JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa
The Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) is gearing up for its 19th annual Incentive Invitational educational and networking event, hosted this year at the year-old JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa from May 30 to June 3.
We spoke with Matt Harris, chairman and trustee, and Terry Epton, CITE/DMCP, who’s president of USA Hosts in New Orleans, to get an update about this year’s event.
Prevue: What are some of the benefits of the Incentive Invitational for buyers?
Terry Epton: Buyers like the fact that they’re treated to the latest research that can support their performance and proven strategies, and they feel like they get an important leg up on their competition by being the first ones to learn about the research.
They have the opportunity to create new relationships or maintain relationships with leaders in the incentive travel industry on several levels. That might be knowing the person from a cruise company that is the decision maker in the incentive industry, or the lead person for Ritz-Carlton or JW Marriott. Those relationships are very valuable.
Finally, I think they see a lot of value in being treated to an excellent incentive-quality destination showcase, to build their knowledge on various incentive opportunities that they can use.
And the benefits for suppliers?
Epton: As far as suppliers are concerned, I think most of them are multi-year, repeat sponsors. Last year we had a significant percentage of new sponsors but it wasn’t because we lost old sponsors, it’s because we had new involvement. The suppliers see the invitational as the cornerstone of their incentive market business strategies. The ones I know have attended every single invitational since I discovered it, which was the second year it took place.
The suppliers meet new industry buyers that are highly-qualified for the market industry that they work in. Clearly, hotel corporations aren’t sending association market experts to host incentive buyers at the invitational; they’re sending their incentive industry people. It’s a casual atmosphere that is high on relationship building and maintenance.
I think one of the things that makes the invitational so special is that it’s not an industry event where someone can just pay their registration fee and be there. Everybody at the Invitational is at the director level or other senior position in their companies. This means that it’s a higher level conversation and there’s not a tremendous amount of hard selling going on.
Also, the suppliers have an opportunity to sharpen their saws at the educational sessions. When they learn more about what their customers are doing and what makes their customer’s decision process take place, they’ll be better at selling things, and the smart ones realize that. It also elevates them in the eyes of the buyers.
How has the Invitational evolved over the last five years?
Matt Harris: When I started attending six years ago, it was very clear that people were coming for a chance to see the destination and get ideas, and the main priority was to network. I would say we’ve started gaining ground on making the educational content as important a reason for going. This year’s invitational is really going to have that portion of the event be a strong value for attending.
We’ve gotten more aggressive about our research agenda in the last couple of years, so we’re actually now starting to see the benefit of that research. Basically, we’re coming out with more frequent and more varied research that we have to share.
We’ve also gotten more focused around the idea that part of our mission is really to share information, whether it’s from the IRF directly or from others. Even if it’s not a piece of research we did, we can help identify it. For example, two out of the three sessions are not about IRF research…. We’re actually putting together a really great end-user panel to look at trends and best practices that people can employ, etc., so that’ll be really helpful too.
When will the final agenda be determined?
Terry: It’s very close. We’re down right now to looking at three educational sessions and possibly a fourth. We just want to make sure they have a good session hooked to them. This event has really morphed into an educational event with a lot of really cool incentive quality things to make it attractive and give it added value, from when it was a fundraiser.
It has to do with the quality of the research we’ve produced. I tell you, I sit in those board of trustees meetings and I’ve never sat in a room full of more brilliant people than people like Matt and Jeff Brody from United Incentives and Mike Ryan from Madison Incentives. And we bring that to people in a way that’s understandable in bite-size pieces.
Why San Antonio this year and why the JW Marriott?
Terry: The short answer is because it’s ready and it’s incentive quality. They see, just like the previous destinations that have chosen to host an IRF, the impact that it has on the destination. Every destination that has hosted us has had extraordinary upticks in their incentive travel business from IRF being in the destination. It’s a tremendous responsibility and expense to host one of these things.
San Antonio has some really unique cultural offerings that I think are best appreciated in person, and the Tex-Mex atmosphere and people and food and the destination in general are underappreciated unless you see it for yourself. I know they are very excited about the opportunity.
The JW is the centerpiece of the whole thing. I can’t wait to see it in person myself. Without the JW Marriott this would not be possible. The host hotel property is the linchpin to hosting the Incentive Invitational.
Comments