Meeting Planners: Make the Most of Your Valuable Data
We're all working in a high-demand period. For lots of reasons, meeting planners are buying short-term, which creates a virtual jump ball for availability. With that in mind, hotels, convention centers and destinations are evaluating your statistics. Your data. Suppliers are evaluating the value of your business prior to proposing rates, dates and space. It's survival of the fittest, or at least survival of the most prepared.
All business transactions leave a financial footprint and yours is unique to your event or the business you generate. Do you know your true value? Are you leveraging your buying power and backing it up with real data? You should be.
To calculate your trackable direct spend, add your room rate, historic F&B spend, historic A/V spend, most recent operational costs and rental, then multiply that total by the historic number of hotel rooms you utilize (both in and outside of your official block). Combine this with the assumed ancillary revenue associated with your attendees' cups of coffee, parking, dinner, souvenirs for the kids at home and other assumed conference associated costs, and you have your economic impact.
In addition to economic impact, your DMO representative can help you include the following information in your RFP:
- Estimated tax revenue your group will generate for the city and state in which you are meeting.
- The number of full-time jobs or employees (FTEs) your meeting, conference or convention will support.
- How your higher percentage of fly-in guests positively impacts the overall value to the destination.
In many cases, planners don't understand the full breadth of their buying power, but I can assure you that most suppliers do. Many CVBs, including GoProvidence, use an industry-researched, developed and maintained economic impact calculator that sorts key financial data points associated with a group and calculates the estimated financial impact. We do an estimate before the opportunity is sourced to the marketplace so everyone can see the value of the business and its potential impact on the destination.
Planners who don't express this value can find themselves competing for dates with another group which may be of lesser value to the destination. Demand is high and revenue managers are in control. Providing information up front significantly strengthens your buying power.
The next time you source a city via a CVB or DMO, ask them to run a calculation prior to sourcing the business to the market. Chances are that this value may place you in the driver's seat.
Author
Tom Riel
Tom Riel is the Senior Vice President at GoProvidence, where he has been working since 2014. Before that, Tom had a 22-year sales career with Marriott, and he is currently a member of the Destinations International Convention Sales & Services committee. In his free time, Tom loves to cook and can usually be found spending summer weekends on Cape Cod.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the economic impact of a meeting?
A meeting’s economic impact is the total spending it generates in a destination, including hotel rooms, food and beverage, A/V, venue rental, and attendee spending on things like meals, parking, and souvenirs.
- How do I calculate my meeting’s economic impact?
Start with your direct spend, including room rate, historic food and beverage, A/V, and operational costs, then factor in your historic room usage and estimated attendee spending. Your DMO can run a full calculation for you.
- Why does economic impact matter when booking a meeting?
Hotels, convention centers, and destinations evaluate the value of your business before proposing rates, dates, and space. Knowing your economic impact strengthens your buying power, especially during high-demand periods.
- What data should I include in my meeting RFP?
Along with your meeting specs, include your economic impact, estimated tax revenue for the city and state, the number of jobs your event supports, and the share of attendees flying in.
- Can GoProvidence calculate my meeting’s economic impact?
Yes. GoProvidence uses an industry-standard economic impact calculator and can provide an estimate before your RFP goes to hotels and venues.
- How do I plan a meeting in Providence?
Contact the GoProvidence Sales team to get started. They offer free, personalized help with venues, hotels, and planning your meeting in Providence.
