Meeting News - December 21, 2009 - (Page 14)

D e c e m b e r 2 1 , 2 0 0 9 Vo l u m e 3 3 , N u m b e r 1 4 Corporate/Sales Nella Veldran, Vice President, Travel Group Phone: (646) 654-7325 Meetings Spotlight New Destinations, Earlier Marketing Boost Dairy Association’s Attendance The International Dairy Foods Association, in an effort to raise attendance for its 2010 events, this year decided to move some meetings to more geographically central venues and implement new marketing campaigns earlier than in the past, already generating higher pre-registration numbers for next year’s program schedule. The Washington, D.C.-based association, comprised of more than 200 dairy processing member companies and more than 300 member companies that provide processing equipment and supplies to the industry, also revamped its virtual meetings with upgraded technology that provided a more interactive experience. After attendance at some smaller meetings dropped by about 15 percent last year, senior director of meetings and educational services Diana Carmenates began marketing for January’s Dairy Forum 2010 in the early summer, well before the association’s traditional event marketing timeframe. The forum had 423 paid registrants as in early December. At the same point in 2008, the 2009 forum had 332 paid registrants. Ultimately, that event drew 800 attendees. Carmenates’ marketing campaign includes e-mail advertising blasts, e-newsletters and video content on the association’s Web site. Carmenates, who works with a registrar and coordinator, oversees about a dozen meetings annually from marketing through execution. Larger meeting attendance is in the hundreds, and smaller workshops and board meetings average from 30 to 75 attendees, she said. IDFA also employs a manager who oversees the association’s trade show, which had been collocated at the Worldwide Food Expo for the past several years but was hosted separately as the International Dairy Show at the Dallas Convention Center in September. IDFA also moved some of its events from cities including Dallas and Kansas City to the Chicago area to help drive attendance. Many of the association’s members are based in the Midwest. One such meeting is the Dairy Sustainability Symposium, where the association selected vendors, such as the InterContinental Hotel Chicago, based on requests for proposals that include questions on hotels’ environmental practices. Responses were analyzed by asso- Southeast/Mid-Atlantic/Ohio Larry Mischik, Ad Director/Account Manager 3054 Four Oaks Drive, Atlanta, GA 30360 Phone: (770) 604-9641 N.Y./N.J./New England/Bermuda/Caribbean Diane DiMaggio, International Advertising Director 770 Broadway, NY, NY 10003; Phone: (646) 654-7332 Florida/Cruise Arthur Hyman, Associate Publisher/Account Manager 1267 Via Fiume, Boynton Beach, FL 33436 Phone: (561) 736-5374 CA/HI/Colorado/Arizona/Nevada/N.M. Sharon Freeark, Account Manager 2950 31st St., Ste. 100, Santa Monica, CA 90405-3037 Phone: (626) 578-0700; Fax: (626) 578-0720 Digital Sales Jared Smith, National Account Manager 770 Broadway, NY, NY 10003; Phone: (646) 654-5520 International Diane DiMaggio, International Advertising Director 770 Broadway, NY, NY 10003; Phone: (646) 654-7332 Diane.Dimaggio@nielsen.com Canada Cyndy Fleming,Publicitas APR 468 Queen St. E, Toronto, ON M5A 1T7 Phone: (416) 363-1388 Cyndy.Fleming@Publicitas.com Western office: Rosalind Genge, Publicitas APR 1281 W. Georgia St., 502, Vancouver, BC V6E 3J7 Phone: (604) 688-5914; Fax: (604) 689-0703 Rosalind.Genge@Publicitas.com Mexico & Latin America Veronica Castro, CASS Media Corina No 31-B; Col. Del Carmen Coyoacan, Mexico, DF 04100 Phone: 52-55/5605-1757 veronicacastro@cassmedia.com IDFA’s Diana Carmenates meetings program. During her year-and-a-half tenure at IDFA, she upgraded the virtual meetings technology to a more interactive platform with enhanced visual elements through vendor CommPartners. Since the switch, Webinar attendance has grown. “We found that Webinars have been popular with the economy the way that it is, because a lot of people are limited in their travel,” she said. For live events, the association offers airline discounts ranging from 5 percent to 10 percent off published fares and books room blocks negotiated through IMN Solutions. Travel arrangements are offered to members and attendees through conference Web sites. With hotel and meeting venues still very receptive to planner negotiations, Carmenates already has booked space for large events and smaller board meetings through 2014. “It was definitely a buyer’s market,” she said, “and I wanted to take advantage of those rates.” —Seth Harris www.meetingnews.com Singapore Lavender Tan, Al Media 733 Bukit timah Road #03-05, Singapore 269748 Phone: (65) 6469-9321; Fax: (65)6469-8028 lavtan@signet.com.sg Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines Annie Blanchard & Assoc Unit 9A #8 Wack Wack Rd. Condo-minium, Wack Wack Rd., Greenhills E, Mandaluyong City 1550, Metro Manila, Philippines Phone: (632) 646-2497; Fax: (632) 647-1853 abaltd@skyinet.net Korea Jung-Won Suh, Sinsegi Media Inc. 4-13, Yoick-dong, Kandungpo-gu, Seoul, Korea 150-890 Phone: +82 2 3275 5969; Fax: +82 2 785 8225 sinsegi-2@sinsegimemdia.info Webinars have “been popular with the economy the way it is, as a lot of people are limited in their travel. —IDFA senior director of meetings Diana Carmenates Japan Hiroko Kujime, Pacific Business, Inc. Matsuda Building, 2-4-6 Nihonbashi Kayabacho Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-0025; Phone 81-3-3661-6138 Fax: 81-3-3661-6139; Kujime-pbi@gol.com Taiwan Ye Chang & Paula Liu, Epoch Ltd 3F-4, 189 eelung Road, Section 2, Taipei 11054, Taiwan Phone: +886-223-779108 epoch.paula@msa.hinet.net, epoch.ye@msa.hinet.net Spain Luis Andrade, Luis Andrade Publicidad Internacional Plaza Descubridor Diego de Ordas 1, Madrid, 28003, Spain Phone: +34-91-441-6266, Fax: +34-91-441-6549 LAndrade@luisandrade.com ” Portugal Paulo Andrade, Ilimitada Media International Av. Eng. Duarte Pacheco; Amoreiras Torre 2, Piso 5 Sala 1, Lisbon, 1070102, Portugal Phone: 351-21-385-3598/45; Fax: 351-21-388-3283, PAndrade@ilimitadapub.com ciation management company IMN Solutions, which handles some IDFA meeting contract negotiations and site selection. Carmenates also manages two Webinars per year as part of the 14 MeetingNews December 21, 2009 http://www.meetingnews.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meeting News - December 21, 2009

Meeting News - December 21, 2009
Contents
Newsmaker
Viewpoint
Meetings Spotlight
Association Watch
Construction Cites
Event Profile
Meeting People
Dateline: Mississippi
Dateline: Las Vegas
West Regional
Planner’s Choice Awards
Travel Dashboard

Meeting News - December 21, 2009