In my last blog I outlined what I perceive to be the eight emotional stages of event management. Let’s discuss a little more stages 6, 7 and 8; depression, exhaustion and recovery. I think they all tend to blend together somewhat and are not as easily separated as the earlier stages.

In the letdown after it’s over, you have to be careful. It’s important to maintain your vigilance and be on guard because the depression and exhaustion is coming.

Early in my career I was given responsibility for putting together and running an awards banquet. This was my first solo responsibility and I was anxious to do it right. It all went off quite well and when it was over I stayed to pack up all the props and paraphernalia.

It was a warm summer night. The hotel had turned off the A/C, so I took off my new blazer to get everything wrapped up and put in my car. When finished I went into the bar to fetch my boss who I had to drive home. He appeared pleased with the night’s event and invited me to have a drink.

We didn’t stay too long and when I got home I realized I didn’t have my brand new blazer. Early the next morning I called and went back to the hotel, but there was no sign of it. If I didn’t feel bad enough now, I knew I had to face the wrath of my wife.

That was my first lesson in vigilance. A few years later after a first very successful consumer show, I had agreed to accept an invitation to attend a session of the Arizona Academy as a “recorder”. The academy was a group of high profile civic, business and academic leaders who met twice a year for four days to discuss and make recommendations on issues of importance to the state.

I had worked night and day for more than a year to produce this event and when it was over I was exhilarated with the success and exhausted. My job as a recorder was to summarize the discussions of my breakout group to the group, as well as the plenary session at the end of each day. The task was interesting but demanded a lot of attention.

It was difficult because I was over tired, couldn’t sleep and was “wired” to the hilt. My performance as a recorder was not my finest hour.

I learned I needed to be more careful about the invitations I accepted.

About the same time as my event aftershock I had occasion to talk with a gentlemen who ran a counterpart organization in another city. He told me after his show he would go to bed for 5 or 6 days. I was young and thought he must be kidding. Made more fun of him than I should have.

As I advanced in years I never went to bed for 5 or 6 days, but I better understood why he did.

When the event is over you have to be careful and cognizant of these last stages in the event let down. Each of us is different and has to find the right amounts of rest, solitude and increasing levels of exercise and socialization that works best for our recovery.

What do you think?

I first became aware that a pattern exists in the emotional and physical stages of producing an event or managing an extensive project when I read the book “Seven Crises” by Richard Nixon. In the book, the former president described the events that occurred during critical times in his life.

Although the real purpose of the book appeared to be Nixon’s need to justify his actions during each time of crisis, what struck me was how Nixon went through the same emotional and physical stages in each of the described situations. Nixon detailed the excitement, the tension and the energy it took to pour himself into each of his crisis situations. He depicted the singular focus he employed in his activities during each crisis and the abrasive effect it had on his family, friends and co-workers. According to the book, Nixon’s most vulnerable point in each crisis surprisingly occurred after the crisis was over. It was at this point in time that Nixon admits he committed his greatest errors.

It was after it was over that Nixon excoriated the press for aiding his opponent in defeating him for Governor of California and chastised the two young State Department aides for his mistaken belief they had mishandled the crowd control during his trip to South America. He admitted to similar misjudgements in the hearings on Alger Hiss and the rest of his critical moments in the public spotlight.

As I began to reflect on Nixon’s plight, I realized that although his crises played out on a much higher plane, it’s really the same for all of us in the event- and project-planning business.

As I see it, and confirmed from Nixon’s book, there appear to be eight emotional and physical stages that occur for most event producers and project managers:

1. Excitement. This is when the initial energy starts to bubble. You can’t wait to get started.
2. Intensity. This stage adds the energy and commitment to get it all done.
3. Apprehension. What if no one comes to the event?
4. Wired. It’s about to happen. The tension mounts. This is when it becomes hard to communicate with family and co-workers. You do not want to be distracted.
5. Elation. The event was a success.
6. Depression. It’s over—be careful.
7. Exhaustion. You feel like a zombie.
8. Recover. You get back to normal.

You may not experience each of these states exactly as I have described them, but you will probably go through most of them in one way or another. Because these stages come into play time and again, it is important to recognize and prepare for them.

Alert the people around you to stages 3 and 4 and tell them you may be a little short with them. Be especially careful in stages 6 and 7. Those are the most critical times to misread or offend.

What do you think?

Whenever a destination makes the decision to host a sporting event—whether it’s the Olympic Games or a lower-profile competition—there’s usually discussion of the event’s direct economic impact and oftentimes a discussion of the long-term legacy of having hosted the event.  While economic impact is something that can be measured fairly quickly, evaluating the true legacy of an event takes much longer. That’s because years must pass before you can make an informed judgment as to whether or not the event has had a long-term beneficial impact for the host destination.

As the world prepares for the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, it’s appropriate to look at the legacy that was left by that event the last time it was staged in North America: the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Utah. According to tourism officials in Salt Lake City, Park City and Ogden, Utah, their three cities demonstrate the transformational impact of hosting a major sporting event. The most visible of those changes was probably the general infrastructure improvements made as a result of the 2002 Games (including new hotels, improved ski resort amenities, a revamped freeway system, a new light-rail service for the Salt Lake Valley and new passenger train service connecting Salt Lake and Ogden).

But, according to those officials, the long-term impact includes other less visible effects. The tourism officials cite a sustained increase in the number of people who visit Utah each year (20.4 million in 2008 versus 17 million in 2000), growth in Utah “skier days” (4,259,000 in 2007–2008 versus 2,984,000 in 2000–2001), and a tourism infrastructure that generated $7.1 billion in spending in 2008 versus $4.25 billion in spending in 2000. Perhaps most importantly, the tourism industry in Utah now provides 113,030 jobs versus the 100,674 jobs it provided in 2002.

According to tourism officials, Utah has also become a training ground for winter athletes thanks to the access they have to world-class venues, coaches and high-level competition. From an event perspective, according to the Utah Sports Commission, the state has hosted more than 350 sporting events since 2002, which have generated more than $1 billion in economic impact, and the state continues to host major sporting events at both Olympic and non-Olympic venues.

Officials also point to the legacy of economic growth and prosperity that translates into ongoing economic development for the state. In the years since hosting the 2002 Games, several outdoor-recreation companies (including Rossignol, Descente and Amer Sports, parent company of Salomon, Atomic and Suunto) have relocated to or expanded their operations in Utah. The national governing body for speedskating also relocated to the state following the 2002 Games.

The elected officials of destinations considering bidding for sporting events large and small would do well to consider Utah’s experience and the coordination that exists there between the statewide Utah Sports Commission and the convention bureaus representing Utah cities. The lessons learned in Utah speak volumes regarding the potential benefits that can be derived from hosting sporting events and can be applied to communities and events of all sizes.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

Almost 35 of the 45 years of my business career have been spent in and around the nonprofit association community. It has been a fascinating adventure filled with the excitement of many victories and accomplishments, while facing a great variety of challenges, as well as a few small defeats.

During the last 25 of those years, I have tried to maximize my efforts to find ways to expand my income by serving the nonprofit sector as an independent management contractor. I have been somewhat successful in pursing this goal but all the while puzzled by a strange phenomenon that seems to permeate most of our society. Let me illustrate:

1. On a number of project proposals over the years, I offered to provide a service to a group and finance the project because they had no money. Based on the success of the program, they would get a royalty in addition to the P.R., etc. It didn’t always work out that way but that was the risk I was willing to take.

2. In comparing the results of a nonprofit association offering a trade show or a publication, for example, competing with a profit-making entity, I have heard the inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of the “association” excused as “well, they are a nonprofit.”

3. In a business dispute, a retired judge acting as a mediator said, “My sympathies go to the association because you are a profit-making company and they are nonprofit.” I could not figure out what that had to do with the merits of the dispute.

Don’t misunderstand. The wealth of opportunity that abounds has contributed far more to my success than the agony of this frustrating lack of economic understanding.

There are certainly many associations that are both effective and efficient in serving their constituents, but there are many that are neither. Nonprofit status should not create an aura of invincibility that automatically gives it preference in performance over a profit-making entity.

What are our schools and colleges teaching about free enterprise? What do we need to do to provide a basic education in reality economics?

There is nothing magic about being a nonprofit corporation. It is relatively easy to attain nonprofit status. Somewhere, somehow, nonprofit organizations are going to have to meet certain standards of accountability just as is beginning to happen in the education arena. The educational system is in total disarray and not the least of the contributing factors has been the dogged determination of teachers and administrators alike to resist any and all attempts at performance standards and evaluations of both fiscal and results-oriented achievements.

How far behind is the nonprofit sector?

What do you think?

Meeting Professionals International has released FutureWatch 2010, its annual study of the meetings industry conducted in partnership with American Express. The study revealed signs of cautious optimism about the meetings industry’s prospects for the coming year. Because MPI’s membership includes both corporate and association meeting planners, the FutureWatch study allows an annual comparison of how those two markets are faring relative to each other. Given the battering that corporate meetings suffered during 2009, it’s not surprising that this year’s study indicates that association meetings will once again be a relatively healthier market segment in the coming year.

When MPI asked meeting planners about the professional challenges they expect to face during 2010, association meeting planners were less troubled than their corporate counterparts across the top eight concerns cited. Among other things, association meeting planners were less concerned about potential budget cuts and the public perception of meetings.

Another key finding of this year’s study is that proximity and practicality will be important attributes of the meetings that will be planned during 2010. This finding buttresses the argument that during times of economic uncertainty, members of local, state and regional associations tend to increase their participation while members of national and international associations tend to curtail their attendance at meetings held in distant locations. Indeed, FutureWatch 2010
concludes that the meetings of local, state and regional groups are more likely to realize attendance gains than national and international gatherings.

Other major findings of FutureWatch 2010 include:
• Competitive pricing on the part of hotels and meetings industry suppliers will continue to be important.
• A back-to-basics philosophy will prevail during the coming year: Value and quality will be more important than frills and extras.
• The return on investment (ROI) that organizations receive from the meetings they organize will continue to be a major concern of meeting planners.
• Social responsibility will be a continuing concern for meeting planners.
• Technology providers will find an enthusiastic market for affordable Internet access at meeting facilities, and for the virtual and web-based technologies that are becoming an increasingly important part of the meetings mix.

While the meetings industry awaits a solid rebound in corporate meetings and incentive travel, the good news is that the meetings of state and regional associations are continuing to provide millions of hotel room nights and billions of dollars in economic impact in cities large and small. Based on MPI’s FutureWatch 2010, the meetings of state and regional associations will play an even more important role in restoring the health of the travel industry in the coming year.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

The botched terrorist attack on Christmas Day has raised the tension levels once again among those who would normally travel on airplanes. That tension is created more by the prospect of long lines and delays at security checkpoints than it is by the threat of additional attacks. The most recent incident comes at a time when, according to Y Partnership and U.S. Travel Association research, only 18 percent of U.S. adults are planning to take an overnight trip for business purposes between now and the end of April (down from 23 percent a year ago). Given this as the backdrop, it has never been more important for association executives to create compelling reasons for their members to travel to association meetings, conventions and trade shows.

State and regional associations tend to have it a bit easier in this regard than do associations that are national and international in scope. That’s because attendance at a state or regional association meeting typically requires a shorter trip. Indeed, as we’ve seen in the past, the mere expectation of an increase in time spent waiting in lines at airports is enough to send many meeting-goers to their cars, even for meetings that are as far away as 500 miles. But whether attendees are expected to fly or drive, association leadership must still make a compelling case for why the trip is necessary in the first place. Here, then, are some basic suggestions that can help your association make that case:

1. Attendance at the association meeting will provide professional education not available elsewhere. Whether or not your association runs a professional certification program, be sure your meeting’s agenda includes unique and targeted educational content that your attendees will find practical and germane to their profession. Look at ways to enhance your meeting’s educational component so that members will be less likely to view it as the same thing they always get at your meetings. This will make it less likely that they will skip a meeting.

2. Attendance at the association meeting is a unique networking opportunity not available in any other setting. In your promotional materials, be sure to highlight the types of attendees and the networking opportunities that will be available. As you formulate your meeting’s agenda, be sure that ample networking opportunities have been included. Every break or off-site activity has the potential to be made more valuable if planned with an eye toward helping attendees meet and visit with people they might not otherwise get to meet.

3. Remember that one good idea or one new relationship that results from your association meeting is often enough ROI to keep a member coming back. If, however, attendees leave your meeting feeling like they didn’t learn anything, were not exposed to any new ideas or didn’t meet any new people, you really have no right to expect them to attend again. Search out members who have had success at your meetings and find out what made those successes occur. Review attendee surveys from previous years and speak with attendees who have had positive experiences to learn more. Build upon those successes and you’re sure to create additional compelling reasons for your members to attend your events.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

Here are a few thoughts to carry you through the year.

A good life is simple—all you have to do is:
1. Find something to do
2. Have something to look forward to
3. Have someone to love

How hard are you willing to work and what price are you willing to pay in order to achieve success?

The past is history. The future is a mystery. The present is a gift to savor and enjoy.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Success is not forever and failure isn’t fatal.

An optimist believes we live in the best of all worlds. A pessimist fears this is true.

When two people in business always agree, one of them may be unnecessary.

The future ain’t what is used to be.

In the next month…
• Take time to work, it is the price of success
• Take time to think, it is the source of power
• Take time to play, it is the secret of perpetual youth
• Take time to read, it is the foundation of wisdom
• Take time to love and be loved, it is the privilege of the gods
• Take time to share, life is too short to be selfish
• Take time to laugh, laughter is the music of the soul

And one final thought: Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle: When the sun comes up, you’d better be running.

I hope 2010 will be a super year filled with good health and happiness, as well as continuing success in your career endeavors.

What do you think?

Writing recently in The New York Times business section, media columnist David Carr reviewed the successful career of Oprah Winfrey, who has announced that she’s ending her popular daytime talk show in 2011. While at first blush, Oprah may not have much in common with the typical association executive (among other things, Forbes has estimated her net worth at more than $2.3 billion), there are lessons from her 25-year run that all managers can apply to the way they run their organizations. In Carr’s column, most of these lessons take the form of the things Oprah did not do in order to become a success:

Oprah never put her name on merchandise or licensed her name to be used by others. As Carr points out, these are things that many of her contemporaries such as Martha Stewart, Donald Trump and a host of other would-be moguls have done with decidedly mixed results. Association executives are also often tempted to put their organization’s names on products that may not be central to their group’s membership value proposition. As Carr points out, Oprah made her brand stronger by refraining to have it plastered in all the obvious places.

Oprah never made deals just for the sake of synergy, never made investments that put a strain on her core business and never let office politics boil into public view. In this list, Carr includes those things that have undone media power players such as Barry Diller, Sumner Redstone and Michael Eisner. Here, the lesson of bringing a high level of discipline to the management of an organization is something that association executives can take from Oprah’s experience.

Oprah never got involved in businesses she didn’t understand and she never rose past her level of competence. In this instance, Carr draws a comparison between Oprah and Edgar Bronfman, Jean-Marie Messier and “just about everybody else in the media world” who have violated what should be basic tenets of organizational management. Recognizing and playing to your strengths is just as fundamental for an association executive as it has been for Oprah.

Oprah never felt constrained by conventional wisdom. Carr points out that Oprah turned down numerous movie roles following her debut in “The Color Purple” because she “knew her talk show was the thing that would butter her bread.” Carr also points out that as tabloid television gained popularity, Oprah moved in the opposite direction and built an even bigger audience by promoting good books and providing an uplifting experience. In this instance, managers who think they can only move their organizations in directions that others expect should consider what might be accomplished if conventional wisdom is turned on its head.

Of course, while Oprah is ending her talk show while it’s still on top, she won’t exactly be fading from the media landscape. She has spawned several other talk shows now in syndication and she will launch her own cable channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network, in 2011. In concluding his column, Carr quotes Oprah as saying, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds it.”

On behalf of all of the people at Association News, best wishes for the holiday season. Here’s wishing you all the success you envision for yourself in 2010!

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

In the first part of this paper we looked at the numbers and duplication of associations, as well as the mounting pressures which may force consolidation and/or merger of associations. We also looked at my first involvement with attempts to merge two groups.

In another scenario a well endowed national organization made overtures to a successful regional group to consider a “merger”. This overture was encouraged and promoted by the outgoing president of the regional group who probably felt he could become active on a larger playing field.

The cultures of the two organizations were quite different. Although by numbers the memberships were about the same, the national group had mainly the big players, the regional group had mostly smaller, local members.

The national group focused mainly on lobbying while the regional group created many innovative programs on education and certification. The national felt the addition of the regional membership would enhance its lobbying ability.

After a number of somewhat contentious meetings the board of the regional group rejected the proposal because it appeared to be more of absorption than a merger.

A second attempt failed a few years later because again the regional group did not see how their members would be served as anything but stepchildren. This attempt too was promoted by an outgoing president of the regional. Egos always play a big part in these activities.

Just a few years ago the western regional group found a more suitable merger partner with an eastern regional who had grown and offered a more common base of interest. The two groups were more similar in the type of members as well as their culture.

The economics of a joint operation were appealing particularly as the industry began facing pressures of a squeezing business climate.

Another merger attempt in this arena occurred when I was the CEO of a local organization feeling the increasing pressure of government regulators, to curtail the efforts of our industry to expand or function.

There were three other associations in the state with similar memberships and programming. There was also a regional organization under the aegis of all the industry leaders.

My proposal was to have each of the four local groups operate as “chapters” of the regional group in order to have more authority with the antagonistic forces at the state capital. The regional group board would set overall policy and the regional staff would run the new larger state associations.

Wow. You should have heard the outcry. I was labeled as crazy by just about all concerned. Although we had the largest of the locals, the others thought they would lose all independence, although I’m not sure what they were going to do with that “independence”.

The regional didn’t want the work or the responsibility. Nobody could figure out my motive and that scared them. I saw the handwriting on the wall. They didn’t.

Two of the locals don’t exist anymore. The other two barely function and the regional is a shadow of its former self.

There are often benefits to merging, but it is not easy. It takes a lot of thought, patience and salving of egos.

There are a number of consultants available nowadays who can be brought in to do an evaluation of an association’s operations and effectiveness. ASAE offers a squad for their purpose as well. All of this is good when you need an objective outlook and/or you are trying to facilitate a merger.

You may be aware in the “charity” field these are two organizations Charity Navigator and the American Institute of Philanthropy who attempt to assess the operations of charities almost entirely based on the IRS 990 Forms they submit each year. It is a capsule view, sometimes helpful, sometimes a little misleading.

With the advent of the Internet and the voracious appetite of computers to gorge data, I don’t think it’s too far in the future to see one or more similar WEB sites develop to assess 501(c) 3 and (c) 6 organizations. Whether membership is individual or company based, a lot of many is spent in association participation. Big companies especially are going to be more and more anxious to assess the value of their expenditures.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

What do you think?

SportsTravel magazine announced the winners of the 2009 SportsTravel Awards at the TEAMS 2009 Conference & Expo held October 13-17 in New Orleans. The 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Boise and Sun Valley, Idaho, won the top prize as Sports Event of the Year. Paralympic champion Chris Waddell provided the moving keynote address as part of this year’s ceremony. In late September, Waddell became the first paraplegic to summit Mount Kilimanjaro.

The SportsTravel Award winners were nominated and voted upon by readers of the magazine. To be eligible, events had to occur between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009. Criteria for nomination and voting included:

1. Superior organization of and attendance at the event.
2. The event provided a superior experience for competitors and/or spectators.
3. The event’s host city or venue served to enhance the event.

The ballot included nominees at the amateur, collegiate and professional levels in three categories each. Each event’s host city was also acknowledged during the awards ceremony.

The 2009 SportsTravel Award winners are:

Sports Event of the Year
2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games, Boise and Sun Valley, ID

Best New Sports Event
2008 National Youth Baseball Championships, Memphis, TN

Best Professional Sports Event Series or Circuit
2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals, Detroit, MI and Pittsburgh, PA

Best Professional Multi-Sport or Multi-Discipline Event
2009 ESPN Winter X Games, Aspen, CO

Best Professional Single-Sport Event
Super Bowl XLIII (Pittsburgh vs. Arizona), Tampa, FL

Best Collegiate Sports Event Series or Circuit
2009 NCAA Men’s Final Four, Detroit, MI

Best Collegiate Multi-Sport or Multi-Discipline Event
2009 Collegiate National Finals Rodeo, Casper, WY

Best Collegiate Single-Sport Event
2008 Texas vs. Oklahoma football game, Dallas, TX

Best Amateur Sports Event Series or Circuit
2008 Little League World Series, Williamsport, PA

Best Amateur Multi-Sport or Multi-Discipline Event
2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games, Boise and Sun Valley, ID

Best Amateur Single-Sport Event
2009 USA Hockey Pond Hockey Championships, Eagle River, WI

Standing, Left to Right: Timothy Schneider, publisher of SportsTravel magazine; Roger Walters, commissioner of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association; D’Ann Keller, associate director of championships for the NCAA; Chip Fisher, chairman of the board and CEO of the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games; Linda Moore, senior director of business administration for ESPN; Kevin Couture, manager of adult hockey with USA Hockey; and Lisa Furfine, associate publisher of SportsTravel magazine.

Seated, Left to Right: Frank Supovitz, senior vice-president of events for the NFL; Eddie Einhorn, founder of the National Youth Baseball Championships and vice-chairman of the Chicago White Sox; and Pat Wilson, vice-president of operations for Little League Baseball.

Not Pictured: Pete Schenkel, board member of the Texas State Fair; Don Renzulli, senior vice president of events for the NHL; and Timothy Shriver, chairman and CEO of the Special Olympics.