Web Usage By Planners Is Skyrocketing, Survey Says

Nashville — At an educational event where the web was a frequent topic of discussion in seminars and during breaks, it was appropriate that one of the major news events was the release of a study on how planners are utilizing the Internet.

The report revealed the extent to which the web has penetrated the industry: Of 600 planners and 600 suppliers interviewed by JD Power, 100 percent said they had access to the online world.

The study, co-sponsored by Meeting Professionals International and PlanSoft, was made public at MPI's Professional Education Conference held Jan. 30-Feb. 1 at the Opryland Hotel here.

While sending email was the most common activity (87 percent said they used the web to do this), hard-core planning tasks are also being carried out online by large numbers of planners. More than 80 percent of planners said they research cities, locations and suppliers on the web.

And at the next level of utility — actually carrying out business transactions — 45 percent of planners said they distribute requests for proposals online, and 43 percent provide housing or registration to attendees via the web.

"Just one year ago, I'm sure those percentages would have been less than 5 percent," said David DuBois, MPI's COO. "The speed at which planners are adopting the Web is simply amazing."

But not all categories of planners are doing so at the same rate. Independent planners, the study's authors noted, are far ahead of their corporate and association counterparts on the usage curve.

The numbers from suppliers back up this view of the web as an increasingly key medium for booking space. Seventy-seven percent of facility executives and 61 percent of CVB executives indicated they are receiving more e-RFPs now than six months ago. And they're not just receiving more, but lots more: an upward spike in the past six months of 42 percent for facility executives and 37 percent for CVBs.

And the web is only going to become more important for many planners. Forty-seven percent of planners said they expect to spend more time on line in the next six months (with 49 percent saying the amount of time would be the same).

Of those who say they will spend more time, the number-one reason was to do more research and boost job efficiency, followed by purchasing products, working off-site, handling housing and registration, managing online learning projects, and attending online meetings.

The study also showed that planners are far more likely to visit sites of individual suppliers (like a hotel chain, a specific airline or a CVB site) than sites that attempt to offer a comprehensive listing.

Fifty-five percent of planners said they conduct research at individual hotel sites, 35 percent at CVBs, and 32 percent at airlines, but only 20 percent at integrated site-selection/RFP sites that offer all of the above in a single site. Seventeen percent said they do supplier research at industry magazines.

The study argued that to become more efficient planners must be more willing to aggressively move to a transactional environment, where they would send RFPs online and conduct housing and registration online. And, the study contended, planners will have to make better use of the "clearinghouse" sites — like co-sponsor PlanSoft — for research rather than visiting individual supplier locations.

FAR-OUT EDUCATION: A new alliance between MPI and the Mexican Government Tourism Office will allow the association to offer its first distance-learning program for members.

MPI has been seeking support and sponsorship for the expensive endeavor for some time. In exchange for $125,000 in funding, MPI will create a handbook on how to conduct meetings in Mexico.

Under the program, MPI members will be able to purchase, at a yet-unspecified price, online education modules in a variety of specified topics. The program will begin with one or two modules, estimated to cost $30,000 each, in broad areas of meeting planning that would maximize its benefit to the most members. More specialized topics would follow.

"This agreement will allow MPI to use technology to distribute educational and informational modules around the world," said Ed Griffin, MPI's president and CEO.

MPI's rapid growth in recent years to almost 18,000 members has caused it to examine innovative ways to distribute information and education to members. The distance-learning program could become an important source for the many thousands of members who do not attend the group's national conferences, especially those who are located abroad.

MPI is interviewing adult-learning companies to create the modules; the firstis expected to be available by June.

SURVEY ON TAP: American Express has agreed to sponsor an MPI survey of corporate meeting management practices, it was announced at the PEC.

MPI will survey its corporate planner members this quarter, aiming to establish benchmarks for meeting management practices employed by businesses today. The survey will examine the use of automation for planning; methods for assessing the value of meetings for stakeholders (attendees, management, suppliers); procedures to process vendor billing and payment; how companies collect and leverage spending data for meetings; and other topics. Results will be announced at MPI's World Education Congress 2000, July 9-11 in Los Angeles.GLAMOUR GIGS: Forget the education. Forget the networking. Four lucky PEC attendees got to live out once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Three winners of a drawing held at a pre-Super Bowl pep rally were whisked off in Gaylord Hospitality's corporate jet to attend Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta that night. The three — Judi Billinghurst of Gillette Canada, Sarah Dale of the Commonwealth Conference & Events Center in London, and Gina Gialde of American Century Investments — were back at Opryland in time to attend the next day's 8 a.m. sessions.

Then, at a special event for select planners, Opryland hosted a dinner on the actual stage of the Grand Ole Opry. A special guest performer, country-music star Linda Davis, asked for an audience volunteer to help her sing the duet, "Does He Love You." Keri Koenig, associate manager of conference and event management at AT&T in Basking Ridge, N.J. was soon up and singing on the same stage where stars like Hank Williams, Garth Brooks and Reba McEntire have performed. The critics' consensus: Koenig sang well.