Comments


AFan of February Younever cease toamazeme. I have been readingConvene for years,andevery issue is top-shelf. Always, always excellent articlesontimely topics.(Howdoyoudothis so well?) And, receiving the issue online is right in tune with our green focus. Iwasparticularly interestedin Pegine Echevarria’s “Sensitiz-


ing Speakers” (Speaker Savvy, February 2010).Asexecutive director of thePodiumPower Speakers Bureau, I find this arti- cle very usefulandwill heed its advice. Thanks foragreat job! BarbaraAnn Cox,CMP President Meeting Makers Inc.


PCMA@LinkedIn: DrivingAttendance,Cont. LASTMONTH,OURCOMMENTS page included a discussion from the PCMALinkedIn group begun by Dean Martin,CMP, event market- ing manager for the Microsoft Cor- poration, who asked: “The econo- myis still lagging, and we’re only hearing/seeing slight improvements with still a lot of unknowns in the coming year. In this turbulent eco- nomic climate, what types of things are you doing to drive attendance to your events throughout 2010?” The discussion proved so popular,


we’re printing more responses that came in after our February issue went to press:


I GET THAT DISCOUNTING has an impact. Again, when we are making decisions/choices about attending industry events, price/cost are more of a factor than ever before. Maybe most will say, “Let’s cross that bridge when we get there and out of this mess,” but once it’s time to pull the discounts away and get back to pricing models (for reg- istration, hotel rates, etc.) that get all of our respective organizations back to “normal,” will folks just accept what they’ll see as increased


costs, or will they push back and demand the pricing which they have just experienced? Paul Miller Director of Convention Sales and Services Sacramento Convention& Visitors Bureau


THAT’SAGREATQUESTION, Paul, and somethingwe take serious- ly on our events.We have been care- ful to offer registration-fee discounts when necessary, but also hold flat wherewe can.To your point, ifwe cut fees toomuch now, itwill be tough to increase those againwhen the economy recovers, as attendees will have cometo expect it. We try to offer other sorts of


incentives or discounts where we can. For one event, we’re offering to pay for one night of the hotel if the attendee books the other two nights in our block. It’s a hit to the event budget, but it helps drive atten- dance.We also work with the hotel to try to mitigate attrition. If we can minimize attrition, give something back to the attendee, and drive attendance, it becomes a win-win for us, the attendee, and the hotel. We still run a risk of attendees


expecting this year after year, but since it’s an incentive with the hotel booking and not a hit on our registra- tion fees, it’s somethingwecanjustify


8 pcma convene March 2010


Speaker Savvy By Pegine Echevarria,MSW


Take Away


Sensitizing Speakers


Make sure that speakers understand their role in embracing diversity among your meeting participants


AhighlyregardedassociationCEOanddiversity championwasintroducingawonderful colleagueto an audience. He endearingly used the term “princess” when referring to her. Unfortunately, many women in the audience found it more demeaning than endearing. Less thananhour—and twoblog postsandseveraltweets expressing outrage —later, theCEOandhis organization foundthem- selves inanembarrassing situation. Itwasonly after manymeetingsandsever- alapologies that the issue was resolved. The reality today is


that speakers—whether from within or outside your organization — need to be sensitized before they take the stage, in order to avoid this kind ofPRnightmare. Before I spoke for a major global pharmaceutical corpora- tion, I was given a docu- ment called “Statement toSensitizeSpeakers” (see boxat right).Thecompa- ny makes this statement required reading for all its speakers—and I rec- ommend that you adopt it for your organization. It not only demonstrates that you are serious about diversityandyouvalue everyone in the audience, but alsocommunicates clearly that if there isanoffense, the speaker will be held responsible. It’snotjustaboutbeingPC.Adiversity statement


such as the global pharmaceuticalcompany’s docu- mentserves the strategicgoals ofanorganization,by:  Increasing productivity — Disengaged atten- dees/employees/members are less productive attendees/employees/members. Your audience is


Statement to Sensitize Speakers to the Potential Diversity in the Audience


XYZ Corp. is pleased to host a wide variety of events and programs that feature speakers from within or outside the company to share their per- spectives and knowledge with our colleagues. Because of the rich diversity of our colleagues and guests, speakers must be sensitive to everyone in the audience. Speakers should therefore embrace a communication style that is sensitive to differences in gender, race, age, religion, politics, and disabilities. Speakers should not make any assumptions about those in the group other than a common interest in the topic to be discussed. Comments that could be perceived as discriminatory or other similarly insen- sitive language and practices are unacceptable. Any harm claimed by any member of the audience shall be the sole responsibility of the speaker. Speakers are asked to review and remove all


morediversethanever: age,gender, religion, military service, beliefs, and backgrounds. Combine disen- gaged attendees/employees/members, social media, andamisspokenword(as intheexamplethat led this column),andproductivity goesdownbecause of the emotional stressandtimedelegatedtohandlingaPR crisis—to saynothingof the financial costs. Increasingsales/fundraising—Statisticsshow thatwomenaccount for85percent of allconsumer purchases.Arecent Selig Center for Economic Growthstudy,“TheMul- ticulturalEconomy,”pro- jectedthat Hispanic buy- ing power will grow to $12.4 trillion by 2011. The Gill Foundation, a gay philanthropic group, donated more than $12 million to not-for-profits focused on family and children,accordingtoPhi- lanthropyNewsDigest. WhenI speaktocom-


potentially offensive language in their presentations and focus on professional content. If some or all of the content is based on a speaker’s personal experiences or opinions, it should be stated as such and only those statements that would be accept- able to a broad audience should be included.


panies,governmentagen- cies, and organizations, theywant toknowabout how to reach, sell, and retain people of diverse backgrounds as cus- tomers,employees,mem-


bers, anddonors.Andthey spendplenty ofmoney and resources on that effort. All it can take to derail this strategy is one speaker’s offhand—and inappropriate—comment or joke.  Avoiding costly mistakes—It is illegal to dis- criminateagainstemployeesonthebasis of race,col- or, religion, sex,nationalorigin, disability, or age. In different states, different laws may apply. A com- plaint is costly.Avoiding a complaint is in the best interests of the organization.


ON_THE_WEB: Learn about the National Diversity Council’s conferences throughout the United States at www.nationaldiversitycouncil.org/events.html.


16 pcma convene February 2010 ILLUSTRATION BY GREG MABLY


Zero Tolerance Make your expecta- tions clear to your speakers,whether they are inside or out- side your organization. Have them sign and return a sensitivity document that spells out how your organi- zation embraces diversity and makes clear that they will be held liable for com- ments they make that could be perceived as discriminatory.


These tips should be used for informational purposes and should not be considered legal advice.


Pegine Echevarria, MSW, is one of 58 speakers, along with Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins, who have been inducted into Getmoti- vation.com’sMotivational Speakers Hall of Fame— and one of only eight women, and the first Latina. She has been an active member of NSA for more than 12 years. Contact her at info@pegine.com.


The National Speakers Association (NSA) is the leading educational organi- zation for professional speakers. NSA’s 3,500 members include experts in a variety of industries and disciplines, who reach audiences as trainers, educators, humorists, moti- vators, consultants, authors, and more.As a service to meeting professionals, NSA provides resources and information on finding and working with speakers. Visit NSA’sWeb site at www.nsaspeaker.org.


easier in future years if/when we move the event to another city/hotel. Dean Martin, CMP


IAGREEWITHDEAN. ITDOES help to mitigate the potential argu- ment from attendees to offer things that you can justify now and not have to carry with you in the future. With us, that was the rationale with the $200 discount [on registration] as opposed to changing the base reg- istration fees, which have not increased in many years. Ultimately, the contests or offers


for free rooms and free registration definitely get potential attendees talking and draw interest to the show. These and other discounts won’t win over every boss. So, we also are offering recordings of a few select speakers/sessions to post to ourWeb site after the event. For us, this is free advertising for future years. For the would-be attendees, this is value that we as an associa- tion provide to them and demon- strates our understanding of their situation. It is added value for the attendees, too, who may not have been able to attend that session. Tracy Riggan Director of Meetings and Special Events IPC—Association Connecting Electronic Industries


www.pcma.org


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