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Meeting the Meeting Planners
The U.S. had 51,000 meeting and convention planners in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and that number is projected to grow by 20 percent over the next decade, reaching 61,000 by 2016.
But those figures are misleading, according to Melissa Fromento, group publisher of MeetingsNet—which has five specialty publications for the industry, including Corporate Meetings & Incentives and Medical Meetings magazines—because the nature of event planning has changed. “The size of the planning universe is unknown. Years ago, most companies had meeting planners within the company, so the size of the market was more definable,” she says. Many of these companies have transferred planning responsibilities to someone like the marketing director or the VP of sales. “We don’t know who those people are, and it’s a huge effort on our part or anyone’s part to find them.”
Michael Bagg, senior marketing adviser for Meeting Professionals International, says that MPI’s 23,000 members are divided equally between planners and suppliers.
John LoGiudice, a senior list manager with Edith Roman Associates, which manages the lists for MeetingNews, Successful Meetings, Business Travel News and Nielsen Business Media Meeting Planners Database, points out that these high-level business executives represent “billions of dollars in purchasing power” given that their decisions will affect dozens, if not hundreds, of their companies’ employees and customers. The Center for Exhibition Industry Research reports that the exhibition industry grew by 3.2 percent in 2007, the fifth straight year of growth, with quarterly revenues of between $2.5 billion and $3 billion.
Reaching Those Who Reach Others
Because the field of meeting planners is split among freelancers, independent companies, on-staff individuals and those who are asked to take on the job, Fromento says, “People use a lot of different vehicles to find out information about suppliers and possible event locations.” A MeetingsNet survey, for example, showed that 75 percent of respondees receive information through word-of-mouth, 62 percent through a hotel-chain Web site, 61 percent through trade publications and 55 percent through direct mail.
Fromento said that many sources of information fell in the 40 percent to 60 percent range, such as trade shows and advertisements in trade magazines. “Those who don’t do this as a full-time job go into different modes, and some of them read everything they can get their hands on,” she says.
According to Fromento, online ads that include a call to action work much better than those that emphasize branding. As for offers, “You need to have something along the lines of ‘Get free rooms when you book a room’ or ‘Click here to win a weekend at the Westin Sheraton,’” she says. These are the types of offers that are likely to get a second look—and get the prospect to take action.
While a planner might be located in the same city as the client, the event itself might be held in a different state, time zone or country, depending on the nature of the event and the number of participants. Planners often have a big say in where an event will be held, and they’re often wooed by hotel, city, state and vacation-destination representatives because of this. “Everyone wants Hawaii, Vegas, Orlando—something that is going to create a good experience,” says Mary N. Miller, senior marketing manager for the direct marketing firm DM2-DecisionMaker.
Sustainability = Sales
The key to pitching your product or service to planners, according to Bagg, is to present something that’s environmentally friendly. According to the Cone Millennial Cause Study, 89 percent of Americans would switch brands if one brand were associated with good cause. “That’s a huge subject in the meetings industry,” says Bagg. Served food should be organic, convention centers should offer pitchers of water instead of prepackaged bottles, and hotels should stress that they encourage guests not to have the sheets and towels changed and washed every day.
Travel companies and destination locations that can offer “sustainable” outings will have a leg up on others since corporate clients want to emphasize their concern for the environment in media coverage of their operations. “Everyone is concerned about corporate social responsibility right now, from the client to the supplier to the planner,” says Bagg. “You don’t want word to get out that a client held an event that put out 55,000 bottles of water when they could have used water containers.”
Target planners, craft a compelling call to action, and be sure to be kind to the environment—and you’ll reach the people who influence thousands of others.
Linda Formichelli is a freelance writer based in New Hampshire. She wrote about foodies and their spending patterns in Target Marketing’s May issue.
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