Meeting planners strapped for time and resources often outsource complex site selections, negotiations and other tasks to third-party planners. On occasion, these relationships transcend simple client/supplier roles, and the two professionals become teammates and even close friends. Following, M&C profiles four such dynamic duos.
> Susan Lennon
Deputy executive director, Society for Research in Child Development, based in Ann Arbor, Mich.
> Char Y. Shada, CMP
Director/strategic account manager, Experient, based in Chicago
Susan Lennon and Char Shada, her Experient account manager for more than five years, have shared at least a dozen trips to inspect venues and destinations that might host the Society for Research in Child Development. "She's the only person, outside of my family, who I would feel comfortable sharing a hotel room with," says Lennon, a nine-year veteran with the SRCD.
The two have traveled together via airplane, train and automobile, both across the United States and Eastern Europe, and shared many adventures on the road. They both recall, with great hilarity, a site inspection arranged by one destination to showcase its local color and cuisine: a tour of two strip malls and dinner at an Italian chain restaurant. What's more, their guide was a teetotaler, and ordering an adult beverage was out of the question. "I remember Susan's look of horror," says Shada. "We were polite and sucked it up, but we couldn't wait to get back to the hotel and a have a cocktail."
Since 2007, Shada has worked with Lennon on the association's biannual meeting, which can attract anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 attendees from 45 countries. Experient handles venue inspections and contracts, as well as some aspects of meeting planning.
Lennon, who considers Shada an extension of her staff, says she relies very heavily on her "incredible business sense and negotiating skills."
"If we need more space, I get in touch with her, and she figures out way to make it work," Lennon adds."I know I can't get everything I want, but I have learned what is realistic in a contract, and with Char, I know our best interests have been served."
Though the two have had many successful collaborations, they've also faced difficult business situations together. For example, the association was slapped with high attrition fees at its most recent biannual conference, which took place last year in Seattle. Lennon notes that Shada successfully worked with the hotel to get the contract modified and to help them fill the room block, even enlisting higher-ups at Experient in the effort.
"She lost as much sleep as I did over the crisis. She felt our pain," says a grateful Lennon.
"A relationship like ours doesn't happen often in the business world," says Lennon. "We really listen to each other; we may not always agree with each other, but we're always respectful."
Business director at PLM World Inc., based in Winston Salem, N.C.
> Tom Schwinden
Global account executive, ConferenceDirect, based in Oviedo, Fla.
This partnership began in less than perfect circumstances. Beth Ewing of PLM World, an annual tech-user conference, was stuck with high room rates (negotiated by her former third-party firm prior to the recession for the 2012 event) and a staggering 50 percent attrition rate. Ewing recalls the hotel wouldn't budge, and her former third-party firm said nothing could be done. Then a client told her to reach out to Schwinden.
After hearing her dilemma, the ConferenceDirect executive suggested a plan: sending out RFPs to other properties and trying to mitigate the penalties as much as possible.
"I was shocked when Tom first suggested it, but I ended up being blown away," says Ewing. Schwinden not only found another hotel with a lower room rate ($125 vs. $199), but he got the new property to agree to pay the cancellation fees for the other contract.
"What he did was nothing short of amazing," muses Ewing.
Since their auspicious beginning, things have only gotten better for this twosome. Ewing has entrusted Schwinden with all site selection and contract negotiations for the 35-year-old event.
"We've produced two world-class events together, with less stress than I've ever experienced," Ewing says. "Tom knows my group inside and out -- things like they prefer to meet under one roof [not easy when the event attracts 1,700 to 1,800 attendees on peak night] and want a family-friendly destination. He also knows that the conference needs to be in a facility with plentiful meeting space with good flow."
Just as important, she adds, "he figured out how I do things and knows what I like. He knows that tablecloths aren't important to me, but having perfect tech during the conference is."
In addition to handling the nuts and bolts of the contract, Schwinden also has helped Ewing and her team to upgrade and grow the show. "We are an old-style tech conference and have been doing things the same way for years," she says. "We want less sitting in rooms or listening to presentations." This year, the collaborators are launching a one-on-one, speed-dating-style component to the event. The concept, Ewing says, was presented by Schwinden, who often shares ideas from his other clients.
For his part, Schwinden says his main goal is to "make Beth look fabulous to her board." The two touch base, either by phone, email or text, once a week. And he always accompanies her to PLM World's board meetings to help sell new ideas or destinations. "She is there for her board members, and I am there for her and her team of planners," he says.
Senior project manager, events, meetings and conventions, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, based in Cambridge, Mass.
> Julie Nack Locke
Associate regional vice president, HelmsBriscoe, based in Dover, Mass.
The professional partnership of Ronli Merlis and Julie Nack Locke has survived a dozen years, Merlis' three jobs and myriad life changes for both women along the way.
The two met for the first time while both served on the New England board of Meeting Professionals International. Back then, Merlis worked for a company that planned hundreds of global health-care conferences a year, and she found the volume overwhelming. When Locke explained what her firm, the full-service meetings management giant HelmsBriscoe, did, and how she could help Merlis and her team at no cost (HelmsBriscoe, like other large site-selection firms, earns its commissions from hotels rather than corporate clients), their collaboration became a no-brainer.
The partnership has thrived ever since, right through to Merlis' current position with Takeda Pharmaceuticals. For her part, Locke handles site selection and contract negotiations for roughly 50 of the international pharma events Merlis and her planning colleagues organize; group sizes typically range from 10 to 250 attendees. She works at Takeda's office once a month to have face time with the planning team, and in Merlis' words, she's now an "extension of the staff."
One of the key things Locke brings to the table, says Merlis, is her finely honed negotiating skills. In the past three years, she has saved Merlis' company approximately $500,000 annually. Merlis adds that Locke also has been instrumental in helping to get various penalties waved when meetings are canceled, postponed or otherwise changed, an occupational hazard of pharmaceutical meetings in particular due to the typically last-minute nature of drug approvals.
As a result of their long-standing relationship, Locke has learned Merlis' tastes and hot-button issues. For example, "I know excellent service is very important to her," she says. She also knows her client likes to get to know key staff at hotels.
With years of history, "we are not just working colleagues, but also good friends," notes Merlis. The pair often attend industry events together, and they meet up once a week at Dream Dinners, a Boston-area cooking space where they prepare up to six future meals for their families.
Meeting and event manager, National Association of Colleges and Employers, based in Kennebunk, Maine
> Yurii Land
Strategic account manager, Experient, based in Denver
Like many who organize meetings, Meghan Ogden saw her role expand when the recession hit. In addition to her planning duties for the National Association of Colleges and Employees, she became involved in strategy development and content for events.
At the same time, the association's largest event, its annual conference and expo, burgeoned in size and scope; it now includes about 1,900 attendees and 300 exhibitors, making it too big to fit into a single property.
Helping Ogden expertly navigate these changes every step of the way is her third-party partner, Yurii Land. "Knowing I have Yurii to rely on to do the space calculation and organize hotel blocks and coffee break allows me to work on more intensive areas like speaker management," she says.
Land, who has been working with Ogden for four years, also has become a resource for industry trends. "I share best practices from my other clients and keep her in loop on which destinations have new convention centers or hotels," he says.
The pair often conduct site inspections together, though, as Land jokes, he tends to arrive on-site first because Ogden, who lives in Maine, frequently gets stuck at airports, due to all the transfers she has to make.
At press time, the two were working together to help Ogden convince her board of directors to consider using a convention center facility and several hotels for the annual conference, something the association has been resistant to in the past.
"I am an ally in helping her make her case to the board," Land says. "I'm there to support Meghan and not step on her toes."
"I rely on his advice and feedback to keep up with meeting trends, and I know he has our attendees' best interests at heart," says Ogden. "At the end of the day, he has my back and makes me look good."