April 2005 Article                      

Budget-saving, Audience-building Advice for Association Planners
From two professionals with more than 30 years association experience...each!

Location and program content are the two keys to building attendance at an association conference, says Dick Calgaro, vice president, Krisam Group.  The location provides the incentive for the potential delegate.  The program provides ammunition for the delegate to use to get his or her boss’s OK to go.

“It’s all about ROI (return on investment) these days, ” says Jill Cornish, publisher of Association TRENDS.  “You have to provide benefits up front that a member can take to his boss and show how the conference will help him at work and solve a problem on the job.”  Then, at the conference itself, she says, you must give the delegate something to take back. Something he can include in a report to his boss that proves his attendance was justified.  “Twenty-five ways to….” handouts are useful for this, she suggests.

Jill also recommends that you offer the entire program in an electronic format so delegates can download it to their PDAs. This helps them plan their conference schedule and get more out of it.  “Conferences used to be about golf, ” Jill recalls. It’s not that way any more, she continues, it is mostly for real education.

As for location, it is the sexy cities like San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, New Orleans, and Orlando that are the draw, Jill and Dick agree. And Dick points out that a particularly unique hotel could be the destination draw itself.

Which city is best, depends on the nature of your membership they say. The younger crowd would respond to a San Francisco conference, while a more family-oriented group might jump at a chance to visit Orlando.  Resorts have greater appeal for the more mature members.  Cities are beginning to target themselves to particular markets, Jill continues.  A DMC can help you zero in on the ones with the most to offer your membership and with marketing strategies that play to the location’s strengths and your members’ desires.

Association conferences tend to be held in the spring and the fall.  Unfortunately, that means providers know they can keep their rates up during those times.  Dick, who has been working with association planners for more than 30 years, has a few suggestions on how to still get the best value:

• Be flexible in your arrival date. Arriving on a Sunday, rather than a Friday could save you money, he says.  Or, depending on the place, it could be the reverse.  Most major cities need the weekend business.  Resort areas need the mid-week business.
• Work with your local hotel representative or one from the national office and develop a relationship. If you deal directly with a hotel, chances are your contact may not be there by the time your meeting arrives. Working with someone you know will save you time. And that person has a vested interest in making you successful. They already understand your needs and will try to get you the best value.

• Don’t plan quite so far out. Associations used to schedule conferences 4 and 5 years in advance. Except for those that take over entire cities, the trend now is a shorter window, one or two years ahead. This means more predictable attendance, less vulnerability to major economic downturns, and less attrition.

Speaking of attrition, Dick recommends erring on the conservative side when estimating room use.  Especially with association conferences, a portion of delegates will book outside the block at low frills, cheaper places.  Jill suggests that planners negotiate trading attrition for upgraded food and beverage or even for the promise of future business.  

Saving money for the association and the delegate
“Don’t tie your members down with too many evening events, ” Dick cautions.  An arrival reception with heavy hors d’oeuvres and one other, he advises.  Evening functions add expense and delegates want to explore the city anyway.  Save money by offering continental breakfasts instead of plated ones and by scheduling more luncheons and fewer dinners.  Lunch is the most popular meal with delegates and keeps them close to the meeting site.  And, be sure not to conflict with vendors who sometimes sponsor large evening happenings.

If you will have an exhibit hall, Dick encourages you to keep it in the hotel, along with the meetings.  It’s important to have the exhibits close to the meetings.  And, if you have booked most of the rooms in the hotel, the space cost will be minimal, while an outside hall adds costs.  

Can you get attendance at a cheaper, less glamorous location?  
If you really make a case for why you are there, Jill says it might work.  Perhaps every third or fourth year, schedule a conference in a modest Midwest city.  Then, explain to your membership that you heard them.  Their budgets are strained so this is a way to reduce costs for both the association and the member. It also helps defray the cost of more expensive sites in the other years.

Obviously, your program will need to be really strong, and you’ll have to build excitement into a special event there.  In some ways, however, a less obvious city could be a draw, Jill says, because it is a place members aren’t likely to go on vacation.  The meeting is a good excuse to check it out. 

Several years ago, Jill found herself rather unexpectedly the new executive director of a trade association.  With the job came the responsibility of overseeing an annual conference.  “I had no idea what to do, ” Jill said. “I’d never even attended a conference.” So she turned to professionals in the field and said “Here’s what I need. What should I do?”  She relied on their judgment and expertise and ended up with a perfectly wonderful conference. Planners don’t need to know it all.  “Don’t think of hotel and DMC representatives as salespeople, ” she urges.  “Think of them as partners who can help you, and at no cost to you."

Based on experience, Jill offers this common sense advice:  
The absolute list.  Check out three potential suppliers.  Give them a list of “must haves” and then a secondary list of what else you’d “like” to have.  If a supplier can’t deliver everything on the “must” list, they are out. 

The total food picture.  If you need five food functions at the hotel, treat that as a unit.  Tell the hotel you have X dollars to spend per person for all five functions. Specify which functions are most important: this dinner versus that lunch. Let the experts figure out how best to spend it. You may end up sacrificing a donut at a breakfast bar for an upgraded dessert at dinner.

Shorter, sweeter cheaper.  Save money for the association and the members by cutting back a 4-day meeting to 3.  And, have it start no earlier than 9 a.m. so people can fly in on the same day, saving a night’s lodging. It also cuts down on their time away from work, making the meeting more saleable to their boss.

Evening sessions.  Evening educational sessions, rather than social events, can add to your conference appeal.  Give registrants the chance to sit with a speaker from the day and discuss what was presented. This allows for more interactive learning.  It gives those who don’t want to go out on the town (possibly those attending solo) something valuable to do and it adds to the ROI.

Meeting evaluations.  Encourage participants to evaluate your meeting while it is fresh in their minds. Do post computers near the classrooms and allow instant evaluations there.  And, send an e-mail evaluation form out to the attendees as soon as they return to the office.  Offer a bonus for them to return the evaluation.  It could be a copy of the report itself or some new book in their professional field.

Jill Cornish is president and publisher of Association TRENDS.  The independent weekly publication is the national community newspaper for association executives and suppliers for the latest news, information and trends in association management. The website is www.associationtrends.com.