More organizations are putting travel spending to the test. To balance the budget, colleges and universities are reducing – and in some cases eliminating – ‘non-essential travel’, a code word for conferences, retreats, and meetings. Companies are cutting back as well, only willing to spend money on travel if there’s a chance it will generate revenue. American Express recently found that CEOs are taking an increasingly bottom-line approach to sending people on the road.
As we enter the fall conference season, many associations will understandably experience a decline in participation from both practitioners and vendors alike. As someone who has worked on both sides of the ‘aisle’, I want to explore the relationship between higher education associations and the vendors that serve college and university enrollment managers.
Presenting in the NACAC Black Box
As an employee of SunGard Higher Education last fall, I had the occasion to attend the annual National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) conference in Seattle, Washington, to speak and to work the SunGard booth.
NACAC frowns upon vendor presentations in their concurrent schedule and instead offers paid exhibitor presentations. Here are the details from NACAC’s website:
Exhibitors who have registered for a minimum of one booth at the 2009 National Conference may apply for one presentation opportunity for a fee of $2,500. NACAC reserves the right to deny requests for exhibitor presentations on such factors as questionable business practices, those having a mission conflict with NACAC or detracting from the conference’s general character.
In addition to the exhibitor fees, considering travel, promotion, materials and employee time, participating at NACAC with a 10X10 booth was a $20,000-plus investment.
For this investment, the company purchased the opportunity to present in an exhibitor presentation room that was actually a temporary structure. The 'black box' had plywood walls approximately 10-12 ft high.
No ceiling.
No signage within the hall to direct attendees to the room’s location.
We were one of the lucky vendors drawing about 25 people. The vendor preceding our time slot had three attendees.
SunGard (a deep-pockets vendor partner) dropped NACAC from its 2009 conference schedule.
Jedi-Mind Tricks
Sponsorship and exhibiting revenue is more important than ever to associations, particularly in a tough economy. But according to one vendor, “…we can’t simply be a piggybank, it has to be a partnership.” Yet, many associations cast a leery eye toward vendors, fearful that attendees will succumb to the force, and be jedi-mind tricked into …. purchasing something!
Fair and Balanced
To be fair, there a handful of vendors out there that take any presentation opportunity to shill their product or service. They are in the minority and are easy to spot. Any vendor worth their salt presents on their research, concepts they have developed, and experiences solving customer problems. Demonstrating that you understand the challenges and opportunities in higher education says volumes more than your company pitch, product, or service demonstration ever will.
Vendors like my company, DemandEngine, as well as DiagnosticsPlus, Eduventures, Maguire Associates, Noel-Levitz, and Intelliworks to name a few, understand and value the role of thought-leadership.
Creating Value for the Industry
As I began thinking about this blog post a few months ago, I reached out to a handful of vendor colleagues to gather their insight and experiences in working with associations. Consider the following comment:
“I think the “rules” that some have on vendor speakers is a good example of a problem. The association’s goal in a conference should be to add value and deliver insight for the participants/members, regardless of if the speaker is a higher education practitioner or vendor or otherwise. They can vet the speaker and the speaker’s credentials and set up rules (“no advertisements”), but given the important role vendors play – increasingly so, e.g., online marketing/recruiting, CRM, SIS, market research, e-learning… - it’s important to have those perspectives represented. "
"I have had associations reject a proposal that stood on its own merits – in many cases we’ll give away research that has a high-dollar value – but offer us a speaking slot only if we pay to sponsor or exhibit.”
Delivering value and insight should be the primary goal for any industry event, particularly with tight budgets. Another vendor underscored this thought:
“The only vendors who are going to succeed are those that put customer’s needs first and have a clear vision, etc. A good vendor will focus on the goals of the market and customer (e.g., helping schools to grow enrollments and increase access to higher education). However, associations often treat the vendors as crass capitalists and not in it with the same goals.”
Another fellow vendor offered the following:
“I think that associations need to see vendors in a few different ways … 1) how do they engage vendors for insight and content but manage them in a way that is win-win, 2) how do they make them NOT feel like second rate citizens, 3) how do they let them engage members colleges and universities in a way works for everyone … the association doesn’t need to over-protect or babysit, as many of these institutions can figure it out for themselves."
“Associations need to see vendors from both a relational and a financial return on investment perspective.”
Failure to deliver value has opened opportunities for outside organizations to capture conference market share and research services from traditional associations. For example, when it comes to enrollment management, Noel-Levitz hosts the largest annual gathering of enrollment management decision makers at its national conference. Adult learners? The Aslanian Group draws strong crowds for its fall and spring events. Finally, consider Eduventures. They have built a business model on research services that could be easily offered as a service by associations. As one vendor commented:
“I feel that it’s about value creation, as the consumer (college and university practitioners and vendors) has a lot of choices. Associations need to be in constant contact with their membership, as well as vendors because there’s a lot of competition out there.”
Working Together
Consider the example of one vendor who is loyal supporter of a particular association. Year in and year out, this promotional products company pays a corporate sponsorship fee, dutifully attends the national conference and regional events. Yet, when this vendor pressed the association to earn some of their business, they were rebuffed. I attended one of this association’s regional conferences earlier this year and at a dinner with former colleagues, I asked how many did business with this corporate sponsor.
None.
For association-member colleges and universities, consider doing business with those that support your professional associations.
What does this mean going forward?
Vendors are facing the same budget challenges as colleges and universities and in this environment they will increasingly be selective with their conference and travel dollars.
I expect many vendors will begin to opt-out of a large conference circuit investment and increasingly host their own gatherings. Others will co-opt the association experience by scheduling events around the conference itself.
College enrollment vendors will ramp up their efforts to provide industry thought leadership to support their own events.
Associations, in turn, will develop stronger value propositions to compete for vendor support. Associations that can demonstrate a reasonable vendor return-on-investment will thrive.
I welcome your comments.
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