The meetings industry’s need for a reputation management
plan became all too apparent in 2008 when insurance giant AIG was
excoriated in the press and the public eye for what was deemed to
be
lavish spending on a recognition event after the company
received an $85 billion loan from the federal government. But it
didn’t end there. Just this spring scandal broke out anew as
the Government Services Administration was caught indulging in some
flagrant spending misadventures at its 2010 Western Regions
Conference near Las Vegas.
Meeting Professionals International members had expressed their
concern to MPI leadership that they didn’t think enough was
being done to make sure the industry is ready to fight back should
such issues arise again.
In response, MPI held a panel discussion on meetings industry
advocacy at its World Education Congress, which attracted around
2,200 people to St. Louis in late July. The panel, which was
moderated by Anthony Del Gaudio, senior vice president of hotel
sales with Loews Hotels, also included Kevin Hinton, executive vice
president of Associated Luxury Hotels International and chairman
for MPI’s 2012–2013 international board of directors;
Christine Duffy, president and CEO of the Cruise Lines
International Association; Michael Massari, senior vice president
at Caesars Entertainment Corporation; and Roger Rickard, Partner at
Revent, LLC, founder of Voices in Advocacy, and author of 7
Habits of Highly Effective Advocates.
It’s Not Just a National Issue
Del Gaudio began
by pointing out that people may think this is being handled by the
national associations like MPI and the U.S. Travel Association. Why
should this be a problem for individual meeting professionals,
their organizations, and their local chapters?
As Massari pointed out, the effects can definitely be felt locally.
When President Obama put down Las Vegas in February 2009 by saying,
“You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to
the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime,” Massari said,
“We got $15 million in cancellations the next day.” So
what do you do when the President says not to meet in Vegas?
“We realized we had to get engaged, had to get
involved,” Massari said.
Rickard said that while it’s important for national
organizations to advocate for the industry, all politics are local,
and so involvement also has to be on the local level, be it on a
chapter or even individual basis. Massari added that individuals
and chapters know the local scene, including the local economic
impact of the meetings business in general, and that of their own
organizations. Who better to provide that information to local
politicians, who can then begin to move that intelligence up to the
state and national levels. And, he said, mayors are more likely to
listen to their local constituents than anyone in Washington.
“It’s our obligation to have these conversations with
our own local politicians.” Invite them to chapter meetings,
invite them to your own meetings so they can see the value in
action, Rickard said.
He added that the most effective way to get a politician’s
attention is to send a handwritten note that explains who you are
and what you represent, why the issue is important to you and your
organization, and what the politician can do to help. The average
member of Congress gets 40 million e-mails a year, he said, but
only a handful of handwritten notes, so those get noticed.
A Canadian in the audience brought up something her MPI chapter did
that Rickard said was a tactically brilliant move. As part of
Canadian National Meetings Industry Day, a gift is given to
someone who is not in the industry but who has had an impact on the
meetings industry. The Calgary chapter gave an award to the mayor
of Calgary, who came trailing radio, TV, and newspaper staff to
report on what meetings does for that city.
Rickard pointed out that, while it’s important to work on the
local level, there also are a lot of other stakeholder groups that
meeting professionals can partner with to build these
relationships. “We don’t have to build it alone,”
he said. Duffy agreed, saying, “There are lots of other
industries who do this work very well” from which meeting
professionals can learn a lot about proactive reputation
management.
Hinton said MPI has created a grassroots communications task force
to develop crisis-response talking points. The group will look at
the work being done by other groups to aggregate and looking for
the best way to package what’s already being done. The
Chapter Business Summit meeting in September also will include a
sharing of best practices from chapters that, like Calgary, are
already achieving some success with their local
relationship-building efforts. There also are some resources at the
One Industry
One Voice section of the MPI Web site, Hinton said.
Don’t Wait Until There’s a Crisis
Duffy
said that one thing she has learned as she has navigated through
crises including 9/11 and the AIG scandal is that you can’t
wait until a crisis happens and expect politicians and the media to
understand the meetings industry. As Rickard said, “You
don’t want to build the bridge when the river’s already
rising.” Instead, as Massari pointed out, build those
essential relationships now, so when you need to call on that
person, you have “relationship equity” to draw
on.
Duffy added that it’s not just about people on the Hill:
“We also need to build relationships with the media. With the
24/7 news cycle and the demands of social media, media need to know
immediately where to go and who to call on,” she said.
“We have to get ahead of that, and not just talk among
ourselves and the trade media.” As Massari pointed out,
“It’s easy to call meetings boondoggles.” The
industry needs to work on the media bias toward negative news about
meetings.
The need to have a media plan in place ahead of time was one thing
Duffy learned first-hand after the cruise industry faced what she
called its biggest crisis in 100 years in January with the
wreck of the Costa Concordia in Italy. “In one week we
had 669 million hits on Google—it was a global crisis,”
she said.
CLIA found it needed spokespeople outside of the cruise industry
who hold positions of authority and could speak eloquently and
effectively its behalf. She said CLIA now has identified 50 outside
spokespeople who have been briefed on the issues and who are
committed to working with the organization when there’s a
crisis. “It costs money and time, and you have to be willing
to support that. Think about who’s best to deliver messages
on your behalf,” she said.
And stay committed to this as an ongoing effort, Duffy said.
“Everyone’s ready to jump on the bandwagon when someone
says something bad about the meetings industry, but we tend to have
short memories. This takes commitment, it takes work every day. We
can’t look for a quick win.”
Future Threats
There is no shortage of challenges
going on right now, the panelists said. Among the examples are the
restrictions on pharmaceutical meetings and new legislation
that seeks to
restrict government meetings and spending. Duffy added that the
whole experience of travel is another area to focus on, because if
travel becomes too onerous, it could lead to fewer meetings.
She cited as an example of progress the Brand USA initiative launched
under the
Travel Promotion Act to promote the U.S. as an international
destination. While there has been progress in
opening up the U.S. to some countries that have had visa waiver
issues, there still are problems to deal with, said Rickard. As
Massari said, “Many in Brazil have to travel 1,000 miles just
to get a visa.”
With that said, the panelists agreed that the industry has made
progress since 2008. In addition to improvements in the visa waiver
program, Duffy pointed to President Obama moving from Vegas-bashing
to saying travel is a great economic driver and job creator in the
U.S. But there’s still a long way to go, said Rickard.
To get there, Massari said, “Engage. Activate. Get involved
in this. Realize that it’s a part of your job, that it has a
major impact on your business.”
Hinton added, “It’s not somebody else’s job,
it’s ours. We have a lot of voices to contribute.” Del
Gaudio urged the audience to speak to local corporations, local
press, local politicians, and fellow employees. “Make sure
you’re all saying the same thing about the value of this
industry. Educate yourself on the economic impact of your business
on your local economic community” so you’re prepared if
you get that call.
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