A CEO’s Guide to Executive Meeting Venue Selection

In May 2017, the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) introduced the Xperiential Design Project, or XDP, an innovative new model for maximizing meeting and event outcomes. XDP integrates five main tenets: experience, learning, marketing, technology and the fundamental starting point, location.

Speaking at the event, Michael Dominguez, chief sales officer for leading global meetings, hospitality and entertainment brand MGM Resorts International, offered this insight: “Location will drive the whole event experience. All memories are tied to a location. The first thing you ask about a defining event is, ‘Where were you when…?’ Location creates a sense of community and memories.”

Then there’s the site selection process itself. Here, guidance comes from Darrell Tamosuinas, CEO of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based Teneo Hospitality Group. Representing more than 300 independent and luxury branded hotels, resorts and destination management companies around the globe, his company, a prominent industry player, focuses on connecting corporate clients and meeting planners with venues that best fit their requirements for meetings, retreats and events.

“Changing the environment and providing a pleasant experience are the top priorities for high-level executive meetings,” Tamosuinas says. “Typically, CEOs look for a venue that will enable thought, inspiration, relaxation and creativity and other feelings to the highest extent possible. Cost, value and convenience are always considerations, but developing the right environment will ultimately provide significant dividends.”

“Must-haves” include comfort, privacy, convenience and service. Not allowed are distractions. “That means a disruption-free setting where the venue does everything possible to support and promote thought,” explains Tamosuinas. “Nice to have, but not essential, are ancillary attributes such as golf, spa, fine-dining, shopping or local sightseeing.”

The litmus test begins with arrival. “CEOs and high-ranking executives are special, and want to feel special,” says Tamosuinas. They’ve earned it. And the venue, its people, infrastructure and services must make that feeling happen.”

From the start, the CEO and his or her team should feel welcome and have immediately at their disposal all they need to initiate and conduct their purpose in being there. “Throughout their stay, they should never be overwhelmed, under-served or surprised,” continues Tamosuinas. “They should have only good things to say about the food, service, meeting, communications and sleeping conditions. ‘Nothing was lacking’ is a reliable measure of success.”

From superior service to harmony with corporate values, here are other key selection criteria from CEOs and executive planners practiced in the field.

Good Chemistry
Developed by Citibank in 1983, the Doral Arrowwood Hotel Conference Center in Rye Brook, New York, has a blue-chip meetings pedigree, hosting groups ranging from the Fortune 500 to U.S. presidential candidates. Set on 114 wooded acres 30 miles north of Manhattan, the amenity-rich resort offers 363 guest rooms, Executive Suite included, and the Doral Executive Center. Incorporating a former sales training facility purpose-built for a leading pharmaceutical company, the expansive venue, certified by IACC (the International Association of Conference Centers), is geared for maximum productivity.

For the past five-plus years, a major New York City-based professional services firm has selected Doral for business events, including quarterly internal training sessions and annual meetings. Anonymously, an executive planner for the firm explains Doral’s enduring appeal, starting with its convenient location.

“Access to NYC airports and highways without paying NYC hotel prices was a key criterion in our initial search of nearly a dozen hotel groups and conference centers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut,” she recalls. “Doral’s close proximity to Westchester County Airport and complimentary shuttle service were immediate pluses.”

Sealing the deal was Doral’s core competency in conferencing. “Doral understands high-performance business event planning and how to execute programs in a corporate context,” said the planner. “Hotels can be stringent, with rigid operations and a-la-carte pricing [that adds] charges for every little item. At Doral, it’s seamless. From sales to the parking valet to the A/V technicians, the staff makes it their priority to support our business objectives while onsite, including tailoring a conference package to our needs. We continue to be corporate customers and have not looked elsewhere.”

Good chemistry with the venue’s sales team is paramount. “Being able to honestly express your meeting objectives and expectations is key to long-term relationships,” she says. “The liberty to share ideas will pay dividends, but you can only reach that utopia if both sides (client and hospitality group) have an open dialogue.”

At Your Service
For Trevor Gauthier, president of Denver-based Mortgage Cadence, an Accenture Company, “the foundation of a strong event lies in the level of service a venue can provide and how that melds with the service you provide your own customers.”

Like Tamosuinas, he sees a “pleasant experience” as the primary directive. “When a customer arrives at our event, I want them to relax, enjoy their time, and focus on the event itself.”

Case in point: Ascent Live, the company’s annual three-day user conference. “Consisting of informational sessions, motivational speakers, product updates, networking events and various optional activities, this is our once-yearly opportunity to meet face-to-face with customers and partners,” explains Gauthier. “Now attracting more than 350 participants and continuing to grow, the conference enables us to better serve our customers by providing in-depth product training, unlimited access to our staff, and an avenue for collaboration among industry leaders.”

For the 2017 edition, selection criteria included “a large venue with high-quality accommodations within Colorado, numerous onsite meeting options, various dining options and large spaces for receptions and networking.” Imperative, too, were “qualified event staff and great overall customer service.”

After considering more than a dozen properties, several site inspections included, the company chose the site of its first user conference from 12-plus years back— The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.

“We knew we would return,” says Gauthier of the luxurious, perennial Forbes Five-Star and AAA Five-Diamond-rated resort, which celebrates its centennial in 2018. “In revisiting the property, we came with a refined understanding of our event requirements. The Broadmoor exceeded these in every way, and we are returning in 2018. [In our experience], venues boasting world-class service set the stage for outstanding customer events.”

Superior service was also a key quotient for an executive planner organizing a recent gathering of 125 technology, media and telecom CEOs for a high-level “connectivity” conference in Park City, Utah. Satisfying this and other criteria, including one-flight access for participants coming from New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco; an atmosphere of exclusivity; skiing activities, and entertainment, was the mountainside AAA Five Diamond St. Regis Deer Valley resort.

“Travel for CEOs is a necessity, not a luxury, and so one of our main objectives was to make the event feel like a home away from home,” recounts the planner. “With the group’s preference for an intimate environment, deciding factors for the St. Regis were its scale, luxury and high level of service, along with the desired ski in/ski out amenity for the program.”

Natural Alignment
North of Boston in coastal Ipswich, Massachusetts, Castle Hill on the Crane Estate is a meetings destination for the ages. Commanding a hill overlooking sandy Crane Beach and the Atlantic Ocean, the property’s origins date back to 1637. It features the 59-room Stuart-style Great House (1928) and, for overnight stays and meetings, the historic 10-room Inn at Castle Hill, a luxurious conversion of a mid-1800s farmhouse-turned cottage.

Natural features of the estate include hiking trails and private beach access, and it is classified as one of 116 “reservations” across Massachusetts managed by the Boston-based Trustees of Reservations, the state’s largest conservation and preservation organization. “The Trustees was founded in 1891 by landscape architect and land preservation pioneer Charles Eliot to save and share places of exceptional scenic, natural, and cultural significance for the benefit of the public,” explains CEO Barbara Erickson.

That charter is one influential factor among several that brings New England Biolabs back to the property again and again for gatherings that include focused executive retreats, small corporate outings, and seasonal parties. “The Trustees’ mission is consistent with our core value of environmental stewardship,” says James V. Ellard, CEO of the leading biotech firm, founded in the mid-1970s. “We continuously strive for improvement in our business processes in order to minimize and, where possible, mitigate our impact on the environment. It feels good to hold events at a venue run by an organization that appreciates and shares our passion to tread lightly on our planet.”

Accessibility and convenience are also natural draws—the company, also in Ipswich, is headquartered some six miles away—along with an environment conducive to results.

“We have held corporate retreats for 12 or fewer people in the Tavern meeting room at the Inn,” Ellard says. “This venue offers both a quiet space for focused conversation and creative collaboration, as well as access to the entire Castle Hill property, where the beach, surrounding natural landscapes and salt marsh offer miles of conservation land to explore and enjoy during downtime. Meetings here are always productive and the relaxed setting certainly helps people bond over shared experiences and mutual admiration for nature.”

The “Gatsby-esque” Great House, with its half-mile-long, tree-lined lawn, “offers an ideal setting for corporate functions and events such as our annual holiday party,” Ellard adds. “We have yet to find any venue that compares to Castle Hill on the Crane Estate.”

For executive meetings, as for real estate, location is everything.