CIC's Mary Power
The Convention Industry Council is trying to
increase participation in its Attendee Behavior Survey, after an
initial attempt yielded fewer than 12 responses. The survey is the
cornerstone of the McLean, Va.-based organization’s Project
Attrition, launched last January to help planners combat
attrition.
For the first phase of the study, which ended in August, about
340 planners participated in a survey on attrition. Next, the
planners were supposed to send their attendees the behavior survey,
which covered booking habits.
The results would give planners valuable data on their groups’
attendance and housing patterns, said CIC executive director Mary
Power. In turn, the CIC would use the data to compile an
industrywide picture of room-block compliance.
“We were giving them a ready-made survey that could cost up to
$30,000 if they did it on their own,” Power said, “but they didn’t
realize it was of value.” Indeed, many planners never sent out the
behavior survey. Some thought confidential details might be
divulged, or they simply didn’t want to send attendees unsolicited
e-mail, according to Power.
Karen Baggiano, conference director for the Charlottesville,
Va.-based Core Knowledge Foundation, felt the survey was “too long”
for her time-pressed attendees.
Windy Christener, CMP, director of meetings and expositions for
the Washington, D.C.-based American Pharmacists Association, didn’t
have the authority to send the survey. “I’d have to go through a
long process of approval,” she noted.
In September, the CIC revised its strategy to address these
concerns, stressing the need for attendees to know booking outside
the block hurts their associations.
The deadline was extended to the end of the year. At press time,
66 planners had signed on; between 75 and 100 are required for
statistical significance, said Power, who indicated the timeline
could be further extended to spring 2004.