The healthcare convention industry has recently been engaged in an unusual level of activity and interest concerning the subject of convention housing. In response, the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) has adopted the following official position pertaining to healthcare convention housing:

• HCEA urges all parties involved in the housing process - meeting organizers, exhibitors, hotels, housing bureaus and "housing brokers" - to work in partnership, recognizing that any policy that adds an additional burden to exhibitors increases the difficulty with which exhibitors justify their continued marketing expenditures on the meeting. This is especially true in the healthcare industry, where demonstrating the return on investment of exhibit marketing is often difficult.
• HCEA supports a workable system of guarantees for exhibitors (e.g., credit cards, letters of credit). This position is in agreement with the PCMA Housing Best Practices, which state in part: "Determine a mutually acceptable system for guaranteeing sub-blocks, such as the acceptance of exhibitors' credit cards or letters of credit rather than deposits from groups."
• HCEA supports the development of systems of positive incentive for room pickup (e.g., giving exhibitors with high pickup additional points on a priority system for allocating rooms) rather than negative incentives such as high fees and nonrefundable deposits.
• HCEA opposes any housing policy which burdens exhibitors more than other attendees. Attrition policies, for example, which require deposit payments from exhibitors, especially when such deposits are greater than what other attendees are asked to pay, are in direct disagreement with HCEA's Guidelines for U.S. Healthcare Conventions.
• HCEA opposes hotels enforcing attrition policies without providing accurate pickup reports to the meeting organizer. Additionally, HCEA urges hotels to provide appropriate backup information to allow meeting organizers and housing sub-block managers to verify the accuracy of the reports before attrition or other penalties are enforced.
• HCEA opposes housing policies that tie into exhibition issues. HCEA opposes, for example, policies such as penalizing exhibitors for poor room pickup via reducing exhibit hall priority points, and limiting an exhibitor's room allocation on the basis of the exhibitor's booth space. The exhibitor representative and the housing manager, using historical data and any relevant current developments (e.g., a new product launch), should work together to develop a mutually satisfactory room allotment for the exhibitor.
• HCEA encourages hotels and meeting organizers to recognize exhibitors' need to substitute other personnel for those originally named in the hotel reservation and not to penalize such changes.
• HCEA urges its members and all healthcare exhibitors to use the meeting housing process whenever possible (i.e., not to go outside the block). Failure to work within the meeting's housing process hurts the meeting organizer's ability to secure needed rooms in future years.
• In instances where an exhibitor must go outside the block, HCEA urges its members and all healthcare exhibitors to inform the meeting organizer in writing of the number of rooms they are using outside the block. HCEA likewise urges meeting organizers not to penalize exhibitors for notifying them of outside-the-block room usage.
• HCEA urges its member representatives and all healthcare exhibitor personnel with responsibility for housing to educate others within their organizations about the negative effect of no-shows. HCEA urges its members and all healthcare exhibitors to reduce late cancellations and no-shows as much as possible through effective planning and internal communication.
• HCEA urges third-party housing brokers to work with exhibitors as well as meeting organizers in reporting room usage, to ensure the organizer gets full credit for all rooms used by its exhibitors and/or other attendees.

For additional information about HCEA, Email: hcea@kellencompany.com.