International Meetings: Asia Rising By Hunter R. Slaton

Take Away

A Far-Flung Fam

Late last winter, 10 planners with an interest in Asia took part in a whirlwind fam trip of Japan.What did they learn about the Land of the Rising Sun?

Last February, 10 meeting professionals from nine countries—the United States, France, Switzer- land, Germany, Greece, the U.K., Israel, Holland, and Brazil — set out on the Japan National TourismOrganization’s (JNTO)Meet Japan 2010, a famtrip designedto introduce planners to all that Japan has to offer for conferences. Recently, the trip’s two American participants — Eva Matyskiela,CMP, meeting manager for Philadel- phia-based Soroptimist International of theAmer- icas, andGreg Patzer, executive vice president for the Waconda, Ill.–based International Magne- sium Association (IMA)—spoke with Convene about their impressions of Japan. Both Matyskiela’s and Patzer’s organizations

have direct ties to Asia. Soroptimist International is a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of

—interact with the people from [JNTO].” Meet Japan 2010 was Matyskiela’s third visit

to the country.Onething that stood out for her this time was the “impeccable” attention to detail on the part of the Japanese professionals she met. “I think that they are just very thorough,” she said. “Getting things right is very important to them.” Meeting in Japan can also infuse a conference

with a degree of history and culture that is impos- sible to find in the United States.“We don’t have anything that’s as old andhistoric as they do,” said Matyskiela, citing the country’s Buddhist tem- ples in particular. She added: “It’s just interesting to see something that’s that old, and part of their history and their culture.” But it’s not all green tea and roses.Onebig dif- ference in Japan—and in Asia as a whole—is that

“They are thorough. Getting things right is important to them.”

women and girls in localcommunities around the world, and has a strong Japanesemember base— about 13,000 members out of 30,000 total in 19 countries.IMAhas100membercompanies world- wide, each involved inmagnesium production.Ten years ago, Patzer said, China had “zero” magne- sium production, whereas today the country pro- duces 80 to 85 percent of the world’s supply.As a result, IMA now has a substantial membership from mainland China. Attendees were split intothree “study groups,”

each of which visited two different cities—Mat- sue and Gifu; Chiba and Kobe; and Matsumoto and Kanazawa—for three days and four nights, before gathering in Kanazawa for a mini destina- tion trade show. “I had never been to Japan other than going through Narita [International Air- port],” Patzer said. “So it was a great opportuni- ty formeto actually see some of the country, inter- act with thepeople, and—evenmore importantly

meeting space typically is not free. “They are not concerned with how many sleeping rooms you sell,” Matyskiela said. “They will charge a pack- age price for the room rental that will includeAV, with separate food-and-beverage charges.” That fact might deter organizations that lack sig-

nificant Asianmembershipfromchoosing tomeet in Asia, but for those groups that must — and Patzer’sIMAis representative of the reality that this number is growing rapidly—fam-trip attendees noted that Japan is one of the best-situated Asian countries in terms of providing not only a unique sense of place but also stellar convention support. “[JNTOwas] moving a lot of people through a lot of different cities and a lot of different venues, and it was very impressivehowwell-organizedit was,” Patzer said. “That gave me a definite positive opinion onwhat I could expect ifwewere holding a conference in Japan of the support systemthat would be in place from the organization.”

ON_THE_WEB: Meet Japan 2011 will be held on Feb. 24–March 3. Planners who wish to apply should visit the trip’s information page at http://bit.ly/i6ilRI. To read a JNTO e-newsletter article about last year’s fam, visit http://bit.ly/e75GB7.

30 pcma convene January 2011 ILLUSTRATION BY PAUL OAKLEY

What Time Is It Where You Are? It took Eva Matyskiela, CMP, no time at all to think of an answer when asked about the biggest difficulty with planning a meeting in Asia. “The time differ- ence,” she replied. “Basically it’s planned via e-mail. You some- times can get a Skype call,…but really for us we rely a lot on our local members to help with the plan- ning process—not necessarily the details, but to com- municate things to the various venues that we might not be able to do so easily because of the lan- guage difference.”

Hunter R. Slaton is a senior editor of Convene.

International Meetings: Asia Rising is sponsored by the Japan National Tourism Organization, www.jnto.go.jp.