5 Steps to Successful Meetings in a Down Economy


Prices are up, the economy is down, and consumers are spending less money. While some may think this won’t affect their organization or their industry, it’s a truth being felt by all in some way or another. Even if you are still seeing growth within your organization, perhaps the percentage of growth is stagnant or the growth is less than it could be. For many, however, there is no growth but instead a decline in the organization’s revenue and program participation.

Quite often the first decline is noticed in an organization’s educational meeting participation. This is very true today given the state of the travel industry. Fares for flights are up and there are less flights being offered. Recent studies and polls indicate that more people are opting not to travel more so due to the hassle (less flights, longer layovers, etc.) rather than the increased fares. With this in mind, all organizations need to take a systematic approach to their meeting offerings. While these are of utmost importance now, the following steps should be done regardless of the state of the economy or travel industry. By following these steps, organizations can make the most of their meeting offerings and ensure consistent and increased participation for each meeting.

Measure twice, cut once – Is your meeting relevant to your prospective attendees? Sure, the decision makers can sit in a room and decide that a meeting is necessary, but do the members and prospective attendees feel the same way? It’s best to take a little time and a little money (under $25 for most online survey companies) to run the meeting idea past your members first to get their feedback. After all, they are the ones who will need to validate the reasons for and costs of attending so take the time to give them as much input as necessary. In your survey be sure to question potential participants on the proposed theme, sessions, topics, new ideas, and if they would be willing to attend. As you will see later, it is also important to find out where the respondents are located and what they want to get out of the meeting (education, networking, etc.)

Develop a Need for Attendance -– Once you have the “green light” from your prospective members on the need for a meeting on the proposed subject, make sure the content is 110%. These days, attendees need a reason to attend. Put them in your shoes – would you take time of the office for fluff or do you want concrete ideas that you can put to use immediately to save or make you money?  When planning an educational meeting the last place to skimp on is the speaker. Make sure that you get the best possible speakers who can offer real advice and not just talk around a subject. This may require money, but in these times, people will be willing to pay to gain “exclusive” insight that will help them increase their bottom line. Make sure that your educational offering can more than make up for the cost of attendance by implementing the ideas discussed. For example, as a meeting planner, I don’t want to attend a session on the perils of the industry today…. I want to attend a session how to combat those to benefit me! Put yourself in your attendees’ shoes and it will go long way.

Look to Alternative Meetings - If it is a meeting being held on tradition only (i.e. always a regional meeting in April and September), perhaps you will find that there are better ways to deliver the content. Have you thoroughly researched webinars? They have come a long way since their first inception. If you don’t have a full 7 hours of education to provide in one day that is relevant to the majority of your audience, why not offer single session webinars. I recently attended a one-day conference where there where 2-3 sessions I wanted to attend and some that I didn’t. I can guarantee you that I would have spent more registering for single session webinars than the registration fee for the entire conference if the meeting sessions were offered separately rather than part of a single conference.  The webinar industry is a great revenue and educational source for organizations. You can offer meetings “on-the-fly” when new issues arise, attendees save money, and the sponsoring organization has a much higher profitability ratio. Do your research to determine the best meeting vehicle.

Know where to hold your meetings – While webinars will work for many types of meetings, they will not for them all. There are many software options out there that allow organizations to map their constituents by zip code. Research these based on your operating system and use them. If your membership is based on the East Coast, hold most of your meetings there. If your membership is divided, consider rotating based on the largest markets where your members are located. When offering in-person meetings, reach out aggressively to those local to the event area – focus on saving time, money, and gas. No matter how good of a deal you may get from a location for a meeting, if it is not local to a large percentage of your members are you really doing your members a favor by getting a good deal for the association?

Spend money wisely – Regardless of how or where you hold your meeting, you need to be smart in how you spend you money. Remember, do not skimp on speakers. Instead, consider using only electronic marketing. I have heard so many reports of “our members don’t have emails”, but consider this statistic – over 80% of Americans have access to email. Perhaps organizations just need to take a more pro-active approach to obtaining these addresses from members. Of the organizations I have worked with who have eliminated mail and fax marketing, by going to 100% electronic marketing they have not only decreased expenses by tens of thousands of dollars, but have also increased revenue by tens of thousands of dollars from registration fees. Quite frankly, we see a higher response rate to electronic marketing than mail recruits. Yes, it takes effort to get email addresses from members, but I have found that prospects are free to give them when asked. So ask and then use electronic communication with them and then fax with the others. Before long, they will all come on board.

Clearly, there are lots of issues at play here. The main goal, however, is that educational opportunities must meet the needs of the members/potential participants. When you fully take these needs into consideration no meeting can be deemed a failure. Find the true need for meeting, find the audience for the meeting, determine the most appropriate vehicle for delivery, and promote the meeting in the most economical way.