ADME Achievement Award Winners

Back row, left to right: Jay Weidner and John Stachnik, On the Scene; Michele Lend, Atlanta Arrangements, Inc.; Sam Thompson, metroConnections; Brandi Lupe and Heather Sullivan, Convention Designs; Liz Watson, PRA Destination Management, San Francisco; Grant Snider, JPdL Toronto Inc.; Chris Baker, Chicago Travel Consultants.

Front row, left to right: Susan Henderson, DMCP, CMP, Atlanta Arrangements, Inc.; Susan Gray, DMCP, MAC Meetings & Events; Nicole Marsh, DMCP, CMP, The Arrangers DMC; Rhonda Marko, DMCP, CMP, CMM, Destination Nashville; Jillene Szostak, Chicago Travel Consultants.

Interested is seeing more about these winning entries? Click here to see the storyboards for each winning entry.

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Winners by category:

Destination Management Professional of the Year
Susan Henderson, DMCP, CMP; Atlanta Arrangements, Inc.; Atlanta GA

Destination Management Rising Star
Liz Watson, DMCP, CMP; PRA Destination Management San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

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Best Innovative Event - $50,000 and Under

metroConnections, Inc., Minneapolis MN

Best Innovative Event - $50,001 to $100,000

Destination Nashville, Nashville TN

Best Innovative Event - $100,001 to $200,000

Chicago Travel Consultants, Chicago IL

Best Innovative Event - $200,001 and Above

JPdL Toronto Inc., Toronto ON

Best Overall Program

On The Scene, Chicago IL

Best Recreational Activity

MAC Meetings & Events, St. Louis MO

Best Team-Building Activity

Convention Designs, Greenwood Village, CO

Best Tour Program

Atlanta Arrangements, Inc., Atlanta GA

Best Transportation Logistics

PRA Destination Management San Francisco, San Francisco CA

Joanne O'Connor President's Award
Nicole Marsh, DMCP, CMP, The Arrangers DMC, Denver, CO

ADME Achievement Award Finalists Announced

ADME 2007 Recognition Award Finalists
Winners will be announced at the ADME Achievement Awards Event, Saturday evening, 23 February 2008 at the Sheraton New Orleans.

Destination Management Professional of the Year
Susan Henderson - Atlanta Arrangements, Inc., Atlanta GA
Nicole Marsh - The Arrangers DMC, Denver CO
Deborah Martin - PRA, San Diego CA

Destination Management Rising Star
Teresa Bryant - Destination St. Louis, St. Louis MO
Meghan Norton - Atlanta Arrangements, Inc., Atlanta GA
Liz Watson - PRA San Francisco, San Francisco CA

ADME 2007 Achievement Award Finalists
Best Innovative Event - $50,000 and Under

Destination Nashville, Goodlettsville TN

metroConnections, Inc., Minneapolis MN

The Arrangers DMC, Denver CO

Best Innovative Event - $100,001 to $200,000

Chicago Travel Consultants, Chicago IL

Convention Designs, Greenwood Village CO

GEP Philly, Philadelphia PA

Best Innovative Event - $200,001 and Above

JPdL Toronto Inc., Toronto ON

PRA Destination Management San Francisco, San Francisco CA

Ultimate Ventures, Dallas TX

Best Innovative Event - $50,001 to $100,000

Convention Designs, Greenwood Village CO

CSI - Capitol Services, Inc., Falls Church VA

Destination Nashville, Goodlettsville TN

Best Overall Program

Destination Nashville, Goodlettsville TN

On The Scene, Chicago IL

The Key Event Group, Nashville TN

Best Recreational Activity

Advantage Destination & Meeting Services, Inc., N Miami Bch FL

Atlanta Arrangements, Inc., Atlanta GA

MAC Meetings & Events, St. Louis MO

Best Team-Building Activity

Convention Designs, Greenwood Village, CO

The Arrangers DMC, Denver, CO

Ultimate Ventures, Dallas, TX

Best Tour Program

Atlanta Arrangements, Inc., Atlanta GA

Best Transportation Logistics

Atlanta Arrangements, Inc., Atlanta GA

PRA Destination Management San Francisco, San Francisco CA

The Arrangers DMC, Denver CO

ADME Members Shine on Top 25 List

Special Events Magazine has just published their 4th annual 25 Top DMC list. The following ADME member companies are included:

• Access Destination Services
• Alan Waxler Group
• Arrangers
• Atlanta Arrangements
• Baskow & Associates
• Bixel & Co
• Bonnie Boyd & Co
• Briggs, Inc
• Convention Planning Services
• Destination Concepts
• Destination Nashville
• GEP Washington
• In the Loop Chicago
• IVI Destination Management
• MAC Meetings & Events
• ME Productions
• MetroConnections
• Naples Transportation, Tours & Event Planning
• TBA Global
• The Best of Boston
• Ultimate Ventures

Read the entire article.

Are You Preparing to Take your DMCP Exam?

There will be a record number of destination management professionals preparing to take the DMCP exam in New Orleans on Thursday, 20 February 2008. One of these candidates, Tara Thomas, has previously successfully completed her CMP designation. In preparing for that exam, Tara found the best way to do so was to write her own sample test questions and share with other candidates (without the answers, of course!)

So, if you're preparing to take the DMCP exam, and you're interested in participating in an e-mail study group, Tara has agreed to coordinate the assignments for the areas of body of knowledge for the DMCP exam. You can contact her by emailing directly and she'll be in contact with you.

Good luck to all of the DMCP candidates.

Can Destination Management Companies Make a Change in the Carbon Footprint?

One doesn't often think of DMCs being closely aligned with environmental concerns. In fact, visitors are notorious for not thinking as much about the environment as they might do at home.

Here are two DMC initiatives that are addressing this issue...

Team members from PRA Destination Management’s 19 franchise offices recently spent three days in Phoenix, Arizona for its 2007 National Sales Meeting, where this year’s theme for the event was “Green Meetings”. In an effort to be more environmentally responsible, during the meeting PRA Destination Management made a commitment to developing and providing socially responsible programs and practices in each of its destinations to assist clients in achieving their green meeting goals and objectives. PRA is not only committed to providing green options to its clients, but has also committed itself to incorporating environmental considerations in its own daily business practices.

“In the world we live in today, individuals and businesses alike are being challenged to evaluate how environmentally responsible we truly are and steps each of us can take in combating climate change,” explained Laura Rednour, president of PRA Destination Management, Inc. “These ‘green-friendly’ practices are something we as a company are committed to applying and are pleased to extend that same commitment to our clients, who too, are interested in making environmentally-friendly activities a priority in destination programs and events.”

As part of the environmentally-friendly meeting, PRA performance team members took part in a green-themed teambuilding activity, during the annual sales meeting, entitled “Go GREEN!” The activity called on participants to create solar cars from kits provided using recyclable products such as plastic, paper, and cardboard. Teams had to ensure their solar cars worked properly with a test run in the bright Arizona sun. Meanwhile, the teams’ recycled cars were put to the ultimate test with a round robin drag-race tournament to determine the fastest and best-built car. The cars, built by PRA team members, were then donated to the Thomas J. Pappas School in Phoenix along with brand new solar car kits and classroom curriculum.

In response to an environmental initiative by the grassroots organization CHANGE THE MARGINS, Christopher Lee, DMCP, CEO of ACCESS Destination Services announced today that ACCESS will CHANGE THE MARGINS on all applicable documents companywide. CHANGE THE MARGINS, a green issues campaign, is saving trees! By encouraging the adoption of narrower printing margins companies can save approximately 19% on their paper use. Goals of CHANGE THE MARGINS include convincing Microsoft to change the default margin settings to .75 on all sides, challenging five universities to adopt narrower margin settings as the standard for their students and faculty and persuading five corporations to officially sanction narrower margins for all company documents.

ACCESS Destination Services is credited as the first company to officially adopt CHANGE THE MARGINS in the workplace by Tamara Krinsky, founder of CHANGE THE MARGINS. ACCESS CEO, Christopher Lee states, “By initiating this within our business, we can bring awareness to this issue and hopefully influence our clients (some of the largest companies in the world) to adopt similar policies. If you extrapolate it out, and someone has, this could save billions of dollars and millions of trees world-wide, each year!” For more information, visit the following websites and make a difference by signing the petition “Dear Microsoft: Change the Margins.” (link below)

Click HERE to visit the Change the Margins website
Click HERE to sign petition to Microsoft to CHANGE THE MARGINS

This is an easy bandwagon for DMCs to step onto... what is your DMC doing to help our environment?

DMC Clients

According to a survey of ADME members earlier this year, corporations account for more than half of the aggregate DMC client base. The breakdown is:
Corporate - 96.9%
Incentive - 20.8%
Association - 16.7%
Tour and Travel - 4.2%

In the other category (1.4%) is a wide range of clientele, including award shows, charities, clubs, churches, colleges, local, non-meeting events, private, prom, social, non-profit, trade shows and weddings.

Clients come from a wide range of sources. In fact, the range is so wide that 47% claimed "Other"! Hotel referrals was the largest specific source at 15% and then repeat business at 12.8% Referrals (closely related to repeat business) is 6.1%.

CVBs generated 5.5% of DMC leads with internet at 4.4%. Prospecting yielded 4.0%

How does your marketing fit into this mix?

Making Connections

Destination Management Companies develop strong relationships with local corporate clients. Corporations recognized that the services that DMCs offer far surpass the knowledge their own staff has about unique venues, local transportation and the wide range of service providers needed to create a dazzling experience. It's not unusual for a DMC client to turn first to their local DMC in hopes of finding another company of that high caliber in another location.

The Membership Directory page of the ADME website is designed to assist anyone looking for a DMC. However, since ADME doesn't have members in absolutely every city, we often get requests for referrals. Recently, we had a question about a DMC in Dubai!

Last week, we received a request from an ADME member in Nevada: One of our clients is going to Aruba next year and is looking for a DMC recommendation. Is there a company you can recommend? We didn't have to look far -- we've been communicating with an ADME member who has a company in Aruba and is in the process of having her key staff member in that company join. We put the two DMCs in touch with each other, and got this response: I just spoke with the DMC you recommended and my client plans to contact her today. This is so great. We have done this client’s programs for the last two years and I always want to make certain I am passing clients along to only the best! This is how it should work between all of us and I think it’s great! Thank you so much!!!