plenary Your Venue, Your Value + World’s Fair of Money RESEARCH Site Selection A

recent Convene epanel survey revealed the ways in which more than 200 meeting professionals

find destinations and venues for their events, and how they think hotels size up their business. “For numerous internal and

external reasons,” said Christine Shi- masaki, managing director of DMAI’s empowerMINT.com program, which sponsored the survey, “planners are required to make sure they have thor- oughly vetted enough destinations and respective hotels and venues. [That’s] evidenced by over eight in 10 planners considering three or more destina- tions [in the survey results]. All of this takes a lot of time and expertise, and it makes a lot of sense that planners — 55 percent — look to the local expertise of a convention and visitors bureau to help them find the right hotel, venue, or facility for their meeting. “However,” Shimasaki said, “in

addition to CVBs, planners often turn to several other resources, and to best serve today’s planner, all chan- nels — GSOs, third parties, online RFP engines, etc. — must learn to work efficiently with each other.” (See p. 31 for additional analysis of the results by Shimasaki.)

1 When planning a single-hotel meeting, what sources do you use to help you find the right fit for your meeting?

550= 55% CVB 240= 24% Online RFP engines 210= 21% Third party or independent planner

190= 19% Online search engine 180= 18% Your own SMM system 340= 34% Other

Other responses: › Go directly to hotel websites › Hotel national/global sales office reps (46 mentions)

› Local leadership references › National sales manager, web research

› Networking groups › Word of mouth

2 If you use online search engines such as Bing or Google, what words do you type into the search window?

› Bureau/city name search › City name, conference center, meeting locations

› City name, meeting space, conference venue

› DMC › Downtown hotels and location › Hotel (location) meeting space › Hotel, convention, exhibit, airport › Google Maps, find my location, and search nearby hotels

› Location name and reviews › Luxury, five-star, top-rated, convention center

› Meeting facilities › Meeting space, hotel, convention center

3 On average, how many destinations do you typically consider for the location of your meetings?

7+8+46+10+16+13 30 PCMA CONVENE OCTOBER 2012

7% 8%

46% 15%

10% 13%

One Two Three Four Five Six +

4 Is this more or fewer destinations than in previous years?

5 In terms of how hotels value your meeting, which of the following do you think is most important to them? (Select one.)

1+1+2+2+1+8+9+13+19+44 6+6+88

44% 19% 13% 9% 8% 2% 2%

1% 1%

1%

88% 6% 6%

Same More Fewer

Total revenue for hotel (including F&B and audiovisual) Volume of overall business or opportunity for repeat business Amount of meeting space required versus guest rooms Number of anticipated guest rooms required History of guest rooms used for your meeting Time of year

Flexibility of meeting dates

Guest-room arrival and departure pattern Concessions requested by planner Other

Commenting on the results of No. 5, DMAI’s Shimasaki said: “While PCMA.ORG