Susan scales to the top destinations

Wednesday, 05 January 2011 10:30

‘We are’, she explains, ‘very much a sales office that is an extension to each of the DMCs we represent. We work on a retainer basis, so it does not cost our clients any extra to use our services whether it is a meeting, convention, incentive or product launch.’
She emphasises that GMC and its DMCs never stop researching into what they can do to improve the services they provide to the clients. ‘We are just about to launch’, she announces proudly, ‘a new service we are calling “GMC On Demand”.’ This will allow clients remote access with their own login to the presentations and data that GMC has on its database. ‘We visit clients’ offices to do presentations on destinations’, she explains, ‘but you can never tell when a client may need help in a particular destination. GMC on Demand gives our clients the opportunity to gain access to comprehensive data on destinations from GMC and the relevant DMCs and the opportunity to discuss the project in detail, taking advantage of our experience.’
Being the link between the clients in the UK and the DMCs abroad, GMC puts great score on frequent visits to the destinations. ‘When we sell the services of a DMC we are not selling a tangible product, but we are selling a team of people and their knowhow. It is absolutely key for us to meet the staff and to visit the destination with them to see exactly what they can do for our clients in the UK and how they would do it. We attend the AGMs of our DMCs so we can exchange the latest information on what is happening in the destination and what are the current market conditions in the UK. We have break-out sessions with the people our clients will be working with’.
Susan is very keen to point out that ‘this market never stands still. ‘No two years are ever the same. Over the past couple of years, risk and crises management have become vitally important and we have been working with all our DMCs on this and all have a comprehensive understanding and have been working on putting systems into place’.
How does she see the MICE market in the UK at present?
‘I am cautiously optimistic. Conferences still have short lead times, long haul is coming back, the incentives market is becoming surprisingly stronger, particularly from certain sectors, such as insurance. CSR is back (Corporate Social Responsibility) and green policies are becoming more and more important. GMC and its partners constantly reinforce each other on these issues with our interchange of ideas and experience.’

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