Acceptance Speech, WEC 2005, Sunday, July 11, Miami, Florida, USA
Demonstrate ROI. Share it with the stakeholders. That's what we keep hearing from MPI. Demonstrate the value of the meeting and provide a detailed report to guide future meetings.
It makes sense. So much so that when Sea to Sky Meeting Management took on the management of the 2004 Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering Conference, and once I got to know the project and the stakeholders, I saw an opportunity to take the conference to the next level. As many of you know, international associations move their annual meeting from country to country and are sometimes directed largely by local volunteers on board only for one meeting. The knowledge and expertise gained from one meeting to the next is often lost as volunteers change.
Our clients, local chairs Jon Mikkelsen and Sander Calisal, are two professors at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. They have full time jobs, and as volunteers, needed help managing this annual international conference of 500 people. Not only were our clients volunteers, but so were the people they reported to, the Executive committee members of the Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering Division, part of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Having a strategic approach: setting objectives, creating a plan as to how they would be achieved and then producing a final report to demonstrate how they were achieved was not an expectation of our client's, but I made it a requirement none the less. You see, I believe as Meeting Professionals we are responsible for drafting a final report upon conclusion of the meeting or event. Besides summarizing the framework, objectives, content, and statistical information on demographics, registration, and hotel room pick up, a final report demonstrates how the meeting objectives were achieved, outlines the results, and makes recommendations for improvement the next time around. You and I are responsible for drafting this report for every event we manage, no matter how big or small, even when it's not requested.
We have to do this. Not only because the stakeholders will know that they are getting their money's worth from a professional who is a key member of their team, but because you, or the next meeting planner, will be glad to have this information, all neatly contained in one document, when planning begins for the next meeting. Also, suppliers will thank you when you start negotiating contracts, especially the hotels. They will be your new best friends.
When we submitted our final report for the Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering Conference, the Division had for the first time in its history a document that the next meeting planner and volunteer committee could reference. We were not doing ourselves out of a job. We were sharing information and knowledge, spreading our expertise, and demonstrating our true value to the people who hired us. In fact, the volunteers organizing the 2006 conference in Hamburg, Germany hired Sea to Sky to manage their conference!
I have to admit that when I saw the opportunity to take the conference to the next level I also saw an opportunity to win the Global Paragon award. I figured that since we were writing this detailed report that addresses the criteria that the award's submission requires anyway, why not take the process one step further and submit an entry for the award. So we did. It also goes back to a goal I set for myself when I founded Sea to Sky Meeting Management four years ago.
So you see, when MPI says demonstrate ROI and share it with the stakeholders, it's best to listen and act on its advice.
It is a pleasure and a great honour to accept this award. The Sea to Sky team, the suppliers we worked with, our clients, the volunteers of the division, and ASME are so very proud. I thank them and I dedicate this award to them, to our past and current clients without whom this honour would not have been achieved. Thank you. |
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