Motivation and the Economy
October 09, 2008
The 2008 Motivation Show took place as Congress was bailing out Wall Street, but attendees remained largely upbeat
By Leo Jakobson
With investment banks going belly-up and major insurers and other titans of the financial industry coming hat in hand to Congress, this would seem like a reasonable time for incentive providers to be worried about business in 2009.
And yet, while there are concerns, the attitude of many of the incentive professionals attending The Motivation Show in Chicago last month—as congressional bargaining on a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, designed to stave off growing financial panic, raged—was remarkably upbeat.
At the show, Carlson Marketing's executive vice president of global engagement and events, Fay Beauchine, said her firm has been impacted by the economy—two of the Minneapolis-based incentive giant's clients in the financial markets have merged in the recent financial market meltdown, and she considered another likely to be acquired—but not very badly.
"Eventually the dust settles," Beauchine says, "and [these companies] still have the same issue: How do I move product?" Another area that Carlson Marketing focuses heavily on, employee engagement, will become more important as companies merge and hunker down, she adds. "There is an opportunity," Beauchine says. "If [a company] reduces its budget for incentives it usually increases [budgets] elsewhere."
Paula Godar, brand communication director of Maritz Motivation, part of St. Louis–based Maritz Inc., echoes that, noting that mergers mean "there are new goals and values to communicate."
She adds: "We have not seen big changes in people's programs. They are not canceling [incentive award] trips." That said, clients are shrinking the number of attendees or trimming budgets in other ways, Godar notes.
In fact, more than a few companies are cutting incentive travel budgets, according to Incentive's Travel IQ survey, which was sent out in June and July—before the worst of the current economic crisis. Fully three-quarters of those surveyed say that reasonable cost is the most important criterion they are using to select a travel destination, and nearly half said the weak dollar had dissuaded them from planning a trip abroad. Just under half of the respondents who have decreased budgets chose less expensive destinations, more than one quarter reduced the number of qualifiers and not quite one fifth gave qualifiers more free time rather than plan pricey activities.
An interesting prediction was made by Brett Hatch, global corporate gifts manager for Motivation Show exhibitor Maui Jim Sunglasses, which sells its products primarily as extra gifts given to travel program winners in the incentive industry. Hatch says he expects the financial markets' current uncertainty to lead corporate buyers to put off decisions about next year's budgets and buying patterns until far later than usual—the very end of 2008 and possibly into the first couple of months of 2009.
As for The Motivation Show itself, a slow decline in attendance and the number of end users did not abate. But whether it was a success or not depends in large part on whom you ask.
A number of longtime exhibitors were upset by what they called a lack of buyers, and even of foot traffic on the show floor—among them Cindy Hoddeson, director of meeting and incentive sales for the Monaco Government Tourist Office, who said that she will not exhibit again next year, if the decision is left to her. And she was not alone.
On the other hand, several other prominent exhibitors were happy with the quality of attendees they saw, and felt they had garnered substantial leads. "What you'll hear from me is different from what you'll hear from other people," says Bill Termini, vice president of sales, global and domestic, for Chicago-based Hinda Incentives. "I think the caliber of traffic was great. We have gotten some opportunities, solidified relationships and entertained top clients. The show, in my mind, was terrific for us."
While official show numbers are not available, Wayne Dunham, a spokesperson for The Motivation Show, said, "Clearly there were not as many people as we hoped for," although he added that he had been hearing that the quality of attendees was good, as in years past. "We need to make the show a necessity again."
|
RSS
