Call on the Mavens

San Diego —Four industry leaders have formed an unconventional partnership to offer new and innovative education to meeting planners.

The collaboration, called Mavens Network, is comprised of independent planner Daphne Meyers, of the Red Barn Group; association management expert MaryAnne Bobrow, of Bobrow & Associates; supplier marketer Cris Canning, of Hospitality Ink; and sponsorship and sales expert Jeanne Eury, CEO of Lodestar Group.

Principally, the Mavens Network will educate groups of planners on four key areas: best practices for applying the tools emerged from the Convention Industry Council's (CIC) Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) initiative, strategic partnerships, ethics, and "hot topics," which could be any industry issue or any general business issue with meetings implications. The Mavens plan to eventually give talks to general business clients.

"Our clients get an expert in each of us and a broad expert in the Mavens as a whole," said Eury. Meyers added, "Putting us all together, we offer a much more complete mindset on issues."

Regarding APEX's Toolbox, Meyers said independent planners have been reticent to deploy it because they fear the product is a "meeting in a box" and makes them obsolete.

"We're showing that [the Toolbox] lets them work more smoothly and actually gives them an edge because it's more efficient," said Canning. The CIC is fully supportive of the Mavens' efforts, as it wants people in the industry promoting APEX, said Canning, who once served on the organization's Certified Meeting Planner designation board.

CIC president Mary Power told MeetingNews that guidelines for APEX educators are currently in development.

Strategic partnering is a particular topic that attendees have craved at talks led by the four principals. Education on that topic has been lacking, Bobrow noted. "We all hear the term 'strategic partnerships' mentioned, but when you go to sessions on it, all you hear about is networking," she said.

The Mavens promise more. "We are talking about ongoing, truly strategic, business-type partnerships," Meyers said. The Mavens will respond to concerns such as: How do you figure out what you'll offer and not offer? Do partners offer services that overlap? How do you delineate the partnership from your own business?

In fact, their alliance — an arrangement that allows all four principals to work together while maintaining their own businesses —is an unusual real-world partnership approach.

Other than providing talks on request, the four are talking to convention and visitors bureaus about providing education during familiarization tours as an enticement to planners, according to Bobrow.

The Mavens will bring to bear their differing views on each topic, providing clients with a "holistic" take on matters.

For example, "if Cris gives a talk about public relations, I can provide information about how valuable the press is to sponsors and how an effective press and public-relations program can impact the value of sponsorships for a show," said Eury. "It allows our clients to maximize our individual expertise."