Recession puts pressure on budgets for business conferences

— -- When the commercial real estate market was booming, Margaret Bowles would attend conferences to schmooze with new business leads and complete continuing education classes.

But the attorney, who has a real estate development practice in Houston, will skip the main conferences this year — the International Council of Shopping Centers' convention in Las Vegas in May and the council's law conference in October. She can't afford to pay for them. The Las Vegas event, with hotel and airfare, would cost her $3,000 alone. "My client base has dropped considerably," Bowles says. "It's probably not worth my while."

Executives attending lavish conferences at top resorts have garnered headlines during these tough economic times. But the corporate travel budget crunch has had a more pervasive effect on those who can least afford to pay for trips: rank-and-file employees, administrative staff, entrepreneurs and small-business owners.

Companies have established more stringent administrative hurdles to get travel approved and are sending fewer employees to industry shows and association conferences. Self-employed practitioners, such as Bowles, are pinching pennies and assessing which trips render the highest return on investment. The result is lower attendance, more people paying out of their own pocket and people showing up for only part of the event. Some are making day trips to cut out hotel expenses.

About three-quarters of firms have restricted employees' participation in professional conferences and training seminars, according to a survey this spring by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives. About a third have eliminated or restricted reimbursing conference fees and are denying people time out of the office to go to them.

"Some associations will go under," predicts Susan Gurley of the travel executives association. "(People) think once the economy recovers, things will go back to normal. But there has been a fundamental shift in how we do business, and (the downturn) has accelerated that."

•Scarce funding. Gurley says about 30% of the companies her group surveyed aren't reimbursing any employees' costs for attending conferences or seminars. She says she cannot compare that with past years because reimbursing employees wasn't a major issue until last year.

Scott Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, whose annual convention is this month in Anchorage, says government employees have had difficulty getting travel approved. "In the past, people very rarely paid out of their own pockets," he says. "There are folks who are doing that this year for the first time."

Small-business owners who are determined to attend industry meetings have had to be more resourceful. Margaret Kulpa, who runs a consulting firm in Florida, says she and her partner are attending conferences this year that coincide "with one of our paying gigs."

"If we have a job in Paris and if there is a conference in Prague, we have the customer foot the airline bill for the travel across the pond. But we pay to get from Paris to the conference," she says.

Mark Edmead, a management consultant in San Diego, says he's sticking to conferences in the same time zone. "If (I go) across the country, I'm trying to combine the conference with client meetings," he says.

Gurley of the travel executives association says one person at her recent conference, a corporate travel manager who was laid off, paid his own way to attend and "was bunking in someone's study."

"People are much more aggressive in finding ways to save, especially if they're paying out of their own pocket," she says.

To accommodate members on tight budgets, the American Institute of Architects extended its early registration this year.

•Smaller entourage. Companies are sending fewer troops to represent them at conferences. Jerry Galiger, a regional sales manager for a battery-handling-equipment company in North Carolina, says only three of his colleagues joined him for a major industry show in January. In previous years, "a dozen-plus" would go, he says.

John Abel, partner at Vienna, Va.-based Team Lightbulb, which works with clients in organizing conferences, helped assemble seminars at the National Association of Broadcasters' annual convention in Las Vegas in April. He says NBC sent only about 40 reps this year compared with about 300 or more in other years. "That's probably true of all the major networks," he says. "There were fewer tire-kickers at the exhibit. If they came, they were more likely to be buyers."

•Companies demand more. Employers are more skeptical about the value of conferences and seeking more information from employees before approving trips. "Companies can make it very difficult to obtain approval. If you make it so onerous, that has an impact of employees no longer wanting to apply," Gurley says.

Those paying their own way also want to be sure they're getting the most bang for their buck, says Team Lightbulb's Abel, adding that his firm now specifies its seminars' content more thoroughly so that prospective customers can better justify attendance.

"It's now pitched as, 'You'll learn the following specific things, which will help you retain your job or find another job,' " he says. "It was easier in the past, when we were pitching to companies to bring their entire team."

To keep costs down, conference organizers say they are cutting some fat or other non-core parts of the event. The Society of Manufacturing Engineers, which organizes several trade shows a year, canceled a networking reception for exhibitors this year because it was "being fiscally responsible," says Mark Tomlinson, executive director.

•Using technology. To remain relevant in the eyes of their members, more associations are using technology to create programs for those who can't afford to attend in person. For the first time, the American Institute of Architects is streaming its sessions online and allowing virtual participation through Twitter and chat programs, CEO Christine McEntee says. About 2,200 have registered.

The Association of Public Health Laboratories will blog about its sessions during the conference for the first time.

Bowles, the real estate attorney, says she will get her continuing-education credits via online courses.

In light of such rapid changes, some travelers question the merits of many trade shows. Fred Pfeifer, a regional sales manager in Baltimore, says his employer has "severely" cut back on paying for industry shows. In recent years, many local shows that featured industry products have become outdated and redundant because the national shows and websites provide the same information in more convenient formats, he says.

"(Local shows) may fade away," he says.