Top 2012 Performance Trends for Incentive Travel

Reposted from Meetings & Incentive Travel - click here for link


Peering into the looking glass for incentive travel trends, one key area stands out amongst the rest as a clear and distinct focal point – incentive travel design. The industry has greatly capitalized on driving operational cost efficiencies and achieving flawless execution. But, it’s of even greater importance that we ensure our strategies are leading us down the best paths of participant engagement if we’re going to achieve today’s more aggressive business objectives. This requires a more people-centered set of design practices that provide for approaches that are more connected to and aligned with participant stakeholders. Here are five elements to consider as you begin incentive travel design discussions for future programs:

1. Participant-Driven Design
Participants having a stronger hand in helping co-create incentive travel design will continue to rise. While we’ve tended to ask participants in the past what they thought about program experiences, we’re realizing more and more that we also need to ask them what they think as well - beforehand. It’s this forward looking view that helps organizations unlock the greater potential value that exists for better motivating incentive travel participants. This practice will be the linking pin for those organizations that are looking to move performance outcomes from good to better.

2. Beyond Generational Diversity
Today’s participants are more diverse than ever. This is commonly thought of as “generational differences”, but incentive travel design decisions have to go beyond this as a sole consideration point. For instance, experiential, educational and cultural diversity are other considerations that simple generational segmentations don’t consider. These and other forms of diversity are influencing how we think and act at both the organizational and participant level. The growing engagement of incentive travel participant stakeholders in conversations during the design stage will help lead to improved decisions, stronger motivational appeal, and better business outcomes.

3. Maintaining Motivational Engagement
There have been a number of consolidations – organizationally and incentive travel specific - the past few years, plus a shift to more open-ended incentive program structures. These are a few examples that are resulting in more participation and more earners on programs. So, what about the ability to effectively network, interact between peers, management, leadership, etc.? That doesn’t have to diminish, and organizations are looking for what their best options are from the participants’ viewpoint. These are resulting in program waves, where two or more groups follow one another at a destination to maintain cost and operational efficiencies but also retain high levels of engagement with more manageable attendee levels. In addition, organizations are also creating tiered performance thresholds; of which, keep earners engaged even after they achieve minimum program goals so that they have the opportunity to further plus-up their reward and recognition experience even further.

4. Family Friendly Incentive Travel
About 70 percent of American children live in households where both parents are in the workforce. Now, add to that that the average American only has 13 days off per year. Sure, we now have more mobility thanks to technology, but nearly half of American workers are now bringing work home with them regularly. Incentive travel family participants are struggling to create some degree of work/life balance. Program design considerations with family friendly guest policy features will create a significant shift for incentive travel strategies over the next few years. As such, organizations need to avoid making broad assumptions and gain a clearer perspective on how they can be not only more accommodating, but friendlier to participants with a family. What’s the potential for distraction from agendas? Would participants’ without children mind? Do we help pay for, subsidize or create buy-in rate options? These and other questions need to be identified and answered to secure the longer-term relevancy of your program’s design.

5. Redesigning Qualification Structures
So, the waters of open-ended versus closed-ended qualification structures will be tested once again, but there’s more to it. Here’s the thing, this approach to rewarding and recognizing performance comes with higher performance standards for achievement. A limiting factor is that closed-ended incentive travel qualification structures are often meaningful to only a discrete number within the participant base – top performing “A-players”. Breakthrough performance will require new thinking about how to engage the broader participant audience. This will bring in deeper discussions on qualification structures (open vs. closed) as well as the potential returns for added, more targeted incentive travel program tiers – think of these as programs based upon what levels of performance participants achieve. These added programs might involve different features, or be totally separate designs to provide a stairway of motivated performance.

Understanding what’s important from the participants’ viewpoint has to do more with what views are shared between the organization and their program participants – past, present and future. This doesn’t occur in a vacuum, it has to involve active and on-going efforts to clearly understand and gain insights on participants’ needs, wants and preferences. Every organization is unique, so too are their incentive travel participants. Running a one-size-fits-all design approach can be a gamble and operational hazard in the short, mid and long-term.

Three Simple Steps to Create Better Meeting Experiences

Reposted from Elite Meetings Blog - click here for link

Designing for a more engaging experience for your meetings can significantly improve performance from both a business and attendee vantage point. Yet, this is more difficult to do in today’s world due to a host of challenges, including budgeting constraints and increased risks for attendee distractions. From the moment an attendee walks into a general or breakout session, the need to immediately capture attention is just as important as maintaining engagement during the entire experience. So, how can a meeting planner create better engaging meeting, event or incentive experiences? Here are three areas to consider:

1.)  Deliver the Right Content
Ever run into a situation where you have a content-rich agenda but aren’t quite sure how to deliver it effectively? This happens a lot. While the core objective of your program involves communicating and connecting key messages with your audience, the challenge is to ensure you do so using the best possible approach. To be more effective, consider the audience.  For instance, a lack of engagement during a meeting can occur in situations when content is not delivered effectively or simply doesn’t strike audience interests. Testing and gaining audience member insights during the design stage of your program can prove highly valuable in creating and delivering on your key objectives in more meaningful ways for attendees.

For organizations that are on strict budgets, gaining audience insight and feedback is even more important. Lisa Marie Collins, a producer with Freeman – a Maritz Travel partner, also suggests that, “When designing your program, consider going beyond just surveying the audience to find out what topics they’re interested in. This is also an opportunity to engage attendees leading up to the event. Asking attendees to submit questions in advance, for instance, can help create buzz and excitement earlier and assist in better connecting with speakers on content and delivery.”

2.)  Set the Stage
Maritz Travel recently co-produced an event with its partner, Destinations by Design. Tami Hance, vice president for Destinations by Design, really helped create impact the instant an attendee entered the room. According to Tami, everything counts when you’re setting the stage for a truly engaging meeting. And, creating a conversational atmosphere can help spark strong, sustainable engagement from beginning to end. This requires a need for instantly capturing and retaining the audience members’ attention throughout the experience. The use of lighting, colors, and alternative seating arrangements such as lounge settings, table inlays, stage footprints that are just slightly higher than seating levels and go into the audience are examples planners can leverage to better connect with and engage attendees. It’s through these types of efforts that you’re able to instantly capture the audience members by surprise and captivate their attention throughout the experience. Attendees, in turn, experience an at-home atmosphere while being better immersed and connected to your meeting through a much more memorable engagement.

Is this something that is possible from large, general sessions to smaller breakout sessions? Of course it is. As Tami puts it, “It’s all about creating continuity through the theming and presentation of each room. There’s also the opportunity to divide larger general sessions into diverse seating options. You don’t have to be uniform throughout the room. The front, mid and back portions of the room can have diverse options, leave it up to the audience to determine where they want to participate from and engage you.”

As you can see, there are a number of options available when setting the stage, it just requires thinking differently about what you can do that best positions your program for achieving and exceeding expectations – even if it’s a breakaway from past traditional practices.

3.)  Incorporate Distractions
Audience multi-tasking during presentations can be a performance killer. While it’s a situation that’s always presented itself, it’s been amplified these past few years mainly by increased mobile device capabilities. Email, texting, social media and various apps provide audience members temptation, convenience and discretion. Attempting to limit distractions by asking attendees to “Please silence all cell phones!” really doesn’t work. So, why not embrace it instead? Consider ways by which you can incorporate mobile to further create engagement. Polling the audience, texting questions and creating a social following before, during and after presentations can create richer experiences that help further inform, excite and engage audience members.

If performance expectations must continue being met, if not exceeded, meeting professionals need to think more about the experience they’re creating for the audience. Whether a meeting or event attendee, or an incentive travel participant, creating a more aligned, engaging and interactive experience can greatly benefit from these approaches. If you’re looking for even better impact, consider integrating all three into your next program for outcomes that are more meaningful and memorable for your business and your audience.

Incentive Travel Council Honors GROWMARK's Dana Weaver as Advocate of the Year

October 10, 2011 – Naperville, IL – The Incentive Travel Council (ITC) has named Dana Weaver, marketing services manager of GROWMARK, as its 2011 Advocate of the Year. GROWMARK is a regional agricultural cooperative based in Bloomington, Ill.

This marks the third Advocate of the Year Award presented by the ITC, which is a strategic industry group under the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA). It recognizes an individual, business, or organization that demonstrates outstanding leadership in enhancing, educating, and/or promoting incentive travel as a value driver for achieving organizational performance.

At the ITC awards ceremony, held Tues., Oct. 4, 2011 in conjunction with the Motivation Show, Jim Ruszala of Maritz Travel, who nominated Weaver, said, “Dana has become a significant asset to the Incentive Travel Council and the industry as a whole. From various speaking engagements, and panel discussions, to the sharing of best practices and further perspectives, Dana has been a true leader in helping our industry understand and further tap into the fuller potential value of incentive travel.”

ITC President Carol Wain said, “Our industry is indeed fortunate to have individuals like Dana Weaver, who, as an incentive travel adopter and buyer, has made a significant impact in clearly articulating the value that incentive travel provides both to the companies and the travelers alike.”

“I am honored to be recognized by the ITC,” Weaver said. “At our company, it’s a privilege to recognize our top achievers with rewards that are meaningful, motivational and memorable. I truly believe travel incentive programs provide the most trophy value for our participants.”

Weaver joins both Dahlton Bennington of the SFN Group and G.J. Hart of the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain (who is now with California Pizza Kitchen), as Advocate of the Year winners. “Together, these individuals have and continue to help shed stronger light onto the significance of incentive travel, both at the organizational and participant level,” Wain said.

Why Your Participants Should Design Your Next Incentive Travel Program

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True or False? Asking participants to help design an incentive travel program will only drive up costs and make it more difficult to appease all their wishes.

Answer: False. Instinct, past experience, managerial judgment, beliefs and budgets are simply not enough to effectively drive participant engagement and business performance. Planners need the participants’ insights.

Times, and probably the people involved in your incentive travel program, have significantly changed. Incentive travel strategies aimed to effectively motivate the behavior of program participants must change as well. Generational, ethnic, family structure, and the plethora of social and economic forces impacting your participant base is having a profound effect on what people want from your incentive travel program.

Considering this, incentive travel participants need to be viewed as and treated more like a stakeholder. In our opinion, they are the key stakeholder. Why? Your success hinges on whether these individuals commit to achieving your goals and targets. Given the importance of personal commitment, it just makes sense for your employees and channel partners to have a voice regarding program design. At the end of the day, these individuals will weigh the experience against the required level of investment of both their and their families’ time and effort.

Authors James Gilmore and Joseph Pine first coined the words “Experience Economy” in a 1998 Harvard Business Review article Welcome to the Experience Economy. Paraphrasing a bit for the purposes of our industry, people seek unique and personally meaningful experiences. Travel programs represent some of the best opportunities to create these very meaningful and highly motivating experiences. Getting the most from your incentive program requires a more complete understanding of the motivations of these individuals. This understanding translates into better program design and a better experience.

Organizations that view incentive travel programs as part of a broader strategy of creating “places of engagement” for their people can achieve great results. It all starts with placing a seat at the stakeholder table for the participant to help better inform incentive travel design decisions. After all, it’s the people who create the business results. It makes practical business sense to include them in the conversation.

What do Incentive Travel Participants Think about their Program?

The Site International Foundation and the Incentive Travel Council (ITC) commissioned Dr. Scott Jeffries and Monmouth University to conduct a joint study focused on The Incentive Travel Participant Viewpoint.

With the study currently underway, insights and findings will be shared over a period of time beginning with initial outcomes in mid-October release, providing dialogue for 2011 IMEX America and the Site International Conference events in Las Vegas. The full published report will be released at the end of the year and will be distributed globally via both organizations.

"Collaborations like this one are important and benefit a diverse group of industry professionals, said Steve O’Malley, SITE International Foundation president. “When we leverage the power of shared resources we can deliver some amazing data. We are positive The Incentive Travel Participant Viewpoint study will deliver insight into participant behaviors and key motivators that each of us can consider as we design and deliver extraordinary motivational programs in the future."

Jim Ruszala, past president of the ITC commented, "The incentive industry has made strong strides over the past few years in better providing transparency into the business values achieved through incentive programs. However, the industry is still starving for specific incentive travel based insights on ways to improve that business value by creating more meaningful, motivational and memorable experiences for its incentive travel participants.  Organizations are increasingly facing new as well as unique business challenges every day. To overcome these challenges and help achieve business performance objectives, we need to approach incentive travel design differently with an added attention towards how we can better engage and improve participant experiences.”

Why Independent Dealer Networks Should Consider Incentive Travel

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True or False?  Incentive Travel Improves Channel Performance

Answer: True. Incentive travel helps organizations achieve targeted business performance goals, but they also represent a sound approach towards establishing and building strong relationships in your independent distributor channel.

Recently, one of our clients asked us to help provide further performance insights into their channel-based incentive travel program. This organization has run an incentive travel program for its dealer network for several years. While it understood the sales volume created by the dealers that earned the trip, it also wanted to understand other ways in which the program created value. Essentially, we wanted to answer the question – how has this long running, annual program provided value from the participants’ viewpoint? Here’s what we found…

Participants firmly perceive the incentive travel program as a strong and effective influencer in helping the organization drive performance through the dealer channel. A common participant response was, “the opportunity to earn the incentive travel award greatly encouraged me to increase my performance efforts.” As for whether the program was creating brand loyalty and advocacy, our findings were best summarized with another participant statement that said, “The program creates loyalty to the company, showing myself and other dealers just how much the organization cares and wants to help us.”

By continuing to establish and nurture dealer relationships through an incentive travel strategy, our client also created and experienced added, long-term value that went beyond short-term measurements. Program participant comments such as “I think the best part (as always) is networking with other distributors” and “[the award program is] a great way to build a long-term bond with other distributors” echoed throughout our findings.

To the dealer, relationship building is viewed as a high-value opportunity. With other channel representatives on the program, participants are continually afforded a setting where they can establish and build relationships with one another. This creates substantial, long-term value, as participants are able to further exchange ideas and insights on best practices, market shifts, challenges and business opportunities.

If you have distributors, sales networks or other channel partners, where are they fitting into the incentive travel mix?

Should Meetings be a Part of the Incentive Travel Mix?

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True or False?  The Integration of meeting elements into group incentive travel experiences is a new trend?

Answer: False.  The inclusion of formal meeting elements into group incentive travel programs has been a mainstay since its inception.

According to a SITE International Foundation 2010 survey, the trend of including business meetings in incentive travel programs will continue to grow over the next three years. So, why add meeting elements to an incentive travel program?

• Recognition - Calling out and recognizing an individual, in a formal meeting setting, with their peers, leadership team and guest(s) represents the gratifying highlight of the motivational experience for incentive travel earners.
• Communicating Future Business Direction - With top performers all in one place at the same time, this affords a great opportunity to provide a preview into future business direction to inform, excite and motivate earners.
• Networking Opportunities - Formal meeting time where program earners can network and interact with managers, leaders and other top performers to share and discuss best practices or market trends helps prepare for and align individual performance with future business objectives.
• Tax Laws - Participants on an incentive travel program maybe issued 1099’s or have the fair market value reported as income. Adding business meetings can reduce or eliminate this tax burden on your participants.
• Helping to Avoid Reputational Risk - Some organizations are concerned and want to minimize any potential risk that can damage their business brand by including more business meeting related content.

While this trend is anticipated to increase, it’s also met with a growing concern from incentive travel stakeholders. The potential impact on the participants’ viewpoint of what creates the type of experience that will inspire people to achieve the aggressive goals established for the program is a legitimate cause for concern. A careful and thoughtful approach is required to “strike the right balance” and avoid diluting the motivational value participants perceive in the incentive travel program’s design.

In the end, presenting a program that hits the mark for the “Wow” factor is key in getting the attention and active engagement of your participants.
What do you think?

Is My Travel Program "Reward and Recognition" or "Incentive" Based?

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True or False? “Reward and Recognition” and “Incentive” programs are really the same thing.

Answer: False. Reward and recognition programs focus on reinforcing behaviors by providing awards and personal recognition based upon an observable behavior. Incentive programs inspire participants by influencing efforts that help achieve future business goals.

Think about the basic qualification structure of these programs. Often, open-ended qualification structures are more incentive-based while closed-ended qualification structures reflect a reward and recognition orientation. Closed-ended structures tend to fall in line with the Pareto principle (80/20 rule), where 80 percent of your performance is contributed by 20 percent of participants (“A” level or top performers).

The challenge with closed-ended qualifications occurs when only the top portion of your sales team feels they can achieve the award. Also, keep in mind that the effectiveness of a program’s performance can be misleading as “A” level performers tend to perform despite what’s going on around them. As such, if your next level of participants (“B” level performers) are not motivated by the program design, it will not achieve the best possible results. Representing the majority of your participant base, “B” level performers can easily be disengaged from your program’s sales targets because of a closed-ended qualification structure. They already know who is going to earn the award and don’t feel that they can achieve the qualifying performance objectives.

Consider the situation faced by Pacific Life. While their “A” players were motivated by the incentive travel program, their “B” players weren’t because they didn’t view the sales targets as attainable. Maritz Travel suggested a shift to an open-ended qualification structure that kept the top performer program intact, but extended the motivational value for mid-level performers by establishing attainable sales targets that would not have qualified them under the old closed-ended qualification structure. These targets represented significant new volume for the company and resulted in “B” level performers contributing 80 percent of total sales growth for the year and $14 million in incremental profit.

By focusing on these two distinct concepts companies can create more effective programs.

Generational Differences and Incentive Travel Program Design

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True or False? Incentive Travel participant preferences vary greatly based on generational differences.

Answer: False. Based upon a National study by Maritz, there are actually more commonalities than there are differences. The key is discovering what program design decisions are common versus unique and how the order of individual preferences fall.

During the design phase of any travel incentive program, stakeholders and planners face the harsh realities of making choices that need to be the right one’s to effectively drive the broadest levels of motivational value. This challenge is made even more difficult by an increasingly diverse participant base. Making the right decisions in program design go a long way towards creating the “WOW!” factor that drives excitement, buzz and performance.

Demographics have been used for years to cluster and understand what might best motivate incentive program participants. One of the most frequently used demographic categories is based upon age, which in turn also allows us to breakdown a participant base into what is commonly known as generational segments. These generational segments are then used to infer program design choices.

Generational segments are greatly influenced by such areas as the world events and societal trends that they are raised within. In addition, we tend to think about how generations tend to think, feel and react differently throughout the course of their life. However, the important thing here is that generational differences and lifecycle assumptions alone can also be quite misleading.

Based on a number of surveys completed by Maritz that look at the question of effective program design, we can see some interesting information on the role generational attributes play in incentive program design. For example, a large insurance company client, with many of their earners in the 50-60 year old range, discovered that their greatest design request was that the guest policy be expanded from being able to take children on family friendly programs to also including grandchildren.

While generational segments are important, they are not the only consideration for program design. Overall, the focus shouldn’t be just about generational differences, but rather more so on how you better engage different people in more meaningful ways to drive performance. Attending to this fundamental shift will help better shape incentive travel program design as it relates to destination, activity, rule structuring, promotional communications and other decisions to achieve stronger and broader motivational appeal and value for participants.

The Evolution of Meeting and Event Communications through New Technologies

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Successful meeting and event programs are built on the foundations of effective communication efforts with audience members. Communicating well and communicating often is a proven way to keep your audience engaged, informed and motivated. Today, companies have more communication options to choose from based upon their meeting or event needs, as well as the preferences of their audience. But, this wasn’t always the case.

Historically, meeting and event planners were limited in terms of what communication options they had available. Creating and supporting levels of engagement during a program period was one thing, but leading up to and creating an afterglow experience post program involved a number of challenges that required new, more interactive tools and approaches. Through the course of the last several years, communication options have vastly evolved, leading towards much broader opportunities to further excite, engage and extend the overall attendee experience.

Think of it this way, today’s communications have shifted from just supporting one-way informational exchanges to helping better create more engaging, two-way dialogues between hosts, speakers, sponsors and attendees. Consider the following periods of meeting and event communications, from where we were to where we are now:

• Event Communications 1.0 - In the early years, meeting and event communications mainly involved traditional hard copy mailings, outbound calling and fax transmissions. These one-way communication exchanges may have helped logistically, but were highly limiting when it came to one-to-one promotional relevance or communicating real-time shifts, changes or program updates.
• Event Communications 2.0 - The dawn and mass market adoption of the Internet brought an immense improvement to meeting and event communications. Websites were created as a central linking point for program attendees to reference and register. In addition, emailing was integrated into communication strategies, providing a new and more effective mix for marketing efforts; it also could be used to provide ongoing announcements leading up to and following meeting and event programs. We’d have to wait just a bit longer for technologies to evolve and enable us to create more effective, two-way and interactive communication experiences.
• Event Communications 3.0 - New technologies and new uses of existing technologies have impacted and created significant shifts in how people manage, operate and socially interact with one another. Face-to-face meeting and event interactions now are more informed and greatly influenced by social networking, virtual engagements and the use of mobile applications.

• Social Networking  - Whether you like it or not, social networking is occurring already with regards to your meeting and event efforts. Ignoring it would place your program and organizational objectives at a disadvantage. Embracing social networking involves a number of considerations and can range in its level of adoption, but its inclusion can greatly enhance your ability to inform, motivate and extend your program’s communication reach.
• Virtual Engagements - The term “virtual” is often defined differently based upon who you ask. There are a number of technology advancements that have created different engagement options. For instance, the use of virtual worlds or Virtual Engagement Platforms (VEP), regional satellite broadcasting, web casting and collaboration as well as telepresence are all primary industry formats available and in use today. However, each type has its strengths and weaknesses, but the right combination with specific face-to-face meeting and event types and audiences can substantially improve levels of reach, engagement and program performance.
• Mobile Applications - A growing number of attendees are demanding more integration of mobile applications into the meeting and event programs they participate. Mobile platforms have become today’s intersection point of the physical meeting or event, virtual experiences and social networking interests. Put simply, program attendees want experiences that are more convenient, interactive and integrated with their mobile devices. Making appointments, noting calendar commitments, sharing contact details and having access to interact with other attendees, sponsors and speakers 24/7 are among a variety or inclusions they’re looking for in today’s meeting and event programs.

These types of communication options can be deployed as tools to extend the overall attendee reach and experience throughout the lifecycle of a program – before, during and after your meeting or event.

Organizations have greater opportunities today, over programs of the past, to create better business outcomes with the right integration of two-way, interactive communication options thanks to new technology advancements. Such opportunities enhance the value of meetings and events by further engaging an organization’s people – employees, channel partners and customers. While situations vary, so should the strategy. Otherwise, organizations run the risk of an ineffective, one-size-fits-all approach. Planners need to consider what the right mix of communication options can best help extend their program’s content, expand the audience reach and create enhanced ways for program attendees to interact and engage others.

The future of meeting and event communications isn’t coming, it’s here. What have you found that works better for your program, organization and attendees?

Increasing the Awareness of Your Incentive Travel Program

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True or False?  3 of 10 people eligible to earn travel rewards don’t know it?

 

Answer:  Fact.  The existence of your company’s travel incentive program should not be debatable.  Leave that kind of uncertainty for Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster.

Shockingly, anywhere between 25 percent and 35 percent of your incentive travel participants may not even know about the program’s existence.  That’s a large number of participants that won’t be motivated or influenced, which reduces the potential impact to your business goals and objectives.  What’s the main culprit?  A primary suspect could be the communication’s model.

Today, companies need to assess and design a communication’s strategy that takes into account a fragmented participant base.  Technology has created significant shifts that are impacting how we communicate.  We, as individuals, are becoming increasingly sophisticated and diverse when it comes to what we read, listen to and how we interact.  Consider the following two communications model approaches:

§         Traditional Communications Model

Filled with one-way print, dimensional, direct mail and web communications, these approaches follow legacy practices that do not incorporate or benefit from viral or two-way interactions with and between program participants.

§         Advocacy Communication Model

In this approach, participants help create and foster communications that further drive awareness and program advocacy.  For instance, by leveraging and sponsoring program rallies or social media networking events, whether proprietary or third-party based, participants are encouraged to show, share and talk about the incentive opportunity with their friends, colleagues and family.  

Program sponsors and planners can further encourage these discussions, as well as benefit from them, by not only sharing additional program specifics, but also determining enhancements that further drive the participants’ motivational appeal and perceptions of program value.

Embracing one communications approach over another doesn’t take into consideration that participants are at different levels of preference and maturity as it pertains to receiving and participating in communications.  Today’s communication efforts need to be less about which channel you use and more about integrating efforts in ways that further inform and engage diverse program participants in different and more meaningful ways around incentive travel programs. 

Family Friendly Incentive Travel

So, what’s up with kids and incentive travel programs you ask?  Well, there’s certainly a growing shift towards being more family friendly these days, which is being driven by a variety of factors.  Primarily, these would involve today’s demands at work with leaner and “doing more with less” philosophies, family lifestyles as well as the idea and desire of organizations to create stronger motivational value for participants in order to achieve greater business performance.

If you or anyone within an organization have been thinking about whether or not a "Family Friendly" element within your incentive travel strategy is a worth while idea, consider reading this article - click here

As organizations make family friendly decisions, concerns typically surface regarding potential distractions, objections by participants without children as well as with regard to how they would fund such inclusions. Here are a few short insights to keep in mind:

• Distractions – Typically this surrounds the desire to have an educational, networking or award element within a program. With the right destination selected and good planning, there are a number of ways to have one-on-one time with your participants, and they with their families.
• Participants without Children – Based upon a National Study by Maritz Travel and Maritz Research, we found that nearly 4 out of every 5 incentive travel participants without children believe that kids should be allowed to participate. It seems that they want to celebrate with their colleagues and peers, as well as get to know their families better too.
• Budgets – Whether you’re paying for, subsidizing or creating special buy-in rate options, incentive travel earners are looking for ways to bring their families along and reward them for their support in helping achieve business objectives.

Overall, organizations that don’t’ think family friendly incentive travel programs can play a big role need to think again. Helping create the opportunity to share these rewards and experiences go a long way in building stronger affinity with the organization. While it might not be right for every program, it’s worth the time and effort to do some research and gain a better view of what’s best for your participants and your organization.

New Era of Risk Management for Meeting, Event and Incentive Travel

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It’s been a rough ride these past few years for the meeting, event and incentive travel industry. As a result, we can’t presume that it will ever be “business as usual”. We’ve learned quite a bit from these events and much has changed. These changes require us to operate differently today, especially when it comes to the areas of contracts, liabilities and bankruptcies.

The series of massive program cancellations over the past few years not only impacted business performance of buyer organizations, but the supplier industry as well. Destination management companies (DMCs), hotel properties, ground transportation providers, airlines and others were faced with some of the most challenging financial times in their history. As our industry begins to rebound, one significant shift in business operations for both buyer and supplier surrounds risk management.

Now, more than ever, buyers and suppliers need to work not just harder, but together to better manage their respective risks. Good, solid best practices need to be incorporated that equally protect one another’s interests. The most significant risk management areas and practices to be aware of, consider and avoid include:

• Attrition and Cancellation - Expect stricter provisions regarding attrition and cancellation clauses as well as higher deposit requirements. These are common practices in today’s market and are not solely based upon situations of “buyer” versus “seller” market conditions, or “peak” versus “off-peak” seasonality. 
• Underbooking - Avoid situations of underbooking space because you don’t have a clear view on the total number of participants that will attend a program. This is a tremendous gamble as supplier capacity to scale may not exist and put your programs performance at risk.
• Financial Stability of Suppliers – Understand the financial health of direct suppliers throughout the lifecycle of a program, not just at the beginning. Protection from a worse-case-scenario such as a bankruptcy or foreclosure is something that should be incorporated within your contract’s terms and conditions. In addition, consider the following:
• Properties going through financial trouble may change flags or branding. If this occurs, you need to ensure your contract provisions provide options. In some cases, this might include the right to exercise a cancellation based upon ownership changes.
• For suppliers who you may not have a history with, consider securing language within your contract that identifies what deposits are purposed towards. Depending upon the size of your event, a letter of credit wouldn’t necessarily be out of the question.
• Choosing to stay with a hotel, DMC or convention center through financial challenges isn’t necessarily a bad choice, but you do need to ensure there are no service barriers that could impact program logistics or participant experiences. Be sure to ask a lot of questions, especially surrounding such areas as staffing levels, property upkeep and maintenance. In addition, establish service level agreements (SLAs) and keep tabs on supplier issues through hotel ratings, websites and social media posts. 
• In DMC relationships, ensure your supplier possesses the appropriate levels of umbrella insurance coverage for all third-party relationships. 
• Service Levels – Some properties responded to the increased financial stress of the past two years by decreasing service levels and deferring property reinvestments. Protect yourself by conducting thorough site inspections and talk with others that have operated programs at the properties you are considering, to make sure the property can deliver the service experience you expect.

Today’s planners need to make decisions that go beyond just low rates. It’s a new era for meeting, event and incentive travel; especially when it comes to risk management positioning. These past few years created a significant shift, calling for a more balanced and shared set of risks between buyer and supplier. How has this changed your approach?

Why Incentives Trump Cash

Great article featured in Meetings and Incentive Travel titled, "Why Incentives Trump Cash".  Take a look to further seperate fact from fiction as to why non-cash based incentives, specifically Travel, create more Motivational, Meaningful and Memorable experiences that provide both immediate and long-term tangible and intangible returns - click here.