the meeting planner

Barb Taylor Carpender
An Advocate for our Global Industry
Winter 2011-12

BARB TAYLOR CARPENDER, CHSC, CMM is the founder of Denver-based Taylored Alliances, a collection of industry facilitators, trainers and consultants. Barb served as the first managing director of HSMAI University, she is the recipient of the 2005 Leadership Award for the Meetings Industry Council of Colorado and was the 2006 MPI International Supplier of the Year.

MPG :   What attracted you to the meetings industry?  What was your first job?

I came into the meetings industry through the back door.  In 1978, I started working in the banquet department at a hotel in Steamboat Springs and within a year was in sales and convention services.  From there I became director of sales. 

I joined MPI that year. The Rocky Mountain Chapter was MPI’s first chapter.  Through all this I ended up moving to Denver with a hotel company and, ultimately, I became director of training and development.   

Tell us about Taylored Alliances.

Actually, the first company I founded was called Taylored Training.  In the mid-2000’s, I was approached by Nancy Morrell Swanson to affiliate with her and become part of Global Marketing Services. We manage advisory boards throughout North America and Canada.  In 2006, I founded Taylored Alliances because, in addition to working with Nancy, I do training – strategic planning sessions, board retreats – and public speaking on my own.

For our advisory boards, we manage everything from soup to nuts.  For example, one of my clients is the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission where I work with Kitty Ratcliffe.  I meet with them to determine the makeup of their advisory board.  Who are their key clients?  With which clients, industries or organizations do they need a stronger alliance?  These efforts help lead our clients to better positioning and focus.  I issue the invitations, do all the follow-up, manage the communication and registration processes, and I work with the hotels.

The theme of this issue is long-term success. What does this mean to you?

To me it means standing back, listening, looking and deciding, along with our clients, if we are being true long-term solution providers. 

A hotel company may say we are in a bit of a dip right now and ask, “How do we build our short-term success?”  A lot of them are still thinking this way because they have gaps in their occupancy.  However, the paradigm is shifting and our clients are looking at their business models differently than they did two or three years ago. 

A number of years ago, when the economy was roaring, MPI got involved in a program with the guru of ROI, Jack Phillips.  When we first started talking about ROI, a lot of our planners and their organizations just weren’t interested.  When times were good, planners didn’t need to be as focused on the objective of the meeting, on how to plan the event to meet those objectives and then measure the results. 

In these economic times, long-term success has a new, clearer focus both on the buyer and the seller side.  Are we maximizing our sales teams?  Are we providing success for each other?  Are we a good fit?  If not, what should we do to make our business model more supportive of your business model? 

We are now asking each other questions that we might have never thought about asking because we were afraid people would run for the hills.  Why is your organization in existence and what does it do for your clients?  We are now asking what have we accomplished together and how can our partnership evolve and improve. 

What advice do you have for fellow meeting planners, particularly new or part-time planners, to help with their long term success?

Become a true practitioner of looking through your clients’ lenses. 

Planners might have something thrown on top of them such as, “Call some Denver hotels and find a place for a 3-day meeting for 75 people.”  They start calling without even asking the owner of the meeting, “What is the purpose of this meeting and why Denver?”  You need to know what’s driving this decision and you need to provide long-term solutions.

If you were talking to a group of hotel and meeting vendors, what advice would you have for them on long term success?

Becoming a subject-matter practitioner is what will differentiate each and every one of us within our competitive set.  A hotel is a hotel is a hotel.  Ask what your venue does better than any of your competitors.  Which 20% of your clients are providing 80% of your income and how do you protect that and tie the binds even closer? 

Understand your clients.  In our advisory board meetings this is what we hear from planners, “Respond to me in the manner in which I ask the question and respond fully. You won’t get past my gatekeeper if you don’t fill in all of the blanks. If you have an honest question, send me an email or call me, but often I won’t have time to talk.  I need your best price going forward.  I don’t have time for the niceties that I had time for in the past.”

What is the one thing you’d like people to take away from this interview?

Become an advocate for our global industry and learn to understand the shifting needs and demands of a global community without being afraid of change. 

Our business has fluid borders. What does business look like in the eye of my clients from Germany or Bangalore and how do we communicate?  Is immigration an issue or an opportunity?  Are stock market fluctuations an issue or an opportunity?  Is the fear of travel an issue or an opportunity?  We all have the opportunity to take off our glasses and look through someone else’s lenses. 

I remember someone telling me that if you keep your hand closed in a fist, you can neither give nor receive.  Let’s open up our hands and see what we can learn from the new practitioners, from the emerging global markets, and incorporate that knowledge into who we are and what we do.    

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