IACC Cites A Member As 'Best Of The Best'

Chicago — Picture a conference center without sleeping rooms, tucked away in an office building and heavily reliant on word of mouth because it doesn't want to spend money on advertising. Not exactly an inspiring place, right?

Guess again.

The Summit Executive Centre here was just awarded the International Association of Conference Centers' first-ever Best of the Best award as a result of all the facility does to ensure its customers have a successful experience.

To accomplish that, the Summit asks all employees to contribute ideas for ways to enhance the facility; gives each guest Silly Putty to stimulate brain cells through touch; and pumps music — usually Mozart — into meeting rooms before sessions to stimulate the auditory senses.

On the design front, inspirational quotes appear on the Summit's walls, art is displayed throughout the facility, and meeting rooms are painted in cool, dark colors to help attendees focus on visual presentations and for informal discussions.

"They've really given thought to how all these things fit together," said Steve Smith, director of quality services at IACC and overseer of the association's best practices forum, under which this award program falls. The association has not yet decided whether it will bestow this honor to a center every year, but in this case, Smith said, "the judges said the award should certainly go to a center as comprehensively focused on best practices as this one."

IACC has, for the last three years, given awards to centers for a "best practice" in five categories: conference services and planning; sales and marketing; conference dining and breaks; human resources recruiting and retention; and room technology and design.

The Summit also topped the room technology and design category.

"Our core business is to help educate people,"said John Potterton, Summit's director of business development. "That drives everything we do and makes ideas, such as providing the Silly Putty, easy to come up with."