Meeting News - July 27, 2009 - Cover1

NEWSMAKER Rosewood COO’s view p.4 ASSOCIATION WATCH IACC sustainability code p.14 EVENT PROFILE Tweets tweak marketing p.15 MEETINGS SPOTLIGHT Million Dollar Round Table’s Ray Kopcinski makes an international meeting an annual event. See page 6. MeetingNews w w w. M e e t i n g N e w s . c o m July 27, 2009 MPI Notebook: Foundation Gains Member Support By Seth Harris Salt Lake City - Coming off a year in which the MPI Foundation raised $1.7 million, which funded $1.1 million in member programs, education, research, scholarships and $175,000 in 48 chapter grants, the foundation is working to persuade its individual members to donate as supplier funds are becoming harder to come by. However, MPI Foundation global board of trustees chairwoman and Deloitte director Margaret Moynihan said she does not expect grant levels or overall Cancellations Remain Relatively High Planners To Keep Spending Down By Michael B. Baker Deloitte’s Margaret Moynihan funding to decline. The foundation has reorganized its board to reach out to international members and continued on page 46 meeting spending by more than 20 percent. orporate and association “We’ve downsized, renegotiated meeting expenditure cuts and changed the model to make it may have reached their more regional to get to our cusbottom, but they will not be tomers,” said Patricia Carlin, reversed anytime soon, purchasing manager for according to MeetingNews global card and travel for MN Research research and several indusDublin, Calif.-based Sybase. try experts. “Our meeting department A June MeetingNews survey has seen decreases of 10 perof 250 corporate, association and cent. Where we go as exhibitors, we independent meeting planners see declines of at least 40 percent. showed that 60 percent had further The customers aren’t coming.” cut meetings spending in the previCancellations also have run high. continued on page 17 ous six months. Almost half cut C Web Sites Vie To Be TripAdvisor Of Meetings By Jay Boehmer When Review Events launched at the end of last month, the Web site that enables meeting and event planners to rate, rank and review industry suppliers joined a growing segment of sites that seek to replicate the success of TripAdvisor for the meetings industry. In the past few years, such social review sites as I-Meet, MeetingUniverse and Meetings Intelligence Exchange have enabled meeting planners to rate and rank hotels, and in some cases other suppliers, and they all aim to offer continued on page 10 Corporate Meetings Quicker To Cancel In Past Six Months Cancelled a contracted meeting or event 43% 20% 21% 14% Corporate Association MeetingNews Vantage Point Moved a scheduled meeting to a lower-tier venue Kimpton CEO Sees Opportunity Volume 33/Number 10/$10.00 51% Neither Source: A June MeetingNews survey of 250 meeting planners 74% Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants president and CEO Michael Depatie recently spoke with MeetingNews associate editor Michael B. Baker about the boutique chain’s role in the meetings industry and growth plans. MeetingNews: How key are meetings to Kimpton? Michael Depatie: About 40 percent of our business is group, so it’s certainly significant for us. MN: What effect has the economy had on your group business? continued on page 45

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meeting News - July 27, 2009

Meeting News - July 27, 2009
Contents
Newsmaker
Meetings Spotlight
Meeting Post
Viewpoint
Association Watch
Event Profile
Meeting People
MeetingNews Research
Travel Dashboard
Mid-America Regional
Golf Meetings
Hawaii

Meeting News - July 27, 2009