Today's Fam' Trip: Not Your Father's Site Visit

By Gary Tufel -- Tradeshow Week, 7/10/2006

How about this for a new trend in trips intended to make one familiar with a destination? Learn something while you're at it.

Instead of a steady diet of visits to hotels, convention centers, city sights and signature restaurants, many fam' trip attendees now are being exposed to a more in-depth look at destinations and, in some cases, getting more general information that can help them in their jobs — whether they eventually book a meeting in the city they're visiting or not. As for the CVBs, executives say offering fam' trippers educational opportunities encourages greater attendance.

For example, Carla Conner-Penzabene, director of sales for the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, has a fam' trip scheduled for Sept. 7–9. The tour group is made up of CEOs who represent associations focused on education, such as the Natl. Assn. for Music Education and the Natl. Assn. of Biology Teachers. Conner-Penzabene said the bureau is providing an educational component for the approximately 35 CEOs in attendance: one session on strategic planning and another on how to find new fundraising sources.

She said the bureau would hold a second event next April, again only for CEOs, this time with a "think tank" component emphasizing the importance of diversity in the association community. About 50 CEOs are expected for that trip.

Ali Ghaemi, an independent meeting planner who specializes in the social-military-educational-religious-fraternal markets, said he's been on several recent fam' trips that offered educational sessions. The recent Meet the Greens fam' trip in Puerto Rico featured a session focusing on the impact of the new U.S. passport laws on the travel industry, laws taking effect next year that will require passports for travel to and from the United States, Canada, Mexico and much of the Caribbean, where no such requirement previously existed.

The roundtable discussion on the impact of the new passport issues was organized because Puerto Rico wanted to provide the planners with information on how the new law would affect their businesses. It also wanted to reinforce for planners the fact that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory — and a passport isn't necessary to visit. Because only about 15 percent of Americans hold passports, the issue is of concern for event planners interested in destinations affected by the changes, Puerto Rico Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Vice President and COO Ramon Sanchez said.

"I look forward to these roundtable sit-downs to talk with colleagues and suppliers," Ghaemi said. "You can do site visits anytime."

Sanchez said he believes one of his group's primary responsibilities is to educate its clients, and its fam' trips have "always had some kind of educational component."

He also asks for a little help from visitors. This year the bureau set up 15 computers with the CVB Web site and 15 with the Puerto Rico Convention Center site, asked Meet the Greens attendees to navigate the sites, and requested their feedback on the sites' user-friendliness. The information was passed on to the CVB and convention center IT departments.

"Of course, the fam' included all the traditional site visits, meals and golf too," Sanchez said.

He expects educational offerings at fam' trips to continue as a trend.

"We have to provide extra incentives such as educational components, because it's costly to conduct a fam'," Sanchez said. "Airlines aren't as willing anymore to provide seats, and just seeing hotels isn't enough for attendees. We have to educate clients and be more precise and more proactive, and inform them, not just about hotels and convention centers, but about DMCs and other providers.

"We need to get our message across, not just take fam' clients from hotel to hotel."

Ghaemi, a veteran fam' trip attendee, noted he'd learned about online RFP services during a trip sponsored by the Jamaica Tourist Board, and sports marketing during a trip to Toronto. In fact, Ghaemi himself put together a recent fam' trip to Macau, with in-house presentations by local properties like the Wynn Macau, Venetian Macau and MGM Grand Macau, on obtaining workers from the local labor pool.

But the epitome of the education-rich fam' trip was the recent one Ghaemi attended organized by Harrah's Entertainment in Las Vegas. Harrah's offered a day-long classroom seminar with multiple sessions about the company's venue operations.

"Half a day would have been adequate," Ghaemi said, noting that he found the information valuable nonetheless. "Harrah's was the closest to a real educational fam.'"

Harrah's brought in motivational speakers such as Rudy Ruettiger, Peter Vidmar and Tony Alessandra. It also took participants through the process of the facility's new-hire orientation, hoping to give them an idea of its commitment to training and customer service.

Alex Sandler, operations manager for ConvExx, said of the Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah's Entertainment fam' trip, his first, "I found the educational portion of the weekend to be one of the highlights, and I feel that educational programming during fam' trips will catch on very quickly.

"Meeting planners will begin to expect more than just a typical site visit for them to leave their offices for a few days," Sandler added.