PROFILE
vor as much as you can,” Eisele says. “And
make sure the community works with your
group so that they’re not being done to,
they’re being done with.”
This seamless interaction between trip
participants and community members,
along with an opportunity to see immediate
results, makes for a memorable, meaningful event, Eisele says. And that’s the key.
Ultimately, the event should be entertaining and rewarding for attendees, but still
benefit the community. She also ensures
the project isn’t too long—usually about
one afternoon—and that attendees will be
able to finish most of the job.
out to me, or they’ll ask [the in-house planner]: Why do we need you?” Eisele says,
“And that’s every meeting planner’s fear.”
Eisele’s challenge becomes convincing
both the client company and the planner
that her service isn’t redundant, and that
planning something like this takes a unique
set of skills and extra time that the main
planner doesn’t have. “My role is to join
with [the planner] at the hip, and to know
what’s going on with the other components
of the trip, because we want to make it a
cohesive experience,” she says. “With an
incentive trip, the quality has to be so high.
So to put all that on a planner who’s already
Eisele says. “But you’re going to get back
loyalty. People are going to be proud to be
associated with your company ... because
[an experience like this] means something
and it feels good.”
Despite these challenges, Eisele is on the
edge of a wave of altruistic incentives in the
hospitality industry. In April, Ritz-Carlton
Hotels launched its Give Back Getaways
program, which allows vacationers to take
time from their trip to volunteer—be it
helping protect endangered sea turtles in
Cancun, Mexico or building libraries in
China. Online giant Travelocity offers travel
packages that include volunteer opportu-
n Creative Memories employees also helped local schoolchildren make
their own scrapbooks.
“Nine times out of 10,” Eisele says, “I’ll
have [attendees] come up to me and say,
‘You know, tomorrow I’m supposed to be
at the spa or golfing. Can I cancel that and
come back and finish this?’”
n Eisele’s clients help spruce up a community area in a small
Georgia town.
spinning a million plates ... that really puts
their back against the wall.”
MORE THAN A TREND >
While manages the community giving she
typically operates in tandem with a planner who coordinates the entire event. So
attendees can’t finish every project. She
must respect the plan that’s in place for
the entire trip. The dynamics of this relationship can often pose a challenge when
pitching her projects, Eisele says. Often, the
the client company doesn’t see why there
should be two planners.
“They’ll either expect their in-house
planner to just do it and not have to hire
Although the idea of incorporating social
service projects into incentive trips or team-building activities has been gaining ground,
Eisele says one of her other challenges
remains simply getting clients to put their
money where their mouth is. It’s hard to
quantify the ROI from this kind of incentive
trip. She understands the need for clients
to see case studies and have a sense of what
they’re getting for their money. But instead
of talking about return on investment,
Eisele prefers the term return on experience, or return on emotion, because giving
employees this kind of experience is vastly
different than just writing a check.
“The bean counters, if you will, want to
see what’s coming out of this experience,”
nities in its Travel for Good program, and
Cheaptickets offers a Volunteer Vacations
program. In July, Fairmont Hotels and
Resorts launched its Meaningful Meetings
program, allowing groups who book a
minimum of 50 room nights to donate 10
percent of the room revenue to a charity of
their choice. Although this may not involve
participants getting their hands dirty, the
proliferation of such initiatives shows social
responsibility is becoming more expected
in the hospitality industry. Eisele thinks this
trend will only continue as younger generations move into the workforce.
“Once these younger kids get out of
college and into the workplace,” she says,
“they’re going to expect to work for a
company that has [a socially responsible]
business model.” m
