The meetings business is booming, but government functions can’t keep up. Government event numbers are down, as are attendee numbers and budgets.
The latest MPI survey found that half its members believe government meetings have seen the greatest decrease of any sector compared to a year ago. The results mirror a November 2013 survey by the Society of Government Meeting Professionals (SGMP). Sixty percent of SGMP respondents had postponed one or more meetings over the prior year, 51 percent had canceled one or more meetings and 53 percent had had one or more meeting request denied.
“We believe the industry is not going to get any worse,” says Rob Bergeron, SGMP’s vice president and CEO. “But we are still negatively affected by travel restrictions and event restrictions.”
Corporate, association, religious, fraternal, education and other sectors of the meetings business have bounced back from the recession, but government meetings weren’t as affected by the downturn. Instead, the government segment was hit by scandal, hammered by Congress and gutted by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
“Just when we think we understand the rules, it all gets changed and we’re wondering what to do next,” says Deanna Lyons, program director for conference and travel management at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges in Reno, Nev. “We have to go through a tortuous approval process because so many of our conferences are funded through the Department of Justice. We may not know until a week before an event if it is approved. That makes it tough on our attendees, juvenile and family court judges from around the country. They can’t cancel the entire court docket next week to attend a conference.”
Restrictions are tough on government attendees, too. A March survey by advocacy group Meetings Mean Business found that 98 percent of federal employees say face-to-face meetings are important to advancing their agency’s mission.
“Government agencies, private companies and nonprofit organizations all benefit from face-to-face meetings,” says Karen Kotowski, CAE, CMP, CEO of the Convention Industry Council. “For government, in-person training is critical to advance public-private partnerships and mission-critical initiatives.”
Too much of that critical training isn’t happening due to OMB restrictions. Research by The Washington Post earlier this year noted that federal contract managers, FDA researchers and military medical personnel, among others, are missing out on vital career advancement, training and certification opportunities.
Scandal
The problem started with the General Services Administration (GSA) 2010 Western Regional Conference at the M Resort Spa and Casino in Henderson, Nev. GSA spent $822,751 on the five-day, 300-attendee event, according to a 2012 report by the agency’s previous inspector general, Brian Miller. He is now managing director for Disputes & Investigations at Navigant.
Miller found six pre-event trips to the resort, food and beverage expenditures well beyond per diem and a long list of questionable expenses for mementos, clothing, rentals, entertainers and other items.
“There was essentially no oversight,” Miller says. “As a result, you now have all sorts of approvals before you can hold or attend an event. Some of the restrictions are good and the government has saved money. At the same time, you should not be prevented from holding an appropriate meeting and obtaining the necessary approvals should not be onerous. The pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.”
Don’t Eat or Drink
“We have to remind attendees to stop for coffee on the way in, plan to go out for lunch and to bring their own water bottles,” Lyons says. “If there is a public water fountain in the building, OMB says we can’t even provide water for attendees. Which means you get 50 people lined up at every water fountain at every break.”
BYO-F&B is the easy part. OMB travel and meeting guidelines issued in mid-2012 require agencies to cut travel spending to no more than 70 percent of 2010 levels. Spending for any single event cannot exceed $500,000. Expenditures above $100,000 must be approved at the deputy secretary level and all conference spending in excess of $100,000 must be reported on the agency’s website.
Every agency takes its own approach to implementing the restrictions, Bergeron says, and none have been consistent. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the departments of Defense and Energy, for example, have multiple layers of review for meetings costing less than $20,000. Planners complain of unwritten rules and procedures that change without notice and hamstring both planning and attendance.
Some agencies restrict employees from traveling out of state to attend meetings, Bergeron notes. Government planners who want to attend the SGMP annual meeting in Minneapolis or the MPI WEC meeting in San Francisco may not be able to travel.
Popular leisure destinations such as Las Vegas and Orlando can offer significant seasonal price breaks but are rarely approved.
“Planners are walking on egg shells because the optics could be bad, even if the dollars work out in taxpayers’ favor,” Bergeron says. “The well-intentioned restrictions to shield against unnecessary expenditures can result in increased spending. The total cost of conferences has increased because of the cost of monitoring the mandated decreases in spending.”
Relief, Maybe
OMB is easing restrictions somewhat. An alert issued earlier this year noted that while agencies are still required to cut travel spending by at least 30 percent from FY2010, OMB is willing to “entertain proposals for baseline adjustment” if the agency has new, mission-critical travel needs. Spending approvals can be delegated to lower-level officials who are more familiar with the need for travel.
The most important adjustment could be an admission that travel and conferences can be critical to government operations. OMB directs agencies to pre-approve known recurring conferences and attendance at non-government-sponsored conferences. It is not clear that the new directive will change the varied approval processes that are being used by different agencies and departments, Bergeron says.
Suppliers are being hit hard, too. Government is a challenging category, says Charles Mullins, director of sales and marketing at Florida’s Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club. Some agencies and planners are still leery of meeting at a resort property.
“Florida beaches, like the Las Vegas Strip, have a perception that we had to counter,” Mullins says. “The reality is that you can do networking, training and education without ever seeing the beach or the golf course.”
FRED GEBHART is a seasoned meetings industry reporter and regular contributor.
