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VERY MERRY: Attendees at World Santa Claus Congress 2011 in
Denmark this past July paid a visit to the Copenhagen Zoo for a pre-flight inspection of the zoo’s reindeer — among many other Kringle-themed activities. For more on the Santa summit, see p. 20.
PLENARY D
AVE SCYPINSKI HAS BEEN WAITING all year for things to slow down, but it hasn’t really happened. In
2010, the senior vice president of Confer- enceDirect said, his company did a quarter of its business in December alone — which wasn’t too surprising, because “the end of the year is this huge waiting game and then you get all this business flooding in, and then January is empty.” But instead, January 2011 “started out
pretty fast,” Scypinski said, and stayed that way. Last year ConferenceDirect did about $450 million in business. This year, it’s looking at a 30-percent increase over that. It’s the same for other third-party companies. Maritz Travel is “in double-digit growth this year over last year,” said President David Peckinpaugh, “and we’re predicting even stronger growth next year.” Likewise, when 2011 closes out, HelmsBriscoe is “going to be up probably between 20 and 30 percent,” according to COO Greg Malark. He added: “We’re on a record pace over what was a record last year. We’re booking a lot of business.” Where’s it all coming from? First and
ON_THE_WEB: For a look ahead, read our 2012
Meetings Industry Forecast, at http://bit.ly/ 2012-forecast.
foremost, pent-up demand. In response to the economic downturn, “Companies and associa- tions were artificially stopping booking business through their natural cycle,” Scypinski said. “They stopped going out five years and only went out two years. … As people have seen the economy improving — as it was through the first six months of this year — that’s what really
News and notes for the meetings and conventions industry
Why Have Third Parties Enjoyed Such A Great Year?
triggered a lot of the meetings.” The sputtering economy is actually what
pushed some organizations toward third-party companies in the first place, as they scaled back on their events and in some cases eliminated positions. Today, “planners are under pressure to do more with less,” Malark said. “In these uncertain times, people are looking for additional resources without bringing on [additional staff]. The lead time in meetings is getting shorter, the planning horizons are getting shorter, so having an organization like ours that can react very quickly and source a wide variety of venues is an important asset.”
continued on page 28 pcma convene December 2011 19
ILLUSTRATION BY DAN PAGE