Case Study Synopsis -Emily Harper PDF

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Case Study Synopsis- “Putting It All Together” By: Emily Harper Conference and Event Management

MEEC events involve many steps and planning to achieve a successful production. Different elements are associated with meeting planning which were learned in preceding chapters. This process can be exemplified through a citywide annual conference for the American Small Animals Association (ASAA). This conference has 3,000 attendees and was planned over three years. It must be understood that the meeting planning cycle is continuous so this means that planners must multitask planning sever meetings simultaneously, each in different stages of development. THE ASSOCIATION One of the most important factors in meeting or event planning is to understand your audience, in this case the audience is the attendees of the event. By knowing this they can market and tailor the event to the future attendees. This is also important for the supplier of the convention as they can help to better serve them. The audience in this case study is the ASAA members. The ASAA is an 8,000 member not for profit association. Its members are veterinarians across the United States who specifically specializes in care for small animals as well as suppliers for the veterinary industry. An executive committee and a board of directors who oversee day-to-day operations run the ASAA. Sue Rodriguez is the director of meetings, which means she is responsible for the coordinating and planning of the 7 regional meetings as well as the annual conference. For the past five years the attendance has grown by 5% annually and roughly 37% of members have attended the meeting. This success has been because of the trade show portion that has received good response. Through understanding attendees and what they want out of the conference and event Sue and the ASAA are able to create the event tailored around them. GOALS Sue reviews the past annual conference in order to set out goals for this one. They are created by evaluations and feedback from both the attendees and the board of directors from past events. These goals are categorized into operational and education objectives to measure return on investment. These are tied in with the ASAA mission statement, which is to provide an educational forum for members to exchange ideas and develop ways to ensure the health of small animals. Keeping this in mind the operational objective for this conference is to grow the meeting profits by 5% from last year’s conference. The educational objective for is the attendance and enrollment of the SAPDC classes by 10% and to create more networking events for attendees. Sue overall plan to meet these objectives is to offer a four-day conference with focus on education and networking which will result in an increase of conference profits by 5%.

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BUDGET As in creating the goals, Sue refers back to the past annual history of their meetings. This means allocating all of her projected expenses to make sure she meets her income. The first expense is the hotel budget, which includes the meeting room rental, food and beverage, staff sleeping rooms as well as service charges and gratitude. Sue leaves room for negotiation opportunities to get a better rate. The second expense is the convention center expenses, which are the cost of space for meeting rooms, exhibit hall, electricity, garbage pickup, Internet and security. In order to make the event better for exhibitors sue plans to have majority of the educational events at the convention center so the attendees are near the trade show. The next expenses are the exposition service contractor (ESC) who will be responsible for setting up decorations and various other things at the trade show. This must be identified prior to the event. The next expense is the audiovisual company who may be needed for sound and light at both the hotel and convention center. These sound and light needs will need to be known for each venue so the AV Company can be prepared for the event. The general session of the event will be broadcasted to members who are unable to attend to entice them to attend the next event. Sue is also taking into account expenses such as transportation such as shuttle services and the transportation of staff, VIPS and freight shipping. The marketing expense is budgeting from prior budget history with taking into account a minimum of five marketing pieces. Other expenses such as the keynote speaker and entertainment, temporary staff who will be trained one day prior to the meeting, security due to the confidentially and controversy of the subject, insurance, special services that are needed for attendees with special needs, expenses covered by sponsors and unexpected expenses that cannot be accounted for from budget history. Sue estimates the expenses for this meeting to be $1,881,438. INCOME In order to meet the financial objective of increasing profit growth by 5%, Sue must cover all expenses and build a profit. To determine the profit sues must first allocate the income generated by the registration fees, which is the highest income. To do estimates the registration fees of 2,400 members, which are figured by taking the expected attendance and deducing the exhibitors whose registration is included in the exhibitor fee and the speakers who pay a decreased registration fee. This equals to $1,664,400 with keeping the registration structure of early member-$600, early non-member-$700, late member-$800, late non-member-$900 and $100 for students. The next largest source of income is from the exhibitor’s fees. The ASAA will spend $10 per square foot, which includes the cost of the convention space, ESC and audiovisual equipment. With this in mind the ASAA will charge $3,000 dollars for exhibitors for a ten-by-ten foot space. Given this information Sue projected 500 exhibitors equaling to $1,500,000 of income from exhibitors. Other income that Sue is taking into account is the income from hotel rebates, Transportation Company and the ESC.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL After objectives and budget are determined Sue then creates a request for proposal which includes meeting specifications, annual conference date, list of cities under consideration,

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detailed grid of meeting rooms, special requests, food and beverage summaries, number of attendees, a detailed history grid and an expected increase of attendees. The last part of the RFP is a questionnaire for the hotel to complete which goes over various policies, services and facilities that the hotel has, especially those to do with meetings. The RFP is then sent to the DMO who distribute them to hotels in their area. The DMO also does a questionnaire so ASAA can gain information of their services; various taxes, holidays, union contracts and other events that may be taking place during the same times as the ASAA citywide event.

FIRST SITE INSPECTION Dave Rogers and Elizabeth Rice who are both board members will join Sue in visiting the two chosen cities to do an initial site inspection. These two cities are Chicago and Dallas. Sue planned to spend 3 days in each city to conduct a comprehensive site inspection where they will look for hotels, off-site venues and gold courses. Sue and her team stay at the hotels that are options for host hotels. They first go to Chicago where they meet with Mark Tester, the vice president of sales of the Chicago CVB. He gives them a detailed tour of downtown with passing by all hotels under consideration. They then go on to meet Kesha Evans who works at a destination management company for Chicago and she her various services that she could provide to help them in the planning of the citywide event. They toured off-site venues such as the Chicago Museum of Art, which has a food and beverage outlet as well as private function areas. Next is touring the Hyatt Regency McCormick, which is being considered for a host hotel. Due to the fact that it is being considered for a host hotel, Sue and her team observed things such as check-in efficiency, how guests are treated, the quality of food, the time food is served and how attentive the wait staff are. The next day the team members meet with the senior sales manager of McCormick Place Convention Center, Randy Moses. They are given a tour of the facility, best location for their events, loading docks, shuttle bus drop-off and pick up zones, etc. Mark and Randy make clear that they CVB and convention center work together to help market their city to attendees. They spend the rest of the day looking at off0sure locations as quickly touring potential non-host hotels. They then move to the second hotel, Hyatt Regency Chicago, as it is also being considered as a host hotel. They are given a tour of all facilities, meeting rooms, restaurants, etc. The third day is spent observing and monitoring efficiency of employees at the Hyatt and touring the last off-site venue being Harborside International Golf Centre. Sue, Elizabeth and Dave let Mark know he will be informed of their decision in roughly 2 months before they depart from Chicago. In the following month, Sue, Dave and Elizabeth visit Dallas for a three-day site inspection. Patty Towell who is the sales manager of the Dallas CVB coordinated for the group to meet with staff from the convention centre, host & non-host hotels and the offsite potential venues. Once both site inspections are achieved, the inspection team must go over and review their notes in order to make a decision. They establish that they meeting should meeting on March 17 with keeping other industry meetings in mind. During evaluation of both locations, the team discovered concerns about Chicago. These included room availability, renewal dates for union contracts, and that to hold the event in

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Chicago costs 25% more than in Dallas. They came to the decision that Dallas is the proper choice for this annual conference. Sue follows up with both locations and lets Mark know their reasoning behind not choosing Chicago and then send a letter of intent to Patty Towell at the Dallas CVB to help arrange a second and final site inspection.

SECOND SITE INSPECTION Only Sue and Dave attend this site inspection. Their goal is to finalize non-host properties, select off-site venues, select DMC & Transportation Company, and begin contract negotiations. They Hyatt Regency Downtown is selected to be the headquarters hotel for the meeting. Shortly after checking into the headquarters hotel, Sue and Dave meet with Nancy Simonieg, the senior sales manager and Rizwan Naqvi the convention services manager (CSM). This is when the contract is signed and negotiations happen. For the remainder of the meeting planning process Sue will work with the CSM.

MARKETING COMMITTEE ASAA has both an internal and external marketing department. They work with each other to create marketing pieces and plans for the annual conference. George Day is the ASAA director of marketing and Julie Love is the account manager for Idea Maker Inc., which is the advertising company ASAA works with. Sue meets with both after the second site inspection where they go over the convention location, meeting location and how they need to focus on promoting the new SAPDC for his specific conference. Shortly after this first meeting, they all meet again and decide on the theme of “Power of Prevention”. They center their visual on this theme. Four marketing tools are decided on. These include a four-colored postcard-size mailer, which will be used as an advertisement, a magazine style brochure full of the event information sent to association members, a web page where exhibitors and attendees can register as well as make hotel reservations and the last approach is a e-newsletter filled with convention information with specific promotion on the SAPDC portion. Concern from Dave were made aware about attendees being confused at what classes to take as they will not know the level of instruction. George makes aware that each session is categorized into colour coordination to give attendees easy identification of each education level.

CREATION OF THE PROGRAM Sue meets with the program committee upon her arrival from the Dallas site inspection. Sue and a group of 5 will now work on creating content for the conference. As with many other elements of the planning process, Sue refers to past convention notes when planning “The Power of Prevention” conference. The committee decides on following the same meeting agenda in the past, which entails :opening reception, general session, awards dinner and poster session. Other events include a golf tournament, ASAA VIP dinner and several education sessions including two 4-hour SAPDC classes. The paper committee is responsible for issuing the call for papers, grade and evaluate papers which will happen 1 year prior to the event and the inform the program committee of final decision for presentations which will happen 6 months before the event. The committee

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will contact speakers and follow up with them to ensure commitment. An integral part of the conference is the exhibitors. Jill Kochan is the ASAA trade show manager for the conference and is responsible for communication both the exhibitors and the ESC. Jill most makes sure the ESC knows about the exhibitors needs. PARTNERSHIPS Sue and the ASAA conference must rely on many companies to partner with them and provide services to the ASAA members. She looks at past contacts and companies that she will partner with for this conference. Sue plans on partnering with the local DMC as they arrange the airport transfers, VIP transportation, and shuttle service from hotels to the convention center and VIP dinners. This gives sue time to focus on other elements of the planning process. Sue also partners with a speakers bureau for key speakers and entertainments as they make recommendations and arrangements once decision is made. Sue also partners with a housing bureau once she has selected the hotels so from there they can create web link for attendees, send confirmation letter, room block management and various housing reports. Sponsors are integral for the success of the ASAA’s objective. They can benefit each other by giving exposure to members in exchange for financial or other support. The two crucial partners for the ASAA conference are the ESC and the AV Company. The conference could not be produced with either of these services. The Freeman Company was selected for this conference as they offer both and ESC and AV supplier services. CONTRACTS Contracts must be made with each partner and service provider. This contract includes the exact services, penalties and expectations. Sue ensures she reviews each contract carefully as she has been burned in the past. ONE-YEAR TO SIX-MONTH COUNTDOWN At the eighteen-month timeline Sue must take out meeting resume and review all contracts. At this point the marketing piece is approved and printed. Doug and Dan are met with from the program committee to select the speakers for the convention, once done Sue mails out acceptance letter, which states that the speaker must confirm his or her commitment and other details. Sue secures sponsors, which are Small Vets Pluss, Houver Pharmaceutical, LabSmlab, Mix-a-vet, and Smalco. These sponsors are covering things such as tote bags to the VIP entertainment and the awards dinner. The trade show floor plan is created and then approved for the Dallas meeting and the ESC updates the floor plan to suit exhibitors. The ESC also works with sue to finalize the setup for the opening reception, general session and awards dinner. The ESC helps Sue is choosing the best locations for things such as sponsor banners as most convention centers have strict rules on banner and other signage placement.

SIX MONTHS TO DAY OF MEETING The six-month countdown begins for the Power of Prevention conference. Many tasks need to be done. The first is the marketing committee sending press releases so they will be timed correctly with the convention ads. Sue starts attaining early registration forms

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and discovers three attendees have mobility disabilities and will therefore need special accommodations. Knowing this in advance sue will able to work under the Americans with Disabilities Act to make sure handicapped rooms and other accommodations are made in time for the event. Sue contacts both the food and beverage outlets used to attain menus and select the meals and the host hotel & convention center to attain the names of each meeting room so they can be added to the convention program. Sue works with the DMC to finalize the VIP dinner menu, floral arrangements. shuttles and signage for transportation. Lastly Sue finalizes the off-site venue being the golf course. MONTH FIVE Five months before the meeting, Sue communicates with speakers, attendees and exhibitors. This includes sending out reminders, marketing brochures and email announcement. She then creates a detailed work schedule for all permanent staff, temporary staff and volunteers. MONTH FOUR AND THREE Sue actively monitors registration on a weekly basis during the fourth ad third months prior to the meeting. This way she can adjust room blocks. Given the statistic that 60% of people register early and 600 rooms have been reserved that means that the remaining properties would have 300 each. Sue closes off reservations for the Fairmount as the room block has been filled and adjusts the room block by 40% for the holiday Inn, as it was less than 200 rooms than what it should have been. She also increases the Hyatt Regency Room black as the host property is 100 rooms over. Other changes include the move of meeting room locations and speakers canceling. This information must be revised and backup will be needed. MONTH TWO Sue visits Dallas again two months prior to event. She meets again with Patty, CSM of the Dallas CVB, who arranges meeting with all the key contacts. This includes meeting with the Hyatt CSM, Rizwan, who governs over several things such as the accounts receivable contract, pre-key checking and check-out process, the director of security and medical staff which will be on site in case of emergencies and the review of the menu from the food and beverage outlet. Sue then meets with Erika who works at the Dallas Convention Center where they do a walk-through with the ESC and AV Company to prevent any potential problems. Her last meeting is with the DMC representative to go over hotel transportation routes, finalization of menus, decorations and entertainment. Sue returns home and makes adjustments to program. MONTH ONE During the month lead up Sue monitored registration weekly. She reviews and finalizes things such as press releases, work schedules, marketing, scripts and rehearsal times. She makes sure she has back up plans so she is prepared for any potential problems. She is also aware she must be ready for anything to happen and to happen at the same time.

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PREMEETING ACTIVITES Sue and her team arrive three days prior to the meeting in Dallas where all her convention material has arrived safely. Sue meets again with all her contacts and does a walk through to monitor and make sure everything is going smoothly. Sue is around so when the production and set up of this event is happening she can be there to make changes where needed. Meeting planners need to become constant problem solvers in this part of the process. Sue and George review to make sure they will get good publicity from the press conference and press attendees. MEETING DAY ACTIVITIES The day is here and the meeting begins, Sue and all of the ASAA staff are working hard to make sure everything is set-up properly. In this part of the process the meeting planner must work behind the scenes to ensure everything goes to plan. The day is filled with problem solving by working with the ESC and AV Company. Sue checks in with all her contacts to make sure no other problems have risen. While at the current ASAA annual conference the trade shows manager, Jill is accepting exhibitor bookings for next year’s conference therefore ensuring future success for ASAA. AFTER THE MEETING Sue and her team review all the success in of the Power of Preve...