The Golden Calf (part 2)

I suppose that my blog entries on the Golden Calf will have to come in several episodes. A few messages ago I wrote about the painful moment in Brussels. Luckily, I could also experience a joyful moment later on, at the IMEX association day in Frankfurt. It was a good day. But… what did I hear there? A managing director - a man of distinction - of a major Paris-based association had received 37 invitations from several meeting suppliers for this event. Another form of worshipping, I thought.
And at one of the seminars, someone told that a president of an equally respectable association wanted to do an on-site inspection in a beautiful town. But he stipulated his conditions: it had to be for the whole family - four in total -, free business-class flight tickets and a free stay in a five-star hotel! So, someone who let others worship him!
In the transfer bus to the hotel I sat next to a respectable man and I told him the whole story again. 'Oh,' he said, 'I wouldn't be surprised if there are even stranger things going on. I can imagine there is some professor in the ambassador environment who says that his convention would fit perfectly in that city. And that he can do something about it. But then he adds that his car is broken-down…' Someone who knows his worshippers well, I guess? It's worth the consideration, if you don't bear in mind the moral values. And that will be the topic of the future: who will formulate an ethical code for associations?

A Golden Calf Is Born

You may remember the Bible story the worship of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32). The golden calf represents the BLIND adoration of money - a sort of money fever. This fever broke out definitively 5 years ago in the worldwide Meetings Industry, which has become a multimillion dollar industry. Then the international associations were discovered. The association executives - who are the decision makers of big conventions - were spotted by the organisers of workshops, fairs, magazines and sales meetings. But this kind of blind adoration can have some painful consequences. For example last week (April 2nd and 3rd) there was another (expensive) worship ritual in Brussels. The altar was set up nicely in a hotel and the participants had paid a lot of money for one candle on the altar. Like the deeply religious worshippers we are, we all had big expectations, but we all went home, way too early, with tears in our eyes. The Golden Calf wasn't there. I think we have to start paying attention. Associations have developed into professional enterprises with their own decision making structure, which often is different than ours, and not commercial at all! We will have to learn to discover them in another way and respect them, because otherwise things will turn out badly in the meetings industry!