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INDEPENDENT ASSOCIATION OF CONFERENCES & CONVENTIONS NORTH AMERICA
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IACC Press Release |
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UniFocus and the Dallas CVB Launch Innovative Meeting Planner Satisfaction Program
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UNIFOCUS AND THE DALLAS CVB LAUNCH INNOVATIVE MEETING PLANNER SATISFACTION PROGRAM
CONTACT INFORMATION
Contact: Randall Crabtree
Company: UniFocus
Phone: (972) 512-5158
Fax: (972) 512.5098
e-mail: rcrabtree@unifocus.com
DALLAS, TEXAS (June 6, 2003) -- UniFocus
DALLAS — June 6, 2003 — UniFocus, the hospitality industry's only integrated provider of guest, meeting planner and employee satisfaction measurements, along with expense management systems and operational analysis consulting, today announced it has signed an industry-first agreement with the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau. Under the agreement, UniFocus will provide the DCVB with its meeting planner relationship management system, MEETINGScope™. The DCVB will use MEETINGScope as a strategic tool to ensure quality in the delivery of services for events at the Dallas Convention Center. In addition, the DCVB will encourage surrounding convention center hotels to engage the services of MEETINGScope to enable a first of its kind “total-market-quality-program” that will be key in making Dallas a preferred convention destination for meeting planners and their attendees.
The most innovative feature of MEETINGScope is its ever expanding database and the ability to provide industry benchmarks along with detailed preferences of individual meeting planners. Not only through its dynamic database, MEETINGScope is unique in that it includes four key satisfaction measurement points during the life span of the convention event:
1. Contract execution survey to obtain feedback on the sales process and set expectations for the event
2. Pre-event survey of event staff performance 30-days prior to the event so corrective actions can be immediately implemented before harming the final outcome
3. For events lasting over three days, a mid-event pulse is taken to uncover any service issues during the point-of-delivery to enable real-time corrections
4. Immediate post-event survey to assess the final outcome while issues are still top-of-mind
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All individual meeting event results are comparable to industry benchmarks, reported in a blind aggregation to protect competitive advantages or weaknesses. Benchmark categories are:
* Price segment
* Brand
* Geography
* Meeting type
Once the database becomes populated with sufficient convention event performance histories, the ultimate benefit to the convention and visitor's bureaus will be for the first time intelligence on industry benchmarks along with real-time performance measures will be available to enable improved assessments of competitive positions and direct strategic decisions that increase their market's appeal.
Many in the meeting industry are realizing the uniqueness and value of MEETINGScope, and that increases exponentially as more industry players contribute to the database. UniFocus is an affinity partner of the Independent Association of Conferences & Conventions. In qualifying for this status, MEETINGScope has been proven to meet the IACC high standards of excellence and is recognized that it provides extraordinary value and service.
Commenting on the agreement, Tom Noonan, vice president convention sales & services for the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau stated, “We are excited to be the first CVB to Partner with UniFocus' MEETINGScope, which we consider to be the premiere New Planner Relationship Management System. This product will allow us to track how the DCVB Staff, Dallas Convention Center staff and exclusive vendors, the hotels and the destination as a whole has preformed before, during, and after meetings take place. After seeing this product demonstrated we realized this system helps you correct problems before the meeting takes place and lets you track your results from In-House Meetings to Major City-Wide Conventions. I see this system becoming the industry standard for all CVB's. It easy to use, and customers see the results as well.”
Mark Heymann, chairman and chief executive officer of UniFocus remarked, “ We are pleased to partner with the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau and join in their vision and industry leadership by making MEETINGScope a strategic tool in the DCVB quality management program. We look forward to taking the results achieved here in the Dallas market to the other bureaus and meeting industry organizations. In developing this product, we consulted with industry experts and listened to their needs and frustrations. Based on feedback we received in customer presentations, we executed on that advice to fill a real gap in meeting planning quality management.”
Tom Faust, vice president sales & marketing for Dallas' Wyndham Anatole Hotel remarked, “After viewing the UniFocus MEETINGScope planner satisfaction program I really see a tool that will help the Dallas CVB, Dallas Convention Center and the hotels track our city's customer service performance. The hotel component will be a useful tool in assessing and adjusting our own teams' performance here at the Wyndham Anatole. Our common goal as a destination is to provide a meeting experience that well exceeds the expectations of our clients, and certainly UniFocus' MEETINGScope is a very useful tool in both determining the expectation as well as measuring our performance."
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
About the Dallas Convention Market
Dallas is the ninth-largest city in the U.S. and is one of the leading convention cities in the country. It has over 65,000 hotel rooms in the area more restaurants per capita than New York City. The Dallas Convention Center features the world's largest column-free exhibit hall – 203,000 square feet with 40-foot ceilings. In total, the convention center offers more than 1 million square feet of exhibit area. Over 3.8 million people attended more than 3,600 conventions in Dallas last year.
About UniFocus
Based in Dallas, Texas UniFocus serves the hospitality industry in the U.S. and overseas, offering full-service operational analysis, financial and labor management systems, information technology and training, with a primary focus on staff performance, guest satisfaction and optimizing net operating income. Its comparative guest database includes more than 3,000 hotels and employee data from more than 400,000 employees. UniFocus correlates and benchmarks each client's performance against this information.
With a combination of leading-edge technology, experienced hotel and restaurant industry consultants, and proprietary “gap” analysis, UniFocus' comprehensive measurement methods and operational systems represents the next generation of balanced performance management for the hospitality industry
UniFocus is a Microsoft® Certified Partner and an affinity partner of the Independent Association of Conferences & Conventions. For more information: www.UniFocus.com
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