Meeting Planning Ethics: Don’t Be a ‘Fam Scammer’

Should a fam trip be treated as a vacation? When is it ethical – if ever – to accept a travel freebie or discount? When is it OK to seek multiple bids from vendors?

These and other murky issues facing meeting planners were addressed by Judith Benaroche Johnson, CMP, president and CEO of Rx Worldwide Meetings in Plano, Texas, in a conversation with Travel Market Report.

Johnson, whose company plans conferences for the pharmaceutical industry – an industry that comes under particularly close scrutiny when it comes to ethics, led a session called “What’s In It for Me” at MPI’s recent World Education Congress (WEC).

Why did you do a presentation on ethics?
Johnson: Nobody talks about these issues and they are things we are all faced with. Everybody says the screening process for vetting planners for site inspections, for instance, is getting tighter but I don’t see that. I think hotels are afraid to alienate any potential customer. I prevailed on organizers earlier this year to do a presentation on ethics at the Pharmaceutical Meeting Planners Forum in Orlando and I was asked there if I would do a similar presentation at WEC.

What kind of issues are we talking about?
Johnson: There are a number. One is asking for industry discounts for yourself and your friends. I know people who make a living going on site inspections with no intention of holding a meeting. A big problem is that it is hard to establish a central database for what we call ‘fam scammers.’

Aren’t hotels aware of which planners are legitimate?
Johnson: It’s not always easy. Let’s say I submit a proposal to a great hotel in Prague because I always wanted to go there. So they invite me. Then I tell them we have chosen Budapest instead, so I get on Budapest’s radar and get invited there. Nobody knows if I’m legitimate.

Any personal examples?
Johnson: My husband recently played in a recent Las Vegas golf tournament which is for planners and by invitation. A woman who was supposed to be in his foursome didn’t show up. She came to Las Vegas with her boyfriend and barely showed up for any events. It turned out she had never played golf in her life.

Are fams themselves the problem?
Johnson: No. Fams are a wonderful way to educate planners. But it’s not a vacation and it’s not the time to take your vacation. Some planners justify taking these trips even if they’re really not site selecting by saying, ‘Maybe I’ll do a meeting there someday.’

What are other ethical issues aside from fams?
Johnson: A critical one is taking multiple bids when you have no intention of changing vendors so you can see what everybody else is charging. Then you go back and get a better price from the vendor you are committed to anyway.

Isn’t that a routine way of doing business?
Johnson: Not when you’re doing it just to find out what people are charging so you can use that information. If you are legitimately looking for the lowest bidder or the highest bidder, that’s fine.

What about the common practice of giveaways or raffles at trade shows and other events – including free hotel stays?
Johnson: I don’t see winning prizes as an issue. If a hotel brand hosts a dinner and gives away a stay that’s fine if it’s in line with your company policy. At our company, we do allow our people to use that stay. The question becomes: Am I picking a hotel for my meeting because I got a free iPad or enough loyalty program points to take my family on a vacation?

You also talked about intellectual property in your presentation.
Johnson: Yes. I talked about taking clients with you when you leave a company – or their contact information. Even if people will probably not find out, it’s not worth doing. In this industry, appearances are important and you should never compromise yourself because it will come back to bite you.

It’s not always easy. One independent planner came up to the microphone at my session and told about going on a site inspection trip and being provided with all these expensive activities like jet skiing and feeling compromised about it. She was very young and didn’t want to alienate her host and she has nobody within her company to ask about these things. I told her she should apologize to the vendor and reimburse them.

Have you faced any ethical issues personally recently?
Johnson: We have a client who had a big birthday recently. Her company is very strict about gifts, but we did send something nice to her home and she loved it. Am I crossing my moral compass when I do that? We did need to recognize her birthday and even if there was some icky feeling bout it, we felt it was necessary.

Will you keep doing these presentations?
Johnson: Yes, I want people to simply think about all this, to offer them guidelines. Even about things like taking a few stamps a week or paper from their offices. Always ask yourself: Am I making this decision because of what’s in it for me or because everybody does it. Those are not good reasons.

What’s next on the ethics front?
Johnson: Dr. Bruce Weinstein, who is the ethics expert for CNN (known as The Ethics Guy on the network), heard about my presentation at the pharmaceutical conference. I touched base with him and he told he would like to do joint presentations with me at planner meetings. It’s my 40th year in the industry. I’ve been thinking about these issues for a long time and I’d like to see the discussion opened up and broadened.