Benchmark CEO Burt Cabañas
Has the St. Louis-based
International Association of Conference Centers gone overboard in
its standards for membership? Yes, says a major center chain,
charging the guidelines are too rigid.
At issue is a new effort by IACC to apply its Universal
Criteria, comprising 27 strict requirements covering center
specifications such as soundproofing between meeting rooms and the
width of conference tables.
On top of that, IACC has rescinded a grandfather clause that
allowed certified centers to comply only with the criteria that
were in place when they joined. The independent Fairfax, Va.-based
Bare and Associates has been hired to reinspect all current members
over the next four years.
However, according to Burt Cabañas, chairman and CEO of The
Woodlands, Texas-based Benchmark Hospitality, which owns and
operates 20 conference centers, IACC’s enforcement of standards
“has gotten to the point where it leaves out the flexibility
planners give to a property when they evaluate it.”
Benchmark’s Scottsdale (Ariz.) Resort and Conference Center has
tables that do not meet IACC’s criterion that mandates undraped,
nonreflective writing surfaces. The property is a provisional IACC
member, pending the purchase of new tables, but Cabañas said this
isn’t going to happen. “How can I possibly tell the owner we have
to spend $400,000 to buy tables for the purpose of getting IACC
approval?” he asked. “How does that add to our revenue base?”
Andy Dolce, president and CEO of Montvale, N.J.-based center
operator and owner Dolce International, agrees that a measure of
flexibility would be welcome in the inspection process. “I think
some judgment needs to be used,” he said. “If the issue is minor,
the judge needs to use common sense.”
“We might have missed the forest for the trees,” admitted Tom
Bolman, IACC executive vice president, who added meeting planners
should have been consulted when the quality initiative was devised.
“Can you measure the total meeting experience by inches? We are
going back to look at that. We have to be open to course
correction.”
For now, properties are being given time to rectify problems,
per IACC’s Schedule of Remedies. For instance, centers have 18
months to buy new tables, with the possibility of a six-month
extension.