IPC-Incentive ROI Calculator

Courtesy of the Incentive Performance Center

Sales Incentive ROI 10%

Incentive Spending Report Link

Incentive spending level in 2008

A total of $46.1 billion was spent by U.S. companies on incentive travel and merchandise in 2006, according to the “Federation Study 2007: A Study of the Incentive Merchandise and Travel Marketplace,” sponsored by the Incentive Federation and conducted and prepared by GfK, the fourth largest marketing research organization in the world. That total represents a significant increase from the just-under-$30 billion figure that was reported in the Federation’s last comprehensive survey in 2000. It also represents $32.7 billion spent on incentive merchandise and $13.4 billion on incentive travel.

In addition to budget figures, the report looks at how merchandise and travel incentives are being used. According to the study, some 34% of U.S. companies overall used either travel or merchandise incentives last year, with 31% using merchandise and 10% making use of travel incentives. The average budget for travel incentives in 2006 was $164,271, with more than three-quarters of incentive travel end-users spending between $100,000 and $500,000. The typical budget for merchandise incentives was lower - $119,008 – and just under half of merchandise incentive users spent between $100,000 and $500,000.

BA's new high-end air franchise: OpenSkies

British Airways just received DOT approval to operate a premium-class focused airline between Paris (ORY) in New York (JFK) in June. Check out their blog: http://flyopenskies.com/

Oil and gas prices up, premium air demand down, US inflation & recession, and increased corporate compliance policies are NOT going to stand in their way. Godspeed OpenSkies, we'll be pulling for you.

MPI FutureWatch 2008 Report Out

If you're a stats & numbers sort of person (odds are, if you are reading this, you are required to be) you will enjoy this report. http://www.mpiweb.org/CMS/uploadedFiles/Mortar/FutureWatch%202008%20Report.pdf It's tough for me to read this type of report on a pdf so (sorry green people, I did however recycle the paper) I had to print it out and read it that way.

There is one fundamental flaw that keeps bugging me about this report. MPI is a great organization, don't get me wrong. I am a member. So are my colleagues, competitors, suppliers AND customers... a pretty diverse mix. So, the actual percentage of the participants in the polls that are ACTUAL END-USER PLANNERS can't be (by my best estimate) more than 30% . Which means 70% of the data is flawed. I filled out this survey and I don't plan meetings per se. But most of the people who filled out this survey (myself included) are very interested in seeing the meetings industry flourish, thus bringing my to me original point: 70% of the data is from people with an overly "sunny" disposition regarding the industry.

That being said, there are some really great points in the report. While almost all planners are being asked to make the filet mignon dinner from sandwich and potato chip budget, one thing is for certain, there are more picnics in the plans.

Socially-conscious Incentives

Design your incentives and meetings to drive behavior, reward performers, and have a societal impact at the same time. More and more companies are focusing their incentive programs to philanthropic efforts by adding charity and social work components to their events.

One of our large pharmaceutical clients established a partnership with a major transplant foundation, without any press or hoopla. They donate all the air & hotel points that their department accumulates to families who cannot afford the high cost of accompanying their spouse/children to out of town procedures. To date, they have assisted more than 30 families in this program. If you ask me, that is the sincerest form of giving, mainly because they took painstaking efforts to ensure that nobody will ever hear about it.

What would really have the most impact would be to find a needy cause that is near and dear to your business, so that you can tie it

The following are a few additional worthy causes:
Susan G. Komen: http://cms.komen.org/komen/Partners/CorporatePartners/index.htm
Toys for Tots: http://www.toysfortots.org/donate/default.asp
Build-a-Bike: http://www.leadersinstitute.com/teambuilding/buildabike.html
Habitat for Humanity: http://www.habitat.org/cd/local/
Ronald McDonald House: http://www.rmhc.com/volunteer/
Boys & Girls Club of America: http://www.bgca.org/programs/
Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/services/volunteer/0,1082,0_325_,00.html

This is not necessarily an incentive, but a great article on how an association can use their members to collectively make a huge impact: http://meetingsnet.com/financialinsurancemeetings/news/financial_services_society_0507/

As we all know, incentives are a powerful method to drive results from your sales teams. Incorporating social responsibility into your program can help build teamwork and goodwill, while hopefully generating some well-deserved PR.

Airlines adding MORE fuel surcharges

American, Continental, Northwest, United and US Airways each matched a move by Delta Air Lines to add another $20 to fuel surcharges on short- and long-haul tickets, according to airfare watchers. Tom Parsons of BestFares.com said the price hike marked the "11th successful attempt since Dec. 20, 2007." FareCompare's Rick Seaney noted that many Delta fares now carry a roundtrip surcharge of $130. "This means the total fuel surcharge combined with taxes and fees costs more than the actual base airfare on several short-haul domestic flights," according to Seaney. British Airways raised passenger fuel surcharges on all tickets, ranging from £6 (US$11.83) to a total of £26 (US$51.27) for short-haul roundtrip tickets and £30 (US$59.16) to a total of £158 (US$311.55) for the longest roundtrip flights. Other carriers recently upping surcharges include Air France, Korean Air and Thai Airways. Qantas raised all international ticket prices by 3 percent.

Incentive in Dublin

A multinational CPG manufacturer took their top performers to Dublin for a week of rest, relaxation and fun. All guests stayed at the Ritz-Carlton and were treated to daily excursions including Guinness Brewery Tours, helicopter rides, castle tours and more. BUCOM was on hand to make sure no one had to lift a finger.

Airline consolidation good for meeting planners?

United is bankrupt. Now United is merging with Delta. Oh, wait, no... United is merging with Continental. No, hang on a sec, United and U.S. Airways are merging. Delta and Northwest. Lufthansa and ….

When senior executives from the airline industry and FAA officials both have no idea what they are doing next, how are we as we as planners supposed to sift through all the clutter to ensure we are making the right decisions for our companies? With all the airlines teetering on the brink of bankruptcy (ATA, Frontier, Aloha and Skybus being recent casualties), the dark cloud of dissolution looming, how do we make strong and confident long-term decisions on preferred providers? The answer... don't.

Meeting planners who arrange meetings near airport hubs will most certainly be affected by the recent changes. The current consolidation will absolutely reduce capacity, increase demand, and increase prices in most second-tier hubs. Delta and Northwest have said that they have no plans to cut any hubs, but that seems to be a fairly premature statement. One which we've all learned, in one way or another, should not be trusted.

http://www.management.travel/news.php?cid=Delta-Northwest-merger.Apr-08.30

As for the correct answer to the question posed in this article, there is none. Every company needs to look at their own travel spend, policies and level of mandate before making any commitments. Here is a great interview with Siemens Shared Services' Director of Mobility:

http://www.management.travel/news.php?cid=Steven-Schoen-Siemens.May-08.14 which was a follow-up on this initial report: http://www.procurement.travel/news.php?cid=Siemens-policy-compliance.Jul-07.23

I posted these links because they discuss how a global company with 40 separate business units consolidated air spend with terrific results.

Where will it all end? Will it end at all? Will there eventually be one airline? I am calling for JPMorganChaseMcDonaldsPepsiUnitedArabEmiratesGoogleVisa Airlines by 2012.

Webconferencing: Technology vs. Culture

It’s going to come eventually, the question is ‘Are you ready to take your meetings online?’ Webconferencing, as a theory, has been around for years, in the back of everyone's mind... thinking it's a wonderful idea, but how do we make it happen? The initial roadblocks were centered around technical requirements and bandwidth restrictions. Now that these two shortcomings have been overcome by most technology providers, how can meeting planners ensure that their meeting objectives can still be accomplished over the web?

While most people interchange the two descriptions, there is a fundamental difference between a webcast and webconference. To me the cast suggests a one way projection, as in broadcast or cast your eyes. The new technologies available in best-of-class webconferencing technologies suggest just that- a conference. A two (or five hundred) way dialogue to gain mindshare, spread ideas and collaborate.

To successfully migrate B2B or B2E meetings over the web, planners must first focus on three fundamental criteria: strategy, tools, and implementation.

When I say strategy, I don't mean logistics or timing, but rather navigating the cultural shift necessary to facilitate consumption by the audience. While Gen X & Y generally have no problems attending a meeting over the web, how do you interpret your content so that it engages your Boomer attendees? How do we keep attendees from checking email, running to the bathroom, taking that phone call, or worst of all... tuning out completely? No, it's not designing prettier slides! The answer lies in providing interactive and blended content that not only solicits input from attendees, but interprets that data into actionable results later in the program.

Energize your online program by taking surveys, polling, asking questions, displaying results, and getting participants involved in the outcome of the program. Remember, this is not supposed to be a one-way communication. If that's what you're looking for, burn it on a DVD or send them your deck on a USB Drive.

To further captivate your audience, use a mix of live video, slide decks, commercially produced commercials, and randomly displaying different participants via webcam. Simply having a webcam focused on the presenter will not do the trick, you need to have an executive producer working behind the scenes to manage and direct the production and switch "camera angles" to provide a fresh perspective to the viewer.

Selecting the right solution from the various tools available will depend upon your strategy, amount of users, frequency and long-term plan. The leading providers are WebEx, Microsoft Live Meeting, Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, GoToMeeting, On24, Saba (Centra), Pixion/PictureTalk, Genesys, PGI NetSpoke. Convenos is an interesting option, albeit not yet ready for prime time. Similar to Facebook, Firefox and many other leading Web 2.0 programs, it is open-source and allows users to alter the code and customize the solution for their individual needs. Keep your eyes on it though, I think this is a trend that will flourish. Scalability will be the most important factor when selecting a vendor, especially when you are first starting out. The billing structures vary from a per-person/per meeting charge (WebEx), to an up-front license fee (MS Live Meeting) to a per meeting fee. We have had success with our clients because of our vendor agnostic approach and flexibility to offer the right solution for the right meeting. We maintain partnerships with the top 4 vendors and because we are technically a 'reseller', we are afforded nice volume discounts that we can pass along to our customers.

Implementation is fairly time consuming, but like most other projects, the more you do it, the better you get. Our production team has the process down to a science, whereas all implementation issues that can arise (and have arisen) are addressed well before the meeting starts. Remember, each attendee is going to have various technical issues concerning firewalls, bandwidth speeds, access to applications, and unfortunately user error. Nowadays there aren't too many more annoying things than technology standing in your way. Remember the last time your email went down?

Not only can webconferencing save time and money, but is also a huge opportunity for meeting planners to have a positive impact on the environment. Instead of asking people not to print emails in their email signature line, planners can finally demonstrate measurable results on their "Green Meetings" strategy. It’s no secret that airplanes are the most obvious offender to the environment (and one the largest line-item expenses in your budget), so shifting one meeting online can provide enormous effects on the environment in terms of carbon offsets.

Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts

Welcome to BUCOM Beat

The BUCOM Beat was created to let the inmates run the asylum, so to speak. With so many of our meeting planning team moving all over the world all the time, there were too many good stories not to share. Oh, and from time to time, we will publish articles that we think are of value to others in the meeting planning community as well.