Experience more - meet in a barn
Fear prompted by the global march of the downturn monster has led to cancelled meetings, lower budgets, shorter events, and jittery agendas driven by the mantra of cost-cutting.
Inevitable consequences are less effective get-togethers, nervy delegate performances, weaker decision-making, and poor returns on the conference investment.
To counter a mood of potentially excessive pessimism, event organisers could do worse than re-invent their MICE portfolio by holding meetings in out-of-the-ordinary environments. In addition to talks held in standard hotel function suites they could, for example, convene in a stately home, windmill, soccer stadium, or museum.
Such thinking is hardly new, but perhaps hitherto has been driven by a desire simply to be different, rather than for more subtle psychological advantages.
Take the idea of meeting in a barn, preferably half-timbered and a scheduled monument, or alternatively simply a brick Victorian pile frequented by bats and barn owls.
What, then, is the imagery, the metaphor, to be conveyed? Such inferences might include hard work, craftsmanship, the test of centuries,, productivity, harvesting the good times ready for the bad, sustainability, teamwork, traditional values, and more besides.
There are barns all over Britain ready to host conferences and make them more memorable with wagon-rides, organic menus, muck-spreading challenges, scarecrow-making competitions - as well as talks and demonstrations about how money currently is being made down on the farm.
The operational word here is experience. Gathering in an unusual venue opens eyes and ears, as well as hearts and minds. If there is a stark message to be communicated, then why not put it across in a setting that has seen recessions come and go, and reassuringly evokes the benefits of continuity and substance ....
Are awards more a risk than reward?
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You can hardly fail to win an award in the tourism industry these days. Trophies and scrolls can come your way for being small or big, new or a lifetime achiever, innovative or traditional, town or country, independent or branded, or indeed for excellence in such and such a branch of marketing and management, or just for making money.
Out came the black ties and little black dresses, vineyards of bubbly are consumed at a tearful gala dinner, pompous mds have their BAFTA moment, and an ugly piece of plastic of aluminium or glass is carted back to the office to gather dust.
What tends to be forgotten is that award schemes are invariably a nice little (big!) earner for the magazine, association, trade show, or institution that has done the organising, that nominees generally have to be coerced into entering, and that (apologies for the cynicism), surprise, surprise, there can be a hidden agenda to plan who wins.
Boss O’Leary of Ryanair thinks of awards as a distraction from running a profitable business, and a meaningless exercise in targeted self-aggrandisement.
An hotel (part of an award-winning group) whose gym I use, helps us to see a further downside to gong-hunting, praise-seeking, and kudos collection, namely that you can begin to believe you are better than you are.
This gym is managed and run by young people who don’t even look up from their screens to acknowledge arriving customers, let alone greet them, and whose policy towards high-tech equipment and showers/Jacuzzis etc is to avoid service contracts thereby enforcing long waits for repairs. When the wind blows from the west, smells erupt from their inadequate sewage system (pity the poor brides and guests on a hot summer day celebrating on the patio 50 yards away), and the never-swept car park currently features a medley of plastic bottles, other rubbish, and even used whatsits. I could list a further 50 such irritations weak links (and you should know that I only use them because they’re six miles down the road). They recently sent out a special offer that was two weeks out of date before it arrived, and then refused to honour their mistake by prolonging availability.
Do they deserve an award? No. Do they let down the award-winning group? Of course. Are they resting on their laurels? You bet. Are they busy? No. Do they represent a weak link for the whole brand? Definitely.
And the moral for meetings venues everywhere? Micro-research and check every single tiny detail of your delegate experience …as if you were the guest paying your own money and trying to impress a partner, boss, client, VIP. Given the inevitable hubris effect, arguably the biggest losers in the awards game are precisely those who carried off the prizes…
Venues to use more ‘BIG print’ to counter recession
TV and newspaper ads often misrepresent (deliberately) as much as they reveal. Without a trained eye it is easy to miss the (commonplace) examples of ‘small print syndrome’ with which they try to hoodwink the unsuspecting. For instance, such and such a financial deal incorporates the following exclusions; the highlighted sequence of photographs of the product at work has eliminated stages and exaggerates its efficacy; and worst of all, the above offer doesn’t apply to existing customers (an especially good reason to walk away …!).
purveyors of ‘porkies’
We now live in a truly marvellous era of con removal, scam eradication, and bullshit deflection. Those who use minutely displayed ifs and buts to distort, delete, dilute, delay, divert or dupe are being caught out as the purveyors of the porkies that they are. In today’s ultra-competitive climate, fibbers fail.
To the contrary, now is the time for meetings industry suppliers to introduce the ‘BIG PRINT’ to their brochures, websites and emails. Such proudly promoted ‘VISIBLE EXTRAS’ are precisely that: added value, complimentary this, free that, upgrade here, VIP welcome there … all at less cost, with fewer terms and conditions, reduced inflexibility, and frankly, nil hostility.
True, there has never been a better time to be a customer with cash. Equally, there has never been a better time to be a venue with integrity. Conference tariffs can be re-written to look generous, grateful and genuine, using gestures as varied as champagne tastings to A-V inclusive, higher grade bedrooms to à la carte dining, pillow gifts to come back again vouchers.
Why not employ a small print checker to make sure that your delegate deals aren’t mean, misleading, or available only once in a blue moon?
‘Churnees’ rebel as ‘customer is wrong’ era ends
It is a good time to be a ‘churnee’ – one of those slighted customers whom the big (arrogant) brands were prepared to anger, and lose, in their quest for mega profits. Central to this ethos of self-interested greed is that the ‘customer is always wrong’.
You could identify this syndrome in 10 seconds flat via the defensiveness of staff. Instead of being trained to appreciate and value clients, and give them the benefit of the doubt were products and services to disappoint, the message to front-line personnel was that customers are to be distrusted for trying it on, and indeed, humbled, for daring to question our exceptional standards.
So a churn rate of, say, 5% or even 10% was planned for – lost customers who frankly were a nuisance and could get stuffed. Perhaps the worst examples are the no-frills airlines who simply didn’t reply to complaints letters, no doubt shipping skip-loads of these, unopened, straight to the tip.
The meetings industry has had its share of such disdainful venues – those who hid behind 0870 and 090 numbers, or whose staff were superior and unsympathetic, or who charged through the nose, or whose general philosophy might be characterised as ‘take it or leave it’.
In 2009, the good news is that disaffected organisers and delegates can strike back … rebelling on purpose against the nasty brands .. even to the point of paying more elsewhere simply to have nothing whatsoever to do with the supplier concerned.
Mystery customers will matter more than ever in the coming 12 months as disliked venues have to face up to clients with long memories seeking vindication and revenge.
On-line shopping trend to transform meetings sector?
News that online shopping during 2008 will rise 10% to nearly £5bn, and has shot ahead this Christmas in contrast to the High Street, confirms the trend towards electronic purchasing generally. Certainly LateMeetings.com has enjoyed its most successful year for internet reservations, albeit still a rather smaller total than for corporate clients using our voice centre.
So is the momentum towards the virtual booking of MICE events getting closer to its ‘tipping point’? Enthusiasts for the website identify the scope afforded for anytime, anywhere working, and besides, the younger generation of executive bookers much prefers to laptop their way through life. Making ‘phone calls can be a thoroughly irritating process!
Some LM supporters even refer to sustainability issues, and some contact us across time-zones which would normally make telephone conversations more problematic.
More scope for venue research, for browsing, for price comparison, for selecting from a wider range of competitive venues – these are further reasons why more conference clients make bookings online.
Will 2009 see this e-revolution gather irreversible pace? Venues have a vested interest in that they save precious staff time and costs. With connectivity now provided by LateMeetings.com direct to any master computer inventory of availability, such real time bookings opportunities are surely here to stay?
Note: LateMeetings.com would like to thank the following selection of our online bookers for their support during 2008.
Crimeline
Enzen Global Limited
Tunstall Healthcare Group Ltd
General Vending Services
Government Office for the South East
Foundation for Science Technology & Civilisation
NHS Revalidation Support Team
e-4IT Ltd
You Are Beautiful Ltd
Integrated Dental Holdings
GB Oils
Pimary Elearning
Turning Point Recruitment Solutions
AMICUS/UNITE Scottish Widows
OMG Limited
Sd2 Ltd
TFT Consultants (UK)
English Heritage
Vebnet
National Britannia
Nickerson-Advanta Ltd
Chubb Security
Bertrams Library Services
H M Revenue & Customs
West Cornwall Pasty Co
Meetings as a science, not art
We all know what the ‘art of hospitality’ means … hoteliers bowing and scraping at the front entrance, chefs adding colourful squiggles and little piles of herbs, chambermaids wishing guests good morning through gritted teeth. Add flowers, speedily served coffee, fluffy towels, mints on the pillow, and bottles of fizzy water in the conference room.
The ‘science of meetings’ (itself a £22bn-a-year industry) is altogether less well understood, and in most venues, ignored. This is the recognition that the sole purpose of a business get-together is to make a profit, whether immediately or eventually, and that without a meaningful ROI (return on investment) the entire event, from planning to delegate departure, was possibly pointless… no, potentially counter-productive….!
Science underpins all human response, from the circadian rhythms that influence our ‘lark’ or ‘owl’ tendencies; to the effect of proteins/fats/sugars on the metabolism (and therefore our powers of concentration); to the stifling and tiredness-inducing impact that a room filled with stale air can have on ten rows of bored delegates.
Hoteliers might feel that this ‘micro-management’ of the meetings experience is a challenge they could embrace … helping event organisers to utilise advances in knowledge to improve the performance of their colleagues.
Key opportunities range from enhancing the quality of sleep of their business guests, inviting the kitchen team to prepare food with brain chemistry in mind, to the introduction of technology that can alter moods via changing colours, music and scents.
Not an easy concept to grasp, but a genuine USP for any venue that thinks its main selling point is a sea view, chef’s dessert trolley, or an ornate room full of chandeliers.
A recessionary plus-point?
A recessionary plus-point?
One of the unexpected, but many would argue very welcome, spin-offs prompted by the recession is that now we can all take our demand elsewhere. The take-it-or-leave-it attitudes of the last five years of a sellers’ market in the meetings sector are finally being caught out.
If a member of banqueting staff proved irritating, if a tariff doesn’t look good value, if reception should be condescending, if the porter looks excessively desperate for a tip, if any of the following apply – an uncleared mess/frayed carpets/dirty cups/faulty electrics/early morning noise/slow meal service … then now you can expect customers simply to walk away with his or her budget.
The margin for error can be slight. Often a minor slip, or mistake, is all that it takes to set someone thinking about finding an alternative venue to try.
Two major implications arise. First, we must all work much harder (LateMeetings.com included), to please. More sensitivity, empathy, service-orientation. More yes, less maybe, and certainly no, no. Mystery customer checks have never mattered more. Second, we must all work harder to satisfy and impress each new customer. A campaign to spot, note, record, fuss, and woo every single first-time user of our respective services can be the crucial business-pilfering approach that hits our (complacent) competitors hard.
It’s a win-win for all concerned: clients are smothered in TLC; venues can pinpoint and wave goodbye to (or re-train) their rotten apple personnel; and the good guys with the essential standards, motivation, and quality checks sail through the downturn on an upward breeze.
Never has it counted more to pursue the Win Friends and Influence People strategies of Dale Carnegie that helped business through slumps in the past …
