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The World Of Conference Centers - Statistical Data Included

Training & Development - July 1, 2001

It's been said that much of the knowledge gained from a college or university degree is out of date within 36 to 48 months. That statement can equally apply to most professional fields including training and development. Conducting training programs--whether it's for customer service, strategic planning, team building, or for myriad other purposes--is one of the reasons why the currently less-than-hot economy has had little effect on the hospitality industry in general and conference centers in particular.

Conference Center Benefits

As more and more meeting planners and trainers discover the benefits of using conference centers, they become enthusiastic repeat customers and for good reasons. Unlike hotels, where meetings are just one aspect of a property's business, conference centers focus exclusively on learning and provide an environment and infrastructure that complements and supports that focus. This is an important asset to a company in which an ROI on every meeting conducted remains a top concern. In addition, conference centers offer a client the ease and value of a well-priced, all-inclusive meeting package.

Tam Bolman is executive vice president of the International Association of Conference Centers (IACC). Founded in 1981 by an initially small group of conference center operators from universities, corporations, and commercial training centers, the association now supports the networking, education, and promotion activities of 430 members located throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

One mission of IACC is to encourage meeting planners and trainers--many of whom are still unfamiliar with the benefits of conference centers--to try one of its member centers, all of which specialize in hosting meetings for 100 people or fewer. "A conference center's sole purpose is to partner with a company to ensure that the success of its meeting and its objectives are met," says Bolman. "And that means providing a distraction-free environment to support those goals."

IACC represents both day only and overnight learning centers although lately day-only meetings are outpacing overnights. In fact, even those IACC facilities that offer overnight accommodations show that 20 to 50 percent of their meetings booked are day-only.

For a conference center to be accepted into IACC, it must pass 30 rigorous standards. Three of these are 1) that a minimum of 60 percent of meeting space in the conference center is dedicated, single-purpose conference space; 2) that a minimum of 60 percent of the total revenue from guest rooms, meeting space, food and beverage, AV, and conference services is conference related; and 3) that the conference center offers and promotes a package plan which includes such items as conference rooms, meals, and basic AV. In addition, each facility is inspected onsite before it is accepted into the association.

While many meetings are booked six months to one year in advance, many others have an extremely short booking time frame. IACC provides a searchable database of all its member conference centers on its Web site (www.iacconline.org). IACC has 235 conference centers in North America alone representing a diverse membership. For example if a client wants a recreational component to their conference, they might choose a resort conference center. Or if there is a strong educational bent to the meeting, the client might choose a university center for its onsite educational resources.

Technology as the Main Attraction

The prime resource that conference centers offer to trainers is cutting-edge technologies which are usually priced far lower than at hotels. While overheads and flip charts haven't totally gone the way of the dodo bird, most companies carry out their meeting agendas with advanced onsite and remote technology, such as Web casting and interactive Web technology. Up-to-the-minute technology demands well-qualified onsite technicians to provide this sophisticated level of support. Both corporate learning centers and colleges and universities tend to have especially strong technological resources.

Mike Fahner is vice president of sales and marketing for Aramark Conference Center Management, a premier conference center management provider. Aramark (www.aramarkccm.com) manages 40 centers in North America, nine of which are marketed to the public. Now that technology is allowing firms to replace face-to-face learning with other forms, such as computer-based training or instruction over the Internet, Fahner sees more and more of the once privately owned and operated training centers seeking out firms such as theirs to develop and sell its unused capacity.

As one of its many services, Aramark provides its clients with the IT talent to put a solution together that best suits a client's technology needs. In fact, Fahner sees technology as the driving factor in the selection of a conference facility. "If you flash back five to 10 years ago," he says, "the up-to-the-minute feature of conference centers was the telecommunications studio. While AV equipment is still used, there is now a demand for a new technology portfolio. For example, there are times when Aramark is called in to set up an entire Internet system for a group of students who are learning highly technical proprietary information. So in addition to T-1 and Cat-5 lines in the meeting rooms, we're finding that we need a mobile network system available as well. This is fast-moving technology and we're constantly looking at new features to add in order to help our clients work smarter, not harder."

As Fahner points out, in 1998 the hot technology was satellite linkups, but now that streaming video over the Internet is more popular Aramark has stopped installing a satellite dish in some centers. To be sure, there has been an absolute explosion of technology. "Just look at PDAs," he says. "Just three years ago they were cutting edge, now they're almost passe."

Many people thought that as Internet use expanded into distance learning, the demand for learning centers would slow. This has not happened in Fahner's experience. While distance learning is starting to replace the face-to-face instruction of general management topics and soft skills, it has not replaced the teaching of technical skills. "For example," he says, "not that long ago a client would use a conference center to teach selling skills to its sales staff. Now the sales student can learn some of those skills, such as how to establish rapport, from many different formats such as audio tapes, or CD-ROM, or over the Internet. Today to be a successful salesperson, you need to know how to do data-mining and manage a contact base, so while there is still a large percentage of sales meetings held at our conference centers, what is being taught in the rooms is very different from what was being taught even four years ago."

Popular Properties

Included in the nine public properties Aramark represents are Xerox Document University Training and Conference Center, located in Leesburg, Virginia, and The William F. Bolger Center for Leadership Development, located in Potomac, Maryland, both centers within easy drives of two major Washington, D.C. -area airports.

The Xerox (enter (www.conferencecenter.com) is currently undergoing a $30 million renovation that is scheduled for completion at the end of this year. The main focus of the renovation is rebuilding 951 guestrooms--literally from the cement "footprint" up. Previously only shared bathrooms were provided, which gave the rooms a dormitory-like feel, so part of the refurbishment is adding private baths to each room.

Another major renovation is installing high-speed data lines in all the guest rooms. Fahner says: "There used to be a time--and not that long ago--when a person attending an overnight training could pretty much disengage from what was happening back at the office. But today's advanced technology enables almost all work to be accomplished away from the physical office, so for many busy professionals, the job never stops.

"After a day of training, it's not uncommon for conference attendees to go back to their rooms, open their laptops, and do some of their regular work. In order to accommodate this need, our guest rooms are getting a major technological update. We are evaluating CyberGenie, a wireless connection to the Internet that will allow a person to take their laptop anywhere in the conference area, including on the grounds, unrestrained by wire or cable connections."

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