APEX Overview & Preview for 2015

The Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) promotes development and implementation of industry-wide accepted practices to create and enhance efficiency throughout the meetings, conventions and exhibitions industry. The Committee has successfully evolved into a data-driven strategic body with standards as the overarching charge. The introduction of a workgroup model has created the opportunity to engage a wider body of knowledge beyond the committee and expand capacity significantly.

The purpose of the committee is to pursue the strategic goal of promoting standards and best practices through three main objectives:

Issue Scanning-Select current issues and trends that broadly effect the industry as a whole.
Workgroups- APEX workgroups create content, and cultivate industry expertise and knowledge on current industry issues and topics. We look to the Council to help identify industry issues as well as assist in disseminating the workgroups research and promoting the availability of presentations on various industry topics.
Short Content –Industry wide accepted practices tools and information. The output from the workgroups and the overall committee, such as whitepapers, resource tools and education, is maintained on the APEX website for easy access. In addition, the content is formatted to be delivered on many levels through presentations at global industry events, articles, videos, web and podcasts.

Responsibilities

Advocate and promote the value of standards and best practices in the industry.
Challenge existing accepted practices in order to remain relevant.
Gather and share knowledge and insight on industry trends and issues.
Form and lead APEX Workgroups and Task Forces to develop new best practices and standards.
Maintain existing APEX resources and insure their ongoing relevance and accessibility.
Including the APEX Industry Glossary – the glossary of the meetings, conventions and exhibitions industry that is a one of the recommended study texts for the CMP exam.
Strengthen the global relevance for APEX resources.

Workgroups
Room Block Poaching Workgroup
Room block performance is a perennial issue in the meetings industry. APEX has defined Room Block Poaching as the threat from businesses that actively seek to recruit or divert event participants (primarily, attendees and exhibitors) away from official room blocks and into other hotel bookings, using a range of techniques to approach event participants and gain their business.

In March of 2014, the Workgroup created a survey to gather information on the scope of this issue, which further proved the scope of this issue and need for resources to combat it. CIC held a Poaching Summit in early December that brought together members of the workgroup and other stakeholders to create definitions and develop a toolkit as a resource for planners, as well as education pieces.

APEX is preparing to release its white paper, which provides an overview of the issues, implications for planners, exhibitors, hotels, housing bureaus/wholesalers and guidance on how to handle the issue. This white paper will be part of an online toolkit to help planners seeking more information and assistance navigating these issues. The workgroup is chaired by Michael Dominguez, MGM Resorts International and MaryAnne Bobrow, Bobrow Associates, Inc.

eRFP Efficiencies Workgroup
Finding and securing the location and facility for a meeting is one of the biggest challenges for meeting planners. In turn, responding or facilitating the responses to request for proposals is one of the biggest challenges for the supply community, namely hotels. Therefore, the main outcome for this workgroup is to create the opportunity for greater efficiencies by exploring and recommending specific practices and strategies for all parties.

Proposed deliverables may cover several overlapping categories including but not limited to: 1) Education, 2) Process, and 3) Systems. The Workgroup conducted a research project on "Understanding the Drivers Behind Mass eRFP Distribution in the MICE Industry." This Workgroup is chaired by Christine Shimasaki, Destination Marketing Association International.

High Speed Internet Access and Event Bandwidth Workgroup
The HSIA and Event Bandwidth Workgroup continues to develop and promote content that raises awareness of the importance of high speed Internet access at meetings and events. This Workgroup is focused on practical knowledge, tools and resources that aid all sectors of the industry in understanding this topic. The Workgroup has developed a presentation focused on how quickly technology changes and understanding capacity, which they have been presenting at various industry conferences. Currently the Workgroup is addressing adding bandwidth to the APEX RFP workbook on the CIC website, as well as a HSIA checklist for Bandwidth Infrastructure Support. The current chair of this workgroup is John Rissi, PSAV.

APEX/ASTM Sustainable Meetings Standards
All of the APEX/ASTM Standards are complete and cover the full range of the event planning process and footprint. The ASTM Subcommittee E60.02 on Hospitality is actively reviewing and revising the standards to promote adoption.

CIC has partnered with Avila Government Services, Inc. and their online tool for sustainable meetings. The SMPP® tools help a planner navigate the APEX/ASTM standards through easy-to-use scoring forms and checklists, which work hand in hand with and reference back to the standards.

APEX Legacy Workgroup (NEW IN 2015)
It is imperative that we respect and protect the vast amount of work that remains the core of APEX Standards. Glossary, legacy tools, best practices, and content deserve ongoing review to determine relevance. The Workgroup will focus on what needs to be updated, eliminated, archived and emphasized, as well as examining gaps for what needs to be created. This group will be co-chaired by Carol Norfleet and Gary Murakami.

APEX Global Workgroup (NEW IN 2015)
The APEX Standards and practices should be global in scope. This workgroup will be comprised of global meetings industry influencers to advise the committee by identifying urgent industry issues from a global perspective, generating APEX Standards related content and recognizing external sources for content that are of importance to the international meetings community. This workgroup will be chaired by Miguel Neves and Junior Tauvaa.

APEX Standards Committee 2015

Dan Berger, Social Tables; Stuart Ruff, The Risk and Insurance Management Society, (Immediate Past Chair); Brett Krafft, CMP, Hilton Anatole Hotel; Miguel Neves, IMEX Group; Michael Owen, EventGenuity LLC (Chair); John Rissi, PSAV; Inc. (Chair-Elect); Junior Tauvaa, Anaheim/Orange County CVB; Meg Fasy, Bellagio; Todd Walton, Intrinsic Event Technologies; Gary Murakami, CTC, GTP, GLP, CMP, MGM Resorts; Leslie Zeck, CMP American and International Associations for Dental Research; Carol Norfleet, CMP, DMCP, Destination Nashville; Carol Krugman, MEd, CMP, CMM, Metropolitan State University of Denver; and Christine "Shimo" Shimasaki, CDME, CMP.

Events Industry Council