Global Leader: Deborah Sexton

When Deborah Sexton, CEO and president of the Professional Convention Management Assn., says she understands what a bureau is going through in its efforts to snag more citywide conventions, she means it.

She also gets it when someone in the hotel industry comes to her and says they've experienced a drop in bookings and they need to drum up more business.

Even if someone comes to her and bemoans the state of the airline industry, she can relate.

After all, Sexton started out with the airlines before moving through positions in the hotel business, as well as heading up the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau and taking on her current leadership role at PCMA.

All of this experience also has given her the unique ability to strike a balance between the supplier and meeting planner sides of personalities that make up PCMA's membership.

Her knowledge and passion of the industry also have been evident in her support of numerous educational opportunities for the association's members and her desire to see an overall greener industry.

In the run up to the association's annual meeting, Jan. 8-11 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Sexton spoke with TSW Senior Editor Rachel Wimberly about reaching out to the members.

Question: How does your background work to your advantage heading up PCMA?

Answer: Because I was a member of PCMA for such a long time, I think that I understand the membership very, very well, both from a supplier perspective, as well as (from) a planner or an association executive perspective.

I think that allowed me to hit the ground running, knowing what had transpired within the organization and how to quickly try to turn it in the right direction and get the focus back on education.

Q: What are some of the biggest issues facing convention managers right now besides the economy?

A: Well, constantly being able to provide or push a new experience for their attendees ... and (making) sure that they maximize the number of people at the events.

Budget management is always an issue. Negotiations are always an issue, although I think they are getting a little easier, but these are always the top priorities of the planners. The economy, of course, is the biggest issue right now.

Q: How is PCMA working with its members in dealing with the economic downturn at the annual meeting?

A: At our upcoming meeting, we have Jeremy Siegel with (the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania) speaking to the general session on Tuesday morning about the economy. There (also) are a number of sessions on budget management (and) budget revisions. We're doing everything we can. We're pulling experts together from various shows to talk about how they've been successful in maximizing their attendance.

Another challenge that the planners have is doing more with less. (It's not) only planners that suffer from this, but clearly organizations are cutting back, yet, in many instances, requiring more.

Q: You have talked about how PCMA members can “work smarter.” What do you mean by that?

A: Because everyone's so busy, sometimes they are saying no before they're really thinking clearly what they're saying no to.

In other words, if there's good, solid education out there that's going to help people be better at what they are doing, you've got to take the time to take advantage of that.

Q: Are there any reports of attendance drops at conventions so far?

A: It's all based on industry. There have been some, but I frankly think in the fall, it wasn't necessarily tied as much to the economy – although there might be some of that – as to the value of the actual event.

You have to look at each one of these individually to determine what the reason is. Frankly, one of the reasons we haven't seen too (many drops) is that much of '08 was already budgeted, and so people now are getting together ... still in the fourth quarter to talk with their peers about “what do you think is going to happen going forward?” Because there's tremendous uncertainty out there and to be with other people in the same circumstances is a positive.

Q: How do PCMA's supplier and meeting planner members mesh? And how are the suppliers working with the planners in these tough times?

A: One of the things that's so unique about PCMA is that the members develop very strong relationships because we don't have a tradeshow, thus we do not have a buyer-seller mentality. It's really more peer-to-peer learning. So, generally speaking, the relationships are very, very strong that are developed within the PCMA membership.

There are all kinds of negotiations that have been going on always, and I think they will continue to go on. But, again, it's tied to solid relationships in my opinion.

Q: Have you heard of groups dealing with budget cuts? And what's being cut right now?

A: There are some that have not only had budget cuts going forward, but some that are anticipating a request for potential budget cuts. I think that our members are thinking about and looking at various ways in which you can tighten up the expenses. One of the ... easier ways is food and beverage.

Now, I don't think our buildings and our hotels want to hear that, but the reality is that's an easy way to go in and start to sharpen your pencils a little bit and possibly remove some of the extras within food and beverage.

Q: How is PCMA, particularly now, pursuing new members?

A: We're continuing to do as we have always done. At PCMA, it's really not about being the biggest, it's about being the best, and our membership is the senior-level category. We look at various market segments that we think we can benefit from and we continue to plod through that and market to those segments.

For example, a great number of our members are responsible for the tradeshow component of their organizations' meetings. But yet, there are still a lot of convention management people that might not be affiliated with us, so that's an area that's available to us.

Q: How are you reaching out internationally?

A: It's very interesting. We are a little different than the other industry organizations currently that I have been observing, because we're not about growing membership internationally necessarily.

We're not turning away members internationally, but we're not about building chapters around the world. What we are about is providing education for our members who host meetings outside of U.S. borders to be the most professional. Give them the tools, give them the information (and) connect them to the sites that will help them be more professional when leaving the borders.

Q: How is PCMA attracting youth into the industry?

A: We probably have – oddly enough because our membership is generally comprised of the senior-level individuals within the industry – one of the strongest student chapter programs in the industry ... if not the strongest.

We reach out and provide education, such as online tools, for students. We also bridge the gap. After they graduate, if they stay as a student member with us, they can continue to do that for three-plus years, as long as they don't drop the membership.

Q: How do you keep the students interested in the industry?

A: I think one of the things that is unknown – and we have not as an industry done a very good job of promoting – is what an exciting, broad industry this is.

I think that I'm a perfect example of someone who evolved through the hospitality industry. I started with the airlines. I went from there to a hotel position. From a hotel position, I went (from) an onsite hotel position to a regional office. From there, I went to a convention bureau, and from there, I went to an association. All of that's available.

There (are) links and you can see how it all comes together, but we've never marketed it as broad as it can be.

Q: How has the role of technology evolved in convention planners' lives?

A: You can either be in control or out of control with technology. It can either work for you or you work for it. I think there have been magnificent tools created to help us be more efficient and professional and move faster within the industry.

But, you can also get bogged down in this and that, ... (and) face-to-face relationship building is also still critical. I don't believe technology is going to take over what we do, it's just there to help us to be better, faster and more efficient.

Q: You said at the 2007 annual meeting in Toronto that PCMA would not hold its annual meeting in a venue that didn't have certain green standards. How has that played out?

A: Beautifully. In fact, obviously, we had great opportunities (in 2008) in Seattle to work with the bureau and (the Washington State Convention & Trade Center) and to continue with our greening initiative.

It is written into our RFPs. There are minimum standards, and they are minimum I will tell you, as far as recycling and things of that nature that must, must be in place at any center that we go to or we won't consider them.