Keeping Them in Line

Meeting professionals are experiencing the best attendance levels since the dot-com era. Despite skyrocketing hotel rates (PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts record occupancies for the U.S. hotel industry in 2006 and 2007), members of associations are showing up in droves; and because Internet hotel bargains have begun to subside, attendees are even booking within the block. So why does Karen Malone (right) find it more important than ever to market to attendees?
    It’s really a matter of improving attendee behavior for the long term, explains Malone, vice president, meeting services, for the Chicago-based Healthcare Information Management Systems Society. Attendees might book within the block this year, but it takes serious work to teach them to do the same in a down economy. Plus, marketing only improves attendance and, therefore, the future negotiating power of your meeting.
    “When you’ve got a great pickup with very little wash, it not only helps your show that year, but it also helps your show for many future years,” Malone says. “It’s critical that you do all the marketing you can.”
   Following are some of the techniques Malone and other planners use to convince attendees to come to the meeting as well as to book within the block.

Marketing mastery
Convincing attendees to come to the meeting often requires a comprehensive marketing plan, such as the following.
    Hit members the right number of times. Whether by e-mail or snail mail, Bruce Harris, founder and president emeritus of Conferon, a seminal meeting planning company based in Twinsburg, Ohio, advises sending five types of messages:
    1) A save-the-date;
    2) A message that explains any new registration policies and incentives to book within the block;
    3) A notice when registration opens;
    4) A reminder every six weeks to two months, increased to once a month for the last four months, to anyone who hasn’t yet booked; and
    5) A last-minute call for registrations before the housing window closes.
    Any more would be overkill, and any less might result in missed opportunities, says Harris.
    Enlist help from the city. For the New York City-based Public Relations Society of America’s 2006 International Conference, Nov. 11-14 in Salt Lake City, much of the push has come from the very eager Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, which leverages Salt Lake’s status as an Olympic city when sending out promotional material to attendees.
    Look to the chapters. PRSA also uses its own local resources to solicit attendance. “Each chapter starts marketing immediately for the International Conference a year out,” says Catherine A. Bolton, the society’s executive director and COO. The year before the group’s 2001 event in Atlanta, for example, the local organization “gave everyone a can of Coke and some peanuts,” notes Bolton. “For the 2003 conference in New Orleans, everyone got beads.”
   Tap exhibitors. Karen Malone works in tandem with exhibitors to reach more attendees. “These big corporate guys have much greater resources than we do,” she says. Malone reaches out to the largest conference exhibitors and offers a deal: If they’ll share their mailing lists, the prestigious HIMSS will send out a logoed brochure invitation, including a note saying the exhibitor will be participating in the event. In doing so, Malone has found 15,000 new prospective attendees.
   Customize mailings. Malone sends the society’s brochures and invitations under different cover wraps, depending on who’s receiving them. Physicians will get one, nurses will get another and a hospital CIO might get a third. Each explains how that category of attendee will benefit from attending.
   Limit the paper. Malone also has worked in recent years to relieve attendees from the massive amounts of marketing collateral they receive, specifically from exhibitors. “I realized our attendees get 300 to 400 mailings within a week’s time before our conference,” she says. “It’s absurd and totally defeats the purpose.”
   Instead of providing the attendee mailing list to all 860 exhibitors, Malone now invites those companies to be part of a special HIMSS mailing, which attendees will be more likely to open and read. Each participating exhibitor is allotted a card in a pack of 30, which is customized depending on the type of attendee. Those exhibitors who opt not to participate have other opportunities to market their services, such as an ad in a “yellow pages” sent to attendees.
   “We get many compliments,” Malone observes. “It’s much more concerted.”
    Send a message from the top. Especially after a disaster such as 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, a moving letter from a higher-up might encourage attendance. Peggy Marilley, president of Alexandria, Va.-based Precision Meetings & Events, tells of an association client that held its centennial meeting in Washington, D.C., in October 2001. The association’s CEO wrote a heartfelt and personal letter to members entreating them to show support -- which they did. (For related stories, see “Attendee Marketing After Katrina.”)

Help from hotels
Hotels are only too happy to assist with marketing a meeting, but all too often, planners don’t ask for their help. “Keeping people in the block obviously helps the association, because they won’t run into attrition,” says Rob Scypinski, San Francisco-based regional vice president of sales for Hilton Hotels Corp. “It also helps the hotel, because even if we get a fraction of the room rate for attrition damages, we don’t get them eating in the hotel, watching a movie or using the high-speed Internet.”
    Adds Mike Mason, senior vice president of sales for Nashville-based Gaylord Hotels, “Who better to market a hotel than the hotel’s marketing team?” Upon request, the Gaylord sales team will execute a full plan, including customized e-mail blasts and postcards, to entice attendees to book. Mason suggests negotiating discounted or free marketing into the hotel contract, in the same way suite upgrades or meeting rooms would be addressed. “Concessions can come in many forms,” he says.
    Get the lowest rate. If attendees can find a cheaper rate for the convention hotel, they will book at that rate. Write into the contract that the hotel will not undercut your rate over your convention’s dates. Gaylord Hotels calls this “fencing,” as in fencing off a protected rate, and has been following this practice for the past three years.
    Negotiate for cash. In some markets, Hilton hotels have offered to pitch in a few thousand dollars for marketing. Ask for this if you’re meeting in a city with low occupancies, suggests Rob Scypinski. “If I’m running 90 percent in New York City, in some ways I don’t want them all to show up,” he says.
    Sign a multiyear contract. Scypinski explains that if a meeting is coming to a Hilton three years in a row, then the hotel chain will be eager not just to fulfill the block, but to grow it.
    Use the hotel’s tools. Gaylord Hotels is beta-testing an online trove of tools to help market a meeting, including e-mail templates, logos and photos. Planners with confirmed meetings have access to this site. Other hotel chains have some version of this; for example, Radisson Hotels and Resorts offers “Your Event By Radisson,” a way to create a customized web page for a meeting, as well as an e-mail blast to promote it.
    Get the blast right. Most hotels will offer some type of e-mail blast for group use. The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, for example, offers a customizable e-mail that includes the logo of the conference, space for text about the conference, plus buttons for reservations and for a hotel concierge who can help with booking restaurants and transportation. (Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which manages the Swan and Dolphin, provides a different e-mail blast for meeting planners.)
    Margot Napoli-Bryant, group reservations manager at the Swan and Dolphin, offers tips for the blast’s success:
    * Deploy it midweek, as Mondays and Fridays are often taken as vacation days.
    * Include as many links as possible to register and book a room, so no one has to look too hard to take action. The Swan and Dolphin’s template includes three links for registering on the page.
    * Allow the opportunity to book extra days at the hotel, and offer special rates for pre- and post-stays.
    * Don’t blast the same message more than twice -- once about two months out, and again a few weeks out.
    Request “cancel and replace.” When asked, hotels generally will allow a meeting planner or housing bureau to swap attendees who cancel with attendees who book at the last minute. HIMSS members, for example, are told to contact the association for last-minute bookings, even after the cutoff. This gives late bookers a room and increases overall pickup. Karen Malone cautions that hotels might not be used to these last-minute swaps and occasionally need to be reminded of the cancel-and-replace agreement.

Inventive incentives
Surveys have shown attendees are motivated most by saving money, notes Bruce Harris. Yes, a small portion would pay more to get their preferred hotel brand’s rewards points or to stay in a suite, but the best way to entice a majority of them to book within the block is to offer cost savings. A few ways of doing that:
    Raise registration, then discount it. Planners might not have control over hotel prices, but they do control registration fees. Send a note to attendees early on that says fees will go up by $100 (or $150), but attendees who book through the housing provider will be given the prior year’s rate. Attendees won’t think twice about booking through the housing provider, since in the current hotel economy, the convention rate is probably the best available, anyway. When the next recession comes and bargain hotel rooms open up, attendees will still book within the block to avoid the $100 surcharge. And because the system already will be in place, complaints should be minimal.
    “The very best time of all to teach people to stay inside the block is now, when it will mean the least to the attendee,” Harris explains. “The only people being penalized are those who stay outside the block.”
    Offer soft-dollar incentives. In addition to the registration discount, put together a package of enticing giveaways for those who book inside the block. For its 2004 meeting in San Francisco, the management of the American Society on Aging, based in San Francisco, feared attendees would book as they pleased, because of the number and diversity of local hotels. To convince them to stay at the host hotels, the ASA offered package of perks in lieu of a registration discount, including:
    * A discount on extra nights before and after the conference;
    * Four days of Internet access for the price of one;
    * Free admission to the health club;
    * A discount at the spa;
    * Double hotel rewards points;
    * A $10 credit per night toward transportation to and from the airport;
    * Free continuing education units (which typically cost $10 per session);
    * A free one-year subscription to an association publication; and
    * Free access to a special seminar.
    Thanks to this astounding list of perks -- and the allure of San Francisco -- the ASA’s booking pace was accelerated by almost 20 percent, and the block filled up with time to spare.
    When figuring how much perks will sway prospective attendees, understand that such benefits are not as compelling as the straightforward registration discount. Harris suggests offering three dollars worth of amenities to offset each dollar difference in price between the convention rate and the lowest available rate through other booking channels.
    Don’t bother with a raffle. Says Harris, “Your chances of winning it are, what, one in 3,000?”
    Do a needs assessment. Before deciding on giveaways -- and even before choosing the meeting location -- Rob Scypinski suggests trying to figure out what attendees want out of the meeting. Figure out what city they’d like to go to, what style and brand of hotel they prefer, which hotel amenities they use and what other benefits, such as free busing or a discount in the convention bookstore, they’d appreciate. If you’re meeting your attendees’ needs, it’s less likely that they’ll book outside the block.

Attending to attendees
If attendees know about attrition, if their needs are met and the price difference is not outlandish, they will book within the block. Here are ways to help attendees understand why this is important.
    Educate them. Beth Croll, manager, scientific sessions program for the Amer-ican Heart Association, based in Dallas, sends out an e-mail to attendees that explains attrition in ways they will appreciate. She explains that by staying within the room block, they will help save the association money and allow the AHA to spend more money on research grants and other initiatives.
    Use smart housing technology. If possible, link housing to the registration process; if not, then right after they’ve registered, send attendees a reminder to book housing.
    Push the convenience button. Dominick Albano, vice president of marketing for the ASA in San Francisco, drives home the intangible benefits of staying at the host hotel. Geographically, he says, attendees get to be part of the action all the time, so staying at the conference hotel saves time and brings more opportunity. “Our prices aren’t always better,” says Albano. “We have to sell the message of being in the center of it all.”
    Stir up some urgency. Even when the hotel is in no danger of being sold out, the ASA’s registration e-reminders say, “Register before the hotel sells out!”
    Allow advance booking. A few years ago, Karen Malone was frustrated that attendees were booking at rock-bottom rates before registration even opened. To combat this, she opened up registration earlier. Last year and this year, registration opened during the previous year’s meeting for the next year’s meeting. She was careful to explain that credit cards would not be charged until a week before the conference, regardless of when rooms were booked. During the conference, 700 attendees committed for the next year, out of about 10,000 total.
    Collect feedback. At one meeting, Beth Croll asked attendees to fill out a survey asking where they had stayed. Names were put into a drawing, and prizes were awarded. Malone requires attendees to fill out a slip that says where they stayed in order to receive their program materials. Then, while the registration staff has downtime, they enter that data. This greatly facilitates the audit process.
    And by the way, says Malone, “If someone’s not doing an audit, they’re losing out. We picked up 5,000 room nights over the past few years.” Anyone who is not found in the audit and who showed up but didn’t turn in a slip is sent a separate note asking them which hotel they were in.
    Educate exhibitors. “The biggest challenge is not the attendee; it’s the exhibitor,” says Harris. “They hold large blocks until the last minute and release them, and then you have attrition.”
    Both Harris and Malone have found success in delivering an ultimatum: If an exhibitor doesn’t book within the block, that company’s freight is denied at the convention center.
    Malone started the policy in 2002, when more than half the exhibitors were going around the block, and the association feared it might not have a large enough block to secure the necessary exhibit space.
    “It was a matter of educating our exhibitors,” she says. “Once we told them, I got so few complaints about this policy. I was really surprised.”
    “It’s like a seat-belt law,” says Harris. “After a year, you don’t think about it.”
    Keeping exhibitors honest not only strengthens the overall block, it also allows HIMSS to control the ratio of attendees to exhibitors in each hotel, to enhance networking after hours.
    If denying drayage is too harsh a step, Harris suggests refusing out-of-the block exhibitors entry into networking receptions. That should convince most to comply without inciting rebellion, he says.