Robert Thompson, author of The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable, has over three decades of executive coaching, speaking, and most importantly, real-life, in-the-trenches business experience, and he recently spoke with Shawn Ellis, founder of The Speakers Group and ROI Speakers, about his book and his views on leadership as “a moment-to-moment choice and not about title, tenure or position.” Listen to the audio below to hear Robert talk about:

• Whether or not any of The Offsite characters are based on real people
• Five myths of leadership, such as “leadership and management are the same” and “open door policies are always the best policy”
• Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders
• The research that supports The Offsite and The Leadership Challenge
• Solutions offered by The Offsite and Robert’s speaking programs during these challenging times

Listen here:

And watch a preview video of Robert’s “Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership” presentation here.

SPECIAL “STIMULUS SPECIAL” BONUS OFFER:

Meetings budgets are more restricted than ever, yet never have meetings been so valuable. In response, Robert is offering a significant discount on his speaking engagements — more than 50% off his standard rates — for all bookings confirmed between now and December 31, 2009. To learn more, submit an inquiry or call us at 615-526-6600 extension 105.

With meetings and events under a microscope, meeting professionals need high-quality data that can demonstrate their ability to drive cost savings, policy compliance, and risk avoidance. But where do you start?

On November 10, MeetingsNet is holding a free webinar (sponsored by Cvent) that will look at strategies and tools that can help companies to track and report on their meetings data.

Presenters will:

• Explain the value of effective data management as a critical part of a strategic meetings management program
• Detail which meeting metrics can — and can’t — be effectively tracked
• Discuss strategies for enterprise-wide data gathering and management
• Review key processes and pitfalls around data management from a technology and operational standpoint

For more information or to register to this webinar, click here.

Courtesy of Keep America Meeting and Meetings Mean Business:

A new study by Oxford Economics USA illustrates how much companies stand to gain when workers travel for meetings, conventions, training or as an incentive for performance: the study found that for every dollar spent on business travel, companies realize $12.50 in incremental value and $3.80 in profits.

You can see the full results at http://meetingsmeanbusiness.com/value-meetings, or here is a full recap:

First-of-its-Kind Study Proves Business Travel Drives Revenue, Profit Growth

• For every dollar invested in business travel, Oxford Economics determined that businesses experience an average $12.50 in increased revenue and $3.80 in new profits.

• Curbing business travel has a negative impact on corporate profits. The average U.S. business would forfeit 15 percent of its profits in the first year of eliminating business travel. It would take over three years for profits to recover.

• Business travel includes sales trips, meetings, conventions and incentive trips.

• Executives cited customer meetings as having the greatest returns, in the range of $15-$19.99 per dollar invested.

• Executives identified the average return on conference and trade show participation to be in the range of $4-$5.99 per dollar invested.

• Oxford Economics set out to enable businesses to make more informed decisions, particularly during challenging economic times.

Face-to-Face Interaction Strengthens American Business, Economy

• Both executives and business travelers estimate that 28 percent of current business would be lost without in-person meetings.

• Both executives and business travelers estimate that roughly 40 percent of their prospective customers are converted to new customers with an in-person meeting compared to 16 percent without such a meeting.

• More than half of business travelers stated that 5 to 20 percent of their company’s new customers were the result of trade show participation.

• 85 percent of corporate executives perceive Web meetings and teleconferences to be less effective than in-person meetings with prospective customers, and 63 percent believe virtual meetings are less effective than in-person meetings with current customers.

U.S. Economy Depends on Business Travel

• U.S. business travel is responsible for $246 billion in spending and 2.3 million American jobs; $100 billion of this spending and nearly 1 million American jobs are linked directly to meetings and events.

• In the first six months of 2009, total business travel spending is down 11.9 percent, with a 4.4 percent decline in overall volume.

• A 10 percent increase in business travel spending will increase multi-factor productivity, and therefore U.S. GDP, by between 1.5 and 2.8 percent.

Meetings and Incentives Are Essential to Development of Human Capital

• Companies would need to increase an employee’s total base compensation by 8.5 percent in order to achieve the same effect of incentive travel, according to executives.

• The majority of corporate travelers identified internal company travel as key to professional development (66 percent), job performance (58 percent) and morale (56 percent).

• Internal meetings receive the highest marks, with 73 percent of executives indicating a significant impact on employee performance and 66 percent confirming the importance of travel to employee morale.

• Nearly 80 percent of executives indicate that incentive travel has a positive impact on employee morale and job satisfaction; more than 70 percent on employee performance.

Methodology

• The analysis was comprehensive, covering 14 economic sectors over a span of 13 years. Care was taken to control for other contributing factors to business growth and productivity.

• The findings were verified through a combination of three separate surveys of corporate executives and business travelers and a broad review of related research.

• The findings were also reviewed by Dr. Martin A. Asher, adjunct professor of finance at the Wharton School.

• This approach has been successfully used by Oxford Economics in previous analyses for European travel and has been documented in academic literature.

Sensational press coverage and threats of federal regulation are creating a paralyzing environment where companies around the globe are canceling meetings and events. But who pays the price for canceling meetings? All of us. Listen as Kevin Freiberg shares the REAL value and importance of why we need to keep meeting.

A couple of months ago, Benchmark Hospitality International, a leading hospitality management company with 30 award-winning conference hotels, resorts, and conference centers in locations coast-to-coast and in Asia, announced its “Top Ten Meeting Trends for 2009,” as observed by its properties. What is trend #1?

The Business of Meetings is Business.

Here is an excerpt from the trend report:

This year more than ever before, the business of meetings is straight-up ROI. There’s not a lot of room for leisure and extracurricular play in the current meeting environment, where every single dollar is measured for its contribution to the success of the overall conference.

Meetings have never been more serious, focused, or strategic–or more regional, for that matter, as transportation expenses are trimmed. It’s good news for conference centers, which are all about serious meeting environments.

To read the full report, head on over to PlannerWire. To discuss some strategic, “straight-up ROI” speaker solutions for your upcoming meetings, give us a call at ROI Speakers (615.526.6600) or just request a proposal online.

When preparing to publish the Spring edition of our magazine, TSG keynotes, we asked Keith Ferrazzi, respected guru on the power of relationships in business, for some insights on how meeting organizers could make their programs cancel-proof. You can read the electronic edition of the magazine on The Speakers Group’s blog, but here are some highlights from our conversation:

• The key to cancel-proofing a meeting is to make it so valuable that the cost of canceling the meeting is greater than the cost of holding it.
• What is it that makes meetings so valuable? Face time. Face time is critical to building relationships, and relationships are critical to success.
• Why, then, are meetings being canceled? Event organizers don’t always maximize the total relationship potential of every aspect of their event.
• How can this be improved? Organizers must give event participants a safe structure to start making real connections that will benefit them during the event, and a structure that allows those connections to sustain throughout the year ahead.

Keith is helping meeting planners do just that with his new “Who’s Got Your Back” keynote package, which transforms a “regular” keynote into a sustainable, high-ROI program that engages your attendees before, during and long after your event has concluded. Learn more about that program and read more from Keith on “how to make your meeting cancel-proof” on pages 4-5 of the TSG keynotes magazine here. Plus, you’ll also find two more articles to enhance your meeting management, as well as access to a special web page with helpful video messages from Keith and a free except of his soon-to-be released book, Who’s Got Your Back.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 22, 2009 – Responding to the unique pressures facing its clients and others in the meetings industry as a result of sensational media coverage, government regulations, and reduced budgets, The Speakers Group has launched a new initiative, ROI Speakers (http://www.ROIspeakers.com), to help planners add value to their meetings and events – and increase ROI, or return on investment – by rethinking their use of professional speakers.

“Now more than ever, event planners can’t afford – literally or figuratively – to invest thousands of dollars in a speaker who shines for an hour, but whose impact is at risk of fading as soon as the session ends,” said Shawn Ellis, founder and president of The Speakers Group. “With ROI Speakers, we’re helping our clients engage speakers in ways that are aligned with legitimate business purposes, and that can be sustained well beyond the conclusion of the meeting.”

One of the keys to the ROI Speakers service is The Speakers Group’s requirement that all participating speakers meet three criteria:

1. Speakers must conduct significant pre-event research.
2. Speakers must deliver a customized presentation guided by findings of the pre-event research.
3. Speakers must offer one or more options for post-event content delivery to sustain the keynote message.

The result is an impressive roster of thought leaders and experts featuring names such as Marcus Buckingham, Kevin and Jackie Freiberg, and Patrick Lencioni, among others – including lesser-known authorities with fees as low as $10,000.

Further differentiating ROI Speakers is the completely consultative nature of the service. Every engagement begins with a needs assessment with the meeting organizer followed by a custom solution proposal. While the goal remains to secure a speaker who will receive high ratings on-site, the ultimate mission is to secure a speaker whose engagement will stimulate long-term, measurable results.

“Meeting planners should not be afraid of holding meetings, and they shouldn’t be afraid of investing money in speakers,” Ellis said. “They just need to define and defend the value of their programs, and ROI Speakers is one way we can help them in that endeavor.”

To learn more about ROI Speakers solutions, visit http://www.ROIspeakers.com and watch the five-minute video titled “The ROI Speakers Difference.” Also available on the site is a free special report: “How to Maximize the Value of Your Speaker Bookings.”

About The Speakers Group

Since 2003, The Speakers Group has been connecting meeting professionals and organizational leaders with high-content, relevant speakers who combine substance with style. Known for its friendly, knowledgeable service, the company is also considered to be one of the most innovative speakers bureaus in the country. To learn more about The Speakers Group, please visit us at http://www.thespeakersgroup.com, check out our blog at http://www.thespeakersgroup.com/blog, and follow our founder on Twitter at http://twitter.com/shawntsg.

John Buchanan has a great feature article in the March 2009 issue of Corporate & Incentive Travel magazine titled “The Meetings Industry Fights Back.” Subtitle: “What Planners Must Do Now to Save Their Meetings… and Their Jobs.” The bottom-line answer: Define meeting objectives, measure results, demonstrate ROI.

[That is exactly what we are helping planners do here with ROI Speakers. Watch this video to learn more.]

Buchanan’s article cites Sharon Marsh, meetings group manager at Medtronic Cardiovascular, as acknowledging a weak spot in many meeting planning strategies: the inability to objectively demonstrate a tangible return on investment (ROI) for meeting expenditures. As a result, planners and meeting management teams are now feeling the heat. “I’ve been in this industry a long time and I’ve seen how little thought is put into the decisions that are made,” Marsh said.

Also quoted in the article is Rhonda Marko, president and CEO of Destination Nashville, who agrees with Marsh’s conclusion. “So the job of a meeting planner right now is that if they haven’t been doing it already, they have to start measuring ROI now,” Marko said. “They have to be very clear about the measurable objectives and the results of their meetings.”

Click here to read the full article, which not only spotlights the very obvious challenges with meetings today, but also the solutions that, if implemented, will allow planners and their organizations to thrive for a long time to come.

Concerned with planning a meeting in accordance with the Model Board Policy for Approval of Meetings, Events and Incentive/Recognition Travel? If your organization has received emergency lending from the federal government, you must be careful to adhere to the requirements established by the American Hotel and Lodging Association, Meeting Professionals International, National Business Travel Association, Professional Convention Management Association, U.S. Travel Association and others. As if your job were not complicated enough!

When it comes to engaging speakers for your events, ROI Speakers can help – particularly as it relates to the requirement that meetings, events and incentive travel must serve one or more specified legitimate business purposes. Examples of such purposes are:

• Effective product launches to educate sales force, channel partners and customers
• Sales conferences and employee meetings to align vision, strategy and tactics
• Training and staff development meetings – learning environments conducive to adult learning and professional development, improving participants’ skills at their trade and/or their familiarity with the company’s products or services
• Employee recognition programs to motivate and reward employees for achievement and productivity
• Professional conferences that provide networking, education and best practice sharing across companies and industries
• Performance incentives with clear rule structures that are designed to motivate and reward high performers for exceeding established goals that generate incremental revenue growth for their respective organizations and that are beyond the investment in the program
• User conferences for customers utilizing the company’s products or services to obtain feedback, build networks, provide product training and capture ideas for enhancements to the company’s product offerings
• Employee meetings as a result of company mergers and/or acquisitions for the purpose of alignment of products, brands and cultures

According to the policy, each proposed meeting, event or incentive/recognition travel with a cost exceeding $75,000 must be supported by a written business case identifying a specific business purpose. Considering that one notable keynote speaker can consume a large portion of that $75,000, it is critical that your speaker be aligned with your program objectives.

Once we know the specific business purpose for your meeting, we will guide you in selecting a high-content business speaker with real expertise to support that purpose. In addition, all ROI Speakers engagements include our signature pre-event research element as well as the post-event sustainability element, making it very easy for you to not only justify your speaker investment, but actually enhance the value of your meeting!

To read the full Model Board Policy, click here to view the PDF on the U.S. Travel Association’s web site.

To consult with one of our representatives about scheduling a speaker for your event, call us at 615.526.6600 or request a proposal online.