Project Attrition

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Insurance Accounting & Systems Association
2003 Annual Meeting & Tradeshow

In 2002, the Insurance Accounting and Systems Association (IASA) faced a $200,000.00 attrition fee after they realized 54% of all the exhibitors booked rooms in non-convention hotels and 12% of the attendees did the same. Despite the fact that IASA had reduced the overall guest room block in 2002 to reflect the pick-up from its 2001 meeting, 512 exhibitors (out of 995 total) utilized the Internet to reserve low priced guest rooms. In addition, 12% of the attendees stayed in non-convention hotels. This caused an unexpected and unwelcome problem. It was critical for IASA to take action. If they did not, they were going to be faced with difficult choices thousands of associations are facing today, “Do they make up the difference by raising dues? Do they reduce member services? Or can they do something to “incent” their exhibitors and members to stay in the group blocked hotel rooms?”

The association chose to incent their exhibitors and attendees to stay inside the convention contracted hotels. Conference Director Margaret McKeon and Joe Pomilia the Executive Director needed to design a strategy to solve this problem in both the short and long term. Margaret, and her planning consultant John Bettag from Conferon, created the following plan.

The Overall Plan
1) Educate the exhibitors and attendees on the 2002 $200,000 attrition liability far in advance and well before the show materials were scheduled for distribution. Send a letter to the group; describe the problem and explain IASA’s intention to utilize a different method for registration in the following year.

2) Educate the exhibitors on the incentives and registration changes in writing. Reinforce the information and outline the incentives and registration changes in the pre-show materials. (See the list below of items that were used to entice exhibitors to stay with in the block in 2003.)

3) Offer the attendees a discount of $100.00 for every attendee who stays at a convention contracted hotel. Describe the discount in all of the registration materials and on the IASA website.

4) Arrange for the hotel guest room keys of each convention contracted hotel to be embossed with the IASA logo. (Some organizations sell this to suppliers to generate sponsorship revenue.) These room keys were to be used to show that the attendee/exhibitor did indeed, stay at the contracted hotels.

5) Identify a staff member to be available to answer any questions that occur prior to and during the meeting.

Incentives for the Exhibitors
Exhibitors that utilized IASA convention contracted hotels and made their hotel guest room reservations through the IASA Housing bureau would receive:

• Up to three (3) complimentary “Exhibitor Badges” per 10’ x 10’ booth, up to a maximum of twelve (12). Badges included:

Access to the Opening Reception, and one Continental Breakfast and one Luncheon.
Access to IASA’s Super Session (General Session)
Seven (7) Technical Session Tickets

• Additional Exhibitor Badges would be available at $35.00 per badge prior to April 4, 2003. After April 4, 2003, these badges will be $50.00. Additional badges also included:

Access to Opening Reception, and one Continental Breakfast and one Luncheon
Access to IASA’s Super Session (General Session)
Seven (7) Technical Session Tickets

• Each company would receive two (2) “Priority Points” for each hotel reservation, made at an IASA contracted hotel and through the IASA housing bureau. (IASA uses a Point System for space selection for future shows)

Exhibitors outside of the IASA block and who did not use the IASA housing bureau would not receive a complimentary allotment of badges. Each badge would cost them $100.00. No special access tickets would be attached to those badges for meals or sessions.

The plan was to create an incentive that was worth more to stay inside the group hotels then the lower cost of staying outside the group hotels. The money exhibitors saved on name badges was significant, but the priority points were extremely valuable to the exhibitors since it enabled them to get a better location for the following year’s show.

The inclusion of “Technical Session” tickets was also a big incentive for the exhibitors because it gave them the opportunity for continuing education, and another opportunity to network with the attendees outside of the exhibit hall.

There were a few questions from exhibitors as to why the new system was deployed. All of them understood the problem after it was explained. 88% of the exhibitors chose to stay in the group block as opposed to the 46% who stayed in the block the year before. If the association experienced the same guest room pickup in 2003 as it did in 2002, IASA would have accumulated huge attrition charges.

Note: Some exhibitors who showed up at the show did not know about the incentive to stay in the group hotels because an internal associate never shared the IASA information with them. On-site Margaret worked out a compromise price which made both parties happy.

Incentives for the Attendees
A $100 discount on the registration fee was given to attendees that stayed in the convention contracted hotels. If an attendee did not stay in a convention contracted hotel, they were not eligible for the discount.

By offering the discount on the registration form, the association did not have to collect the larger fee and then return it later. It is much easier to allow attendees to claim the discount and then show their room key to verify the credit.

There were NO complaints among the attendees.

In 2002, 12 % of the attendees stayed in non-convention contracted hotels, and in 2003 8% stayed in non-convention contracted hotels. Many attendees did not check rates at other hotels on the Internet sites because of the $100.00 incentive.

Summary
IASA has the history from the past three years. There was an incredible shift of rooms back to the group block. In 2001, the trend of staying outside of the convention contracted hotels had begun. By 2002 the trend was in full swing. Note that in 2002 only 69% of the meeting participants stayed in a convention contracted hotel. In 2003 –with the incentives—just over 90% stayed in the convention contracted hotels. If the association had not taken a proactive position on the issue, the 2003 attrition liability would have exceeded $254,000. That savings alone made the program an unmitigated success.

The IASA meeting did suffer a lower attendance in 2003 partially because many insurance companies had policies that prevented travel when the nation’s security alert was at “Orange or higher”. Due to the war in Iraq, the Orange level occurred many times during the time the attendees were making reservations. As a result attendance was somewhat lower than expected and there still may be some attrition in 2003. However, as mentioned above, it was far less than it would have been without deploying a Rooms Outside of the Convention Hotel (ROCH) plan in 2003. Over $17,000 in fees were collected.

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Insurance Accounting & Systems Association
2003 Annual Meeting & Tradeshow

In 2002, the Insurance Accounting and Systems Association (IASA) faced a $200,000.00 attrition fee after they realized 54% of all the exhibitors booked rooms in non-convention hotels and 12% of the attendees did the same. Despite the fact that IASA had reduced the overall guest room block in 2002 to reflect the pick-up from its 2001 meeting, 512 exhibitors (out of 995 total) utilized the Internet to reserve low priced guest rooms. In addition, 12% of the attendees stayed in non-convention hotels. This caused an unexpected and unwelcome problem. It was critical for IASA to take action. If they did not, they were going to be faced with difficult choices thousands of associations are facing today, “Do they make up the difference by raising dues? Do they reduce member services? Or can they do something to “incent” their exhibitors and members to stay in the group blocked hotel rooms?”

The association chose to incent their exhibitors and attendees to stay inside the convention contracted hotels. Conference Director Margaret McKeon and Joe Pomilia the Executive Director needed to design a strategy to solve this problem in both the short and long term. Margaret, and her planning consultant John Bettag from Conferon, created the following plan.

The Overall Plan
1) Educate the exhibitors and attendees on the 2002 $200,000 attrition liability far in advance and well before the show materials were scheduled for distribution. Send a letter to the group; describe the problem and explain IASA’s intention to utilize a different method for registration in the following year.

2) Educate the exhibitors on the incentives and registration changes in writing. Reinforce the information and outline the incentives and registration changes in the pre-show materials. (See the list below of items that were used to entice exhibitors to stay with in the block in 2003.)

3) Offer the attendees a discount of $100.00 for every attendee who stays at a convention contracted hotel. Describe the discount in all of the registration materials and on the IASA website.

4) Arrange for the hotel guest room keys of each convention contracted hotel to be embossed with the IASA logo. (Some organizations sell this to suppliers to generate sponsorship revenue.) These room keys were to be used to show that the attendee/exhibitor did indeed, stay at the contracted hotels.

5) Identify a staff member to be available to answer any questions that occur prior to and during the meeting.

Incentives for the Exhibitors
Exhibitors that utilized IASA convention contracted hotels and made their hotel guest room reservations through the IASA Housing bureau would receive:

• Up to three (3) complimentary “Exhibitor Badges” per 10’ x 10’ booth, up to a maximum of twelve (12). Badges included:

Access to the Opening Reception, and one Continental Breakfast and one Luncheon.
Access to IASA’s Super Session (General Session)
Seven (7) Technical Session Tickets

• Additional Exhibitor Badges would be available at $35.00 per badge prior to April 4, 2003. After April 4, 2003, these badges will be $50.00. Additional badges also included:

Access to Opening Reception, and one Continental Breakfast and one Luncheon
Access to IASA’s Super Session (General Session)
Seven (7) Technical Session Tickets

• Each company would receive two (2) “Priority Points” for each hotel reservation, made at an IASA contracted hotel and through the IASA housing bureau. (IASA uses a Point System for space selection for future shows)

Exhibitors outside of the IASA block and who did not use the IASA housing bureau would not receive a complimentary allotment of badges. Each badge would cost them $100.00. No special access tickets would be attached to those badges for meals or sessions.

The plan was to create an incentive that was worth more to stay inside the group hotels then the lower cost of staying outside the group hotels. The money exhibitors saved on name badges was significant, but the priority points were extremely valuable to the exhibitors since it enabled them to get a better location for the following year’s show.

The inclusion of “Technical Session” tickets was also a big incentive for the exhibitors because it gave them the opportunity for continuing education, and another opportunity to network with the attendees outside of the exhibit hall.

There were a few questions from exhibitors as to why the new system was deployed. All of them understood the problem after it was explained. 88% of the exhibitors chose to stay in the group block as opposed to the 46% who stayed in the block the year before. If the association experienced the same guest room pickup in 2003 as it did in 2002, IASA would have accumulated huge attrition charges.

Note: Some exhibitors who showed up at the show did not know about the incentive to stay in the group hotels because an internal associate never shared the IASA information with them. On-site Margaret worked out a compromise price which made both parties happy.

Incentives for the Attendees
A $100 discount on the registration fee was given to attendees that stayed in the convention contracted hotels. If an attendee did not stay in a convention contracted hotel, they were not eligible for the discount.

By offering the discount on the registration form, the association did not have to collect the larger fee and then return it later. It is much easier to allow attendees to claim the discount and then show their room key to verify the credit.

There were NO complaints among the attendees.

In 2002, 12 % of the attendees stayed in non-convention contracted hotels, and in 2003 8% stayed in non-convention contracted hotels. Many attendees did not check rates at other hotels on the Internet sites because of the $100.00 incentive.

Summary
IASA has the history from the past three years. There was an incredible shift of rooms back to the group block. In 2001, the trend of staying outside of the convention contracted hotels had begun. By 2002 the trend was in full swing. Note that in 2002 only 69% of the meeting participants stayed in a convention contracted hotel. In 2003 –with the incentives—just over 90% stayed in the convention contracted hotels. If the association had not taken a proactive position on the issue, the 2003 attrition liability would have exceeded $254,000. That savings alone made the program an unmitigated success.

The IASA meeting did suffer a lower attendance in 2003 partially because many insurance companies had policies that prevented travel when the nation’s security alert was at “Orange or higher”. Due to the war in Iraq, the Orange level occurred many times during the time the attendees were making reservations. As a result attendance was somewhat lower than expected and there still may be some attrition in 2003. However, as mentioned above, it was far less than it would have been without deploying a Rooms Outside of the Convention Hotel (ROCH) plan in 2003. Over $17,000 in fees were collected.