Customized menus, LCD projectors and meeting rooms with good acoustics top the list of things that meeting planners want most in a Complete Meeting Package, according to the International Association of Conference Centers (IACC), which for the second year in a row has organized a series of customer roundtables designed to gather direct feedback from customers about conference center products and services, it announced this week.
"With this second series of roundtables, we sought to compare the results with what we heard from customers last year and keep our priorities in check," said IACC Americas President Peter Stockmann. "The focus was on what was important to IACC customers for an exceptional meeting environment."
The customer roundtables took place at 14 IACC-member properties in the United States, where a total of 135 conference center customers participated in them. Customers were given a deck of 57 cards — each featuring a component of an "ideal" meeting — that they were then asked to rank in order of importance.
The results, according to IACC, were the following top 10 rankings of the most important items in a Complete Meeting Package:
1. Customized menu that accommodates dietary requirements
2. At least one LCD projector
3. Acoustically rated walls that guarantee no sound distractions
4. Wireless high-speed Internet access in guest rooms
5. Set-up fees included in the package
6. Meeting room rental expenses
7. Flipcharts with easels, pads and markers
8. Pillarless meeting rooms
9. An easy-to-read, one-page invoice
10. Skilled onsite audio/visual and IT technicians
Last year, the top three items were customized menus, pillarless meeting rooms and "at least one complimentary high-speed Internet connection." New on this year's list were set-up fees, meeting room rental expenses and flipcharts. Missing from it, meanwhile, are complimentary meeting room Internet, onsite conference managers and climate-controlled meeting rooms — each of which placed in last year's top 10.
Said Eric Whitson, director of sales and marketing at The National Conference Center in Leesburg, Va., which was among the roundtable host properties, "This is important information that we will continue to study and we will build upon it as a baseline for subsequent customer roundtables. This allows IACC to keep a pulse on trends and shifting priorities among customers and help ensure that IACC members stay ahead of the curve as it relates to anticipating and exceeding the needs of the conference market."