Twinsburg, Ohio-based meetings management firm Experient in February appointed former Freeman executive vice president and COO Jeff Price as president and CEO, replacing George Benson, who served in the position on an interim basis since June 2008, when Ed Shartar stepped down after a four-year tenure. Benson remains on the company's board of directors.

Price, who began in the job upon his appointment, spoke with MeetingNews associate editor Seth Harris about some of his priorities for leveraging last year's expansion of the sales network and how this recession differed from past tough times for the industry.

MeetingNews: What are your priorities for your first months as head of Experient?

Jeff Price: To get to meet with larger customers as time permits and as travel schedules permit to let them know that I am here. Many of them I know already. I've been in the industry for 30 years, so it's an easy thing for me to meet with people.

I want to get back out in the field and talk to some of the folks that Experient has lost as customers over the last couple of years to make sure that they understand fully what it is that we can bring to the table in terms of products and services and that we are there for them, and hopefully we'll win back some of that business.

In this particular space, there is a lot of turnover because it's just the nature of our system. I'm hopeful and am anticipating some success there.

MN: In 2009, Experient expanded its sales network and established an office in Canada. Are there any plans to make any additional changes?

Price: I don't think you are going to find me making any key strategic changes to the sales force. The heavy lifting that was done before I got here was well thought out and well executed.

Certainly, I am going to be applying some tactical focus on our initiatives in sales. My focus is very much on driving revenues and finding new business, but at the same time not forgetting about our customers and driving even higher levels of customer service.

MN: What does Experient's customer base look like today?

Price: We go after three basic groups of customers within the two businesses that are Experient. The first is registration, housing and lead retrieval. The other business unit is event management. Within each of those units are three different types of customers. We have event organizers, corporate and government.

MN: You've been in this industry for decades, including positions at Cygnus Expositions, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Cahners Exposition Group and Wyndham Travel Management. What is different for the meetings industry with the most recent economic downturn than in previous such periods?

Price: Our industry is certainly no longer impervious to dramatic and painful shrinkage, as we used to think it was. I started back in the 1970s, and I've gone through at least three or four technical recessions. 2001 was the first time that we officially saw negative growth for our industry. Prior to that, we just saw declines in growth.

This time around, in 2009, we got hammered. That has been hard for a lot of businesspeople to deal with because they never had to deal with that kind of thing before. 2001 was painful, but depending on who you were and what industry you served, it could have been not so painful or you might have gone through it without any issues. Not in '09.We all felt it.

Originally published March 1, 2010 This page is protected by Copyright laws. Do Not Copy