grow despite a forecasted 5,800 guest rooms
being added nation-wide this year. The situation is the same
in the United States, according to research conducted by STR
Global on the American hotel market.
Lack of supply hits lead times as well as budgets. Planners
have to book further out or run the risk of not getting the hotels and/or destinations they want. Unfortunately, anecdotal
evidence reveals that many companies and clients want two
things that fly in the face of that reality: a champagne experience on a beer budget, and the ability to make a buying
decision as late as possible. Managing those expectations will
require that planners cultivate and maintain close working relationships with suppliers—relationships built face-to-face as
well as online.
Meeting the demands of clients and event attendees who
are accustomed to customization, instant communication and
all the other on-demand life changes the digital world has delivered is another challenge facing planners. To satisfy today’s
meetings and incentive travel “consumer,” education has to
be better than anything that can be found on the World Wide
Web; food and beverage offerings have to satisfy Foodie palates; WiFi has to be fast and free; the needs of a multi-generational and multi-ethnic workforce have to be understood; and
global influences—political and cultural, positive and negative—have to be on a planner’s radar.
It’s a complex marketplace that requires resilience, adaptability and foresight. Are you prepared?
— Lori Smith is the editor of Meetings + Incentive Travel.
EASY
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conditions should be placed here.
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PMPM
There’s no place like it on earth. 2500 square miles of protected wilderness with some
rather charming yet cosmopolitan mountain towns at its heart. Not to mention first class
amenities, meeting spaces, and adventures. A true bucket list destination for planners and
guests alike, because here in the only protected mountain resort on Earth, nature rules.
Visit BanffLakeLouise.com/Meetings
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he wilderness here is unspoiled, the amenities are modern,
and the experience is like nowhere else on earth. Here
in Canada’s oldest national park and UNESCO World
Heritage Site, you’ll do things you never thought you would.
Matchless mountain vistas will inspire you and your team to break free
of your routine, here, where nature rules.
Banff & Lake Louise offer more than just a location to meet and do
business. For many, they are bucket list destinations – places where
groups test their limits.
What would it mean for your group to guide a dog team through
a snowy mountain pass? Or rope up to climb a frozen waterfall?
Even the effort to catch a lake trout through a hole in the ice
will leave lasting memories of adventure, accomplishment and
satisfaction.
Winter is the setting for some of the most breathtaking images of
Banff & Lake Louise, but you can attain awesome in warmer weather,
too. Tour the emerald waters of its mountain lakes, soar above the
towering peaks in guided helicopter flight, or experience a spectacular
sunset from the top of the Rockies.
The rewards start right at the airport, where staff with the Banff
Airporter make sure you’re relaxed and comfortable for your first
glimpse of the magnificent Rocky Mountains.
Adventure plus award-winning spas, internationally recognized chefs,
and some of the most comfortable beds in the world give your colleagues
more to look forward to. Banff & Lake Louise offers all this and more in
one of the most breathtaking natural settings in the world. It’s a unique
location that gives you the opportunity to push the planning boundaries
and create once-in-a-lifetime events. A meeting in Banff & Lake Louise is
more than business, it’s a reward.
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S
now-capped mountains are among Canada’s most
iconic and enduring images. Now imagine that
frame-worthy view from your conference site, hotel
room or hot tub. Every vista in Banff National Park’s 6,641
square kilometres will leave you breathless.
The views inside our hotels are just as stunning, with
grand stone staircases, magnificent antler chandeliers and
fireplaces deep enough to roast a wild boar. The Fairmont
Banff Springs will even indulge your royal fantasies with a
Medieval Feast at the Castle.
Want something less grand, but just as special? One of
our hidden gems is the outdoor hot tub at the Buffalo
Mountain Lodge, tucked away below the stone steps in the
magnificent hillside garden.
The railway workers who stumbled on the hot springs
at what is now called Sulfur Mountain had no idea their
discovery would invite the world to experience the
accommodations and experiences in Canada’s rugged
west. You can share that spirit in today’s sophisticated west
at meetings and conferences in Banff & Lake Louise.
BANFF AIRPORTER
Banff Airporter offers private & scheduled transportation between the Calgary
Airport & Banff/Lake Louise. Our team of transportation experts will design a
strategy to suit your group. Get creative & choose video entertainment from
our extensive library. Enjoy luxury vehicles, professional drivers &, of course, the
view. With nearly two decades of dedicated service behind us, we invite you to
experience our smart blend of comfort & efficiency.
www.banffairporter.com | 1.888.449.2901
MEET AT THE BANFF PARK LODGE
All of downtown Banff is at our doorstep & with more than 19,000 square feet of
meeting space we provide all the amenities & technical capabilities of a major city
hotel – without the higher cost! Our spacious guest rooms & suites have private
balconies with spectacular mountain views. Come breathe new life into your next
meetings!
www.banffparklodge.com | 1.800.661.9266
BUFFALO MOUNTAIN LODGE
Whether sitting under a towering open-beam ceiling & antler chandelier, or
enjoying the warmth of our massive field-stone fireplaces, Buffalo Mountain Lodge
is the perfect venue for a meeting. Located on nine acres on Tunnel Mountain Road
in Banff, Alberta, the lodge has 108 guest rooms, with wood-burning fireplaces &
private balconies. The restaurant & lounge offer a variety of unique boutique wines
& our signature Rocky Mountain Cuisine, featuring elk & bison.
www.crmr.com/buffalo/ | 1.800.661.1367
MAKE YOUR NEXT MEETING MEMORABLE
The Fairmont Banff Springs repeatedly amazes the most discerning conference
planners. With over 72,000 square feet of versatile convention, event & exhibit
space your event will be a perfect fit. Whether it’s a reception in the grandeur of
the Mt. Stephen Hall, or a presentation to 1,000 clients in the Van Horne Ballroom,
we will ensure your event is marked with impeccable taste and gracious hospitality.
www.fairmont.com/banffsprings | 1.866.540.4406
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T
here is no better stimulant than the fresh mountain
air. While your senses are at their sharpest, treat
them to some of the world’s best food and wine.
Sink your teeth into a piece of freshly carved hip of beef,
then get out of your dinner chair for a line-dancing lesson
or jig to a lively fiddle at the Mount View Barbeque.
Try a tasting menu in the Eden Dining Room at Rimrock
Resort Hotel and find out why they’ve earned a AAA Five
Diamond rating for ten consecutive years. The Chef’s
Table at the Buffalo Mountain Lodge shares the secrets of
preparing local specialities while you and your group enjoy
them with perfectly paired wines.
Work, play and explore here and you’ll see why Banff & Lake
Louise remains at the top of so many must-see destination
lists. Everyone can find something to love, here, where
nature rules and business meets awesome.
THE FAIRMONT CHATEAU LAKE LOUISE
The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise is a world class resort in a one-of-a-kind
destination. Promote and inspire unity in your team through authentic experiences,
breathtaking surroundings, and unique indoor and outdoor group activities.
Historic grandeur blends with state-of-the-art technology throughout the 36,000
square feet of inspiring function space, while our skilled conference services team
ensures that your event is tailored to your every need.
www.fairmont.com/lake-louise | 1.866.540.4413
MOUNTVIEW BARBECUE
A uniquely private off-site venue where your group can kick up their heels to live
music entertainment & dine on our legendary barbecued Alberta Hip of Beef.
Only 15 minutes from most Banff hotel properties, your experience here is certainly
to be the highlight of your Banff area function.
www.mountviewbbq.com | 403.762.0115
THE RIMROCK RESORT HOTEL
The Rimrock Resort Hotel is a unique Four Diamond property located in Banff National Park. The Rimrock features 18,000 square feet of function space with breathtaking views of the Canadian Rockies, Western Canada’s only 5 Diamond Dining, a
full service luxury spa, a complimentary 24 hour fitness facility & 346 newly renovated guest rooms. The Rimrock Resort Hotel is a special place to visit for a truly
remarkable experience.
www.rimrockresort.com | 1-888-RIMROCK (746-7625)
BANFF LAKE LOUISE TOURISM
For over 125 years, Banff National Park has provided visitors with a healthy
combination of unspoiled wilderness, wildlife, modern amenities & opportunities
for active exploration. With such a breathtaking landscape, it’s no surprise that this
UNESCO World Heritage Site has been nominated time & again as a “must-see”
destination for travelers around the world. Two vibrant communities – Banff & Lake
Louise – offer the perfect base camp for activities, dining, spa services & more!
www.BanffLakeLouise.com/Meetings | 403.762.0271
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MEETING
SOUTH KOREA
56
BY LORI SMITH
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
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On the penultimate morning of an international MICE press trip
to South Korea this past December, our group was ushered into
one of the new meeting rooms at the Gunsan Saemangeum Convention Center (GSCO) to interview Minhong Min, executive director of the Korea MICE Bureau, who was at GSCO to take part
in the Korea 2014 MICE Alliance Conference & Awards. After the
customary introductions, the Australian editor kicked off the
questions, asking Min how many conventions were held in South
Korea. He replied that the country held the number 12 spot on the
International Congress and Convention Association’s (ICCA) 2013
list of countries hosting the most meetings and Seoul, its capital
city, was ninth on ICCA’s 2013 list of cities hosting the most meetings. However, he explained that in the last decade the country’s
MICE offerings had grown more than 300 per cent. In 2004,
South Korea had only four convention centres. Now, thanks to
huge investments by the government in the MICE infrastructure,
there are 14 convention centres in cities throughout the country,
three of which our group had visited over the course of the previous four days.
This boom in MICE infrastructure has been complemented by
growing international awareness of South Korea’s culture, both
popular and traditional, said Min. Pop singer Psy put the country on the global Music map with his infectious (and satirical) hit
song and video, Gangnam Style, an ode to the trendy Gangnam
District in Seoul. Korean cuisine is being celebrated for its health
benefits (kimchi is now recognized as an excellent probiotic) as
well as its flavours. On the business side, national brands like
Hyundai, LG and Samsung have become household names internationally while Daewoo and others are making huge inroads in
foreign markets. Clearly South Korea is happening.
But, there was another reason M+IT was in South Korea. The
day before my colleagues and I sat down with Min, the Canadian
Tourism Commission (CTC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO). A
press release announcing the agreement explained that it would
“broaden and deepen mutual understanding as well as strengthen
co-operation between the two countries in the tourism marketplace.” Other key areas the two countries would “swap ideas on”
included “handling international events, product development,
shared market intelligence and consumer trends.”
The MOU followed another even bigger piece of business between Canada and South Korea: the Canada-Korea Free Trade
Agreement. Signed in the fall, the agreement, which is Canada’s
first of its kind in the Pacific-Asia region, came into force on January 1, 2015. Forecasted benefits include a $1.7 billion boost to Canada’s economy, a 32 per cent rise in exports to South Korea and
a significant reduction in tariffs between the two countries. The
Mining Association of Canada, Information Technology Association
of Canada, Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters, Canadian Pork Council, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and more
have gone on record saying the agreement is a good thing for their
industries and both countries. Canada is doing business with South
Korea, and business means meetings.
INCHEON-SONGDO
The group’s five-day tour began in Incheon, a city of 2.8 million
located northeast of Seoul. A quick 20-minute highway drive
from Incheon International Airport—a journey that takes visitors
across the impressive sweep of the nearly 22 kilometer-long Incheon Bridge—Incheon is home to the Songdo International Business District, an area purpose-built for MICE.
Designed as a walkable city-within-a-city, Songdo’s infrastructure includes the Songdo Convensia Convention Center, a Central
Park, the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, Songdo Global Campus,
Canal Walkway, shopping malls and restaurants. Some 1,800
hotel rooms are within a 10-minute stroll of Convensia. Another
2,034 rooms are in a 20-minute walk radius.
We were headquartered at the 321-room Sheraton Incheon
Hotel, which is a two-minute walk to Convensia. It was built in
2009 when, according to the hotel’s general manager, Richard
Suter, “there was nothing in Incheon.” The LEED-certified property has 18,300 square feet of event and meeting space. In addition, all of its restaurants have private rooms, which, explained
Suter, are an important part of Korean culture.
In fact, there was something in Songdo when the Sheraton
was built. The Songdo Convensia Convention Center, the first
project completed in the district, opened on October 7, 2008.
It has 583,000 square feet of usable space that includes three
exhibition halls, 23 conference rooms and three ballrooms. Plans
to expand it are underway.
Forming a slightly misshapen triangle with the Sheraton
and Convensia is the Oakwood Premier Hotel Incheon. Housed
in what is currently the tallest building in Korea, the property
opened in July 2014, just in time to host the president of the
Olympic Council of Asia, HH Sheikh Almad Al Fahad Al Sabah of
Kuwait, during the Asian Games. The Sheikh stayed in the hotel’s
penthouse, a 4,000-square-foot v-shaped oasis on the 65th floor.
For individuals whose pockets aren’t quite as deep, this residence
hotel offers studio rooms as well as suites in a range of sizes.
All feature modern design and such high-end amenities as steam
showers, in-room washer/dryers, multiple televisions, Haenghan
bone china and L’Occitane toiletries.
DAEJEON
Another city looking to carve out an even bigger piece of the
MICE pie is Daejeon, the country’s fifth largest metropolis and its
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de facto Silicon Valley. With a population of 1.5 million, this science and technology hub has hosted international summits such
as the World Humanities Forum. And like Incheon, it is developing
a commercial district around its convention centre that will be
filled with restaurants, entertainment and hotels.
Our group had the good fortune of staying at the five-star
Lotte City Hotel Daejeon, which opened in March 2014. Located across the street from the convention centre, this 18-storey
property has 312 modern rooms and the fastest Internet I’ve ever
used. I downloaded magazines on to my iPad in mere seconds.
Its glass-walled lobby is filled with low-slung furniture in muted
tones of ivory, beige and tan accented by mid- and dark-toned
woods. And its rooms are filled with unusually thoughtful touches, both high and low tech. For example, lighting is controlled on
a bedside panel, which requires only the lightest of touches to
activate and is easy to see. Then, in the bathroom, complimentary
toiletries are packaged in bottles with the purpose of the product—shampoo, shower gel, etc.—written large enough for all but
the most myopic to read without glasses. Genius.
We encountered another kind of genius during our stay when we
visited the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
(ETRI), the mandate of which centres on smart and green technology innovation. There we were given a look at new inventions such
as Digi Actor (digital actors that look exactly the same as the real
one); cell phone app Genie Talk, a multilingual speech translation device (great for travellers); Interactive Virtual Aquarium; Digital Painterly Rendering, which takes a photo of an individual and turns pixels
to brush strokes; and a new digital medical service that would allow
people to see a doctor without going to a doctor’s office.
Before leaving the next morning, we toured the Daejeon
Convention Center. It has a grand ballroom, conference hall, 17
58
meeting rooms (eight on the first floor, three on the second floor
and six small meeting rooms) and a multi-purpose hall spread
over a 261,359-square-foot site. As in Incheon, there are plans to
expand the center, making it even bigger and better.
GUNSAN SAEMANGEUM
Day Four of the tour brought us to the Gunsan Saemangeum Convention Center, where the Korea 2014 MICE Alliance Conference &
Awards were being held. The center is comprised of three buildings constructed over the last ten years: the Exhibition Building
(2004); the Annex Building (2007); and the Convention Building,
which opened in July 2014.
The conference and awards took place in the new building.
Trudy Baek, assistant manager of its MICE Business Team, filled
us in on its specs: 19,645 square feet of event space, two convention halls on the first floor and nine meeting rooms on the second
floor. The conference center as a whole is, she said, “a new, young
center capable of hosting large-scale conventions.”
Like Incheon and Daejeon, the area is developing its hotel offerings, which currently consists of some 1,300 rooms. The convention center hotel is a Best Western. Eleven more hotels are
located a 10-minute drive away, eight are 20 minutes distant and
four are 30 minutes from the convention centre.
However, the region is poised for major growth. Already a significant industrial hub, it is home to the Saemangeum Seadyke,
the largest, longest (34 kilometers) seawall in the world. The
Seadyke, which was completed in 2010, joins the cities of Buan
and Gunsan. It has also spawned an ambitious development
project that will see an area of some 400 square kilometers reclaimed from the sea, transforming Saemangeum into a multifunctional city incorporating farming, scientific research, cutting
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edge industry, recreation, commerce and more. Major players involved in the project include Samsung, which plans to establish a
green energy industrial complex there.
OFF-SITE
Our itinerary also took us to some of the country’s more traditional cultural venues and one of its less traditional MICE venues. On
the second day, the group stayed overnight in Seoul at The Plaza
Hotel (410 rooms; 68,027 square feet of meeting space). While
in the city we dined at one of its newest MICE facilities: Floating
Island or Some Sevit. A cornerstone of the Hangang Renaissance
Project, these three artificial islets are home to three distinct
event facilities. Some Gavit (59,000+ square feet) features a convention hall, restaurants and a café. Some Chavit (36,800+ square
feet) is a three-storey building with an entertainment hall. Some
Solvit (11,604 square feet) is a recreational complex with yacht
club, marina and more.
On our way to Daejeon the next day we stopped at Cheongnamdae Presidential Villa. Located near Daecheong Dam in
Cheongwon-gu, the villa served as a vacation home for the sitting
president from 1983 to 2003, when it was opened to the public by
then president Roh Moo-hyun. Today its grounds include a wetland garden, a 3.3 kilometre mountain trail and an eight-kilometre
promenade. There is also a museum chronicling South Korea’s
history through its presidents.
Our next cultural experience was a visit to Hanok Village in
the city of Jeonju. While the rest of the city has been modernized
and industrialized, this area has kept its historical charm through
the preservation of more than 800 traditional “hanok” houses.
After a quick lunch and a walk around the streets, we stopped at
a Hanok Life Experience Hall. There our all-female group donned
“hanbok,” the traditional women’s clothing comprised of a blouse
shirt/jacket called a jeogori and a voluminous, wrap-around skirt
called a chima, and learned the art of curtseying and bowing. After a round of photos, we headed to Gunsan.
On our last night in South Korea, we returned to Seoul for a
stay at the five-star JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square (170 rooms
and 10,570 square feet of total meeting space). After check-in, the
group headed out for a modern treat—fried chicken and beer, a
combination so popular there are festivals celebrating it.
The fact that South Korea offers this blend of ancient culture
and trendy modernity was a point Minhong Min, executive director of the Korea MICE Bureau, emphasized at the press conference. A MICE strategy, he said, has to combine conventions with
tourism. Meetings themselves are not enough, he said, you have
to offer something unique—industry, culture, cuisine—as well as
excellent facilities. South Korea does all that.
— Lori Smith is the editor of Meetings + Incentive Travel.
PHOTOS: Page 56 (clockwise from top): Haechi and Gwanghwamun Gate, Seoul (Photo: Korea Tourism
Organization - KTO); Gunsan Saemangeum Convention Center (Photo: GSCO); Eojuk Fish Porridge (Photo:
KTO); Songdo Convensia Convention Center (Photo: Incheon CVB); Incheon International Airport (Photo: KTO);
Hanbok Traditional Clothing (Photo: KTO); Namaemun Market, Seoul (Photo: KTO). Page 57 (left to right):
Penthouse Master Room, Oakwood Premier Hotel (Photo: Oakwood Premier); Incheon Bridge (Photo: KTO).
Page 58 (clockwise from top left): Sheraton Incheon Hotel (Photo: Sheraton Incheon); Daejeon Convention
Center (Photo: KTO); Boseong Dawon Tea Plantation (Photo: KTO); Lounge, JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square,
Seoul (Photo: Marriott International). This page (clockwise from top left): Floating Island, Seoul (Photo: KTO);
Cheongnamdae Presidential Villa (Photo: KTO); and Seoul at night (Photo: KTO).
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.KOREACONVENTION.ORG
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SANTA MONICA
BY LORI SMITH
A taste of the good life
62
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It’s 7:30 in the morning on the last Saturday of February and
I am with a group of seven planners and our hosts on the rooftop of the Hotel Shangri-La at the Ocean in Santa Monica. We
are there to take a sunrise yoga class, the start of the second
day’s itinerary of a planner FAM organized by the city’s CVB.
Dr. Har Hari Khalsa, a holistic chiropractor, is our instructor.
Dr. Khalsa teaches Stick Yoga, a relatively new branch on
the yogic tree. He distributes four-foot and six-foot bamboo
“sticks” to each of us and turns on Deva Premal’s Into Silence
to set the mood for the class. The ersatz practice space—in reality the patio adjacent to the penthouse, an area available for
events—offers a 360° view of the city and its surroundings. As
we twist, bend and do standing poses with the support of the
sticks, we can see the brown hills of Malibu to the northwest,
the city’s three-and-half miles of beach and its iconic pier to
the west, and beyond them the Pacific Ocean, which extends
into the clear blue sky of the horizon. It’s the perfect beginning to a quintessential California day.
SITE SEEING
Ours is the first planner FAM the Santa Monica Convention & Visitors
Bureau has put on in recent years, and its team is eager to show our
group what the city can offer groups. Post yoga, we board a bus for
a tour of its core. As we drive along the city’s avenues, streets and
boulevards (are the names Pico and Wilshire familiar?) the CVB rep
points out hotels and venues.
We pass by Loew’s Santa Monica, the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows and Le Merigot JW Marriott, which are all a
block above the beach and are, we are told, the largest hotels
for groups. We see the Hollywood Regency-style Viceroy Hotel
(190 rooms, 2,000-sq.-ft. meeting space); Areal, a restaurant on
Main Street with a patio that is perfect for receptions; and the
Aero Theater, which has event space for up to 200. Driving Up
Pico, we see the city’s Civic Auditorium. It was closed last year
having failed to meet the requirements for earthquake safety but
its large parking lot is available for outdoor events ranging from
corporate parties to product launches. Along the way, we also
learn that groups can rent space on the Santa Monica Pier, and
that Perry’s on the Beach is the only business with a permit to
hold beach parties where beer and wine are served. We are also
told about the new light rail line being built. Scheduled for completion at the end of this year, it will link Santa Monica with Los
Angeles, Hollywood and Pasadena. It will also allow individuals
attending conferences in Los Angeles to stay in Santa Monica
without having to endure the city’s infamous traffic.
At the end of the tour, we are dropped at our hotels. Three
planners are staying at Le Meridien Delfina Santa Monica, a
PHOTOS: Page 62 (clockwise from top): Heather Douglas, Meridican Incentive Consultants, cooking at The
Gourmandise School of Sweets & Savories; Lobby, Shutters on the Beach; Yoga in the Park (Photo: Santa Monica
Convention & Visitors Bureau (SMCVB)/K. Beinke; Terrace Colonnade, Hotel Casa del Mar; Aero Theater (Photo:
Margot Gerber); Tongva Park (Photo: Tim Street Porter). Page 63 (from top) Annenberg Community Beach
House (Photo: Vero Images); Shangri-La at the Ocean Santa Monica; (left) Santa Monica Place (Photo: SMCVB/
Mark Silverstein); Perry’s on the Beach (Photo: Perry’s on the Beach); Santa Monica Pier (Photo: SMCVB); Lobby
coummunity and culture space, Le Meridien Delfina Santa Monica.
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contemporary property with more than 10,000 square feet of flexible function space. The other four planners and I are hosted at Hotel Casa del Mar (129 guestrooms and 5,100 square feet of event
space). It and its sister property, Shutters on the Beach (186 guestrooms, 12 suites and 7,000 square feet of event space), are Santa
Monica’s only properties “on the sand.”
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2015 SALARY SURVEY REPORT
How does your pay stack
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LEADERSHIP
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NMID 2015 RECAP
EAT, WALK, PLAY
Santa Monica’s size—eight square miles—makes it a walkable city.
The planners in the group said the fact that the majority of hotels,
off-site venues, stores and restaurants are within strolling distance of
one and other ia a plus for the destination as it reduces the need for a
lot of onsite transportation. It is also a plus for our waistlines.
Santa Monica is a foodie paradise. During our stay, we have dinner at
Del Frisco’s Grille, a new restaurant on the east side of Ocean Avenue;
lunch at The Lobster, which serves up seafood and great views of the
Pier and the beach; and dinner at the Annenberg Community Beach
House, which started its long life as private estate developed by William Randolph Hearst for his mistress, silent screen star Marion Davies.
The latter event was catered by Schaffer’s Genuine Foods, which at the
end of the evening sent us back to our respective hotels with a snack of
three salted, chocolate chip cookies and a carton of milk.
But we didn’t just eat. We also cooked. A highlight of the visit was
a rustic French dessert cooking class at The Gourmandise School of
Sweets & Savories, located on the top level of Santa Monica Place, the
privately-owned shopping centre that anchors one end of the Third
Street Promenade. The class had us team up to produce pot a crème,
apple tarte tatin and chocolate mousse. Hats off to Heather Douglas,
senior buyer at Meridican Incentive Consultants, who did the heavy
stirring and kneading for our team. The results were delicious.
In addition to eating and cooking, we visited the Downtown
Farmers’ Market, which is held twice a week year-round on Arizona
Avenue between 2nd and 4th streets. It is just one of the city’s three
regular farmers’ markets. Our hosts explained that groups interested in a real culinary treat can tour the market with a chef, who will
then whip up a meal using the ingredients the group purchases.
To burn it all off, the city offers a plethora of activities. Groups
can rent hybrid bikes and cycle along the South Bay Bicycle Trail,
the 22-mile bike (walking, running, rollerblading) path that runs
parallel to the beach from Torrance to Malibu. They can play volleyball and soccer on the sand. Participate in a yoga class. Pump
iron on Muscle Beach. Or, just relax on the sand and swim in the
ocean. Santa Monica is a playground—for Los Angelenos and tourists (business and leisure alike), all of whom are looking to have a
taste of the good life and maybe catch a glimpse of a star or two.
Photos and takeaways from
MPI chapter celebrations in
Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa,
Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary,
Edmonton and Vancouver.
DESTINATION REPORTS
Santa Barbara, California
Nashville, Tennessee
PLUS GIFTS + GEAR, SNAPPED AND MORE.
AFTER THE FAM
Santa Monica’s popularity as a leisure destination creates three limitations for groups: the opportunity days are strictly Sunday through
Thursday, its peak season summer months are out of the question,
and the number of hotel rooms available for groups is limited. I ask
Lauren Smith, director of events, promotions and sponsorships for
Dominion Lending Centres and one of the Canadian planners on the
FAM, what kind of group business she thinks the city is best-suited
for. In her opinion, it’s a perfect destination for a small, up-scale
program. “Whether it be an incentive group. corporate meeting or
national conference—if your group is looking for a destination that
won’t disappoint, Santa Monica is the place to be!” she says.
Lori Smith is editor of Meetings + Incentive Travel.
64
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15-03-20 1:48 PM
Daz
play
the
The
hote
e
n
i
h
s
n
o
i
t
n
e
v
See your con
's
g
e
p
i
n
n
i
W
t
s
g
amon
newest star s.
Opening 2016
Dazzle your delegation in our stunning new convention centre, see polar bears swim and
play in the majestic Journey to Churchill and have a world-class reflective experience at
the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
These inspired settings can only be found in the heart of Canada, where our new skyline,
hotels and one-of-a-kind attractions are shining bright for all the world to see.
To book your next
convention please
call Tourism Winnipeg
1.855.PEG.CITY
(734.2489) or visit
meetingswinnipeg.com
15-03-19 2:24 PM
15-03-19 2:24 PM
1. Made from stainless steel with a PVCcoated handle, this selfie stick does not
require a battery or use of an app. Users
simply plug the 3.5mm audio jack into
their iPhone® and press the button on the
handle. It can also be used via self-timer
with Android, Samsung and other mobile
devices. Per unit price as low as $11.97.
brandblvd.ca
2. This BPA-free, leak-proof flat
bottle stacks against books, tablets
and more in a purse, bag or backpack.
One-colour imprint set up: $66.
Per unit pricing as low as $8.99.
universallinksinc.com
GIFTS
GEAR
3. Snackin’ Sedici 20-ounce tumbler is
BPA-free, has a double-wall acrylic body,
and an integrated, flip-open compartment
in the lid for snack storage. One colour, one
location imprint: $66. Per unit pricing as
low as $9.02. incrediblenovelties.com
4. Foxy Originals designs customized
cufflinks, necklaces, bracelets and buckles
for corporations, schools and other
organizations. Prices vary.
foxyoriginals.com
5. Highline™ security leash and protective
case sets for iPhone® are available for the
iPhone 6, 6 plus (shown), 5/5s and 4/4s. A
Lightning Lock™ attaches the elastic leash
to the case, while a braided Kevlar attachment loop secures the leash to zipper pulls,
belt loops, purse handles and more. $34.95
USD. kenu.com
6. Sleek stainless steel Golf 7-in-1 Tool
Keyholder includes a knife, groove cleaner,
domed ball marker, ballpoint pen, spike
wrench, heavy duty scrub brush, and divot
repair tool. One colour, one location imprint
set up: $66. Per unit pricing as low as
$8.35. incrediblenovelties.com
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p67-69 Gifts and Gear.indd 67
67
15-03-19 2:26 PM
+GIFTS & GEAR
7. Sixty-four ounce Asobu Mini
Keg 2 Go is made from easy-to-clean
stainless steel. Features include a
pouring spout and secure stainless
steel screw-top lid that will keep
beer fresh and stabilize it at
maximum pressure. Per unit
price as low as $35.99. brandblvd.ca
8. RAD Roller is a compact, portable
massage and release tool. Made from
natural rubber, it measures 6.5” x 2.5”
and is soft enough to use on sensitive
areas and hard enough to sooth and
smooth sore muscles. $24.99 USD.
radroller.com
9. Seasons Foldable Garden Kit
includes a folding seat and detachable
tote bag with four garden tools:
spade, weeder, hand rake and gloves.
One-colour print set up: $66.
Per unit pricing as low as $36.57.
universallinksinc.com
9
10. DV8Sports’ new golf equipment
and bag design are for people on
the go. The Atlanta-based company’s
new patented, stainless steel coupler
technology allows up to 14 titanium
and stainless steel club heads to be
interchanged on one or two custom
shafts in less than three seconds—
no tools required. The clubs are
packed in a travel-friendly backpack.
Bundles start at $499.95 USD.
DV8sports.com
10
68
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
15-03-19 2:26 PM
HOF_FP_M
BOSS. COLLEAGUE.
PARTNER. FRIEND.
Give them the recognition they deserve.
Nominate your peers for a 2015
M+IT Hall of Fame Award Today!
Visit www.meetingscanada.com/HallofFame
for a full list of categories and nomination form.
HOF_FP_MITDec14.indd 1
14-12-05 9:58 AM
15-03-19 2:26 PM
!
DATE
E
H
T
AVE
S
APRIL 16, 2015
Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton,
Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa,
Montreal, Halifax
The meetings industry gathers together for ONE DAY IN APRIL to debate,
discuss and celebrate the IMPACT of Meetings. The VALUE. The POWER.
#nmid15
facebook.com/nationalmeetingsindustryday
National Media Partner:
For more information, please visit www.nmid.ca
NMID_FP_2015.indd 1
15-01-12 12:44 PM
15-03-19 2:26 PM
+SNAPPED
1
2
3
Reveal 2015 Social
6
5
4
se
PCMA Convening Leaders 2015
7
8
Photo Credits: 1, 2 and 3. Reveal 2015 Social, M+IT Staff.
4, 5, 6, and 7. PCMA Convening Leaders 2015, Jacob Slaton
Photography. 8. MPI Atlantic Canada Chairman’s 5K Skate,
MPI Atlantic Canada. 9 and 10. Quebec Day, M+IT Staff.
9
MPI Atlantic Canada Skate-a-thon
10
Quebec Day
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p71-72 Snapped.indd 71
71
15-03-19 2:28 PM
+SNAPPED
1
2
3
CAEM 2015 Awards Gala
4
6
5
7
8
CanSPEP 2015 Conference
9
10
11
CSAE Tête-a-Tête
Photo Credits: 1, 2 and 3. CAEM
12
13
Awards Gala, M+IT Staff. 4-8 and
11. CanSPEP 2015 Conference,
PInpoint National Photography.
9, 10. CSAE Tête-a-Tête, M+IT
Staff. 12, 13. MPI BC Education
Day, Vision Event Photography.
MPI BC Education Day
72
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
15-03-19 4:15 PM
STAND OUT.
TORONTO
really shines, and when you plan with
Toronto, your event will too. We have
all of the tools and resources you need
for success and our expert team will
go above and beyond, working with
you and our outstanding members to
help find you the perfect venues and
accommodations – and the nightlife,
attractions and cuisine that can give
your event the perfect polish.
We take pride in our unparalleled
Signature Service, and we’ve been
catching the eyes of all the right people.
SeeTorontoNow.com
WHERE DO YOU STAND?
To learn more about planning with
Toronto contact Debbie Miller,
Account Director, at [email protected]
or 416-203-3835.
15-03-19 2:28 PM
+FIND
Y
C
b
u
a
e
t
Vancouver’s coolest new hotspot can be found behind a nondescript, street-level door on Howe Street. Prohibition, the Rosewood
Hotel Georgia’s new Twenties-inspired cocktail bar, is home to the city’s in-the-know hipsters from Monday to Saturday. But on
Sunday the 3,000-square-foot space is available for group buyouts. Up to 155 meeting attendees can lounge in its decadent black
stone and electric blue interior, sip on vintage brews and craft cocktails, and nibble on small bites prepared by the in-house
catering. Want something more adventurous? Order the absinthe fountain and give your guests a taste of the spirit favoured by
Parisian bohemians and artists in 1920s’ speakeasies. It will keep them talking long after your meeting is over. prohibitionrhg.com
74
MEETINGSCANADA.COM
p74-76 Find.indd 74
15-03-20 10:49 AM
You don’t have to go far to find Canada’s premier convention centre. The Metro Toronto
Convention Centre is conveniently located in the heart of downtown Toronto. Surrounded
by a wide range of hotels, the Centre offers your attendees unrivalled accessibility with
underground parking, nearby transit and world-class entertainment. Inside, you’ll discover
a large selection of flexible meeting spaces that can be configured to accommodate
events of all sizes — from 20 to over 20,000 attendees. Take a closer look at all we have
to offer at mtccc.com.
LOOK CLOSER.
p74-76 Find.indd 59
15-03-19 2:28 PM
meetings
are a real
bummer*
NOT IF YOU’RE MEETING AT THE RIGHT PLACE!
ONE WITH BRIGHT INTERIORS, COMFY SEATING, ACCLAIMED SERVICE AND AMAZING FOOD. THE
WHITE OAKS MEETING SETUP IS FASHIONED TO FUEL YOUR EVENT AND FOSTER SESSIONS THAT
TOTALLY KICK BUTT. ASK ABOUT THE NEW IDEA LOFT - A SPACE WHERE BRILLIANCE HAPPENS.
WWW.WHITEOAKSRESORT.COM 1.800.263.5766
p74-76 Find.indd 60
15-03-19 2:28 PM

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