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JamesT.Wood,FCDME President&CEO Greater Louisville Convention &VisitorsBureau
Flexibility, value-added solutions remain key to success
As the group travel market continues its slow but steady return to health, what will your destination be doing to remain competitive? We will continue to work closely with our business partners to identify ways in which we can provide the kinds of solutions necessary for our customers to be successful while holding their meeting or convention in Louisville.
What valuable lessons or good habits with respect to the meetings business have you learned over the past two years, and how are you implementing these? Our clients are asking us to be more flex- ible than ever.We are passing that infor- mation along to our partners to ensure that we provide the right solutions to meet their needs. In addition, we con- tinue to utilize past convention surveys, which provide a wealth of information on how we can build upon the types of services that are more greatly valued by our clients in today’smarketplace. There is no “one-size-fits-all” model anymore. We customize our offerings to fit each of our clients’ specific needs and wants.
What is your destination doing to help planners meet their goals for sustainability and CSR? More groups are asking for ways to implement “green initiatives” in our community, so we must be able to provide a menu of solutions. This includes increased use of electronic marketing and less dependency on printed collateral.
What will be the top destination-selection criteria for meeting planners during the coming year? Value-added solutions are still near the top of the list on most of the RFPs we receive. These solutions vary. Among examples are hotel-room rates that remain under a fixed ceiling, select discounts on food-and-beverage, flexible transportation options, and better rates at area attractions that might help with attendance-building.
78 pcma convene January 2011
How are younger CVB and meeting professionals changing the industry? We arenowin the age of information: Socialmedia and social networking—“owned” by the current generation—are becoming the dominant ways of communicating with one another.This change hasmade paid advertising less relevant due tothe different platformsavailable toreach targeted audi- ences these days. But even with newtechnology, we are time- starved and saddled with extra-heavy workloads, making time a more precious commodity.We must be sensitive when asking for people’s time in this stressful climate.
What innovations in the realm of social media/networking and technology in general will your destination be pursuing in 2011 and going forward? Louisville has been and continues to be an early adopter of all the latest tech- nology trends.We are constantly pursu- ing new applications and plugging developing tools into our marketing efforts.
How has attendee behavior
changed over the past two years? Attendees are looking for more environmentally friendly modes of transportation. They are also delaying making travel decisions, which is difficult for planners, hoteliers, restaurateurs, caterers, etc. One new emerging trend is that attendees want an authentic experience as part of the travel to a city. In Louisville, there has been a growing interest among convention delegates in including a “bourbon experience”—for instance, touring Bourbon Country and observing the bourbon-making process.
CUSTOMIZE: James T.Wood said the past two years have seen the demise of the “one-size-fits-all” model for serving groups.
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