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James M. Bullock: Conference Centers can never loose sight of the human touch

SPOTLIGHT: James M. Bullock, Regional Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Benchmark Hospitality International

CONFERENCE CENTERS: TOP 10 MEETING TRENDS 2007

Benchmark Hospitality International, which manages 31 award-winning conference centers, resorts and hotels throughout the United States, has issued its annual List—the "Top 10 Meeting Trends for the Year.” While this annual list comes with Benchmark’s usual qualification—as observed by its properties—with Benchmark such a dominant leader in the conference center segment, these observed trends are rich with implications for the small-to-mid-size meeting market and the venues that serve it.

To help shed more light on the cause and effect of these trends for both venues and meeting planners, www.facilitiesonline.com spoke with James M. Bullock, Regional Vice President, Sales & Marketing. Bullock, who has more than 30 years experience, is a veteran participant and observer of the meetings and hospitality industry. Not only has he observed changes, he is particularly adept at weathering changes—Bullock previously was Corporate Director of Sales for Benchmark, having assumed this position in 2001 when Benchmark purchased International Conference Resorts (ICR). During his long tenure with ICR, Bullock served in numerous positions of increasing responsibility for multiple properties, gained valuable experience in many departments at several of the company's hotels and conference centers.

Benchmark’s 2007 Top 10 Meeting Trends reveal an industry at an interesting juncture. Technology has quickened the pace of the conference center booking, created more resources for information gathering and communication but has also increased the need to balance these innovations with more personal, face-to-face activities. “Conference Centers are under pressure to stay competitive technology,” said Bullock. “But we can never loose sight of the human touch. At the same time that things like Websites are becoming more interactive, we’re emphasizing on-site visits by meeting planners and we are more involved with making sure their meetings are successful.”

In addition, the “booking window” has been shortened. In other areas, meeting planners are looking for more creative environments and team-building activities. Overall, however, the small-to-mid-size meeting market that remains the bread and butter of conference centers is robust in 2007, fueled by rebounding industries from the slumps and economic downturns of only a few years ago.

Benchmark Hospitality’s Top 10 Meeting Trends for 200

1) Real-time Hospitality. More than ever before, the hospitality experience starts at the web address—up-to-the-minute-current information, dazzling photography and graphics, mechanisms for inquiry and immediate response, and ease of discovery and navigation, are many of the aspects a conference center must have.

JB: “Whether for the business or leisure guest, a property’s website is its portal to success and profitability. It is often the first and only impression. For meeting planning, websites are promotional and informational—Booking meeting space is not being done on-line, and it would be very difficult to do so. But, the website should allow the individual attendee to better customize their stay.”

2) BlackBerry … Ahhh, just the word evokes such meaning. Less so in meetings, however, as more companies are forbidding the cute little communications devises in the meeting room, and discouraging them in the conference center. Meetings are for human contact – for coming together, says corporate America.

JB: “Blackberrys, cellphones, even laptops are like a flak jacket for somebody in the military, a corporate sales person is never without them. Meeting planners are giving extended periods of break time, built into the agenda, so the attendees can check their blackberries. It’s longer than 15 minutes. Conference Centers have to have interconnectivity throughout the property, not just in the guest room or designated areas. The breaks have gotten longer because attendees are checking their voice mail, text messages and emails and they want to be able to that right away, not have to go back to their room or some other area. This interconnectivity is also extending to the outside function areas of the property as well.”

3) Customers Sound Off! Today’s consumers have ample opportunity to express praise and vent frustrations. Popular websites and blogs offer a convenient forum for communicating to readers what customers liked, disliked, how they were serviced and what they would rather have avoided. Now they can apprise the world of their preferences with a simple click of the “enter” button!

JB: “There are now a lot of travel blogs and more avenues for feedback—it’s also more instantaneous. A conference center has to be constantly listening. But, even with this high-tech environment, nothing replaces an site-visit. The industry is still people serving people. We’ve pushed to have more awareness about conference centers, that they are not a sterile place, and meeting planners are judging us a wider range of competitive criteria, not just the amount of space or the type of space, but other services and amenities. We have to listen, there’s more ways to listen, but we have to respond to what we here and constantly assessing our performance and our offerings.”

4) Work Hard, Play Hard: Meeting Budgets Hold Fast. Meeting budgets for 2007 are holding steady, however, increasing resources within these budgets are being directed to teambuilding events and leisure opportunities, such as an afternoon of golf or spa treatments. Sort of a “work hard, play hard” scenario: As companies demand more and more from their executives and from the corporate meeting experience, they’re also recognizing the need to counter balance this by blowing off a little steam on the golf course or rejuvenating on the massage table.

JB: “I guess the good news, is that although meetings budgets are not increasing, but they are not decreasing. Planners are looking at things that are important to team building, and that includes the recreation and leisure activities the company are using at the conference center. These activities are going beyond just the golf course, which is still important but not everybody plays golf. The conference center has to offer a growing range of recreational activities and often more organized activities that planners can access and put into their meeting agenda.”

5) Packaging Rules … Unbundling is “so last year!” Customers see the value of meeting packages and in markets across the country are responding with enthusiasm -- as there are no back-end surprises. Just like in the consumer travel world, customers respond affirmatively to all-in-one-price packaging that they trust and can easily allocate their budget toward.

JB: “Planners are looking at budgets, so packaging is important. With the complete meeting packages, everything, the meals, recreation activities, etc., is inclusive and planners are holding strong—they don’t want any added costs. For some properties, I imagine they may have to consider bundling some services into one package that they would have charged separately for, but the trick is to do so in a way it acts an added incentive.”

6) Strong Booking Pace, Stable Meetings, Short Term. The pace remains positive, meeting size is holding firm, but the Internet is fueling last-minute bookings. Planners ability to secure space availability quickly and easily, coupled with the need to remain particularly flexible for their organization, is causing meetings to be booked at the 11th hour, much to the chagrin of hospitality executives who struggle with forecasting volume and staffing levels.

JB: “The tradition is 90-to-120 days, for properties which are seasonal, with either cold weather or warm weather activities. That remains true. Smaller meetings can be planned 60-to-90 days out, but that demand is strong, so that is a shorter window. With the internet and other technologies, there’s a larger pool of conference centers meeting planners can easily tap into, and there has been a rise in meetings that are booked 30-to-60 days out. In some venues, maybe 50 percent of their business is being booked in this shorter time frame, which wasn’t the case a few years ago. The market is more dynamic now and more competitive.”

7) They’re Back! Pharmaceuticals, financial, insurance and hi-tech … they’re back, or at least their meetings are. We all know the hits these industries took over the past few years. That’s changed and they’re holding meetings once again, planning for new growth, reenergizing their executive teams, and preparing for new product launches.

JB: “Corporate America meets during good times and bad times, but they meet more often during good times. These industries are holding meetings comparable to their pre-911 and pre-recession levels. The pharmaceutical and medical industry especially had pulled back, but now there’s an estimated $55 billion in research and development and over 2,000 new medicines in development, a lot of new medicines in the pipeline. That industry did pull back, but they are now very active again. Corporate meeting planners want to know more about the conference center, the technologies available, the level of security, the connectivity, the telecommunication capabilities. They do not want to talk about the resort amenities as much.”

8) Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen is a Good Thing! Culinary Teambuilding is hot, hot, hot and companies are requesting this program for meetings across the country. Why? This teambuilding is fun, nearly everyone can relate to the experience, and unless the group is made up entirely of chefs, the playing field is totally level – whether you’re an employee in the corporate trenches or in charge of the show.

JB: “Creative team building is reaching a whole new level. Sometimes going to a spa can be more of an individual experience, and not everybody plays golf. But everybody seems to be a “foodie” nowadays, with the popularity of the Food Channel and cooking shows, cook books and gourmet and specialty food stores. Everybody has become very discriminating about food. Food brings people together.”

9) So You Say You’re a Meeting Planner? Who are we speaking to? That is the question! More than ever before, the age old question of “who are we speaking to” is best answered with “everyone!” From Administrative Assistants to CMPs to CEOs … one message has to communicate to all -- and we get a brief moment of their time to zero in on location, benefits, value, and service positioning.

JB: “Meetings are typically decided by committee, and budgets are under close scrutiny, so proposals by a conference center have to be designed to be read, and understood, by people other than the meeting planner. What has changed is how we craft the proposal and the message, so it is understood by not just the meeting planner, but the Vice President of Sales and other executives.”

10) Reach Back, Plan Forward. Call it a lingering turn-of-the-century phenomenon, but more and more groups are seeking a bit of the past as they plan for their future. Whether by booking their meetings at historic properties, or seeking to discover historic aspects of their chosen venue’s location, reconnecting with the past is fast becoming a preferred mind-clearing complement to meetings designed to grow a company’s future.

JB: “Historic properties can be a fresh alternative to meetings. I think with biographies of the Founding Fathers and other History books being on the bestseller lists, history has become very popular. These properties, though historic in nature and the facades and interiors of the buildings have been restored, the meeting space has to be state-of-the-art, and that has been included in all our renovations. Some of the properties benefiting from this trend include West Baden Springs, French Lick Resort Casino and Bedford Springs. Meeting in a historic atmosphere has become fresh and new and is a unique selling point of the properties.”

♦Coming Trend: Green Meetings?

JB: “In this business, innovations come in increments. Green is the right thing to do, to be good corporate citizens and members of a community, so buildings are instituting policies that make a property more energy efficient and more sensitive to the environment. Policies that are more company-wide take more time, but Benchmark is headed in that direction. We have noticed that several meetings planners are asking about green issues on their RFPs, and there’s been some pressure from international organizations. It is a global issue and conference centers cannot operate in a vacuum and ignore it.”

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