Sound Bites From CEMA: What People Were Talking About at the Group's Summit

FROM LAS VEGAS After three days of events, the Corporate Event Marketing Association’s annual conference wrapped on Tuesday evening. We sat in on the summit’s sessions on Monday and Tuesday at the Red Rock resort; here are some snippets from the discussions that got the crowd buzzing.

“It’s great to do [environmentally friendly] things, but it’s even better to show what you did in the numbers that matter to people... It’s a myth that green meetings necessarily cost more.”
—Mary Peters, exhibits manager, Meeting Strategies Worldwide, during “The Business Case for Green Meetings"

“A few years ago, meeting planners were very focused on logistics, not measurement. Now we are well on our way, well on our path to measurement. [As an industry,] we’ve made a lot of headway.”
—Phyllis Mac Isaac, vice president for strategy and measurement, Nth Degree Events, during “How to Use Measurement as a Tool to Improve Performance" “As a team, we regularly cross-pollinate. We routinely go to other events. It could be totally unrelated to our field, like a home and garden show. But it is just bringing things back and saying, ‘Could that work for our audience as well?’”
—Sandra Toms LePedis, area vice president and general manager, RSA Conferences, during "How to Use Measurement as a Tool to Improve Performance"

“The goal for each of us in incorporating technology [into the marketing mix] is to increase our revenue and customer satisfaction. Technology is the silver bullet that allows that. The cycle doesn’t stop with the event. We keep the blogging, the social networking [components] going. What we have in front of us is an opportunity to do things virtually. It’s not either/or. It’s and.”
—Rodney Clark, general manager of U.S. partner services and evangelism, Microsoft, during “The Evolution of Event Marketing in the Technology World"

“If we focus on psychographics instead of demographics, we’re going to connect with our customer in a much deeper way.”
—Chip Conley, founder and C.E.O. of Joie de Vivre Hotels, during “Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow”

“Most word of mouth is positive. It’s about things we like, things we think others should try… And our data shows that 80 percent of people who go to an event are going to talk about it after.”
—Dax Callner, senior vice president, Jack Morton Worldwide, during “How to Measure Word of Mouth Marketing"

“We’re at a time when people are very selective about the messages they want to take. Events should be aggressively embraced. All the signs are there that we’re in a very positive era for events—we just need to take advantage of it.”
—Skip Cox, president, Exhibit Surveys, during “Experiential Marketing: A Master of Engagement, Research on How Engaging Events Pay"

“Whenever you add the element of competition, your favorite suppliers might not like it [at first], but they will do better by you."
—Paul Teague, editor in chief, Purchasing, during “The Great RFP Debate"

“Be objective. We all get too close to our babies, our projects, but we’ve got to maintain our objectivity as to how our project fits into the objectives of the larger organization… [As event marketers] we’ve got to embrace the concept that our role goes beyond just pushing messages. We’ve got to make sure that the feedback loop exists with our customers.”
—Kelvin Taylor, founder and managing partner, Taylored Analytical Marketing LLC, during “Measurements You Need to Speak with Your C.F.O."

“One of the most important things [I’ve learned in my career] is to have the right objectives before you start. So plan, don’t just do.”
—Amanda Litzow, vice president of global events, SAP, during "Best Practices of High-Tech User Conferences"