Management news
Site Announces Major Reorganization
By Leo Jakobson
November 8, 2010
Incentive travel industry association Site has announced a major restructuring and initiative change, shifting the organization’s focus from global growth to education and member services, fund-raising, and marketing outreach to the industry and media.
Site CEO Brenda Anderson, who has led the organization for seven and a half years, will be stepping down at the end of the year. In the short term, the most immediate changes will be in the organization’s leadership. Anderson’s top role will be taken over by the Site International board of directors, whose members will collectively assume a more active public role, says Sean Mahoney, president of Site and global vice president of corporate sales and marketing for Fort Lauderdale, FL-based Sliverseas Cruises.
The board decided it needed to refocus Site's resources “on a strong internal operations team,” says Mary MacGregor, Site’s 2011 president-elect and vice resident, account development, of BCD Meetings and Incentives in Minneapolis. “Brenda Anderson felt that was not the right step in her career. She has been extremely helpful and supportive of the process.”
Allison Summers, who currently focuses on planning and budgeting as executive director of the Site International Foundation, will become managing director of both organizations. “Her role will grow somewhat, but will be largely operational and internally focused,” Mahoney says. “This is a process that has been evolving over a number of months,” which included extensive input from both Anderson herself and SmithBucklin, Site’s association management firm, he adds.
In addition, three new positions will be added to Site’s leadership base.
A director of education will be appointed to oversee the content and development of key education resources and modules for chapters, conferences, and events. A director of marketing and communications will be appointed to oversee Site’s brand and Web site development, as well as its media, industry, and public relations. Mahoney says Site hopes to have these two roles filled by Jan. 1, 2011.
The third position, director of financial development, will be filled by Joost De Meyer, a current Site board member and chairman and CEO of Orlando-based First Incentive Travel. Calling him “an amazing ambassador for Site,” Mahoney says De Meyer “will relinquish his seat on the board to take on this role. He will be seeking strategic partnerships and sponsorships and raising funds.”
Spurred by the challenging business environment for incentive providers brought on by the combination of a weak economy; the lingering post-AIG, anti-incentive travel sentiment; and feedback from members, Site’s leaders have been working to determine “what we can do to set up greater success and add greater member value,” Mahoney says. “One outcome of those talks is a change in how we are structured operationally.”
When the AIG effect damaged the industry by portraying incentive travel as a money-wasting boondoggle to the public, media, and Congress rather than as a well-tested and effective business tool, “we tasked Brenda Anderson with being the face and voice of Site,” Mahoney says. “Advocacy was not a traditional role [of Site’s CEO], but it was needed as the industry came under attack, and she did that very well.” But making Anderson the public face of Site and the incentive travel industry diminished the role of Site’s regional leaders, who will be picking up that duty under the new structure.
“Public advocacy is a role we feel is important,” Mahoney emphasizes. “We will vigorously defend the incentive travel industry and continue to work with other organizations” that are defending the broader meetings and group travel industry. “This will be a big part of the job of the new director of marketing and communications,” he adds.
A second major goal is strengthening Site’s 30 chapters. “We are looking at ways to better support the chapters with their events,” which can draw 300 to 500 members, he adds. “For many members, those chapters define the Site experience,” he says, noting that the group has only four annual international events, and as they are spread far across the globe—next month’s Site International Conference will be in Cape Town, South Africa—many members cannot get to them.
Indeed, one reason for De Meyer’s new position as director of financial development is to assist Site chapters with these events as well as provide both members and Site’s regional and national chapters more tools and resources, including research, publications, and education.
“The first goal of the education director will be to create educational modules for the chapters,” Mahoney adds. Another will likely be to create a less strenuous industry certification to complement Site’s existing CITE designation and target members who are newer to the industry.
Broadly, the long-term goal of the reorganization is to build greater member value by refocusing resources on the education, research, and other content that Site provides. “We have always been about content and quality,” Mahoney says. “If we deliver greater value, [membership growth] will follow.”
This page is protected by Copyright laws. Do Not Copy