会议策划人(MP)研究述评

作为一种会展经济特色的工作岗位与职业,会议策划人在美国等会议产业发达国家得到了较充分的发展,并日渐成为会展管理研究领域的一个研究热点.为引发我国学术界对此研究领域的关注,推动我国会议策划实践之专业化水平的提升,文章对与会议策划人相关的77篇英文学术论文进行梳理与分析,发现在总体分布方面,呈现出近10年文章占75％、美国学者占66％、实证研究占75％等特征;在研究内容方面,可归纳为MP的分类与特征、MP的职业资格与专业技能、会址选择与会址营销、MP的满意与忠诚、MP的激励与约束等5个研究专题.在此基础上,还针对现有研究的局限与不足,提出了加强跨文化比较、重视性别差异分析等建议.     

Meeting Planners’ Competency,Motivation, and Benefits: The Case of Korea

The role of meeting planners is essential to the successful completion of a meeting. Their involvement includes coordinating every detail of a meeting, such as budgeting, solicitation of sponsorship, preparation of request for proposals, reservation of facilities or services, translation, and interpretation. Despite meeting planners’ significance, no real effort has been made to identify their competencies, motivations, and benefits. In this study, six competency, four motivation, and two benefit domains were identified. The most important competency domain was the “ability to understand social trends and good manners,” whereas the “ability to perform foreign languages” domain was a relatively low-importance competency. Regarding the benefits, the respondents showed appreciation for opportunities to globalize and gain social recognition by becoming a meeting planner. Compared with the female respondents, the male respondents believed that they had a higher level of evaluative knowledge regarding current competency and specialized expertise.     

Characteristics of a Meeting Planner

ABSTRACT

This is an exploratory research project about meeting planning professionals. Survey responses were collected from 288 meeting professionals in an Internet based survey. The results found a significant difference in perception of minority representation in the industry. The study also found that career counselors are not making students in high school or college aware of meeting planning as a profession, so therefore, they are not studying it in college. People instead are finding out about it in nontraditional ways, such as learning on the job, friends and co-workers. As a result, top skills listed that are needed to succeed included personality or character traits rather than skills that could be learned.     

Meeting planners’ experiences of multiple service failures: A dynamic model of organizational justice

This article investigates service failures in the meeting industry, with a particular focus on multiple failures. Drawing on an integrative model of organizational justice, this research developed a framework to study meeting planners’ responses following multiple service failures. In-depth interviews with meeting planners assessed their experiences with repeated service failures in which a meeting venue was at fault. The study revealed several findings, including distinctive characteristics of multiple service failures, a new escalation evaluation process, and meeting planners’ distinctive responses to failures as a result of their intermediary role. Study implications are discussed, and future research directions are offered.     

Meeting Planners' Use of the Internet to Plan Group Meetings

Abstract

Despite the fact that hospitality web sites are proliferating and opportunities to complete sales transactions via the Internet increase daily, no research exists on meeting planners' use of the Internet to plan group meetings. Guided by Hoffman and Novak's (1994) Model of Planned Behavior this study focused on determining what variables are related to a meeting planners' intent to use and current use of the Internet to plan group meetings. Three hundred sixty-two planners of the Chicago Chapter of Meeting Professionals International were surveyed via a faxed instrument. Planners' attitudes, beliefs about norms, and perceived behavioral control were found to be significantly related to their usage of the Internet. Additionally, results confirmed that meeting planners view the Internet as having positive qualities and benefits in planning group meetings and that it is a cost effective planning tool.     

An examination of green intention: the effect of environmental knowledge and educational experiences on meeting planners’ implementation of green meeting practices

Environmental sustainability has become an important concern in staging meetings and events. This paper introduces the Convention Industry Council's Green Meetings Report and goes on to investigate whether prior knowledge and educational experiences related to environmental sustainability are influential factors in planners’ commitment to engaging in ecologically friendly behavior. Using a nine-point questionnaire, 278 delegates at North America's largest one-day event for meeting planners were sampled. Regression analysis showed that the intention to implement green meeting practices is positively influenced by both prior knowledge of and educational experience with greening practices. In particular, educational experiences were found to be a strong influential factor contributing to meeting planners’ intention to implement green meeting practices. By providing operational definitions of knowledge and education, it proves that knowledge gained by an unstructured format was less effective than the impact of education on green intention. Accordingly, this study not only highlights academic discussions on environmental knowledge-building through formal education but also derives managerial implications for the meeting and event industry by outlining ways to incorporate continuing professional education in sustainable meetings and events. A range of ideas for the content of that professional education is presented, along with the possibilities for e-learning.     

Association Meeting Planners' Perceptions of Five Major Convention Cities

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to report the pre-test results of a questionnaire designed to examine association meeting planners' site selection criteria and performance of five major convention cities. Pre-testing is necessary to ensure face (content) validity of the instrument by assessing the meaning of questions (ambiguity and bias), continuity and flow, question sequence, scale variability, and length and timing. The findings from the pre-test provided significant feedback for content validity of selection criteria used in the study, measurement and scaling, and flow of the questionnaire. The implications were discussed.     

从城市意象到街道体验--城市旅游多层级消费决策中的景观迭代过程

旅游过程作为一种时序性、多节点的谱状和网状相联结的结构,决定了旅游者的感知与决策行为的复杂性和续贯性,影响着旅游体验的质量,由此构成了一个重要的研究课题。文章着眼旅游者个体在选择城市景观作为体验对象时的感知-决策过程,利用扎根理论的方法,以国内15个知名旅游街道的线上评论和相关网络游记为材料,分析旅游者街道景观的感知-决策过程,发展出景观迭代这一用以解释该过程的核心范畴。研究表明,第一,旅游者的城市景观感知-决策是一个城市景观-街道景观-街道构景的景观迭代过程,每次迭代都遵循相似的感知-对比-选择程序;第二,凸起感是每一层级旅游决策的核心所在,各次迭代过程中的决策行为都建立在对凸起感感知的基础上;第三,旅游决策过程中交织着预算型决策和冲动型决策两种类型,从城市景观到街道场景进而到街道构景的整体决策迭代过程中,越接近具体的旅游情境,冲动型决策的特征越明显。研究进一步将旅游决策的情境化取向这一命题予以巩固,在一定程度上深化了对旅游体验的感知及决策过程的认识,对理解旅游者的行为、指导城市旅游景观尤其是街道场景、街道构景的规划和营销,均有一定的现实意义。     

Towards a Conceptual Framework for Assessing Community Attractiveness for Conventions

Abstract

The convention, exposition, and meeting industry (CEMI) has been growing at an unprecedented rate with cities of all sizes building or expanding their convention centers. While the cities may or may not have made good decisions, the underlying base for these judgements has not taken into account those characteristics of the city that convention attendees deem important. This research fills this void by delineating sixteen different city traits that impact on conventioneer destination attractiveness and develops scales for each. For each scale, applications to major convention cities are provided as examples. The framework provides an empirical base for convention decision making that was not previously possible. The extant research offers a means by which convention center operators and city policy makers can compare themselves to other cities or centers and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Thus, entities using this approach can better position themselves in the market with a resulting increase in success with conventions.     

An exploratory study of factors that exhibition organizers look for when selecting convention and exhibition centers

This study examines the dimensions of convention and exhibition (C&E) center selection attributes from the perspective of exhibition organizers, who have the authority to decide on an exhibition venue. The combined qualitative and quantitative method generates 33 items within a 9-factor (F) structure, including five center-specific and four destination-specific factors: (F1) quality of C&E center staff members and service contractors; (F2) extra-exhibition opportunities; (F3) image of C&E center; (F4) industrial environment of C&E center site; (F5) center facilities; (F6) center accessibility; (F7) C&E center site environment; (F8) exhibition hall cost; and (F9) hotel accommodation. The results of this study enhance the insights of concerned C&E center management and stakeholders with regard to which factors should be considered when conducting a feasibility study before constructing a center, and wih regard to determining effective ways to manage an operating center that aims to focus on hosting exhibitions.     

What are Cities Really Committing to When They Build a Convention Center?

Abstract

This paper looks at the eventual implications to cities when a convention center is built. The Delphi Technique was used to gain the expert opinions of a wide variety of knowledgeable experts in the field. Five questions pertaining to the ultimate financial consequences of building a convention center in a municipality were examined. There was great, general agreement that cities are putting themselves into a position where additional dollars will have to be spent in an attempt to make the initial investment, in this case a convention center, successful.