Expanding Possibilities

The MPI New England Chapter shows that the best way to set up an event for success is constant communication.

By Rowland Stiteler

 

THE EVENT WAS AT A CROSSROADS. That was the view of veteran planners Karen King, CMP, CMM, and Deborah Matteson of independent Boston event planning firm strategic development meeting strategists llc.

 

The event, the annual New England Meeting Industry Conference & Exhibition (nem!ce), is not only the largest revenue-generating activity for the MPI New England Chapter, it’s also the third-largest trade show and educational conference in the global MPI community, according to King and Matteson, chapter board members.

 

King, Matteson and other chapter members felt that although nem!ce was a well-established event with a long track record, it was on the decline and needed a jump start.

 

“Chapter membership expressed that the event was not meeting their needs for education, business development and networking,” King said. “We decided it was time to rethink and redefine the event.”

 

Under King’s leadership, the decision was made to reinvent nem!ce and expand its content,  specifically ramping up the educational and networking opportunities offered at the event. The 2009 conference would double from one day to two (plus some pre-event activities the day before the conference actually started), and the educational sessions jumped from six to 24, with six defined tracts.

 

Boston, which has always been the location for nem!ce, was the logical choice for the gathering, even though chapter membership spreads from Connecticut to Maine, Matteson says. Boston has the single-largest hospitality industry in New England, and although offsite activities were not a focus of nem!ce, the city offers the widest array of locations for offsite activities, many of which have a timely quality—the activities are free.

 

So when the initial round of planning for nem!ce concluded, there was no reason to think the Boston conference would be anything but a great new chapter in the event’s history.

 

But something unusual happened between the time that King, Matteson and a group of highly focused and motivated volunteers started planning the event in January and February 2008 and the time the event was held in April 2009. A once-in-a-lifetime, nationwide economic breakdown hit the U.S., and there was the equally catastrophic event for the meeting industry, known as the “AIG effect.”

 

“All of the those things happened between the time we were planning nem!ce and the time, 18 months later, when the event was held,” King said. “We had no idea what a huge impact they would make on the atmosphere in which we were going to be holding our event. Everything had changed.”

 

What the planners of nem!ce 2009 found in this new atmosphere was that suddenly what seemed highly desirable in the relatively stable meeting industry atmosphere of early 2008 became something of a hard sell in the difficult economic times of 2009, especially in March and April, when the words “AIG effect” seemed to be on everyone’s lips in this country.

 

“Suddenly, attendees were having a hard time going to their bosses and saying they needed to attend a two-day conference instead of a one-day conference, and fees would be higher because of the expanded programs,” King said.

 

So King and the core group planning the event decided to take a courageous, but prudent, course of action, essentially sticking to their guns on the expanded and upgraded conference content, but at the same time using every cost containment strategy they could to make the event affordable for attendees and beneficial for the chapter. And the result of their strategy makes a worthy template for other planners putting together conferences in these economically challenging times.

 

To hold down educational programming costs—and at the same time guarantee quality content—a small army of motivated and well-qualified volunteers was recruited. Well-known industry authorities such as Terri Breining, CMP, past MPI chairwoman, and Grace Andrews of Ignite were brought in, and Bruce MacMillan, CA, MPI president and CEO, was keynote speaker.

 

The conference’s enhanced educational component turned out to have an added benefit, in that for the first time in nem!ce history suppliers who were exhibitors in the trade show attended the educational sessions.

 

“They found it to be an excellent networking opportunity,” Matteson said. “The educational sessions were interactive in nature, and the time between the sessions made a good time to talk to fellow attendees.”

 

Still another networking opportunity was the community service project the attendees did for the Boston Food Bank.  

 

To help drive attendance and to increase traffic at the trade show, exhibitors were allowed to distribute free passes to 100 planners. The event's planners estimated that the free passes cut attendance-fee revenue by US$30,000, but revenue savings were achieved through other strategies. To mitigate damages from revenue shortfalls due to an anticipated sag in attendance because of the economic climate, the event’s planners re-negotiated contracts with the hotel and conference center where nem!ce was held, along with the decorating and audiovisual contractors, ultimately saving $75,000 in costs.

 

The event’s original goal was to attract 700 planners and enough exhibitors to rent 240 trade show booths. In the end, 305 qualified planners attended, and a total 500 exhibitors rented 180 trade show booths.

 

But the core of the upgraded nem!ce programming, the educational sessions, remained relatively unscathed by the tough economic crisis, with only one of the 24 sessions having to be cancelled. And the chapter came away with a good template for an upgraded nem!ce for years going forward, although, according to King, a thorough post mortem of nem!ce 2009 is being done this summer with eyes toward putting together precisely the right strategy for the event in 2010.

 

Ultimately, King says, she came away with a reinforcement of the lessons from the days just after Sept. 11, 2001, when she was a planner for Gillette Inc., which is headquartered in Boston.

 

“The biggest takeaway is that as a planner in this environment, you need to be communicating with your clients and keeping your vendors informed of the current situation at all times,” King said. “The best way to set your event up for success is a lot of communication among all parties involved, and that takes a lot of constant attention.” One+

 

ROWLAND STITELER has written extensively about the meeting and event industry and lives in Florida.  

 

Transportation Tip

• If you are traveling to Boston, do not rent a car. “It is way too easy to get lost trying to follow the 17th-century streets of downtown Boston,” said David Berwick, CMP, CMM, an independent planner based in Boston. “And parking will run you something north of US$20 a day in the city, so a rental car is the last thing you need in Boston. Public transit is great here; so you should save yourself the heartache of trying to drive.”

What’s New in Boston

• The 234-room W Boston—located in the city’s theater district—is scheduled to open in Boston this fall with approximately 5,000 square feet of meeting space.
• The Ames Hotel, a 120-room historic property in a building constructed in 1889, is set to open this fall and will offer 520 square feet of meeting space.
• The 150-room Fairmont Battery Wharf, along Boston’s historic waterfront, opened early this year and offers 6,000 square feet of meeting space. 
• The 53,000-square-foot House of Blues Boston opened in February near the city’s famous Fenway Park baseball stadium.

Fun Facts

• The tabby is the official state cat of Massachusetts.
• Boston is home to the first U.S. subway system, built in 1897.
• Boston Common became the first U.S. public park in 1634.

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