Inside an Amway Incentive Event

By the Numbers

Amway's European Diamond Conference:
April 19-24, 2012

Incentive winners:
272

On-site staff from AlliedPRA New York:
20

Languages spoken by participants:
9
 
Translators:
16

Countries represented:
16

Planning time:
3 years

Amway -- the 53-year-old health, beauty and household-goods giant headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich. -- doesn't sell its vast line of products in stores or malls. Instead, it relies on a far-flung network of independent business owners to sell its wares directly to the public. Direct-sales firms like Amway recognize that these individuals truly dictate the company's success, and motivating and rewarding them is key to the corporate culture.

The annual incentive program for Amway's top independent distributors from Europe, Russia and Southern Africa is the European Diamond Conference, which this year took place April 19-24 in New York City. Every aspect of the program, from the destination to the hotel (the Waldorf Astoria) to the events (a private dinner on Ellis Island) and gifts (iPads, Tiffany crystal), was designed to impress and spur these nearly 300 elite business owners -- who hailed from 16 countries -- to even greater achievement.

"The composition of this group is 80 percent repeat qualifiers," says Bob Postins, CMM, Amway's head of events for Europe. "My goal for each new incentive is to present the best that the destination can offer in a way that is different, customized, motivating and unrepeatable on a personal level."  

Following are details on how Postins' team and local partner, AlliedPRA New York, created an unforgettable Big Apple adventure for Amway's Diamond sales associates.

Posh accommodations The historic Waldorf Astoria was tapped as headquarters for the event, selected primarily for its prestigious international reputation. Another plus: The property was able to accommodate the group for six days and had enough variety in its room inventory to house the 11 levels of Diamond qualifiers, as well as the 40 top Emerald, or second-tier, participants who joined the conference for three days.

In recognition of the winners, the Amway flag was prominently displayed over the hotel's Lexington Avenue entrance, and on the day of arrival, chalk artists drew colorful welcome signs on the sidewalk fronting the property.

A very special agenda The six days of the European Diamond Conference were chockablock with activities and events, including a full day of business meetings. Among the highlights, all of which were arranged by AlliedPRA New York:

• Airport transfers were made via individual luxury cars (Lincoln Town Car, Mercedes R Class, Mercedes C Class); the type of car was determined by the winners' achievement level.

• A festive dinner on Ellis Island was followed by a private fireworks display in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. The event kicked off with a reception onboard Hornblower Cruise's Respect, which set sail from Battery Park in Lower Manhattan. Qualifiers were greeted on the legendary island, site of so many immigrant arrivals to the New World, by the New York City Police Department's pipe-and-drum corps.

• A half-day of guided tours took winners to Central Park (on foot or via bicycle), offered some culinary tastes of the Big Apple or brought them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• A choice of Broadway performances (Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark, The Lion King or Jersey Boys) was followed by a dine-around in the city's ultratrendy Meatpacking District.

• A spectacular final-night awards dinner, featuring the 1970s funk band Kool and the Gang, was held at Cipriani 42nd Street, an ornate former bank building turned unique event space.

Bridging language barriers For AlliedPRA's Laura Fensham, who served as program director for the event, the greatest challenge was accommodating the nine different languages spoken by the winners, including Ukrainian, Turkish and Hungarian. "We are used to working with groups where not everyone speaks English, but this was by far the most complex," she notes. "Some didn't know how to say 'hello,' 'goodbye' or 'bathroom' in English."

Amway's staff took care of translating all printed and presentation materials for the program; it was up to AlliedPRA to provide guides who could translate at least one of the qualifiers' native languages. Says Fensham, "We have a good pool of language guides we pull from regularly, but we had to get recommendations from them and other contacts for this event."

To make sure these additional guides and translators were up to snuff, Fensham says, "We brought them into our office, interviewed them and used them on smaller projects so there was a comfort level on both sides."

The DMC came up with other ways to bridge the language barriers. With participants speaking in so many tongues, the PRA team tried to use as much language-free signage as possible. Guides and tour buses had national flags to direct winners to the right group. Fensham even used a silent black-and-white video about Ellis Island on the buses that took the group to the ship.

Another cultural element AlliedPRA's team addressed was smoking, an ingrained habit with more Europeans than Americans these days. For international visitors, says Fensham, "We always include in our programs detailed information on where it's permitted [doorways, street corners] and where it's not [public parks and pedestrian plazas like Time Square]. Visitors often find our laws very confusing."

Lasting impressions Though formal post-event feedback from the incentive winners was not yet available at press time, Amway's Bob Postins is certain the Big Apple conference hit the mark.

"The plaudits we received during the event and on the final day are sure signs that the winners will return to their distributor networks with much to eulogize over," Postins says. Among his favorite comments: "A qualifier from Germany said he had been to New York City more than 40 times but had never seen or experienced it in quite such a fashion."