Heidi Genoist

Market Conscience
June 7, 2007

Earlier this week, I participated in a panel at the Las Vegas Intl. Hospitality & Convention Summit, produced by the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

It was a “crystal ball” session, in which the two other panelists (marketing consultant Stan Aaronson and Rebecca Smith, executive director of the Teamsters Local 631’s convention training program) and I were supposed to give our predictions for the industry’s future.

The moderator, Stuart Mann, dean of the hotel college, covered a broad range of relevant topics: from private-equity investment in the industry to how the rising number of retired baby boomers would affect business. My co-panelists gave interesting predictions on branding, the labor market and other aspects of the future of face-to-face.

After all that, Mann opened the floor to questions. Although there were a couple about technology and destination marketing, the one that generated the most discussion was about costs. When, if ever, one attendee wanted to know, would Las Vegas price itself out of the market?

Although the answer – that costs will rise and fall according to what the market can bear – seemed satisfactory, there was an awkward lull at the end of the discussion that I thought about later.

I wondered if it was the industry’s conscience speaking in this pregnant silence. The “market” after all, in this case, means exhibiting companies, sponsors – those typically absent from these so-called “industry meetings.” What we’re really saying is that convention and exhibition organizers and their suppliers will continue to raise prices until their customers can’t take it anymore.

Sound economic theory? Maybe. But good business practice? That’s another question.

Posted by Heidi Genoist on June 7, 2007 | Comments (0)