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American Concrete Institute
Renee McAdams, Director, Event Services
renee.mcadams@concrete.org
248-848-3794

Rita K. Oglesby and Renee J. McAdams wrote an article for Concrete International magazine in July of 2003 entitled, “The Business of ACI Conventions.” Here is a reprint of that article:

· Why is the convention starting on Saturday in Boston?
· Why is the convention so early this fall?
· Why can’t you schedule the convention so that there are fewer conflicts between meetings and sessions?
· Why does ACI go to cities that are so expensive?
· Why is the convention guest room rate so high?
· Why have registration fees gone up again?
· Why are convention costs escalating?

These questions and more deserve to be answered. Thus, the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Convention Committee felt it was time to write an article about the business of ACI conventions. As most members are aware, ACI holds two conventions per year. Conventions are typically held mid-October to mid-November in the fall and mid-March to mid-April in the spring. ACI tries to avoid holidays and other industry shows whenever possible. The mission of an ACI convention is to provide a forum for committees to develop and disseminate concrete technology. Each convention has a unique set of variables and requirements. Yes, many events stay the same, but there are times when flexibility is required to hold the convention. This is true of ACI’s upcoming convention in Boston.

Why is the convention starting on Saturday in Boston and why is it so early?
Originally, ACI planned to hold a convention in Boston in the spring of 2002. In 2000, ConExpo-Con/Agg scheduled its show for the same dates as the ACI convention. Senior
ACI staff approached ConExpo-Con/Agg and asked the organization to change its meeting dates; unfortunately, their contracts had already been signed. Because the Boston market was mostly material suppliers and many of ACI’s members would be required to attend ConExpo-Con/Agg, the Convention Committee requested ACI staff to move the Boston convention if possible. The hotel agreed to move the convention outside of that fiscal year to the fall of 2003. In doing so, the convention would need to be held 2 to 4 weeks earlier than usual, start over a Jewish holiday, shift by one day, and change the guest room rates. The Convention Committee and ACI Board of Direction approved these changes. The alternative was to cancel the Boston convention and ACI incurring the liability of a $600,000 cancellation fee.

Why are there so many conflicts between meetings and sessions?
The simple answer to this is that there is not enough time in the day. We all lead busy lives. Many of you have expressed that the demands on your time from your professional and personal lives have increased, thus leaving less time to devote to other organizations or volunteer projects. Therefore, over the last 10 years, conventions have compressed from 6 days to 4 days at the request of the chairs who lead ACI’s committees. The most popular days requested for committee meetings have been Sunday through Tuesday. Some committees are now requesting Saturday so that they may take advantage of lower travel costs. ACI staff does its best to avoid the conflicts that the chairs list on their committee meeting request. With a group of 10-plus people, it is virtually impossible for a chair to avoid every committee member’s— let alone every visitor’s—conflicts.

Why can’t ACI schedule everything at the same time?
Another simple answer—there are too many requests/requirements of the convention held concurrently and not enough venue space to meet all of the requests and requirements. ACI currently holds 350 to 400 committee meetings throughout the convention. Each committee meeting requires space for 15 to 100 people plus audiovisual equipment. Thirty committee meetings are scheduled concurrently between 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., Sunday through Wednesday. In an effort to minimize conflicts and balance the number of committee meetings per day, ACI staff requests that the chair select alternate days and times for meetings to be held. There are plenty of open meeting times on Wednesday as an alternative! ACI also has 30 to 40 educational and technical sessions during a convention. ACI holds five concurrent sessions that are 3 hours in length. Each session requires space for 100 to 200 people theater style, a screen, LCD projector, podium, riser, and a microphone. The average session meeting room is 1,300 to 2,500 ft 2 (120 to 230 m 2 ). Meetings for those committees sponsoring a session are scheduled so that they do not conflict with the concurrent sessions. Again, it is literally impossible to schedule sessions around every convention attendee’s individual committee meeting conflicts unless no other events were held during sessions. This would require the convention to be longer than four days or run later in the day.

ACI also strives to provide networking opportunities at conventions. Receptions are the format used for networking. The Welcome Reception, Women in ACI Reception, Contractor’s Day Reception, Concrete Mixer, and President’s Reception all help achieve this goal. While ACI attempts to reuse function space for these events, this is not always possible due to setup requirements or time needed for these events.

Exhibits were added to the ACI convention in 1998. Initially, tabletop exhibits were added so that the host chapter had an additional means to raise funds for the events they were sponsoring at the convention. Today, ACI has 25 to 40 exhibitors in booths at each convention. While this is still a way for the chapter to raise funds, it also gets more local organizations to participate in the ACI convention. Long-time convention attendees will remember a decade ago when the Opening Reception was held on Monday, President’s Reception on Tuesday, Concrete Mixer on Wednesday, and General Session on Thursday. Today, the General Session is now the Opening Session and held on Sunday evening just before the Welcome Reception. It has been encouraging to see the number of convention attendees at the Opening Session on Sunday evening. The Concrete Mixer is held on Tuesday and the President’s Reception is now on Wednesday. The schedule changes to the convention were in direct response to a request from the ACI Board of Direction and host chapters. All of these events require more function space.

Why does the ACI convention cost so much?
The need for more meeting, session, reception, and exhibit space forces ACI into larger hotels and venues that are usually located in what are called first-tier cities (for example, San Francisco, Boston, New York City, and Washington, DC). When ACI goes to a second-tier city such as Charlotte or Vancouver, ACI often is required to use multiple hotels or venues. What is the one thing that the first-tier cities have in common? Yes, they are big, but they are also expensive. The larger venues usually translate into a larger and more expensive city. Second-tier cities are somewhat more economical, but may require ACI to split the convention between multiple venues, may be more difficult to travel to, and sometimes may not have as many attraction and restaurant options.
We have found that ACI attendees have a better convention experience when the events are held in one hotel venue.

To better understand the costs of an ACI convention, it is important to explain how hotels make their money. Although the market and owner of a hotel will ultimately dictate the revenue goals and pricing for a hotel, in general, the primary source of revenue for a hotel is through guest rooms. Second to that is function space rental. Food and beverage sales also make up a large part of a hotel’s revenue. Ancillary services, such as meals in the restaurants, in-room movies, room service, business center charges, phone calls, laundry, and other amenities for which the hotel charges are typically generators of revenue. The cost of an ACI convention has steadily risen. Cost-of-living increases of 3% in registration fees are not keeping pace with the costs to ACI from hotels and audiovisual companies for meeting rooms, A/V equipment and labor, and food and beverage service. Convention suppliers raise prices between 5 and 6% per year.

Why is the hotel guest room rate so high?
When a hotel considers or qualifies a piece of business, the number of guest rooms the
group is requesting and has actually used in the past, the amount of function space required, and the amount of food and beverage and ancillary revenue the group can
generate are all factored into setting a guest room rate. ACI typically will require all the
function space in a hotel but may only utilize 50 to 75% of the hotel’s guest rooms. This is called the rooms-to-space ratio. If the two are not equal, the guest room rate is adjusted to make up for the difference in meeting room rental the hotel could have sold to another group. In essence, your negotiated convention guest room rate covers the cost of the meeting space. If ACI paid for the meeting space, the convention registration fee would not be as economical as it currently is priced. On average, an ACI convention attendee spends 3 nights at a convention. So while we may have 1,000 to 1,500 attendees at a convention, ACI only blocks up to 750 guest rooms per night on the peak nights of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. When possible, ACI blocks 50 government rate guest rooms on peak nights (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday). Government rates vary by destination but are dictated by the government. In some cases, the government rate could be higher than the group guest room rate negotiated for ACI’s convention. This often happens in Canada. Also, not all hotels will offer a government guest room rate. Because of the larger amount of meeting space required relative to the guest rooms needed, preferences of the ACI attendees, and the way in which prices are raised, the ACI convention costs continue to increase for both ACI International and the attendee.

The promises ACI makes…the promises ACI keeps
The recession in the early 1990s severely impacted hotels and, specifically, the owners of hotels. Groups did not necessarily cancel their events but could not fulfill their guest room blocks. Hotels found that they had no legal repercussions against the group and thus performance clauses for guest rooms, meeting space, and food and beverage functions were added to contracts. When ACI enters into a contract with a hotel or venue, it promises that a certain amount of guest room revenue and food and beverage revenue will materialize. Guest room erosion occurs when attendees stay at a less expensive hotel down the street or book guest rooms on the Internet outside of the convention guest room block. As a result, ACI can be held financially responsible for the attrition or difference between what was promised and what was actually utilized. It is ACI’s policy to block guest rooms for future conventions based on actual usage. Often, ACI will utilize 3,300 to 3,500 guest room nights during a convention; however, ACI conservatively blocks 3,200 guest room nights for a convention. Hotels sometimes allow ACI to reduce this original guest room block by 10% to create an adjusted guest room block. ACI is then usually responsible for 85% of the adjusted guest room block. For example, ACI blocks 3,200 guest room nights at an average group rate of $225 per night. ACI adjusts the guest room block by 10% to 2,880 guest room nights. ACI is then responsible for picking up 85% of 2,880, or 2,448 guest room nights. If ACI only utilizes 2,400 guest room nights during the convention, ACI would be 48 guest room nights short. The hotel therefore may charge ACI 48 guest room nights x $225 per night or $10,800 as attrition owed. Similarly, ACI sometimes is asked to make a commitment for a minimum dollar amount in food and beverage expenditures. ACI is also very conservative when agreeing to this clause. Should the amount ACI agreed to not materialize, ACI may be liable for the difference between the actual amount spent and the amount agreed to in the contract. ACI staff takes great pains to negotiate the best contract with the lowest guest room rates, largest amount of function space, and lowest amount of financial exposure in some of the nicest hotels and destinations. In the future, should ACI not meet its contractual obligations, ACI could be faced with attrition fees, less meeting space to work with, and the possibility of raising registration fees.

What can members do to help lower costs?
Events are dynamic and fluid. With every new venue, the way an ACI convention is scheduled, what events are held where, the number of venues utilized, the dates of the convention, and the guest room rate change slightly for each convention. The same plans and solutions do not fit for every convention. The Convention Committee and staff, however, seek to provide consistency of events and services from convention to convention. To sustain conventions at the level members have come to expect, members must support ACI International. Members can help keep costs down for both themselves and ACI by moving a meeting to Wednesday; assessing each committee’s need for the amount of meeting space, time, and audiovisual equipment; and booking guest rooms at the headquarters hotel. To learn more about the business of an ACI convention, contact Rita Oglesby, Chair, Convention Committee (Hskwoh@mindspring.com) or Renee J. McAdams, Director, Event Services (renee.mcadams@ concrete.org or 248-848-3794).

©2004 Convention Industry Council
Contact the CIC

American Concrete Institute
Renee McAdams, Director, Event Services
renee.mcadams@concrete.org
248-848-3794

Rita K. Oglesby and Renee J. McAdams wrote an article for Concrete International magazine in July of 2003 entitled, “The Business of ACI Conventions.” Here is a reprint of that article:

· Why is the convention starting on Saturday in Boston?
· Why is the convention so early this fall?
· Why can’t you schedule the convention so that there are fewer conflicts between meetings and sessions?
· Why does ACI go to cities that are so expensive?
· Why is the convention guest room rate so high?
· Why have registration fees gone up again?
· Why are convention costs escalating?

These questions and more deserve to be answered. Thus, the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Convention Committee felt it was time to write an article about the business of ACI conventions. As most members are aware, ACI holds two conventions per year. Conventions are typically held mid-October to mid-November in the fall and mid-March to mid-April in the spring. ACI tries to avoid holidays and other industry shows whenever possible. The mission of an ACI convention is to provide a forum for committees to develop and disseminate concrete technology. Each convention has a unique set of variables and requirements. Yes, many events stay the same, but there are times when flexibility is required to hold the convention. This is true of ACI’s upcoming convention in Boston.

Why is the convention starting on Saturday in Boston and why is it so early?
Originally, ACI planned to hold a convention in Boston in the spring of 2002. In 2000, ConExpo-Con/Agg scheduled its show for the same dates as the ACI convention. Senior
ACI staff approached ConExpo-Con/Agg and asked the organization to change its meeting dates; unfortunately, their contracts had already been signed. Because the Boston market was mostly material suppliers and many of ACI’s members would be required to attend ConExpo-Con/Agg, the Convention Committee requested ACI staff to move the Boston convention if possible. The hotel agreed to move the convention outside of that fiscal year to the fall of 2003. In doing so, the convention would need to be held 2 to 4 weeks earlier than usual, start over a Jewish holiday, shift by one day, and change the guest room rates. The Convention Committee and ACI Board of Direction approved these changes. The alternative was to cancel the Boston convention and ACI incurring the liability of a $600,000 cancellation fee.

Why are there so many conflicts between meetings and sessions?
The simple answer to this is that there is not enough time in the day. We all lead busy lives. Many of you have expressed that the demands on your time from your professional and personal lives have increased, thus leaving less time to devote to other organizations or volunteer projects. Therefore, over the last 10 years, conventions have compressed from 6 days to 4 days at the request of the chairs who lead ACI’s committees. The most popular days requested for committee meetings have been Sunday through Tuesday. Some committees are now requesting Saturday so that they may take advantage of lower travel costs. ACI staff does its best to avoid the conflicts that the chairs list on their committee meeting request. With a group of 10-plus people, it is virtually impossible for a chair to avoid every committee member’s— let alone every visitor’s—conflicts.

Why can’t ACI schedule everything at the same time?
Another simple answer—there are too many requests/requirements of the convention held concurrently and not enough venue space to meet all of the requests and requirements. ACI currently holds 350 to 400 committee meetings throughout the convention. Each committee meeting requires space for 15 to 100 people plus audiovisual equipment. Thirty committee meetings are scheduled concurrently between 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., Sunday through Wednesday. In an effort to minimize conflicts and balance the number of committee meetings per day, ACI staff requests that the chair select alternate days and times for meetings to be held. There are plenty of open meeting times on Wednesday as an alternative! ACI also has 30 to 40 educational and technical sessions during a convention. ACI holds five concurrent sessions that are 3 hours in length. Each session requires space for 100 to 200 people theater style, a screen, LCD projector, podium, riser, and a microphone. The average session meeting room is 1,300 to 2,500 ft 2 (120 to 230 m 2 ). Meetings for those committees sponsoring a session are scheduled so that they do not conflict with the concurrent sessions. Again, it is literally impossible to schedule sessions around every convention attendee’s individual committee meeting conflicts unless no other events were held during sessions. This would require the convention to be longer than four days or run later in the day.

ACI also strives to provide networking opportunities at conventions. Receptions are the format used for networking. The Welcome Reception, Women in ACI Reception, Contractor’s Day Reception, Concrete Mixer, and President’s Reception all help achieve this goal. While ACI attempts to reuse function space for these events, this is not always possible due to setup requirements or time needed for these events.

Exhibits were added to the ACI convention in 1998. Initially, tabletop exhibits were added so that the host chapter had an additional means to raise funds for the events they were sponsoring at the convention. Today, ACI has 25 to 40 exhibitors in booths at each convention. While this is still a way for the chapter to raise funds, it also gets more local organizations to participate in the ACI convention. Long-time convention attendees will remember a decade ago when the Opening Reception was held on Monday, President’s Reception on Tuesday, Concrete Mixer on Wednesday, and General Session on Thursday. Today, the General Session is now the Opening Session and held on Sunday evening just before the Welcome Reception. It has been encouraging to see the number of convention attendees at the Opening Session on Sunday evening. The Concrete Mixer is held on Tuesday and the President’s Reception is now on Wednesday. The schedule changes to the convention were in direct response to a request from the ACI Board of Direction and host chapters. All of these events require more function space.

Why does the ACI convention cost so much?
The need for more meeting, session, reception, and exhibit space forces ACI into larger hotels and venues that are usually located in what are called first-tier cities (for example, San Francisco, Boston, New York City, and Washington, DC). When ACI goes to a second-tier city such as Charlotte or Vancouver, ACI often is required to use multiple hotels or venues. What is the one thing that the first-tier cities have in common? Yes, they are big, but they are also expensive. The larger venues usually translate into a larger and more expensive city. Second-tier cities are somewhat more economical, but may require ACI to split the convention between multiple venues, may be more difficult to travel to, and sometimes may not have as many attraction and restaurant options.
We have found that ACI attendees have a better convention experience when the events are held in one hotel venue.

To better understand the costs of an ACI convention, it is important to explain how hotels make their money. Although the market and owner of a hotel will ultimately dictate the revenue goals and pricing for a hotel, in general, the primary source of revenue for a hotel is through guest rooms. Second to that is function space rental. Food and beverage sales also make up a large part of a hotel’s revenue. Ancillary services, such as meals in the restaurants, in-room movies, room service, business center charges, phone calls, laundry, and other amenities for which the hotel charges are typically generators of revenue. The cost of an ACI convention has steadily risen. Cost-of-living increases of 3% in registration fees are not keeping pace with the costs to ACI from hotels and audiovisual companies for meeting rooms, A/V equipment and labor, and food and beverage service. Convention suppliers raise prices between 5 and 6% per year.

Why is the hotel guest room rate so high?
When a hotel considers or qualifies a piece of business, the number of guest rooms the
group is requesting and has actually used in the past, the amount of function space required, and the amount of food and beverage and ancillary revenue the group can
generate are all factored into setting a guest room rate. ACI typically will require all the
function space in a hotel but may only utilize 50 to 75% of the hotel’s guest rooms. This is called the rooms-to-space ratio. If the two are not equal, the guest room rate is adjusted to make up for the difference in meeting room rental the hotel could have sold to another group. In essence, your negotiated convention guest room rate covers the cost of the meeting space. If ACI paid for the meeting space, the convention registration fee would not be as economical as it currently is priced. On average, an ACI convention attendee spends 3 nights at a convention. So while we may have 1,000 to 1,500 attendees at a convention, ACI only blocks up to 750 guest rooms per night on the peak nights of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. When possible, ACI blocks 50 government rate guest rooms on peak nights (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday). Government rates vary by destination but are dictated by the government. In some cases, the government rate could be higher than the group guest room rate negotiated for ACI’s convention. This often happens in Canada. Also, not all hotels will offer a government guest room rate. Because of the larger amount of meeting space required relative to the guest rooms needed, preferences of the ACI attendees, and the way in which prices are raised, the ACI convention costs continue to increase for both ACI International and the attendee.

The promises ACI makes…the promises ACI keeps
The recession in the early 1990s severely impacted hotels and, specifically, the owners of hotels. Groups did not necessarily cancel their events but could not fulfill their guest room blocks. Hotels found that they had no legal repercussions against the group and thus performance clauses for guest rooms, meeting space, and food and beverage functions were added to contracts. When ACI enters into a contract with a hotel or venue, it promises that a certain amount of guest room revenue and food and beverage revenue will materialize. Guest room erosion occurs when attendees stay at a less expensive hotel down the street or book guest rooms on the Internet outside of the convention guest room block. As a result, ACI can be held financially responsible for the attrition or difference between what was promised and what was actually utilized. It is ACI’s policy to block guest rooms for future conventions based on actual usage. Often, ACI will utilize 3,300 to 3,500 guest room nights during a convention; however, ACI conservatively blocks 3,200 guest room nights for a convention. Hotels sometimes allow ACI to reduce this original guest room block by 10% to create an adjusted guest room block. ACI is then usually responsible for 85% of the adjusted guest room block. For example, ACI blocks 3,200 guest room nights at an average group rate of $225 per night. ACI adjusts the guest room block by 10% to 2,880 guest room nights. ACI is then responsible for picking up 85% of 2,880, or 2,448 guest room nights. If ACI only utilizes 2,400 guest room nights during the convention, ACI would be 48 guest room nights short. The hotel therefore may charge ACI 48 guest room nights x $225 per night or $10,800 as attrition owed. Similarly, ACI sometimes is asked to make a commitment for a minimum dollar amount in food and beverage expenditures. ACI is also very conservative when agreeing to this clause. Should the amount ACI agreed to not materialize, ACI may be liable for the difference between the actual amount spent and the amount agreed to in the contract. ACI staff takes great pains to negotiate the best contract with the lowest guest room rates, largest amount of function space, and lowest amount of financial exposure in some of the nicest hotels and destinations. In the future, should ACI not meet its contractual obligations, ACI could be faced with attrition fees, less meeting space to work with, and the possibility of raising registration fees.

What can members do to help lower costs?
Events are dynamic and fluid. With every new venue, the way an ACI convention is scheduled, what events are held where, the number of venues utilized, the dates of the convention, and the guest room rate change slightly for each convention. The same plans and solutions do not fit for every convention. The Convention Committee and staff, however, seek to provide consistency of events and services from convention to convention. To sustain conventions at the level members have come to expect, members must support ACI International. Members can help keep costs down for both themselves and ACI by moving a meeting to Wednesday; assessing each committee’s need for the amount of meeting space, time, and audiovisual equipment; and booking guest rooms at the headquarters hotel. To learn more about the business of an ACI convention, contact Rita Oglesby, Chair, Convention Committee (Hskwoh@mindspring.com) or Renee J. McAdams, Director, Event Services (renee.mcadams@ concrete.org or 248-848-3794).