Global Meetings And Exhibitions (Hardcover)

Chapter One

A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm. -Henrik Ibsen

IN THIS CHAPTER

We will explore:

* The generally accepted definitions of meetings, conventions, and exhibitions.

* The vocabulary and key phrases commonly used in this industry.

* The differences and similarities between a domestic meeting and an international meeting.

* Identifying the purpose for an event.

* Determining event frequency and duration.

* Developing an organizational timetable.

* Developing and implementing effective communications.

* Managing program dynamics.

* The role of the organizer/planner.

* Networking effectively throughout the world.

* Guidelines for selecting the best site.

* Interfacing with destination marketers, hotels, and other venues.

* Selecting and working with destination management companies (DMCs) and Professional Congress Organizers (PCOs).

* Understanding the role of a DMC and a PCO.

* Assessing and planning entertainment.

* Guidelines for producing a safe and secure meeting, convention, or exhibition.

* New technology and its role in managing events.

* Understanding international currencies.

* Developing budget procedures to produce the greatest return on investment (ROI).

A global meeting, convention, or exhibition forms a temporal community. This temporary society has all the challenges and opportunities of more permanent societies. However, because it is temporary, it is different, and when a meeting, convention, or exhibition takes place in a foreign land, it can be very different indeed. This is the first book to provide the knowledge necessary to plan temporary global communities and/or societies that produce consistently successful, sustainable outcomes for the participants.

For the student or for the professional new to this type of event, it will be comforting to know that most of the planning parameters and operations methods that characterize domestic events also apply to those held in other countries. Meeting rooms and exhibit halls in most of the world are much like those at home. Menus and venues in Salzburg are not much different from those in Salt Lake City, and motorcoaches are pretty much the same the world over. After all, a meeting is a meeting whether it is held in Alexandria, Virginia, or Alexandria, Egypt, though some facets vary significantly according to venue. It is in the cultural variations, values, and customs that the main differences lie, and identifying those variants and learning how to manage them is the main purpose of this book.

This chapter is devoted to basics; it is written for meeting organizers who are planning a transnational or multinational meeting for the first time as well as for students enrolled in a hospitality/meetings curriculum. It is designed to serve as an overview of the basic elements that characterize international events.

There is no denying that a meeting convened in another country demands specialized knowledge on the part of the organizer. However, like any skill, this can be learned readily if one is given the necessary facts. A large proportion of the discipline in planning and staging the event applies, regardless of the site. It is the remaining specialized knowledge that pertains specifically to international events that needs to be learned. What follows is an overview of the fundamentals that characterize meetings, conventions, and exhibitions that are global in scope.

Before addressing those elements, it is important that there be consensus on the semantics. Terms such as domestic, foreign, overseas, international, offshore, and multicultural are used extensively and often erroneously. For the purpose of this book, they are defined as follows.

Overseas generally is used in North America to describe an event in which participants from, say, Canada or the United States travel offshore to another country. A more apt term would be transnational. Thus, a Canadian group meeting in Belize or Italian delegates convening a conference in Copenhagen would be deemed to be attending a transnational conference. In both instances, citizens of one country meet in another country.

International applies to events in which participants from two or more countries meet in a specific destination. Thus, a meeting of delegates from Canada, Mexico, and the United States held in Los Angeles would be an international event. However, because in common usage international applies to all these situations, this text will use the term multinational or multicultural to describe such meetings.

To distinguish the nature of the event further, the authors have limited the scope of this book to international events that meet the following criteria:

* Involves crossing national borders

* At least two days' duration in addition to travel days

* Fifty or more attendees

* A business agenda utilizing presenters

SHARPENING YOUR MEETING VOCABULARY

Understanding the meaning and proper use of terminology in one's own native tongue is difficult enough. Arriving at a consensus on the connotation of terms in a multinational context demands even greater accuracy on the part of organizers managing international events. For instance, a common misuse occurs even among experienced meeting professionals with respect to podium. That word has its roots in the Latin pod, referring to the foot. Hence the podium is what one stands on (also called a rostrum); one stands behind a lectern.

The term congress often is applied to international meetings in general, leading to confusion and misinterpretation. It is not a generic word like meeting, though it sometimes is substituted for it erroneously even by professionals who should know better. A congress is a scheduled, periodic meeting of delegates or representatives of interested groups to discuss a subject. Outside the United States, it is substituted for convention. The administrative staff of the organization sponsoring an international congress is the secretariat.

The Manual of Congress Terminology, published by the International Association of Professional Congress Organizers (IAPCO), tries to clear up some of the confusion, although this respected work uses congress in a generic sense. The manual's definitions encompass assembly, colloquium, conference, congress, convention, exhibition, forum, seminar, symposium, and other meeting formats in seven languages.

Other common terms evolve from usage. A kick-off or launch, for instance, generally describes a meeting organized to introduce a product and its marketing plan. Such an event is also motivational. In the United States, the term convention usually implies a meeting combined with an exhibition. Large conventions whose housing needs require several hotels in a location often are referred to as "citywides." Are those distinctions only a matter of terminology? Not really. Every type of meeting has its own purpose, format, requirements, timetables, and characteristics.

TYPES OF MEETINGS

Rodolfo Musco, CMP, CMM, founder of the Italian Association of Meeting Planners, analyzes several meeting types according to their objectives and parameters.

1. Purpose. A meeting may be held to inform, organize, debate, motivate, educate, communicate, or reach a decision. There is a similarity of purpose among a congress, a forum, and a symposium, which seeks to inform, communicate, and provide opportunities to debate issues. A conference is useful to inform and reach decisions, whereas a convention may be called to organize, inform, motivate, communicate, debate, and vote. The purpose of a seminar is to inform and educate. These distinctions are important because they influence timetables, room setups, speaker selection, and many other program decisions. 2. Number of Participants. Conferences, forums, and seminars usually are attended by a few dozen, whereas congresses and conventions have a large number of delegates. A symposium may have a large or relatively small attendance. Though these are subjective terms, one would not refer to a meeting of fewer than 100 persons as a congress. 3. Frequency. A convention usually is held annually, whereas a congress may be held annually, biannually, or on an ad hoc basis. A symposium also is held periodically, but conferences, forums, and seminars have no established frequency. They are called as needed or when deemed advisable. 4. Duration. Conferences normally last one day or more. Seminars can cover anywhere from one to six days. Symposia and conventions tend to last three to four days, and congresses may be three to five days, depending on the location and the topics to be covered. 5. Organization Timetable. There is no consensus on the time required to organize an event. A conference could be planned in as little as a few weeks. A forum or seminar requires two to six months. At least one year is needed for a symposium, and from one to four years for a congress or convention. 6. Communications before the Event. Premeeting communication for forums and conferences is minimal: Location, date and time, topics, speakers, and registration data are usually adequate. Conventions use a dedicated Web site and/or a series of mailings because program details are not included in the early information. Communications for symposia, seminars, and congresses must be very detailed because they influence the recipient's decision to attend. 7. Program Dynamics. There is an essential relationship between speakers and attendees that, if overlooked, could result in a failure. Delegates attend a seminar, symposium, or congress because they are interested in the subject and the speakers. Speakers are perceived as authorities. In most cases, a participant at such events has chosen to attend and has paid a registration fee. Interest in the issues, a need to form one's own opinion, and a desire to contribute to the ultimate decision move people to attend a conference or forum. Convention delegates, in contrast, have been called on to participate, with little or no opportunity to influence the dates, location, duration, or program content. Consequently, they tend to be more critical and analytical in their relationship to speakers.

It is important to understand the characteristics of various kinds of meetings and identify them correctly in communications, in promotional materials, and at industry educational events. For that matter, even journalists and authors of event-related texts should demonstrate a knowledge of the terminology in order to contribute to a better understanding of the profession.

GOING GLOBAL

A growing number of organizations convene meetings in other countries or organize in their own nations' events that are attended by people of diverse cultures. Corporations with global markets or affiliates, international associations, and professional societies and government entities involved in world affairs have an ongoing need to interact with a worldwide audience. The nature of those entities imposes on them an obligation to convene events in other countries or host multinational attendees in their own homelands. Thus, the meetings industry finds a British government agency exhibiting at a trade show in Japan; a Latin American pharmaceutical firm attending a medical congress in Zurich; a trade association based in Washington, DC, hosting its international membership at the Denver Convention Center; and a Taiwanese auto manufacturer convening its dealer network in Vancouver.

Aside from the usual matters applicable to choosing a destination, international events may be influenced by a variety of factors that may not apply to domestic meetings, such as the following:

* Visa and passport requirements

* Shipping and customs regulations

* Currency exchange fluctuations

* Host country political and threat issues

* Government-imposed travel restrictions

* Language considerations

* Cultural differences and taboos

* International protocol

NETWORKING

Nowhere is a network more valuable than in researching international meetings. Admittedly, one's most objective source of information is colleagues who have been there.

Meeting professionals begin with their personal database of acquaintances in industry organizations such as Meeting Professionals International (MPI), the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), and the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) (see Appendix 1 for Web sites). They seek out fellow members who have planned events abroad or represent international hotels and destinations. They assess their experience and attendance at meetings industry educational events. Who were the presenters who spoke at international meetings? This is where the network begins.

Meetings industry publications periodically run updated destination features that offer helpful information, from cultural differences and travel tips to hotel and convention facility construction. Most of these magazines also publish annual directories as well as an annual index to articles. By the same token, attendance at industry expositions can be a valuable research tool if they happen to fall during the research phase. Annual tradeshows such as the Motivation Show (formerly IT&ME, the International Travel and Meetings Exposition) held in Chicago, IMEX in Frankfurt, EIBTM in Barcelona, LACIME in South America, and AIME in rotating cities in Asia are well attended by international exhibitors representing destinations, airlines, congress centers, hotels, and support services.

SITE SELECTION

Researching, studying, and evaluating a variety of destinations and venues within those destinations can seem an awesome task when the entire world is under consideration. However, there are a limited number of cities or regions that have the facilities and services needed to sustain the average international meeting.

The selection process begins with focusing on a particular region such as the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, or Latin America. Often the demographics or distribution of attendees will influence that choice. Time of year and climate also may influence the choice. Within the chosen region, several sites are selected for research.

Research starts with defining the event's parameters. The meeting's objectives and proposed dates, along with the number of attendees, their geographical distribution, and their profile, influence destination and venue choices. Other factors to be considered at this point are the following:

* Requirements. Estimated initial room block: the number of guest rooms, meeting rooms, exhibit space, food and beverage functions (F&B), support services, and special requirements. * Meeting history. This is based on research and documentation of previous meetings of similar design, including date, site, room block and pickup (rooms actually occupied), room rates, and F&B expenditures. This information also allows prospective venues to estimate the meeting's value and provides negotiating leverage. Armed with these data, the meeting organizer narrows the scope of study by focusing on a specific region and country. Within each destination, research is concentrated on two or three sites or cities. It is those cities which will be the subject of further exploration.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Global Meetings and Exhibitionsby Carol Krugman Rudy R. Wright Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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