MEETINGS INDUSTRY OFFERS MAGNA CARTA
OVER 100 members of the Meetings Industry Association (MIA) pledged to offer a minimum standard for conference buyers at a gathering at the Cumberland Hotel in London yesterday.
The MIA Magna Carta, as it has been dubbed, includes a schedule setting out minimum facilities at venues offering the MIA guarantee. These include specific details on accommodation, meal provision, overhead projectors and table accessories.
The MIA compiled the schedule after research panels revealed that conference buyers needed to be able to compare venues more easily. "It was clear they had difficulty distinguishing between quotes because in many cases they were comparing apples with pears," said MIA president Andrew Paine.
The Magna Carta includes a model set of terms and conditions for members' use.
"Some venues send clients four or five pages of terms and conditions, others don't have any at all. This should help establish an industry standard," Mr Paine explained.
The final part of the document is a code of practice to set out the relationship between conference agencies, venues and clients.
With agencies increasingly acting as intermediaries, it was felt that their role should be defined.
It is intended that the MIA logo will become the equivalent of a quality kitemark for the meetings industry.
To give its guarantee teeth, the MIA offers independent arbitration to dissatisfied customers.
The new document is the latest in a series of moves by the four-year-old MIA to promote better industry knowledge of a relatively young but growing industry.
"Meetings and conferences now account for an average 30% of all hotel business, yet as a function they are still not defined in the same way that banqueting or housekeeping is," commented Mr Paine.
