Quality Over Quantity

Creating the perfect business event may seem like hard work but it’s sometimes
just a matter of thinking outside the square.

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At a media briefing during the Sydney On Sale tradeshow earlier this year, SCVB managing director Jon Hutchison warned that Australia could no longer afford to be complacent about its place in the conference world. While Australia was still an aspirational destination for many international conference delegates, competition was everywhere, he said. A building boom in conference centres around the world, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, meant that business was scarcer than ever and competition ever increasing.

Purpose-built convention centres are proliferating at a startling rate. In China, more than 200 conference and exhibition venues are being constructed in major cities and regional areas. Mr Hutchison believes that China would dominate the meetings market in ten years time.

In South Korea a similar construction frenzy is under way, while established centres such as those in Hong Kong and Singapore are planning to vastly increase their facilities.

HARD TIMES AHEAD

To further complicate the global meetings scene, the market is “shrinking” as events stay closer to home, a symptom of current security concerns. How then does the Australian conference industry ensure it stays successful? And how do conference organisers set out to make their events as satisfying to their delegates as to their bottom line.

It may seem like a chicken or the egg conundrum. Every conference venue advertises its ability to satisfy client demand. But staging a successful conference involves far more than just booking a meeting room and waiting for the delegates to turn up. Seasoned conference delegates are demanding bigger and better events, more varied educational programs, and social activities that haven't been done to death. Expectations remain high and forever reach towards the stratosphere. In canvassing organisers, it seems there are always those venues that prize the quantity over the quality of events.

The successful meetings venues are those that benchmark their performance, listen to user feedback and implement policies that constantly improve and better their previous best. Industry awards can be an indicator, though often it’s more about how well the winners prepare their submissions than in how satisfied their clients are.

PROVEN RESULTS

Yet there are success stories out there. The Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre (MECC) was recently given top marks at the 2004 Australian Achiever Awards for Melbourne’s Function, Conference, Event and Exhibition Services category. Now into a seventh year, the Australian Achiever Awards are an independent, unbiased award system based on assessment ratings from a business’s own customers or clients.

MECC received a 92.69% mark for customer relations and service. The award system focuses on seven criteria, each scored separately including Time Related Service; Addressing Client Needs; Care and Attention; Value; Attitude; Communication; and Overall Perception. The criteria are rated individ-ually in percentage terms and the final score is an amalgam of these.

Anything above 80% overall is regarded as exceptional and reflects outstanding customer service. The MECC exceeded this benchmark across all categories performing particularly well in the areas of Time Related Service 96%, Client Needs 93%, Attitude 92.2% and Care and Attention 97.5% with respondents noting the strengths of the MECC as “professionalism, listening skills and the premises”.

IMPORTANT FEEDBACK

At the Cairns Convention Centre, which has started an $8½ million refurbishment program that will extend over the next 12 months, client feedback is highly prized. Such comments as the following from Professor Arthur Shulkes, who was involved in the organisation of the 13th International Symposium on Regulatory Peptides, is a telling indicator of the Centre’s renowned attention to detail.

“Over the years I have mentioned to many of my colleagues about the suitability and attractiveness of the Cairns Convention Centre for medical and medical research conferences. I am pleased to see that many of these organisations are now including or planning to include the Cairns Convention Centre as part of the circuit,” Professor Shulkes wrote.

The large purpose-built convention centres are adept at engendering high satisfaction among its clients. So, too, do convention and visitors bureaux around the region, which work hard to lure conferences to their individual destinations and so have a vested interest in ensuring those events are successful.

HELP FROM ABOVE

Conventions New Zealand, in association with the New Zealand Convention Association, has a conference assistance program, designed to encourage New Zealand associations which are members of an international association to bid for any international convention the international holds. The Conference Assistance Program (CAP) provides a number of specialist services including: an experienced Professional Conference Organiser to establish a marketing plan and review the financial viability of the conference; production of customized bid documents; assistance with air travel to present the bid; and assistance to market the conference.

Members bureaux of the NZCA have complementary programs in place to help non profit organizations in funding the bid process. The Christchurch and Canterbury Convention Bureau’s Convention Loan Scheme is one example.

Another key to a quality event can be as easy as thinking “outside the square”, an approach that is necessary in this highly competitive, been there done that business environment. Delegates have been to enough conferences to be bored stupid with MASH themes, beach parties and the like. The theme menus of most hotels and resorts are so stagnant in their ideas they’re growing moss.

FUN IDEAS

One Queensland resort had an unexpected success with an event that combined Priscilla Queen of the Desert and a Middle Eastern desert oasis theme, calling it Florence of Arabia. Innovative ideas can come from an organiser’s own imagination and then tested on the venue, or by taking up some of the new products available in the marketplace.

ZEST Catering has introduced a corporate cooking class at Sydney’s Royal Motor Yacht Club. A fun alternative to the traditional corporate wining and dining, it’s an interactive 2 hour group cooking class where recipes are tried out under the supervision of expert chef Brigid Treloar and the results enjoyed at the club’s premises overlooking Rose Bay and Sydney Harbour

Another great idea has been inaugureation of Sydney’s Unique Venues Association (SUVA). Founded in 1996, it’s an informal collection of 56 unique venues, each capturing a facet of Sydney’s special appeal. SUVA members include the Australian National Maritime Museum, Fort Denison, Luna Park Sydney, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Powerhouse Museum, and the State Theatre.

TRAVELLING ON

Delegate transport is another area that can create lasting memories. When the Dreamtime international incentive event was held on the Gold Coast some years back, 200 delegates and guests were transported from a downtown Surfers Paradise hotel to an evening function at Dreamworld aboard “outlaw” motorcycles and hot rods. When Dreamtime was later hosted in Sydney, delegates were taken from The Rocks to a beachside breakfast at Tamarama in a stunning collection of classic 50s and 60s American cars.

Creating a quality conference, one that surpasses all expectations, isn’t as difficult as it may seem. All it takes is an attention to detail, a critical eye, a fertile imagination and the capacity to not take “no” for an answer. The results can be truly astounding.