Koleen Roach

What are the basic things you need to know when venturing into international meeting planning? A recent webinar featured three experts on the subject: Eli Gorin, CMP, the former president of gMeetings; Leigh Wintz, CAE, the executive director of Soroptimist International of the Americas; and Koleen Roach, the director, meetings and conference management for Securian Financial Group. They broke the basics into three parts: site selection, contract negotiations and budgeting/currency. We cover site selection this week and the remaining considerations in our next issue.

Site Selection

Picking the right location is half the battle, the panelists agreed. Most planners start with nearby locations like Canada and Mexico, and later venture to Europe and then beyond.

One of the prime considerations is knowing the goals and objectives of both the meeting and the organization and then determining whether a particular destination will further those goals. Perhaps your client is an association with a substantial portion of its membership in Asia; an Asian-based meeting may attract a large contingent of that membership and keep registration numbers high. If your client is sponsoring a sales incentive, will the destination allow them to relax and enjoy themselves, or will they be nervous because of recent bad press about the location (hurricane damage, political unrest, etc.)? Keeping up to date on current events and taking all of these issues into account will help the travel seller make the best venue suggestions to the group leader.

Next, it’s important to make sure there is good airlift to the destination; try to pick first-tier cities since participants may be leaving from second-tier cities back home and you don’t want to make the trip too exhausting.

Also to be considered: the value of the U.S. dollar at the destination you have in mind, the local language and how difficult it might be for participants to communicate with locals, and the reputation of the country involved — will there be safety and security worries?

Visa Requirements Change Quickly

Finally, planners need to investigate visa requirements for all attendees, especially if they will be coming from many different countries. Just like inoculations, visas and other entry requirements and fees are unique to each destination and can change without notice. For example, one panelist recalled that “reciprocity” entry fees for one group heading to Zambia suddenly jumped from $50, payable by Visa, to $140 cash only.

Eli Gorin

To keep up to date, the panelists suggested that agents confer frequently with local tourism bureaus (a list of them is available at www.towd.com), destination management companies (DMCs) and airline partners, along with checking with the U.S. Department of State (www.state.gov). “Heavy researching is a necessity when planning international meetings,” said Gorin.

Bond with Tourism Bureaus

Regarding tourism bureaus, the panelists emphasized the importance of building good relationships right from the start by being honest about your level of seriousness when submitting requests for proposals (RFPs). Are you submitting a broad RFP to many countries or sure about this particular one? The tourism bureau needs to know if they have competition and whether or not they should be doing a sales job. It also helps to give them the back history of the organization’s prior meetings, they agreed.

Another decision that needs to be made, the panelists said, is whether or not you’ll be hiring a PCO — a professional congress organizer. A PCO is a local meeting planner, but unlike a DMC can also help you handle contract negotiations. They suggested turning to tourism bureaus or colleagues from organizations like Meeting Professionals International (MPI), Professional Convention Management Associations (PCMA) or online groups like those offered by Google, Yahoo and LinkedIn for references.

Site Inspections Key

Site inspections are invaluable, they said. Gorin recalled one client who didn’t want to pay the airfare for him to fly in and out of a city on the same day to check things out in advance. “When the group arrived, they found out that the restaurant and half of the lobby were closed due to construction. For $250, all that inconvenience could have been avoided,” he said.

Leigh Wintz

Wintz concurred. She said that she does a site inspection whenever a group has to travel, and has the luxury of knowing where they’ll be traveling far in advance. “I try to schedule a trip at the same time of year as the group will be arriving, and I go to experience the culture, the weather, the menus, the work habits of those delivering the services we’ll need. I also look up local holidays far in advance,” she said.

Next week: The basics of contract negotiations and budgeting/currency for international meetings