HOW MANY SITE VISITS FOR BOOKED BUSINESS DO YOU ATTEND EVERY YEAR?
2b
4to6 13%
None 12%
1to3 72%
10 or more 2%
7to9 1%
WHO USUALLY PAYS FOR YOU TO ATTEND THESE?
The organization I workfor 75%
The hosting organization (CVB, hotel, convention center) 32%
I pay my own way 8%
ously be considered by the planner’s organi- zation. So how do you know which invitations to accept? “A fam trip is appropriate when it’s to a city that our association is considering for a future conference,” said Cindy Savery, CEM, CMP,meet- ing planner for the Association of Clinical Research Pro- fessionals. “Usually I only accept a fam to a place I’ve sent an RFP to. If it’s a new city, then I feelit’s advantageous for me and the association to take that fam trip.” Sparks said: “I prefer to go to a city that has great poten-
“Corporately, my organization is too paralyzed by ethics to recognize that the site visits and fam trips are a very important part of a meeting planner’s
responsibilities. Therefore, my opportunities to learn about and experience a venue and destination are pretty much nonexistent.”
tialfor us to use in the near future.” Likewise, “great potential” is a necessary fam-trip pre- condition for Savery because of her philosophy that “if you offer somebody a diamond ring,
you expect that they are going to marry you, and not just take it and say, ‘Thank you very much.’” That said, Ahaesy noted, “There are also some times that
it pays to go to an area that is a possibility although not nec- essarily written in stone, so that you can get a preview of it.” (See “‘You Never Really Know,’” p. 54.)
What is your No. 1 pet peeve about site visits and fam trips?
“Being offered the fam trip by a company or site that obviously hasn’t done their homework about our organization. If they are that lax up front, it doesn’t bode well for a meeting I might put there.”
“Although I love to be able to see as much as possible in these short visits, it is important to take a moment to refresh before going on to the next event. This is not always the case.”