Lecture 12

Other hospitality organizations

(Part II)

Assemblies and event management

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Meetings, Conventions, and Expositions

• Development of the Industry
• Key Players
• Convention and Visitors Bureaus
• Destination Management Companies
• Meeting Planners and Service Contractors
• Types of Meetings, Conventions, and
Expositions
• Types of Associations and Meetings
• Venues
• Trends
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Development of the Industry

• People have gathered to attend meetings,
conventions, and expositions since the ancient
times
• Mainly for social, sporting, political, or religious purposes
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Development of the Industry

• Meetings, incentive travel, conventions, and
exhibitions (MICE) represent a segment of the
tourism industry that has grown in recent years
• MICE tourists spend about twice the amount of
money that other tourists spend
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Key Players
• The major players in the convention
industry are:
• convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs),
• meeting planners and their clients,
• the convention centers,
• specialized services, and
• exhibitions
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Convention and Visitors Bureaus

• Enhance the image of tourism in the local/city area
• Market the area and encourage people to visit and
stay longer
• Encourages associations and others to hold
meetings, conventions, and trade shows in the
area it represents
• Assists associations and others with preparations
and lends support
• Encourages tourists to partake of the historic,
cultural, and recreational opportunities the city or
area has to offer
• Primary outcome is to generate and increase
revenues of a city
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Convention Centre Utilization

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Destination Management Companies

• Service organisations within the visitor industry that
offers a host of programs and services to meet
clients’ needs
• Initially, a destination management sales manager
concentrates on selling the destination to meeting
planners
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Meeting Planners
• May be independent contractors who contract out
their services to both associations and corporations
as the need arises or they may be full-time
employees of corporations or associations
• Plans the meeting down to the last minute
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Service Contractors
• The individual responsible for providing all of the
services needed to run the facilities for a trade
show
• Hired by the exposition show manager or
association meeting planner
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Types of Meetings
• Clinic: Workshop-type educational experience in
which attendees learn by doing
• Forum: An assembly for the discussion of common
concerns
• Seminar: A lecture and a dialogue that allow
participants to share experiences in a particular
field
• Symposium: An event at which a particular subject
is discussed by experts and opinions are gathered
• Workshop: A small group led by a facilitator or
trainer
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Conventions and Expositions

• Conventions are larger meetings with some
form of exposition or trade show included
• The majority are held in large hotels over a
3-5 day period
• Expositions are events that bring together
sellers of products and services at a
location where they can show their products
and services to a group of attendees at a
convention or trade show
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Purpose of Meetings
• Annual meetings
• Board, committee, seminars and workshops,
professional and technical meetings
• Corporate meetings, conventions, and expositions
• Social, military, educational, religious, and fraternal
groups (SMERF)
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Meeting Planning
• Needs analysis • Pre-meeting
• Budget activities
• Plan agenda
• Request for
• Set budget
proposal
• Negotiate contracts
• Site inspection
• On-site activities
• Selection
• Post meetings
• Negotiation
• Contracts
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Venues for Meetings, Conventions,

and Expos
• City Centers
• Convention Centers
• Conference Centers
• Hotels and Resorts
• Cruise Ships
• Colleges and Universities
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Trends
• More people are going abroad to attend meetings

• Competitiveness has increased among all destinations

• Convention centers will expand and new centers will come

online

• The industry needs to be more sophisticated—the need

for fiber optics is present everywhere

• Shows are growing at a rate of 5-10 percent per year

• Compared to a few years ago, large conventions are not

as well attended and regional conventions have more
attendees
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Special Events
• Event Planners
• Event Management
• Challenges
• Classifications of Special Events
• Required Skills and Abilities
• Special Event Organizations
• The Job Market
• Trends
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Event Planners
• Event planning is a general term that refers to a career path in the
growing field of special events
• Its forecast includes a growing demand for current and future
employment opportunities
• The title event planner was first introduced at hotels and convention
centers
• Person responsible for planning the event from start to finish
• Setting the date and location
• Advertising the event
• Providing refreshments
• Arranging catering, speakers, or entertainment
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Event Management
• Events can be costly
• In addition to advertising, there is a location
charge, security costs, labour costs, and
production costs
• Usually, the event manager has a good estimate
of the number of ticket sales expected
• The contract requires careful preparation
because it is a legal document and will guarantee
certain provisions
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Figure 13-1 The Event Planning

Process
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Challenges
• Time management
• Financial management
• Technology
• Effective human resource management
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Classifications of Special Events

• Corporate events:
• Annual meetings, sales meetings, new product
launches, training meetings and workshops,
management meetings, press meetings,
incentive meetings, and awards ceremonies
• Continues to lead the event business industry
• Association Events:
• Range from a monthly luncheon to a yearly
convention
• Planned 2–5 years in advance
• Destination is the determining factor
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Classifications of Special Events

• Charity balls and fundraising events:
• Unique opportunity for the event manager to
work with the particular group or charity
• Normally, a theme is chosen for the event
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Classifications of Special Events

• Social Functions:
• Weddings, engagement parties, and holiday
functions
• Planners or managers work on a broad variety of
events
• SMERF (social, military, educational, religious,
and fraternal organizations) is a category of
organizations that fall into the social events
category
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Classifications of Special Events

• Fairs and Festivals:
• Purpose of most fairs in the United States
is usually related to the agriculture
industry
• Festivals are planned events that are
often themed to the celebration’s purpose
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Classifications of Special Events

• Concerts and sporting events:
• Many concerts are planned as fund-
raisers
• Opening ceremonies, halftime, and
post-game shows for sporting events
provide another “arena” for an event
manager to select as a career path
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Classifications of Special Events

• Mega Events:
• Mostly sporting events
• The Olympics
• The World Cup
• The Super Bowl
• The World Series
• The Masters
• The U.S. Open
• The British Open
• US PGA Championship
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Required Skills and Abilities for

Event Management
• Leadership skills
• Ability to communicate with other departments
• Project management skills
• Negotiation skills
• Coordinating and delegation skills
• Budgeting skills
• Ability to multi-task
• Enthusiasm
• Effective social skills
• Ability to form contacts
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The Job Market

• Allow yourself to gain all the experience you can in
the food and beverage aspect of the hospitality
industry
• The next step is obtaining a sales position
• Laterally move to a catering sales position within a
hotel
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The Job Market

• Now you can pursue several different
angles:
• A promotion to a convention service manager within a
hotel
• Moving into off-premise catering as a sales consultant
• Joining a production company
• Affiliating yourself with a destination management
company (DMC)
• After another 2 years creating and selling
your heart out, you will be ready for the big
leagues!
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Trends
• The special event industry is forecasted to grow, as
clients want ever more spectacular events

• Events are increasingly more complex involving

multimedia presentations, elaborate staging, and
frequently upscale food and beverage service

• Technology presents both an opportunity and a

challenge—an opportunity in that it can facilitate
event planning and management and a challenge
in that new software programs must be mastered