WELCOME
Graeme Dowie

GET TO KNOW YOUR SITE LEADERS
Interviews with SITE Chapter Presidents

SITE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE UPDATES
IC Chapter Leadership Functions

CHAPTER EVENTS
Upcoming Events

CHAPTER OF THE YEAR AWARDS
Awards

FutureSITE UPDATE
Chapter Learning Modules

TALES FROM THE FRONT
Benefits of Hosting a Chapter Charity Event and How to Make it Successful

MARKETING
12 Steps to Creative Problem Solving

MARKETING OPERATIONS
Solving Marketing's Seven Deadly Sins

Dear Chapter Member,
Can you believe, it’s nearly time to go back to school at this year’s International Conference in Toronto! Talking of which, did you ever study languages at school? Did you know that “Motive” comes from the French motif, meaning “something (as a need or desire) that causes a person to act” and that “Learn” comes from the Old English meaning “to gain knowledge or understanding of by study, instruction, or experience”.

Over the past few years, the Chapters have expressed “a need or desire” for education and SITE is providing that opportunity at the Chapter Leadership Meeting on 3rd November. There will be a tutorial on the new “On-line Registration System” available to Chapters and a panel discussion with experienced leaders on “what worked best for our Chapter”. Please join us to “gain knowledge” and also to share your “experience”.

Also the three new “Education Modules” (complete with complimentary expert speaker) have been launched and are available for your Chapter to sign up for.

Finally, I recently learned that “Incentive” comes from the Latin incentivum, meaning “setting the tune”. So…(in a moment of madness)
“Hi, Ho, Hi Ho,…it’s off to IC we go..
We’ll work all day
And at eve we’ll play
Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Hi Ho!
See you there and P.S – you don’t HAVE to sing!!
Graeme

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GET TO KNOW YOUR SITE CHAPTER LEADERS

RICK CIBIK
Fort McDowell Adventures
SITE Arizona Chapter

Who introduced you to SITE?
One of my clients, Dale Hahne of PGI Scottsdale.

How and why did you get involved in chapter leadership?
I wanted to make a difference in our chapter. When I was invited to sit on the Arizona board, I jumped at the opportunity.

What do you like most about your job / career?
Making clients happy. I very rarely say no. I come from the old school where the customer is always right. I believe in that business philosophy.

If money were no object, where in the world would you go for a vacation?
If money and time were no object, I would see the world, especially the east.

What are you usually found doing on a Sunday?
On Sundays, I’m relaxing, watching football with my son, or visiting with family

Ella Messerli
Marquis Los Cabos
SITE Mexico Chapter

Who introduced you to SITE?
Eduardo Chavez who was SITE Mexico President at the time as well as Toursim Director for Acapulco. I registered in 1992 but really had no idea what SITE really was. Eduardo taught me a lot and then made me teach, which has actually turned out to be something I enjoy very much.

How and why did you get involved in chapter leadership?
I have always been close to the President of SITE Mexico , supporting with newsletters, education etc. When I was proposed as a candidate for President I readily accepted and hope that I can follow in the footsteps of prior presidents like Betty and Fernando, SITE Mexico has advanced in big strides and is now a driving force in Mexico supporting the governments efforts and promotion in the incentive market, contributing to new legislation like the 0% tax law for groups, etc.

What do you like most about your job / career?
My career has taken me through many luxury hotels which is always a pleasure, and has allowed me to meet many incentive and travel professionals. I love the human contact but certainly the most gratifying has been observing people enjoy themselves at a property where I can assist in making things happen for them.

If money were no object, where in the world would you go for a vacation?
On a private yacht with no cel phones, wifi or anything, a full pantry of foie gras, caviar and fresh vegetables etc, of course a full wine cellar also, and just cruise in southern seas and sunny lands…with my best friend who happens to be my husband.

What are you usually found doing on a Sunday?
…answering these questions…..or on the beach running with my dogs and reading a good book

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SITE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE UPDATES

IC Chapter Leadership Functions
As a SITE chapter leader, you are invited to attend special functions to represent your chapter. Please make your travel arrangements to Toronto to accommodate the following very important chapter leadership events. If you have not reserved your spot, please email Christie_pruyn@site-intl.org today! Do your part to educate yourself on new chapter opportunities and put your chapter on the road to success!
• Wednesday, 2 November - Chapter Leadership / SITE Board of Directors Dinner at The Four Seasons
• Thursday, 3 November - Chapter Leadership Meeting
Online Registration Training – Free to Your Chapter!
Best Practices – Creating & Maintaining a Successful Chapter
• Friday, 4 November - Chapter of the Year Awards Program

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CHAPTER OF THE YEAR AWARDS

The Chapter of the Year Awards Program will take place during the SITE International Conference on Friday, 4 November.

The 2005 Award finalists are as follows (in alphabetical order):
• Canada
• Chicago
• Great Britain
• Ireland
• Southern California

Be sure to attend and support your chapter! If your chapter is not listed above, please attend and show your support of the SITE Chapter network.

This year’s program has also been improved and promises to be a fun, interactive event. In an effort to highlight our chapters during IC, each chapter is asked to have a representative at the ceremony. At the beginning of the ceremony, each chapter will be called and recognized by name. The chapter representative will then be called onstage as a way to acknowledge the chapter. Representatives are asked to have a symbol of their chapter with them so the audience can see what region they represent. Some ideas to consider include: flags, native dress, shirt, sign, banner, hat, etc. Use your creativity to get your chapter the most attention! Please email Christie_pruyn@site-intl.org with any questions.

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FutureSITE UPDATES

Thank you to all chapters that have participated in the FutureSITE Capital Fundraising Campaign. To date, SITE chapters have pledged USD $17,500 and that number is sure to grow. The goal of the chapter portion of the campaign is to hit USD $20,000. Including chapter commitments, the total contributions to the campaign are over USD $1.3 million dollars.

Thank you to all chapters for your support of the Campaign!

SITE Chapter Learning Modules
As part of the successful FutureSITE campaign, Hilton Hotels Corporation is sponsoring new Chapter Learning Modules that will broaden the educational offerings to SITE chapters.

As you have heard, through 2006, Board members Bruce Tepper, CITE, CTC, and Morag Donald, CITE, CMP, will travel to your chapter to host an educational session. Each session will last at least 60-90 minutes and can be tailored to your specific regional needs. Depending on availability and travel schedules, Bruce & Morag will conduct individual presentations or partner to offer at least 2 presentations for your event.

The presentation topics are listed below. Each chapter will be consulted to make the presentation beneficial to your chapter or to come up with a new topic.

• Buyer / Supplier Relationship
• Basics in Incentives
• Role of Service & Quality in Incentives

With the help of Hilton Hotels Corporation, FutureSITE will cover the cost of airfare for Bruce & Morag. Your chapter will be responsible only for the accommodations upon arrival.

Please review your calendars for the remainder of 2005 and 2006 and email Christie_pruyn@site-intl.org with your preferred dates and topic selection. Chapters will be scheduled on a first come, first serve basis.

You are encouraged to take advantage of this outstanding chapter benefit! SITE has listened to your requests for increased educational offerings. With the help of Hilton Hotels, FutureSITE is delivering this newest chapter benefit.

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TALES FROM THE FRONT

Benefits of Hosting a Chapter Charity Event and How to Make it Successful

SITE recently spoke to Kathi Winter, CITE, with Global Incentives Inc. and also a member of the SITE Southern California Chapter (SITE SoCal) regarding their successful Holiday charity event and how other chapters can benefit from running a charity event of their own.

Why Should You Host a Charity Event?

Charity events offer several benefits. Not only are great prizes usually available for the participants, but it is an excellent chance to contribute back to your local community. Another benefit is the strengthened networking relationship between the organizers and the sponsors/vendors where as just having a normal working business relationship.

Several SITE members are already hosting charity events on their own. One of the major benefits for a SITE Chapter to think about organizing and hosting a joint charity event is the greater pool of resources involved and the resulting donation at the end. The SITE SoCal Chapter has been hosting their Holiday Luncheon & Charity Auction for the last seven years. The event has continued to grow successfully year after year with no plans for slowing down.

SITE Headquarters sat down with two members of SITE SoCal to ask them a few questions on why their charity event is so successful and to share tips with other SITE Chapters on how to organize a charity event.

Tip #1 – Choose charities that are not too large in organizational size so that your money would get lost in the shuffle. On the same token, you want to be sure not to choose a charity that is too small in organizational size at the risk of your donation being mishandled.

SITE SoCal chooses charities providing benefits for at-risk youth. This year, they are donating to: The Oasis of Hollywood, a community-based program reaching out to at-risk children, teens and young adults in Hollywood, Calif.; Le Calle, an Orange County-based private community organization serving at-risk young women with empowerment conferences; and Camp Alandale, a San Diego/San Bernadino program that serves abused and neglected children through a mountain camping program. They donate to the same charity for three years and then find new ones.

It is a good idea to share testimonials from someone at the charity on how the charity donation will benefit their organization. An at-risk youth charity may not be able to provide this kind of information, nor be the best option to select for every charity event. Organizers should consider the most appropriate charity for the group.

Tip #2 – Picking the right time of the year to host your event can also be tricky. Sometimes the holidays are a good time since most people are in the “giving” spirit and mindset at this time. However, with the bombardment of activities around this timeframe, your event may just become lost in the mix.

SITE SoCal’s event has not seen a loss of interest hosting their event around the holidays. Tickets for this year’s event sold out in less than one hour!

Tip #3 – Gather sponsorships for every aspect of the event. Donations of food, beverages, venue space, etc. can help limit the expense cost ensuring that the majority of your event revenue will indeed be donated to the charity.

SITE SoCal hosts a live auction (big ticket items worth $5,000 - $10,000 USD), a raffle (tickets sold for a chance to win local sightseeing tickets, hotel stays, restaurant gift certificates, store gift certificates, etc.), and a silent auction (mid-level priced items) during the Holiday Luncheon. All auction and raffle items are donated by the sponsors. Tickets to the luncheon are then sold to the public. Tables at the luncheon are also sold to vendors who invite their key customers (corporate buyers) to attend the event and use this as a key networking, marketing and sales opportunity.

Tip #4 – Be sure to keep an eye on all event logistical items, both large and small, to ensure the event runs as smooth as possible. Hiring entertainment is also a good idea to energize the event.

Tip #5 – Charity events can also be an excellent chapter membership recruitment tactic. This year, SITE SoCal sent html email invitations to members and prospects inviting them to attend the event. Customers invited to sit at the vendor tables become quality chapter member prospects.

What was once a small charity event has now since grown into a signature event for the SITE SoCal Chapter. It even plays host to International attendees. For more information on the SITE SoCal’s Holiday Luncheon & Charity Auction, visit http://www.site-socal.com/HolidayLuncheon.htm.

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MARKETING INFORMATION

12 Tips to CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING
By Joel Saltzman / Corporate Meetings & Incentives May 2005

Ever get stuck in a small-group setting by not being able to get beyond a problem or challenge? Would you like to try a more creative approach to solving your problem?

Here are 12 tips to “Solve It NOW!” and get you started on the road to innovation.

Be Optimistic
The more you believe that you can solve your problem, the more you will keep at it. It may take some time, but eventually you will find one or more solutions — maybe even some extraordinary ones.

Be Clear
Never try to solve a problem before you know what it is: Write down your problem in the form of a clear, precise question, and you are halfway to the answer. Then again: Always pose your question at least two different ways. For example …Ask, “What's the ‘Opposite’ of My Question?” Tom Sawyer had a fence that needed painting. Instead of asking, “How can I do this work?” he asked: “How can someone else do all this fun?”

Question Your Assumptions
List everything about your situation that you know to be true — no matter how small or insignificant. Now question each assumption. “Is that really so? Does it have to be that way? How could it be done some other way?”

Practice Pie-in-the-Sky Thinking
Allow yourself to look for wild, outlandish ideas — even if they seem impossible. As Einstein put it: “If at first an idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” Most of us would say, “That's a crazy idea — forget about it.” To which Einstein would counter: “Got a crazy idea? Let's take a look at it!”

Think of Your Absolute Worst Idea
Why worry about coming up with a great idea when it's so much easier to come up with a rotten one! You might discover a terrible idea that can be “tweaked” into greatness.

Never Take “Yes” for an Answer
Instead of saying, “Yes, that's it!” learn to say, “Well, that could be it.” Then go find some more ideas. As H.L. Mencken put it: “For every human problem there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” Remember: The best way to get a great idea is to get lots of ideas!

Refuse to Accept “Either/Or” Thinking
“Either/or” thinking limits your options too severely. Always look for a third, fourth, and even fifth alternative. Then keep looking for more. And think of ways to combine those solutions. For example, instead of a gasoline-powered car or an electric car, there's the hybrid car, in which two solutions — gas and electric — work together.

Ask Yourself, “What Would ____ Do?”
Fill in the blank with the name of a famous person. Or think of someone that you personally know and admire. Try their way of thinking, and see where it gets you.

Ask Someone Else
Want some fresh, new ideas? Ask other people what they would do! No one said that you had to go it alone.

Walk Away
Take a walk, climb onto the treadmill, take a shower. “You go back to it,” says novelist John Irving (The Cider House Rules), “and you suddenly see something that if you'd been rushing and pushing, you wouldn't have seen.”

Have Fun With It
Problem solving demands a sense of fun. Fun loosens us up and gets our creative juices flowing. Remember: Most of all, problem solving … is a game!

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SOLVING MARKETING'S SEVEN DEADLY SINS
by Gary M.Katz

Busy corporate marketing groups can be so focused on tactics and fire-fighting that they jeopardize their marketing investment.

The tendency to overreact to events, tackle symptoms rather than underlying fundamental problems and jump at the opportunity to please the boss can prove fatal. Crippled marketing efforts can leave promising companies in the dust, or at least handicapped at the starting gate.

Admired technology companies are leveraging Marketing Operations to improve performance and measure ROI as they refine their marketing organizations using an operational focus. Marketing Operations is an emerging discipline that increases efficiency and drives consistent results in marketing-focused organizations. It builds a foundation for excellence by reinforcing marketing strategy with metrics, infrastructure, business processes, best practices, budgeting and reporting.

While Marketing Operations is uniquely suited to tackle marketing's most challenging problems in Fortune 500 companies, you don't have to be an Intel or Adobe to benefit. Here are the seven deadliest marketing sins that plague companies of all sizes and how Marketing Operations addresses them.

Problem #1: Ill-defined metrics
Today's corporate marketing departments must justify their existence. The need to measure results is inevitable. However, the instincts and skills that make a corporate marketing professional great—a bias toward action, verbal and written acuity and a talent for relationship-building—often don't translate into an ability or willingness to scientifically and objectively evaluate success. Broken systems and the unwillingness of the organization to pay for marketing measurement also conspire against the effort to define meaningful success metrics.

Solution: Marketing Operations ensures that the right processes are in place to establish meaningful metrics at the front end of the marketing process, enabling success measurement processes at key intervals and as each program concludes.

Problem #2: Slammed resources
The prevailing attitude of "doing more with less" can leave key people discouraged and overwhelmed, near burnout—and, eventually, circulating their resumes. The consequences for organizations are costly mistakes, high turnover, and collapsed programs when key people leave, and missed opportunities to leverage important, but ownerless, programs.

Solution: Marketing Operations addresses resource limitations by ensuring workload is effectively allocated, roles are clearly defined, interdependencies are understood, team members are satisfied with their jobs, and valued-added programs and associated resources—whether through additional headcount or outsourcing—can be justified to executive management.

Problem #3: Sketchy institutional memory
Successful marketing programs depend on accurate information, a historical view into past successes and failures, and the ability to recognize patterns that link seemingly unrelated data points.
Unfortunately, in many marketing organizations, this crucial knowledge is scattered all over the company. It's in the heads of individual workers, on shelves, on people's hard drives and in long-forgotten filing systems. Often, when people leave, a big piece of organizational knowledge goes with them. Information loss is a huge productivity killer for marketing teams. Trying to regain this lost insight wastes previous marketing investments.

Solution: Marketing Operations facilitates knowledge sharing, creates an enduring repository of information and encourages decision-making based on fact rather than hunches or gut feelings.

Problem #4: Constrained creativity
The best creative solutions come from the collaboration of many brains. A consequence of the age of the "individual-contributor/director" is constrained creativity. When the entire creative burden falls mostly on one corporate marketer, the ability to think out of the box can be severely affected. Creative synergy results from many minds thinking as one.

Solution: Marketing Operations enables the creative process to benefit from the synergy of team.

Problem #5: Failed supplier relationships
Most successful companies can point to numerous strong, long-term marketing supplier relationships they consider to be integral to their success. Likewise, a pattern of failed supplier relationships is often an indicator of marketing department failure, rather than poor vendor performance.

Unfortunately, companies that have had consistently bad relationships with outside vendors and suppliers often react by bringing everything in-house. While this strategy may provides the illusion of control, it allows marketing managers to deflect the blame for failures, rather than teaching them how to manage their outsourcing program by taking responsibility for the results. In addition, this "band-aid" strategy won't scale with the organization as it grows.

Solution: Marketing Operations helps set realistic expectations and mutual accountability between suppliers and the organization, increasing the effectiveness of outsource partners by empowering them to act as an extension of the internal team.

Problem #6: Lost discretionary budgets
Budgets are never set in stone. Often, it's "use it or lose it." For some managers, it's "misuse it and lose it anyway." Unfortunately, many corporate marketing departments end up leaving discretionary budget on the table or allocating it to the wrong initiatives. This discretionary Catch 22-marketing budget dilemma occurs because... It's very time consuming to manage the budget effectively, especially in companies with broken financial systems.

Each marketing-spend decision creates more work for the one-person or small-team marketing department in terms of project management, measurement, supplier management, etc. Doubt persists about the ability to successfully justify the expenditure to management. Focus is instinctively on high-visibility marketing activities and C-level executive requests over good fiscal management. Most marketing types are inclined toward creativity rather than finance.

Solution: Marketing Operations facilitates implementing the system-support infrastructure and financial-management discipline needed to protect valuable marketing budgets.

Problem #7: Narrow marketing mix
Many companies align their fate with the success of too few marketing programs—whether it's lead generation, public relations, trade shows or advertising. Over-reliance on any particular program can derail a company, especially if a key program unexpectedly loses momentum. In the meantime, programs that could have had strong leverage never get a chance to prove their mettle and are forever relegated to the "B" list.

Solution: Marketing Operations puts the means in place to launch potentially high-value marketing programs that would otherwise never get out of the starting gate.

The Bottom Line
In a nutshell, Marketing Operations is your company's best bet to...
Ensure that success can be measured and replicate
Leverage systems and processes to enable consistently excellent performance
Run their marketing departments more like a business.
Implementing a Marketing Operations program takes buy-in from key executives and the commitment of the entire marketing team. However, considering the positive results and high return on investment experienced by Fortune 500 companies and those that wish to emulate them, it is well worth the effort.

Gary M. Katz is president and CEO of CommPros Group (www.commprosgroup.com)

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