Carlson Hotels Worldwide in recent weeks opened its first sales office in the New York City area, focused on selling international properties to U.S. meetings and travel buyers, and appointed 26-year industry veteran Kaaren Hamilton to oversee the office as vice president of global sales for North America.
Hamilton since 2007 acted as Carlson Hotels' director of national sales. Other positions have included roles at several New Jersey properties, such as the Hyatt Regency Jersey City, the Hilton Short Hills and the conference center The Palace at Somerset Park. She also is the president-elect of Meeting Professionals International's New Jersey chapter.
Hamilton in January spoke to MeetingNews associate editor Michael B. Baker about her goals in her newly created position and office.
MeetingNews: What's Carlson's aim in opening this sales office?
Kaaren Hamilton: The goal in developing this office here in New Jersey, right outside of Manhattan, is really to bring together all of the resources of our 1,000 hotels into a single point, so that we're easily accessible to our customers that are based here in the United States. The ultimate goal is to deliver great, personalized, high-touch service to both our corporate customers and our meetings and incentive customers.
MN: What sort of sales opportunities will you be targeting?
Hamilton: This is a global sales team that sells across the globe all of our brands, and it's really focused on servicing the clients here in North America that have a business goal to get their business out to another theater. What we've seen in the past many years is that, as meeting planners and corporate travel buyers have more on their plate and more responsibilities, as we all are wearing multiple hats, it's no longer typical that it's a more seasoned person who's sourcing internationally. It could be someone sourcing both domestic and international, and they really need assistance.
A secondary goal that we hope to provide is education on international sourcing, planning and buying.
MN: How will the office be structured?
Hamilton: Not unlike other global sales organizations, we manage a set of our strategic accounts. One global sales director from this office would manage both the corporate transient side and the meetings and incentives business from that account. We've found that delivers the best service, because you have somebody who's really a subject matter expert on that business and industry. If it's a pharmaceutical company, then that person is really up to speed on what drugs are in the pipeline and what things might be affecting travel and what projects are going on. We have a combination of folks here who have different expertise from around the world, so we started the office with people who were with our company for many years, either in London or in Europe or, like me, here in the United States with Carlson.
MN: Is this a response to seeing more globalized meetings programs in corporations?
Hamilton: Absolutely. It's not uncommon for the global corporate travel manager to sit in New York and have responsibility for the entire global program. From a convenience perspective, having somebody here in the same time zone or very close is certainly good customer service. We look to react quickly to our clients that way.
MN: What's your outlook for 2010?
Hamilton: On the meetings side, we are seeing contracts being signed, so that's very encouraging and a very different picture from a year ago. I'm still seeing my customers taxed with budget cuts and more stringent budget controls, and of course everybody is looking for improved operating efficiencies, so it's showing their negotiating skills. There's still a very close attention to return on investment and the value that a meeting brings to the stakeholders, so those issues haven't gone away. We are seeing even shorter lead times. We're working on programs here that take place in Europe and start on Feb. 1.
MN: Are there any international markets that stand out as hotspots for group activity?
Hamilton: London, of course, is still in high demand, as are cities in Western Europe like Brussels and Paris to some extent. We've seen a fair amount of activity for Berlin.
MN: Do you expect much group activity at luxury properties this year?
Hamilton: Those properties have certainly gotten much more into the mix. They've had to. There's certainly an atmosphere of flexibility and creativity.
MN: What are your plans for your new role with MPI?
Hamilton: This also is a very exciting venture for me. I start my term in June of this year and I'm looking forward to bringing a global flavor to the New Jersey chapter. Meeting Professionals International certainly has worked very strategically in the last several years to globalize the organization. That is just the direction our industry is going.
Originally published Feb. 15, 2010