The Motivation Show

Hey, did anyone out there see the ad for this year’s Motivation Show… the 2011 Exhibit & Conference?  If you browse through the site you’ll see a plethora of things to do, a veritable cornucopia of exhibits, education seminars and of course the salespersons best friend, networking.  Imagine all of this for free if you sign up before Sept 13^th.  Then again a wise man once told me that if you get something for free, that’s probably what it’s worth.

This show has been going on for a long time, used to be called the ITME, Incentive Travel and Meetings show, and it was a great time.  Most of us went to it for the parties (both day and night) and to rub elbows with the travel vendors from all over the world working them to get free trips to exotic places under the guise of eventually selling those destinations to our clients.  You see, the incentive travel industry spent more time and money entertaining each other than the actual client.  Of course the client could come along too is they wanted to, but most were happy to send us just to “check things out.”  Which of course we did!  In addition to free trips, a fun sideline was to saddle up to the many hotel sales types from Las Vegas for comp. ducats to their best shows.  You could always depend on them for that anniversary getaway with your spouse at prices only the VIPs get.   Alas, those days are gone.  

My how things have changed!  Now every conceivable vendor of anything that can be remotely considered as an award is at the show selling their wares.  The convention floor now looks like a combination of a Barnum & Bailey circus and the stalls you might see on any street in the Hong Kong merchant district, including the dialects.  Not that that’s bad of course, but the sheer size and number of vendors, and types of display booths is a little dizzying as you walk through them.  Of course many of the full serve incentive companies both large and small also have a presence.  They “man” their booths with the old tired dinosaurs from the 70’s along with the 20 some things from today all looking for the unwary client to pounce upon.  Unfortunately they  usually just ended up spending their time talking to other incentive reps bent on learning a little more about their competitors.    I used to get such a kick eavesdropping on those conversations of two competing sales folks lying to each other about how great things were.  If things were that great, none of them would be there looking for a new job or something else to rep.  They’d be at home with clients. 

Speaking of clients, contrary to what the show sponsors would have you believe, there are very few of them in attendance.  And those who are there are usually there to meet suppliers they are already doing business with.  It is a convenient way for a client to kill two birds with one stone, and of course a great way to get the client out of their office, play some golf at any of Chicago’s fine courses, and maybe just  pick up some ideas along the way.  Having lived in Chicago for over ten years  I attended every show, and many more after I moved.  I can count on one hand the clients we had who attended the show, for any reason other than picking up a freebee in the travel area, or the “hot ticket” to the best party.  It wasn’t too long ago that the show was in jeopardy of being closed for lack of clients attending.  I understand that it’s still iffy.

But as I said, things are  changing.  Today everything is about “Engagement and connecting that to Loyalty and Ultimately financial results,”or so says the copy on the brochure for the show.    Of course that’s what the incentive industry has been trying to do since the depression.  While they have made strides, much of what we see in these seminars are a lot of samo, samo under a new theme. 

Maybe we should go back to the old days where we went to the show for the parties and perks.  We didn’t have to sit in any seminars, just sell the trips and prizes and not worry about all this engagement stuff.  And, it was certainly a whole lot more fun!