Social technologies and budget-friendly planning were among hot topics at the 10th annual Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International's (HSMAI) Affordable Meetings Mid-America Exhibition and Conference at Chicago's Navy Pier April 14-15, 2010.
"The floor was buzzing with talk of new technologies and services that help make planning meetings much more cost-effective and time-efficient," said Fran Brasseux, executive vice president of HSMAI.
"While the economy is starting to slowly recover, meeting planners have changed their priorities for the long-term. It's still important to keep quality while lowering cost, but now planners focus more on engaging their attendees in dialogue to help effectively tailor each event and deliver a strong ROI."
Exhibitors and meeting planners gather at HSMAI's 10th annual Affordable Meetings Mid-America to learn about best practices, trends and services in the meetings industry.
The nearly 1,200 meetings professionals attending and exhibiting at Affordable Meetings Mid-America represented nearly every field in the industry.
Planners from the corporate, association and independent sectors visited exhibitors representing hotels, resorts, CVBs, convention centers, conference centers, transportation companies, trade publications, DMC companies, unique meeting sites, software providers, entertainment companies, event rental companies, audio visual companies and other suppliers who service the industry.
Exhibitors said during the show that they were seeing a very high quality and quantity of planners. "We're having a great show. We have definitely noticed that traffic is very strong at the show this year," said Chuck Salem of Unique Venues.
"Probably the most noticeable thing is the quality of the planners coming to visit us -- you can tell it's a much more qualified group, so there's some very serious business in our section."
"Affordable Meetings has been a great opportunity to further promote and market Kimpton Hotels," said Giovanna Slaughter of Kimpton Hotels. "We had a lot of traffic yesterday, we had at least 98 planners come by and swipe their cards for us, which is a great thing."
In order to deliver the highest possible ROI for exhibitors and attendees, HSMAI's Affordable Meetings(r) Mid-America was also the site of successful pre-arranged appointments between planners and exhibitors.
HSMAI conducted a trial of this new service which matched qualified buyers with exhibiting sponsor organizations, including Mexico Tourism Board, Let's Meet Mexico City, Disney Destinations, and Freeman Decorating. The program will be expanded at the upcoming HSMAI's Affordable Meetings(r) West and National events.
A broad range of timely topics for planners were covered in the 19 educational sessions, including "The Top Meetings Technology Trends for 2010 - Making the Right Technology Choices" and "Social Media & Events - Get Beyond the Hype," which were part of the Event Technology track. And new to the conference program this year were sessions on medical meetings, plus tracks on Intermediate and Advanced planning topics.
Also, nearly 70 attendees took part in the first CMP and Senior Leaders Breakfast program at Affordable Meetings. Linda Byars Swindling, JD, CSP, Owner & CEO, Journey On Speaking and Training, presented Walk, Talk and Negotiate Like a CEO.
She advised meeting planners to "approach chief decision makers with bottom-line language in all negotiations to actually have them hear you." The CMP and Senior Leaders Breakfast was sponsored by Let's Meet Mexico City, Mexico Tourism Board, and Smith & Wollensky, and was held in conjunction with the Convention Industry Council.
In addition, Vicky A. Betzig, CMP, led the first Meeting Planner Boot Camp on the day before the show. Nearly 100 meeting and event professionals turned out for the inaugural workshop which provided an in-depth review of how to master the various aspects of meeting planning and management.
Related Article:
