the meeting planner

Allison Kinsley, CMM, CMP
Getting Involved
Fall 2008

ALLISON KINSLEY, CMM, CMP, is Principal and Chief Meeting Architect of Littleton, Colorado based Kinsley & Associates, LLC, a company she founded in 1993.

MPG: What attracted you into this industry?

This is officially my 25th year. 

As is the case with a lot of people, I came upon the industry by accident.  I had been living and teaching in Paris and decided to come back state-side.  I moved to Washington D.C. hoping I could do something with my French.  Jobs were tight and I ended up with the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association in a support role.  Not long after I got there they asked me if I was interested in planning meetings and I thought “yes, anything to stop answering telephones.”  A week later I was in Boca Raton running a meeting for some pharmaceutical executives.  That was my introduction to the meetings industry.

Tell us about your early mentors?

I moved to Colorado Springs and began working for the U.S. Space Foundation which was run by former astronauts and retired military.  I remember a quick briefing from one of the retired military staff on exactly how they expected things to be done.  That briefing gave me an appreciation for process that has stayed with me and helped me throughout my career.

One of my mentors was a woman named Kathryn Johnson, the executive director of a health care association in San Francisco.  Kathryn was a CAE and served as the chairman of ASAE.  She taught me about the importance of industry involvement and, with her encouragement, I completed my CMP within a year.

Describe your company.  What sets it apart from your competition?

Kinsley & Associates is a full-service management meeting company.  We’ve been in existence for 15 years.

Within associations, careful money management is a critical element for successful meetings.  My financial experience on the association side has been very helpful for our company and our clients.

One thing that is distinctive about our company is that, 21 years ago, I met and married a hotel guy.  My husband, Steve, has been an advisor, an advocate, and ultimately joined the company nine years ago.  That has given us an invaluable “hotel-side” perspective.

We all work with hotel people but as soon as you have to live with one - wow – an entirely different perspective.

What are your company’s future plans?

Actually, our big change happened about five or six years ago.  Steve and I looked at each other and asked, “Are we going to keep this a comfortable, small business or do we want to grow.”  We decided it was time to move out of the basement, get some office space and hire a few more people.

The planners that we have brought on have been instrumental in allowing us to get away from planning and into entrepreneurship.  We have formed several strategic partnerships that have helped us to grow and to explore new ways of doing business.  One of our exciting new partnerships is with Experient.

Our economy is facing some serious challenges.  What are your thoughts about the state of the meetings industry?

In the last 25 years there have been things that, in a cyclical pattern, have threatened us and things that have bolstered us up.  I remember when we all thought that video conferencing was going to put us all out of business.  Obviously, 20 years later, that hasn’t happened.

There will always be challenges but I believe this is a resilient industry because of the power of face-to-face meetings.  Yes, there will be things that change the immediate dynamics, things that will affect the way we do business, but I think inherently this industry is sound.

Certainly, little things can panic inexperienced planners – price increases, fuel issues, etc. – but I believe that our industry follows the resilience of the American economy.  We will get beyond this economic blip and I’m confident that our industry will come through this even stronger than ever.

What is your short-term forecast?

2007 was an extraordinary growth year for our company.  As a small business person, I always want to see growth, but in 2008 our business flattened out.  However, we are seeing indicators that 2009 will be busier for us both in the number of meetings we have on the books and the number of people attending those meetings.  I actually see attendance trending up which is counter to everything going on in the world but I’m taking it as a real barometer for where we are heading.

What are your thoughts about green meetings?

I’m on the board of trustees for the MPI Foundation which raises money to fund industry research and identify new trends.  I’m surrounded by real “thought leaders” who may be more aware of the whole green concept than meeting planners in general.

I think planners are going to lead the charge, to become advocates for sustainability.  Currently, I’m not seeing a great demand from my clients. When I bring up the topic, they recognize it as a good idea but people aren’t really thinking about green meetings like they are about recycling or other ways to be personally involved with sustainability.

What important issues are on the horizon?

In addition to CSR (corporate social responsibility), the MPI Foundation is looking very closely at the war for talent - getting and keeping the people that have the education, the service mentality, and the drive to be successful in our industry.

I was in Dubai last spring and saw the vast number of new hotels they’re building.  In the short term, they will need 22,000 hotel managers to run the vast machine being built in that part of the world.  This will create a drain of good talent.  We should all of be aware of this challenge and look at how we are developing and keeping talented people in our industry.

Any advice for industry newcomers?

Get involved.  Don’t just do your job in your own little small corner.  There is so much that can be learned.  If you just get involved in an organization and volunteer, it not only pays back tenfold, it keeps you energized for what you are doing.  

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