Several hospitality industry leaders we interviewed recently regarding the state of the travel industry agreed that association meetings and sports-related travel are two of the few bright spots on the travel-industry horizon. The roundtable session featured Loews Hotels Chairman & CEO Jonathan Tisch; Roger Dow, president & CEO of the U.S. Travel Association; Michael Gehrisch, president & CEO of Destination Marketing Association International; J. Stephen Perry, president & CEO of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau; and Maura Allen Gast, Executive Director of the Irving (Texas) Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The comments of our roundtable participants echo those of many people in the travel industry that we have spoken with during the past six months. In times like these, destinations and hotels need to target the markets that are most likely to produce business for them and two of the best markets to be targeting right now are association meetings and sports-related travel.

The complete roundtable discussion will appear in the July issues of SportsTravel and Association News magazines as part of a special section produced in conjunction with Destination Marketing Association International titled Why Meetings Matter. To request a copy of this special section, please e-mail me.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

Aye, that is the question. Do you as the chief staff executive want love or respect? Writing in the New York Times, David Brooks reviewed a series of studies about the characteristics of successful CEOs that shed a lot of light on the modus operandi that executives bring to their jobs.

A recent study by Kaplan, Klebanor and Sorenson, according to Brooks, relied on detailed personality assessments of 316 EEOs and measured their companies’ performances. They found that strong people skills correlate loosely or, even, not at all with being a good CEO. Traits like being a good listener, a good team builder, an enthusiastic colleague and a great communicator do not seem to be very important when it comes to leading successful companies.

What mattered, it turned out, were execution and organizational skills. The traits that correlated most powerfully with success were attention to detail, persistence, efficiency, analytic thoroughness and the ability to work long hours.

In other words, warm, flexible, team-oriented and empathetic people are less likely to thrive as CEOs. Organized, dogged, anal-retentive and slightly boring people are more likely to thrive.

“These results are consistent with a lot of work that’s been done over the past few decades,” Brooks said. In 2001, Jim Collins published a best-selling study called Good to Great. He found that the best CEOs were not the flamboyant visionaries. They were humble, self-effacing, diligent and resolute souls who found one thing they were really good at and did it over and over again.

That same year, Barrick, Mount and Judge surveyed a century’s worth of research into business leadership. They, too, found that extroversion, agreeableness and openness to new experience did not correlate well with CEO success. Instead, what mattered was emotional stability and, most of all, conscientiousness—being dependable, making plans and following through on them.

All this work is a reminder that, while it’s important to be a sensitive, well-rounded person for the sake of your inner fulfillment, the business world doesn’t really care. Your world wants you to fill an organizational role.

The market seems to want CEOs to offer a clear direction for their companies. There’s a tension between being resolute and being flexible. The research suggests it’s more important to be resolute, even at the cost of some flexibility.

What these traits do add up to is a certain ideal personality type. The CEOs that are most likely to succeed are humble, diffident, relentless and a bit uni-dimensional. They are often not the most exciting people to be around.

You, of course, can model yourself in any direction you choose. The eventual molding of your style will come about partly through the direction you choose and partly through the circumstances and variables that you find yourself dealing with.

The bottom line is that you have to be comfortable in your own skin.

What do you think?

President Obama recently announced an ambitious plan for a new system of high-speed rail service that would run on 10 corridors across the United States, connecting many population centers. The planned routes would have the potential to change the way large numbers of people travel, much like the construction of the interstate highway system did a half-century ago. High-speed rail is defined as a rail line that reaches at least 90 miles per hour. There is currently only one such line operating in the U.S., Amtrak’s Acela Express, which runs between Boston and Washington.

For state and regional association executives and sports-event organizers concerned about the ease with which people can travel to meetings and events and for destinations that have suffered reductions in air service, high-speed rail may be a godsend. For more information on the proposed high-speed rail routes, visit www.fra.dot.gov.

A final reminder: The July issue of Association News and SportsTravel will include a special section titled Why Meetings Matter: Everybody Wins When Groups Travel. Produced in conjunction with Destination Marketing Association International, this special section will be distributed at numerous industry events during the coming year. For more information or to advertise in this special section, please e-mail me or call us toll-free at (877) 577-3700.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

I spent almost 40 years in the association management and trade show business. It was an exciting, stimulating adventure. There were, of course, some ups and downs, but all in all it was a great fulfilling ride.

Do I have any regrets? Yes, I do, but only two. First, I regret that I did not continue some kind of regular exercise program. You know the story: I was always too busy. Even though I constantly lectured people that there were 168 hours in a week and if you broke it down there was time to do anything you really wanted to do, I did not follow my own advice.

There were those middle years when I was still full of energy and woke up at four or five in the morning and started to jog. It lasted for a while and then I got “busy.”

A little further along I played some tennis, but just playing once a week with no additional program to say in shape wasn’t very effective.

Then, in my later years, I said, “I’ll really do it when I retire.” I have tried but quite honestly I’ve developed too many handicaps and you can’t, at this late date, get in the kind of shape you always thought you could.

My wife had a very long and active career in the apparel industry—no easy gig. At the same time she made the time to swim a mile four or five days a week. In semi-retirement, she added weight training and other aerobic exercises and cut back on swimming. The difference in her conditioning and physical shape has been overwhelming.

The other regret was that in looking back I think I short-changed my family somewhat. Yes, work was my first priority, but like the exercise program I was always too busy for, I didn’t set aside regular time with the family. It doesn’t even take days or weeks. It can be simple things like spending some time alone with each child—going to breakfast, seeing a movie, visiting a museum, anything.

There is another idea that I believe has a lot of merit: family night. Any night will do. Everyone comes home for dinner and spends the evening together, playing games and talking—no TV.

It’s a pretty good life when all you can come up with are two regrets.

What do you think?

I know you’re busy, stretched in a dozen different directions, but don’t let this amazing time of historical transformation pass you. Regardless of your political affiliation or leanings you need to absorb the impact that we are living in probably the most transformative time in American politics and government.

Think about what has happened in the last two years. This kind of change was unimaginable just a few years ago.

It all started with the presidential election, a uniquely historic event in a number of ways that will affect politics for many years to come. It’s not important who you voted for or if you voted at all. I don’t believe we have ever had an election like it. Consider the extraordinary moments:

• Hillary Clinton was an absolute shoe-in up until the winter of 2007/08

• John McCain was written off as a primary candidate in the summer of 2007 and again as a presidential candidate in the summer of 2008
• Barack Obama was not only the first electable African-American candidate, but also:
  • He came from nowhere with little experience and no strong party backing and captured the imagination and fervor of an exploding electoral base

  • He ran what I believe was the most effective campaign we have ever witnessed by utilizing the Internet to its fullest and by preaching the mantra of “change” that you could interpret any way you wanted
  • The campaign talked only in generalities with very few specifics. It worked unlike most campaigns in my lifetime. We probably knew less about how he might govern than any other elected president
• Then there was Sarah Palin. Talk about coming out of the blue. Forget whether you agree with her politics or her qualifications, she electrified the sinking campaign of John McCain and energized a huge supportive base of support like no one else who has ever popped up on the horizon

What an election cycle—wow!

Now we have finished the traditional first 100 days and it has been nothing like the first 100 days we have ever seen before. It’s unbelievable. Think about it:

• Obama is still campaigning. He is everywhere, every day, preaching his message with his convincing personality. Again and again we hear plans sketched in broad generalities with few or no specifics.

  There have been three “press conferences” in the first 100 days—More than any previous president has held. But they have not been press conferences as we have ever seen before. They have been carefully orchestrated opportunities for the president to expand. Each conference has had 13 questions from pre-selected correspondents in about 45 minutes. In other “press conferences” there probably would have been 30 or more questions in 45 minutes in what would have seemed a lot more like a free for all.

• The Obama White House has sketched out the most far-reaching significant programs to transform education, energy and health insurance. They have come with requests for huge funding without a real plan.

  In effect they have said to Congress, pass our funding requests and then you write a plan. Without the pressing economic crisis they probably could not have gotten away with this approach. The have cleverly portrayed these proposals as a way to help our long-term economic growth.

• The administration addressed the current economic crisis in the housing debacle, the moribund banking industry and the big three auto makers, and their approach has been pretty much the same: Propose broad principles of reform, throw a ton of money at it (the “Disneyland Solution”) and work out the details later.

  Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, has said what appears to be the guiding principle of this administration so far, “never let the opportunity of a crisis pass you by.”

• In the process of all of this activity our president has taken on the presence of a rock star and created more adulation in the U.S. and all over the world than we have ever seen or probably ever will again. It is magical and it has served him well.

You may or may not agree with all this administration is trying to do, but it is transformative. As Katy Kay of the BBC said, “They are rearranging the furniture of government.”

We are witnesses to the most amazing period of historical transformation in our history. Don’t be too busy to let it pass you by.

What do you think?

The July issues of both Association News and SportsTravel magazine will include our annual special section produced in conjunction with the Destination Marketing Association International. This year’s special section will be titled “Why Meetings Matter: Everybody Wins When Groups Travel.”

This special section will include:
• The importance of face-to-face meetings at a time when the convention industry is under siege
• Successfully combating the diversion of hotel occupancy taxes to general fund purposes
• An exclusive Q & A with industry leaders on the future of the travel industry

The meeting and event planners who will receive “Why Meetings Matter” generate 106 million hotel room nights annually. In addition, this special section will be distributed at industry events throughout the coming year. Extra copies will also be made available for anyone who wishes to use it for their own industry advocacy efforts. For more information on this once-a-year opportunity to reach both the state and regional association meetings market and the sports-related travel market with a single advertising buy, please call us toll-free at (877) 577-3700 or send me an e-mail today.

The music of your career doesn’t have to stop when you retire, it just give you the opportunity to play some different tunes.

Since there are less invites and the recognition begins to dwindle, at the same time there are less demands, commitments and obligations. As Sherry Lansing, former head of Paramount Studios said about management executives, “People don’t retire, they rewire.”

From my personal perspective as a now ten year retiree, there are three stages you will likely pass through in retirement. None of these passages last a specific length of time. Each person’s stage time is different in length and character.

The first is the Transition. This is the time you decide how you want to live, where you want to live and what you want to do. If you’re smart you started working on this long before the gold-watch day.

For me it led with a few false starts. I tried launching a number of business ventures, none of which materialized. Also witnessed a number of other recent retirees try to start new or competing organizations with little success. I tried some teaching, but found the effort to deliver some understanding about entrepreneurship and marketing to fresh out of high school students very unfulfilling.

I was able to start enjoying some personal travel and fell into what became a multi-year consulting assignment through a former employee. I also took up golf which easily made up for all the frustrations I left behind at the office. About the same time I found out about doing consulting projects for USAID, the United States Agency for International Development.

One problem I have observed which seems to hold back a number of retirees in transition is their difficulty in letting go of their ego and understand they are not in demand any more.

My transition lasted about three years or so and led directly into my Optimum retirement. Life was great. My health was good and afforded me the opportunity to exercise, play golf, go on bike trips and have an active social and entertaining lifestyle. It was at this point, I referred to myself as “a happy has been.” I was traveling sixteen- plus weeks a year on USAID projects as well as personal trips that inked about fifty-five countries on my passport.

The USAID projects took me to Romania, Egypt, Bulgaria, Hungry and Thailand. The mission was to help third-world business people understand and prosper in a free market economy. These four- to six-week projects also provided the opportunity for extended travel in the region.

Writing in Associations Now, retiree Regis Delmontagne—after thirty years with NPES, the Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies—said, “I have happily discovered that there is no need to leave your valuable experience behind when you retire.”

In the last two years my unsolicited Adjustment period began. Although not life threatening health issues started to encroach, I have cut out the USAID projects (I didn’t want to go to Iraq anyway) and cut back on travel, exercise and golf.

Hope to resolve the limiting health problems in the next six months or so and get back to a more active lifestyle, although at a somewhat slower pace. All in all, it is still a good life and very enjoyable.

I still like the music.

What do you think?

Last week, I had the pleasure of serving as the keynoter at the annual “Partners in Tourism” dinner organized by the Yosemite Sierra Visitors Bureau in Oakhurst, California. The dinner brought together all of the stakeholders in the travel and tourism industry in Madera County and I enjoyed making the case for why all of us need to be working together to help promote the value that meetings and group travel bring to destinations large and small.

Spreading the message of the importance of meetings has never been more important given the recent torrent of critical coverage of corporate meetings and events. I am pleased, therefore, to announce that the July issues of both Association News and SportsTravel magazines will include a special section titled “Why Meetings Matter: Everybody Wins When Groups Travel.” Produced in conjunction with the Destination Marketing Association International, this special section will include an exclusive roundtable discussion with travel-industry leaders as well as tools for meeting planners to use to help substantiate the return-on-investment of face-to-face meetings.

For more information on this once-a-year opportunity to reach both the state and regional association meetings market and the sports-related travel market with a single advertising buy, please call us toll-free (877) 577-3700 or send me an e-mail today.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

Tim Schneider will be in the Palm Springs area, March 19-22, for the BNP Paribas Open; Ann Shepphird will be in Fort Worth, March 20-22; Lisa Furfine, Tim Schneider and Jason Gewirtz will be in Los Angeles, March 22-23, for the World Baseball Classic Championship; Lisa Furfine, Tim Schneider and Jason Gewirtz will be in Denver, March 23-27, for Sport Accord; Lisa Furfine will be in Miami, March 31 - April 5, for the World Congress of Sports and the Sony Ericsson Open; Yvonne Garcia will be in Ottawa, April 14-16, for the CSTA Sport Events Congress; Carla Guzzetti will be in Chicago, April 1-2, for Affordable Meetings Mid-America; Lisa Furfine, Tim Schneider, Carla Guzzetti and Ilana Edell will be in Santa Monica, April 16-18, for the AFCI Locations Trade Show.

WE’RE HERE TO SERVE YOU AND WE LOVE TO SEE YOU WHEN WE’RE TRAVELING! Please call us toll-free at (877) 577-3700 or e-mail us if we can be of service in any way or if you’d like to schedule a meeting with us when we’re in your area. Until next month, thank you for supporting the communities we serve! And for the good of our nation, please join us in endorsing the U.S. Travel Association’s Meetings Mean Business campaign and sign the petition to Keep America Meeting!