Those holiday baskets, snowflake candles and seasonal adornments we all adore—that’s Jennifer Farrell’s bread and butter. For the last 13 years, she’s orchestrated meetings and incentive trips for Signature HomeStyles, the direct sales home organization and holiday decor company. Headquartered in a suburb of Chicago, the company is made up of independent associates—99 percent of whom are female and telework. This poses both challenges and opportunities for the seasoned planner (shown second from the left). With the company’s 45th anniversary approaching, we sat down with Farrell to talk cruises, cold weather and how growth changes her gameplan.
How is the company's growth affecting the number of events you plan per year?
Last year I planned 25 to 30 smaller regional meetings. In the first three months of 2016, we’re doing 25 to 30 meetings. This growth is incredible. For our Celebration Rally in June, we planned on 150 being there and had 300. Conservatively, for 2016, we are planning for 800 people. I’m scrambling for space. I’m hard-pressed for affordable places in Chicago to fit that many.
If Chicago is out, what's the most important aspect of picking a host city?
We need to stick to a six- to 10-hour driving radius, or the reps won’t come to a meeting. We had a meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, because the area was No. 1 for sales. It worked for us location-wise, but I don’t know if it could hold us as we get bigger.
Besides size, what unique issues do you have to deal with for your events?
Part of our challenge is we’re product-based. We have to bring an entire organization and decorating line to our leadership meetings because [the events] are focused on announcing new products. We want the associates to see, touch and feel everything because they are going to sell it. We take up a lot more exhibition space than actual meeting rooms. I also insist on being the only meeting in the hotel.
Anything new planned with your incentives for 2016?
We usually do four-night incentive trips, but we’re changing that. In January, we’re doing a seven-night Southern Caribbean cruise. We had to add another cruise because there were so many associates and we couldn’t add cabins this late. Instead, we had to book one in April for the overflow. It’s our company’s 45th anniversary, so we have an entire celebration planned.
What interesting destinations lie ahead?
For the 2017 trip, we are leaning toward Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Hawaii always comes back into the mix because for many associates, it’s one of those vacations of a lifetime. We have to do Hawaii every four or five years.
Any places you avoid for incentives?
We don’t ever go anywhere cold. Almost all our employees are in cold-weather areas like Chicago, the Midwest, Canada, etc. I can’t sell the cold spots to my executive team. I’ve tried to convince them to do a dude ranch incentive trip, but it’s like talking to a wall. They are all beach, all the time.
Aside from sand, what's top of mind when you're on site visits?
We always look for a wow factor. For instance, the lobbies have to be magnificent. Our founder, Madolyn Johnson, thinks about, how impressive does this look and feel? We also look at the whole area. Is there a cute little grocery nearby to get cheap eats? How is the beach? Does it have a great pool? Are there enough chairs for everyone? I actually get up in the morning on site selection and see what time those chairs are gone. How long do they stay gone? How crowded are the restaurants? It’s those little things that make a difference to our attendees on a trip.
