As companies scaled back meetings and events during the depths of the recession in 2008 and 2009, many of them compensated by shifting to virtual meetings. The web teleconferences substituted for actual face-to-face meetings, hurting many hotels’ bottom lines.
The big question is, did that permanently shift the landscape for hotels?
The answer is yes, but hotels have adapted, too, by changing what they offer in their meeting spaces. Meetings professionals also have shifted the goals of face-to-face meetings so that they can meet virtually as well as in person with different agendas and accomplishments in mind.
“Face to face meetings are not going to go away,” said Deborah Sexton, president and CEO of the Professional Convention Management Association, at this year’s Elite Meetings Alliance conference in Las Vegas. “They were cancelled in 2008 and 2009, and guest what? They’re back. They’re back in a different form. We’re not going back to 2007. We're doing things in a different fashion, but they’re not going away.”
Innovative meeting planners are creating a new type of event: the hybrid meeting. Sexton said initially planners are hesitant about adding a virtual component to a face-to-face meeting out of fear that it would destroy attendance rates. In fact, she said, the opposite will happen. By conducting virtual platforms, groups can build the attendance for future events because people will realize the value of attending in person. Sexton said her organization found that to be true when it compared the list of people who attended the live stream of a PCMA meeting with its annual conference earlier this year.
“I’m absolutely convinced that hybrids are here to stay and you want to find out what they are all about,” she said. “You want to take advantage of virtual platforms because it’s going to be here.”
Meetings still come down to that fundamental value: relationships.
“Relationships matter, and they still matter,” Sexton said. “When you meet someone face to face, you can continue that online for a long time.”
Kelly Foy, CEO Elite Meetings, agreed with Sexton. He believes that while more meetings may have a virtual component, it won’t harm the face-to-face meetings.
“They’ll see the value of going [in person] next year because of the value of the virtual meeting,” he said.
Hotels also are adapting to the new meetings normal. As part of a $150 million renovation this year, the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers created the Cisco TelePresence Suite, a high-tech space for virtual meetings. Using a secure network connection, the technology creates a virtual board room in which people in the off-site location appear as if they are sitting next to one another around the table. There are microphones on the table, and as someone speaks the camera swings toward the speaker. There is no voice delay or video delay.
“In New York we get a number of CEOs who want to talk to their offices,” said Kai Fischer, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing. “A lot of CEOs that come in here are very expeditious. It helps improve productivity.”
The room is located on one of the hotel’s Club floors and costs $500 an hour per location.
“We see this as a new way of business being conducted,” Fischer said.
Finding solutions is essential to supporting the meetings industry. A recent study, The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy, sponsored by several meeting and lodging organizations showed that the U.S. meetings industry directly supports 1.7 million jobs and $263 billion in spending. Sexton said the meetings industry has to adapt to continue that success.
“The challenges in the past couple of years have forced us to be smarter and better at what we’re doing,” Sexton said.
As the meeting planning manager for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America, Jenna Richardson plans events that include the development of staff and volunteers nationwide. The organization has taken advantage of online learning by conducting webinar training, Richardson said, particularly through its customized e-learning with “Make-A-Wish University.” This style of training is used to deliver the “101s” – basics that new volunteers need to know. But having an online component has not stopped Make-A-Wish from coordinating traditional meetings. In fact, it enhances them.
“That’s allowed us to take our in-person meetings to the next level of learning,” she said.
Despite the faltering economy, the organization’s number of events has stayed the same, but Richardson said some components have been scaled back. They may serve a boxed lunch, for instance, instead of a full plated meal. Make-A-Wish still values the benefits of in-person meetings.
“I don’t think that will take the place of face to face,” Richardson said of virtual events. “Face to face is a way to reconnect and build relationships. Our conferences feel like reunions. [Our attendees] like to be able to connect in person.”
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