Mickey Schaefer
The McLean, Va.-based
Convention Industry Council’s Accepted Practices Exchange
(APEX) is fast approaching the day it begins nationwide
implementation.
The content of APEX -- the CIC’s initiative to develop accepted
practices across the meetings industry -- is almost complete. A
sixth section, on meeting and site profiles, is set for approval by
the end of this month, and the last section, on contracts, will be
in place as early as June.
After that, the focus turns to implementing the accepted
practices. By the end of the year, 7,000 fields of data from the
seven sections will be transferred to an XML Datamap, which will
allow hotel chains to use the information in their computer
systems. Gaylord Hotels will be the guinea pig for incorporating
the practices into its systems; most other major chains will soon
follow.
The APEX Meeting & Event Toolbox by OfficeReady, the
program that will allow meeting planners to use the accepted
practices, also has been evolving. It’s name originally was APEX
OfficeReady for Meeting and Event Planning, but “people were
shorthanding it and saying APEX OfficeReady,” said Mickey Schaefer,
Tucson, Ariz.-based chair of the APEX commission through the end of
the year. The new moniker, she added, now is informally called APEX
Toolbox and “is much more descriptive.”
An updated version of the Toolbox will come out this spring,
with more templates and refined features. Meeting planners can buy
the package at www.conventionindustry.org for $99.95; as promised,
planners who own the first version will be given the update for
free. Proceeds from Toolbox sales will fund updates to APEX and the
Toolbox, according to Schaefer.
If the office won’t pay for it, planners might want to hold out
for a free copy of the program. Hyatt Hotels & Resorts has
purchased 4,000 copies of the APEX Toolbox to distribute to
clients, and convention and visitor bureaus are buying them as
well; for example, the Detroit Metro CVB gave away 50 copies at a
recent client luncheon.
The hardest segment of the industry to reach will be planners
themselves, because they are so dispersed, said Mary Power,
president and CEO of the CIC. “We’re working with SmithBucklin and
Conferon, but after that, you’ve got to hit the planners by
onesies, twosies.”
Meeting professionals cannot rest on their laurels, Schaefer
emphasized. “All the different hotels and facilities will be
requesting electronic-based information down the road. Planners can
choose to stay true to their paper-based forms, but they’ll be left
behind.”