Meeting News - April 12, 2010 - (Page 10)

Newsmaker Q&A By Seth Harris As Freeman Expands Reach, Execs Gauge Mtgs. Rebound FREEMAN CHIEF SALES OFFICER BOB MOORE AND SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES FOR CORPORATE EVENTS DAVID GAUTHREAUX in February spoke with MeetingNews associate editor Seth Harris about the event logistics and production company’s efforts to gain a stronger foothold in corporate meetings, expand its geographic footprint and work with planners who are bringing a more business-oriented mindset to their meeting buying. MeetingNews: How would you describe Freeman’s evolution regarding corporate events? Bob Moore: We went through a strategic planning effort in 2002-03, and what came from that was that we needed to expand and be more deliberate and strategic in how we work with corporations. We formed this group for corporate account sales, which works specifically with corporations for events, trade shows and exhibits. From the strategic planning piece and creative side, about three years ago we bought an agency to help us be more deliberate in that space. We provide service all the way through the logistics, which include the design, building and storage space of the exhibits, a major branch network across the United States and Canada, a very large audiovisual company, a major transportation company and other ingredients that form the package that allows us to work so that when customers buy from us, they work directly with us. We don’t use many third-party services, which means we don’t have very many third-party markups. We have a lot of value built into our sales proposition. MN: Last year, Freeman began a partnership with Maritz that offered greater reach into the corporate space.How has that strategy developed? Moore: We have an extremely strong franchise on the association side and Maritz has as strong a franchise on the corporate side. The ability to connect with each other’s opportunities are quite strong.We have deployed some very strong people against that alliance. They have done the same 10 MeetingNews April 12, 2010 “The same technology that will move us to a faster recovery than what we had 10 years ago is the same technology that helped drive it down. Moore: Whether it’s Shanghai, New York, Cologne or Buenos Aires, big companies particularly are realizing that in this whole space of face-to-face meetings and travel you can develop standards around that that can take place without giving up any quality. This takes time, because the last thing that particularly U.S.companies want to do is to impose U.S.-based rules on global offices. That is clearly something that is going to happen in a major way.We are trying to get ready for it so that if a company says it wants one set of standards for the United States, Europe and Asia, we can help them do that. We’re general contractors for a few thousand trade shows in North America,so there is tremendous inbound opportunity. The systems of doing shows are different in Europe,Asia and the United States. Just providing intelligence on how to do this removes a lot of frustration. That will ultimately lead to expansion of certain foreign companies that want to come to the United States. MN: How do you view strategic meetings management-driven consolidation of meetings programs? Moore: We’re blessed with scale and the capacity to deliver enormous value. I’ve been in businesses where this dreaded word,“procurement,” continued on page 32 www.meetingnews.com thing, and we are off to a great start. Bob Moore With them, we are bidding on business that uses the strengths of our two companies. When you put two and two together, you end up with five. It’s going to give us another competitive advantage, particularly with how it relates to the corporate side of the business. The alliance provides that we share information and on occasion join forces. MN: How are you expanding to other segments of the industry? Moore: We have a similar type of alliance globally with a company called Uniplan. Our interest is to travel with those profit and not-for-profit companies and associations that we do business with outside of the shores of North America.That is about a year-and-a-half old. It is off to a great start. Uniplan has been in business since the ’60s in Germany and for 25 years in Asia. It has large operations in Germany, Europe, Asia and China, and that is exactly where we see the opportunity to expand. They started their business in Europe as a general contractor. Now they’ve moved into more of an agency operation there.They have outstanding speakers, amazing designers and have done some really creative things for some major corporations in Europe and China,as well as Asia. MN: Are you seeing an appetite from your multinational clients to have standards for their meetings programs around the world? ” http://www.meetingnews.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meeting News - April 12, 2010

Meeting News - April 12, 2010
Contents
Meeting Post
Newsmaker
Meetings Spotlight
Viewpoint
MeetingNews Research
Event Profile
Association Watch
Meeting People
Construction Cites
Theme Parks
MeetingNews Roundtable
Conv. Center Showcase

Meeting News - April 12, 2010