It's not frequent when I find myself tapping the phrase, "I've heard enough," but this is one of those times.
Wells Fargo just announced that it has canceled a corporate event scheduled this month in Las Vegas to avoid public criticism of its business events program. I hope I’m not the only one who is surprised by this.
While it’s more than understandable that businesses must operate to meet budgets, it’s frustrating to continue hearing lawmakers and folks in Washington criticize the very business event practices that have historically generated government tax revenue until the recent economic downturn -- especially given the additional hospitality tax dollars received by many local governments above and beyond basic retail taxes. And I'm fairly certain that business events were not responsible for the financial meltdown that the economy is currently facing.
To be sure, most of these business decisions were made during completely different economic circumstances. And, regardless of whether a company receives financial assistance from the government, there hasn’t really been clear direction as to which corporate events are targets for criticism and which ones aren’t.
For example, Bank of America — which received a $20 billion bailout and $118 billion worth of guarantees against bad assets — received a pass and kept its title sponsorship of the NFL Experience this year (and all of the hospitality that goes with that). However, AIG, Wells Fargo and others were criticized into canceling corporate events directly tied to employee motivation and business development — activities that ultimately generate revenue.
I think it’s important to remind folks in Washington and elsewhere about the number of people who work in the hospitality field throughout the U.S. These are the folks who are impacted by politicians who criticize business travel and business events. Canceling these events will simply result in lower revenue for all of the businesses that touch a piece of the meetings industry, and hurt the hard working people who find employment in this field.
And before people begin to line up and cheer on politicians to cancel events, at a time when unemployment is already high, everyone must remember that it’s not the corporate event attendees who receive the money that’s spent on corporate events.
I’m planning on compiling a list of individuals who find themselves employed as a result of this industry: everyone from hotel housekeeping to taxi drivers to plumbers and electricians. I’m going to try to create the list of everyone who contributes to the creation and maintenance of this field — from the textile workers who create the hotel drapes to construction workers to road construction crews who repair streets and highways to support the transportation of food, goods and other services that are used to supply events.
Feel free to send your thoughts or comments to me, including anything you'd like to add to a listing of the types of professionals who work in the hospitality field.
