DMAI's accreditation program for CVBs enters its second year and gains importance in the tough economy.Heading into a budgetary approval meeting is never fun, but when Don Welsh, president and CEO of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association met late last year with city leaders to discuss 2009 funding, he had an arsenal of metrics and industry benchmarks to back him up.
Indianapolis is certified through Destination Marketing Association International's (DMAI) Accreditation Program (DMAP), which debuted in 2007 as a way to align procedures and service levels among convention and visitors bureaus and other association members. Since then, 68 bureaus, called Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) by DMAI, have obtained the distinction31 in 2008, including one in Lille, France.
"This application cycle marks an important milestone for the program," Michael Gehrisch, president and CEO of DMAI, based in Washington DC, said in a release about the latest additions to DMAP. "With the accreditation of the Lille Convention Bureau, DMAP accredited DMOs can now be found throughout North America, Canada, and Europe."
To become accredited, a DMO must comply with 54 mandatory standards and may also institute 33 voluntary standards. The standards set by DMAP cover everything from domain names to marketing plans to procedures for group sales.
Accreditation was a "natural step" from the progress the industry had made in performance reporting prior to the creation of DMAP, Gehrisch told Successful Meetings, and "the program is continually elevating the relevancy of DMOsparticularly with their local stakeholdersand enhancing credibility with customers, such as meeting professionals."
Even as budgets become tighter for member DMOs, Gehrisch says they do not expect the pace of new accreditations to slow. The $1,000 application fee for members is offset with the first extra customer that comes in, he says.
"On average, the application process can take more than 80 hours of staff time to prepare; that's the larger commitment on the DMO's part. But DMOs are truly taking notice of this program as a way to stand out from their competitors, so in today's economic environments I suspect even more DMOs may consider this an essential competitive feature," he says. Many bureau officials say there is value just in the process of applying for the accreditation, as it serves as an operational audit.
"We discovered many industry resources, such as DMAI's various measurement tools. The process also solidified the need to be exceptionally professional in our approach toward our clients as well as toward our stakeholders and partners," says Charles-Eric Vilain XIV, managing director of the Lille Convention Bureau.
Those measurement tools and metrics were what Welsh used to convince Indianapolis officials to approve the CVA's 2009 funding requests, and it's that standardization in operations that he says is the most valuable application of the DMAI accreditation. The association does a "great job" of creating requirements that are relevant and necessary, Welsh says, especially as the tough economy forces cities to cut back on nonessential services.
The Indianapolis CVA has been accredited since 2005, when DMAI was known as the International Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus. The CVA was grandfathered into the new accreditation program at its 2007 launch, and the distinction will be renewed this year by DMAI.
A for AuditAccreditations, even if they apply mostly to internal procedures rather than external certifications, often help in winning business from planners, CVB officials say. They are a sign of good faith and of a willingness to follow industry best practices.
"We are instituting a number of operating procedures and policiesfirst of all with the goal of getting accredited by the Destination Marketing Association, but also to be at the cutting edge in terms of the tactics and techniques that we apply to the group and convention development side," says Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO of the Palm Beach County CVB.
Accreditations "absolutely" help to win business from planners, Pesquera says.
"I think that getting that 'Good Housekeeping [-type] seal of approval,' whether it's us, as a destination marketing entity for the county, or the hotels that are getting these accreditations or certifications in terms of their meeting spaceI think that's all very helpful in projecting to meeting planners the quality and the importance of the product that we have here."
Mark Vaughan, executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer for the Atlanta CVB, agrees, saying the bureau will begin using the DMAI seal in marketing materials. Atlanta was among the latest batch of CVBs to receive accreditation in November 2008. A review board examines DMAP applications three times a year.
"It allows us to validate to our customers that they're working with a credible organization that met the standards of the industry, or exceeded the standards of the industry," he says.
The accreditation was a "big morale booster for us here," Vaughan says. "A lot of work went into it."
Rather than uncover many changes that needed to be made, the accreditation process cemented many of the bureau's operational policies as best practices. "It was flattering to see that we were doing some right things, like we thought we were. It validated what we were doing," Vaughan says. "And it gives us the opportunity to share that with our board members and our customers, even our counterparts at other CVBs in the industry. I applaud DMAI for the program."
But obtaining the accreditation, which costs $1,000 for members of DMAI and $2,000 for nonmembers as well as a $400 yearly maintenance fee, is not easy.
"We worked on it for a good five months," Vaughan says, adding that a few key staff members acted as "gatekeepers" for the process. Even things that were being done correctly had to conform to DMAI's standards, he says.
But the big payoff is that the metrics DMAI provides go a long way in convincing city leaders to approve budgets.
"Our business plans and financial plans go through an extensive approval process every year," Vaughan says. "You can tell people that you're part of an elite group that has been approved by the governing authority that leads the CVBs. It's an outsider's viewpoint."
And with citywide conventions coming to the city in 2009, like Meeting Professionals International's MeetDifferent, the annual meeting of the Society of American Travel Writers, DMAI's own annual convention, and The International Association for Exhibitions and Events, Atlanta needs plenty of ammunition when haggling over budgets.
Gehrisch says the program is "starting to hit that critical threshold of mass acceptance" and the number of accredited DMOs will approach 90 by March.
"In addition to there simply being 'more' accredited DMOs to take note of, the DMOs that were early adopters are really making some noise about their accreditation status," he says. "They are including the accreditation seal in their marketing materials and promoting it at trade shows. This type of promotion increases meeting professionals' awareness of the program and, in turn, it puts pressure on other DMOs to join the ranks."
WHAT'S REQUIRED FOR DMAI ACCREDITATION?The Destination Management Organization (DMO) pledges to:
• Abide by DMAI's Code of Ethics
• Have a strategic plan, insurance, written financial policies, and formal training procedures
• Establish technology policies, a human resources manual, and a data management system
• Maintain a comprehensive website and marketing plan
• Offer meetings and convention services for planners and trained support staff for groups
• Comply with DMAI standards for convention sales, and maintain a lead distribution and referral system
Originally published Feb. 1, 2009For more ideas, tips, and tools for better meetings and events,
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