March:Short Sited I JUSTHADTOWRITETOEXPRESSMYEXASPERA- tion over the International Meetings article by James F. Hollan III, CAE, in the March issue, in which he wrote about his international site-inspection expectations.What an embarrass- ment his sense of entitlement is to us professionals in the industry. I can only assume that you included this article in Convene to spark controversy! ToMr. Hollan, I want to say that
it’s time to stop treating suppliers as if you and your meeting are “God’s gift” and to stop expecting these small business owners to genuflect at your feet! Just because you have to spend a few thousand dollars to fly someone from your organization to an international site inspection doesn’t mean that the local destination man- agement companies should be expect- ed, in return, to spend several hun- dred dollars for the “privilege” of showing you around. Obviously,Mr. Hollan has never
Update:Dropbox
In April’sWorking Smarter column, “Binders vs. Tablets,” we talked to meeting planners who have made the jump from carrying big binders at conferences to storing meeting specs on iPads and other tablet devices.We have since learned that the security protocols of one of the file-storage platforms mentioned, Dropbox, have been questioned. We contacted Dropbox, which referred us to a response on its blog, at http://blog.dropbox.com/?p=735. No meeting planner we inter-
viewed forWorking Smarter came close to suggesting transferring sensitive information in ways that would make it vulnerable to theft or misuse. But we wanted to add a foot- note—one that is second nature to most planners—to the story: Make sure your security levels match the nature of the information that you’re transmitting online.
worked for aDMCand has no idea how difficult their jobs can be. He has no idea how many hundreds of calls they field from marginal meeting planners wanting freebies. He has no idea how many hours they spend put- ting together proposals for prospects —who then go direct to suppliers. He has no idea how hard it is for a small business to run successful current operations while trying to find the time to build future business in a very transient business. It certainly can’t be easy for them also to have to deal with demanding Americans who expect to be chauffeured around and catered to. We have lost several very good inter- nationalDMCsdue to the recent upheaval in the economy. I’d hate to see us lose any more. Iamnot surprised that the Spain
DMCsMr. Hollan referred to in the article decided to take a stand and charge for their site visits. Paying for a site visit—with the arrangement of a rebate once the business is booked— sounds like a very reasonable way to filter out the abusers. I’m not sure how extensive this policy is. He didn’t seem to do any research, and only pre- sented his personal anecdotal infor- mation. About 20 years ago, when I worked for aDMC,there was so much abuse by meeting planners that a consortium of competingDMCs discussed instituting that very same policy here in San Francisco. Iaminsulted thatMr. Hollan has
the audacity to suggest that anyone who doesn’t run their business the way he thinks it should be run is “sil- ly” or doesn’t get it “right.” From a professional point of view, he does an injustice to his clients to eliminate a hotel or an entire destination because of twoDMCsthat had the courage not to play by his ground rules! I, too,will not take a high-profile
group to a location until I’ve seen it. However, I believe that site-inspection costs should be factored into an orga- nization’s cost of doing business.There are plenty ofways to conduct a site visitwhile still saving your clientmon- ey on the costs.Andmany tourist offices offer all-expense-paid hosted- buyer trips. Sometimes Iamdelightful- ly surprisedwhen a venue is able to pick up the hotel costs or extend an upgrade, orwhen a potential supplier treats us to lunch, orwhen aDMCis willing to drive us around.But Iwould never expect this as a given fromthem. Mr. Hollan does not speak for all
planners; in fact, I hope that he doesn’t speak formost professionals in our industry.Hementions that he has “been around enough to knowwhat many of us expect.” I’d like to counter that perhaps he has been around too long.The “good ol’ boy” days of asso- ciationmanagement are finally fading, and it’s awhole newglobal business world.Themeeting profession is also growing. It is very important thatwe