Wed 13 May 2009
When life serves you lemons…
Posted by Tim Ryan under Meetings Intel
I feel like I’ve been in a boxing match with a fighter who’s much stronger than me. I’ve played by the rules. He’s on steroids.
1st Round: The economy begins to slow down, but I’m holding my own.
2nd Round: AIG accepts government bail out money then gets slammed for conducing a meeting at the St. Regis Monarch Beach. I duck and weave and I avoid getting hit hard.
3rd Round: Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy and the tsunami of cancellations build. I get knocked down but find a way to get up to deal with a wave of cancellations that last six months.
4th Round: The Travel Industry Association rallies, Government rhetoric against meetings subsides. I’ve found my second wind and contract three new pieces of business.
5th Round: My kids vacation in Mexico for 10 days and my daughter returns with a bad cough. A Swine Flu Pandemic is declared and we lose two groups that won’t travel internationally. She’s feeling much better (and that makes up for the lost business!)
6th Round: I’m getting tired and thirsty. As I dust off from the 5th Round cancellations we’re asked to help relocate two meetings from Mexico (that won’t travel there because of the Swine Flu) and we’ll make more money in round 6 than we lost in round 5.
7th Round: May 7,2009 USA Today, front-page headline, “Struggling GM hosts buyers at spa.” Helicopters circle the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa trying to catch GM doing something wrong, (instead of asking how many contracts they signed, cars they leased, or what was their ROI on meeting with 500 of their biggest fleet customers.) But lets face it, after taking billions of our tax dollars they should have held the meeting in Detroit.
8th Round: Had to lay-off five very qualified employees, not because they did something wrong. They were the victims of millions of dollars of cancelled meetings and upcoming bookings that are 30% down from last year.
Who knows what I’ll have to overcome in the 9th round.
Whatever it is and whenever this fight ends I’m confident I’ll be using these lemons to make a nice big glass of lemonade.
Be successful!
