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the dmc exec
Laurie Sprouse Every Month Matters LAURIE SPROUSE, CITE, CMP, DMCP is president of Dallas-based Ultimate Ventures. She was named “Destination Management Professional of the Year” in 2010 by the Association of Destination Management Executives.
MPG I met my current business partner, Val Lenington, when we were in college doing a Semester at Sea and developing a passion for travel. About 20 years ago, Val and I were sitting on a South Carolina beach talking about what we wanted to do with our lives. I wanted to have a business taking groups outbound all over the world, she liked the idea, and we decided to start as soon as I had paid off my Semester at Sea. Val moved to Dallas and during that time we met a North Dallas travel agency that had the concept of bringing groups into Texas for “wild west adventures.” We started out with them and learned that we were better off doing it on our own. In the spring of 1993, we launched Wild West Adventures and began looking for clients in Europe. I sold the “Texas dream” to incentive houses in Europe and, by 1997, we had developed a good clientele. But, even more than we were, Europeans were fearful of the new millennium, the Y2K thing, and, without exception, everything that we had booked in 2000 went away. Fortunately, in 1998, we had started working with domestic incentive houses. In 1997, we incorporated UltimateVentures as a result of customers saying “we’re coming back again but we don’t want western this time.” Is there one thing about your company that people may not know? We are the only Association of Destination Management Executives accredited destination management company in North Texas. ADME has its own certification for the destination professional, the DMCP. The accreditation is a huge process and it is the “due diligence” that our clients want. Also, Ultimate Ventures been listed on the Dallas Business Journal’s “Best Place to Work” three out of the last five years. How has the DMC business changed most since you started your company? The level of professionalism is much higher. The ADME accreditation and the DMCP certification has really changed the way that DMC’s are viewed. We all had to up our game to be accepted as viable corporate partners. I took two tax-related bills through the Texas State Legislature and now Texas is the first state to provide a definition for a qualified DMC. We are hoping that it will become a precedent for other states. The theme of this issue is “long-term success.” What do those words mean to you? Our company has always focused on our long-term success, creating a strong foundation that would generate repeat clients. During the last three years, when our peers were having lay-offs, we made the choice to keep our people employed. We knew we would want these great people on our team when we came out of this downturn. Long-term success also means investing the money on improving internal processes – helping everyone know the correct process and how the each department relates to each other. That investment has allowed us to cross-train, improve our efficiency and deal with the current realities of the economy. We have focused on every piece of business as if it would make or break us. Specifically, how did you implement these improvements? We hired a consultant who worked with each team. It was fascinating to see how three people could be doing the same thing three totally different ways. What industry trends are you observing? A year ago we engaged a market research company to help us better understand what had changed for our clients, what their new reality was like, and how we could become better partners. We learned that our clients have shorter lead times, less resources with which to plan, smaller meeting budgets, and are now scrutinized more than ever so they now have less margin for error. These dynamics have helped create a “do it yourself” mentality for our clients. The reality is now the need for a DMC is greater than ever. Because of our deep local relationships, we bring value to the table. We’ve always had Murphy’s Law but now we’ve got “Murphy’s Law on Steroids.” Things are happening faster and there are more opportunities for vendors to drop the ball. DMCs can help save the day because we know the vendors and we know their strengths and weaknesses. My advice is to use local resources to help make short turns and maximize your budget. Know that the little increment that you pay a DMC is like an iceberg. You may see that they cost a bit more but what you don’t see is the added value hidden below the surface. How will the meetings’ industry look in five years? I’m hoping that it will look more recovered. I think some trends such as the corporate social responsibility and teambuilding will be more main stream. CSR teambuilding has been the biggest growth for us. Our company has an “Every Month Matters” committee and every month we pick a different charity to support with our full-time and our part-time staff. That has helped us build the relationships and the ideas, so when our clients ask for something, we have an arsenal of ideas that are going to match up with their own values and objectives. I think the partnerships and the understanding between each other will be stronger and the advantages of using partners will triumph over only looking for the low cost solutions. The pendulum will swing back in that direction once people focus on value rather than just their bottom line. It there one thing you would like for people to take away from this interview? Whether it’s UltimateVentures or another professional DMC, I hope planners will use us as partners and sounding boards and let us contribute to generating the best possible “return on experience” for their attendees. |
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