Marymor gets Hosansky - International Association of Conference ...

For Rodman Marymor, Saturday’s Annual Banquet
at the Zermatt Resort & Spa began as had so
many others he had attended, capping an IACC
Annual Conference. Good fellowship, good food
and an interesting program.
But, suddenly, IACC-NA President Neil Pompan
began describing the winner of the Mel Hosansky
Award for Distinguished Service, and the background
seemed identical to his. The evening became
a blur. His family, who he assumed was back
home in California, was suddenly on stage with
him, and Pompan was handed him the Hosansky
Award.
“I am shocked. I had no clue this was coming,”
Marymor said later. “It’s a huge honor and very
humbling. It’s hard to describe the feeling of being
honored by an entire industry, having your family
here. . . . it’s definitely a highlight of my life.”
Marymor fought back tears, not always successfully,
as he embraced his wife, Ann, and their
son, Miles, and daughter, Michaela, and made
his way to the podium.
“I’m involved in a lot of associations but IACC
has a comaraderie you don’t find anywhere else,”
he said. “I’m always motivated to come back to
this conference. There are a lot of inspiring people
– the crème de la crème of the industry. The
people here inspire each other as in no other association.”
Marymor is the CEO of Cardinal Communications,
which has taken the IACC web site
from rudimental form to a cutting-edge format.
His involvement in IACC spans ten years, beginning
with a Board of Directors meeting at
Rough Creek Lodge in 1998. President Greg
Knapp, the father of IACC Online, welcomed
him to that Board meeting where he delivered a
proposal for his firm to be named IACC’s Internet
Service Provider.
“Over the next decade, Marymor and his talented
staff brought IACC Online up to speed and
built it into one of the most respected, state-ofthe-art
web sites in the hospitality community
and the association world,” Pompan said.
Pompan traced Marymor’s business career to
the age of six when he was sole proprietor of a
27TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE • SUNDAY, MARCH 30, 2008
Marymor gets Hosansky
Continued on page four
Rod Marymor battles his emotion as he accepts the Mel Hosansky Award.
Winners of the Mel Hosansky Award for Distinguished Service
1984 Mel Hosansky
1985 David Arnold
1986 Charles Williams
Eli Cohen
Preben Nesager
1987 Robert J. Hillier
1988 Burt Cabañas
1989 John Marenzana
1990 Don Middleberg
1991 Richard Kopacz
1992 Marjorie Farley
1993 Sam Haigh
1994 Mary Gendron
1995 Jorgen Roed
1996 Anne-Marie Ostergaard
1997 Andy Dolce
1998 Tom Silvestri
1999 Roberta Butler
2000 John Wilderman
2001 Jerry Noack
2002 John Potterton
2003 Jack Kealey
2004 Wende Blumberg
2005 Bob Prewitt
2006 Bob Johns
2007 Ron Naples
2008 Rodman Marymor

SUNDAY, MARCH 30, 2008 IACC’S 27TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE Page 2
Bruce Turkel advises IACC conferees on techniques to make their conference center brands stand out.
Turkel puts his brand on IACC
Branding expert recommends 7 steps for marketing success
A consumer’s decision to purchase begins with
emotion and progresses to intellect, and too much
marketing gets it backwards. That was a key point
in a fascinating presentation by branding expert
Bruce Turkel to IACC conferees in Saturday’s general
session.
Turkel observed that too much sameness requires
that a company differentiate its offering to
get ahead. Looking around the stage at the Zermatt
Resort & Spa, he noted, “I’ve never been at a
conference center that doesn’t offer everything
you see here. So how do you stand out and become
different? How do you make a consumer
want to come to the Zermatt or Chateau Élan?
“That’s what building brands is all about. Taking
the same tools, same inspiration, same service
but coming out with different ways of expressing
it so that customers understand what resonates
in your products and are willing to pay
more.”
Turkel boiled his advice down to seven points,
each of which consists of three words. The most
important, he assured his audience, is the first:
✔ All about them – Most of us spend so
much time talking about ourselves, what we offer,
how many square feet of space, etc. We should be
talking about what customers get from you.
✔ Hearts then minds – It’s critical to make
emotional connections before making an intellectual
connection. Many conference centers do just
the opposite and talk about square feet and technology.
After a conference center makes an emotional
connection and I want to go, then the information
becomes important. But not before.
✔ Make it simple – We’re so busy making
life complicated. Consumers have no interest in
details; they just want to hear our message, so
make it simple.
✔ Make it quick.
✔ Make it yours – what are we going to
stand for? That’s important because the attributes
of products become attributes of users. Brands
become badges we wear to tell the world who we
are. The new adage is that you are what you consume.
✔ All five senses – People don’t make decisions
just on what they see and hear but also on
what they feel, taste, and touch.
✔ Repeat, repeat, repeat – once you figure
what you stand for, what your brand is. . . you say
it over and over and over and over again. Just
when you start to be sick of the message, your
consumer is starting to notice it.

SUNDAY, MARCH 30, 2008 IACC’S 27TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE Page 3
Conference Notebook
IACC has Georgia on its mind
IACC members attending the 2009 Annual
Conference will be eating and drinking well!
Host property for next year’s event is the
Château Élan Winery, Resort & Conference Center,
40 miles north of Atlanta, Georgia. Not only is
it the largest winery in the state, it’s also home to
the reigning Copper Skillet champion, executive
chef Marc Suennemann, who was crowned in Friday’s
competition.
The winning dish featuring Seared Red Snapper
and Seared Chicken Medallions may make the
menu for next year’s conference. “I’ll definitely
consider it,” replied Suennemann with a smile.
Château Élan President & CEO Henk Evers presented
a slide show featuring his property, which
is styled after a 16th century French chateau.
❖ ❖ ❖
The results are in from the voting on Bright
Ideas. The People’s Choice Award goes to “Less Paper,
Greener Earth,” submitted by Traci Luongo,
CMP, a conference planner at White Oaks Conference
Resort & Spa in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.
The idea centered on White Oak’s program to
work within Delphi to reduce paper printouts.
❖ ❖ ❖
The 2008 Paragon Awards recognizing the best
conference centers as selected by readers of “Corporate
Meetings & Incentives” magazine were announced
by group publisher Melissa Fromento and
editorial director Betsy Bair of MeetingsNet.
IACC properties honored are The Banff Centre,
Cheyenne Mountain Resort, Dolce Hayes Mansion,
Hamilton Park Hotel & Conference Center,
The Heldrich, Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference
Center, The National Conference Center, The
Woodlands Resorts & Conference Center, and Zermatt
Resort & Spa.
❖ ❖ ❖
Entertainer Jason Hewlett jump-started Saturday
morning’s general session with a fast-paced
and hilarious performance, featuring musical impressions
along with his interpretations of what
Jim Carrey would be like as a Subway sandwich
The Château Élan team celebrates Executive Chef Mark Suennemann’s victory in the Copper
Skillet competition. They are, from left, Doug Rollins, VP of Sales & Marketing; Steve
Reinke, Director of Event Planning; Suennemann, and Henk Evers, President & CEO.
artist, and a Jurassic Park dinosaur resembling
Jack Nicholson’s Joker character in “Batman.”
Hewlett’s musical tributes included rapid-fire impressions
of the Bee Gees, Tom Jones, Smokey
Robinson, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Rod
Stewart, Elton John and Louis Armstrong. Plus the
moves, including moonwalk, of Michael Jackson.
The performance woke up the crowd and started
the adrenaline flowing.
“There’s a rule about not following kids or animals
onto the stage,” said speaker Bruce Turkel,
when it was his turn. “I think we need to add Jason
to the list.”
❖ ❖ ❖
Continue the momentum from the Annual
Conference with its theme of Equip for the Future.
Plan to send staff and those unable to attend the
Annual Conference to the first Regional Conference,
Equip for the Future – Tools for Success.
This regional conference helps your conference
center staff execute key priorities.
The website will be open on April 14.
Details: June 25, 26, 27 at Wyndham Princeton
Forrestal Hotel & Conference Center. Customer
Education Day: June 25
Conference Center Education Day: June 26
(including the Green Showcase)
Study Tour: June 27
Jason Hewlett, and his alter egos including Stevie Wonder, Jim Carrey as a Subway sandwich artist, a Jurassic Park dinosaur, and Elton John.

SUNDAY, MARCH 30, 2008 IACC’S 27TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE Page 4
IACC honors Michele Schurk’s 20 years
IACC toasted Michele Schurk’s 20th anniversary
with the association during Saturday’s Annual
Banquet.
Executive Vice President Tom Bolman, the
only person from the IACC office in St. Louis with
a longer term of service, joined with colleagues
Jerry White, Steve Smith and Tejal Wallace in recognizing
Schurk’s two decades with IACC. Bolman’s
introduction and tribute:
“In Shakespeare’s play, Othello, Desdamona
says to Emilia, “Mine eyes do itch, doth that bode
weeping?”
“My own eyes itch right now as I prepare to
recognize someone who has been at my right
hand for 20 years – a third of my life.
“When IACC moved its headquarters to St.
Louis in 1987, we shared office space with a company
called Breckenridge Corporation. Breckenridge
was eternally short-staffed and they used the
services of a Temporary Agency – I think it may
have been Olsen. One day, I happened to look over
the shoulder of one of the temps and I noticed that
this woman’s fingers moved like lightening across
the typewriter keys. I was surprised that the keys
didn’t catch fire or implode, or that the woman
didn’t have third degree burns on her fingers. My
first thought was that I would nominate this
young woman for the Guinness Book of Records,
but I decided instead to hire her as my secretary.
After becoming Administrative Assistant, she later
moved up to Executive Assistant.
“Sometime between last year’s conference and
this year’s conference, this person completed 20
years of service to IACC: she is now in her 21st
year. I wish I know what her start date was but I
couldn’t ask her because she would have known I
was up to something.
“When this woman began with IACC, I couldn’t
give her much training because I didn’t know
what I was doing, either. We’ve learned a lot together.
She has gone from typing my longhand
minutes from Board meetings to advanced formatting
of papers, speeches and excel spreadsheets.
Rodman Marymor
with daughter
Michaela, son Miles
and wife Ann after
receiving the
conference center
industry’s highest
honor.
IACC Executive assistant Michele Schurk hugs son Josh as daughters Amanda (left) and Jaime
and husband Mike look on after she was honored for 20 years of service to the association.
She’s as adept as any Millennial on the computer
and even on a bad day – and she doesn’t have very
many of them – she can second-guess what I’m
thinking or intuit exactly what I need without my
ever saying a word.
“I suspect this woman knows more IACC members
than any other person in the world, and she’s
usually the person who answers the phone when
anyone calls our office. She also answers her cell
phone at all hours of the day and night – and
weekends – whenever I need something. She
keeps me on track with every project I undertake;
she does our bookkeeping; she acts as registrar
for the Annual Conference and all other events;
she’s our Office Manager; the list goes on and on;
but most importantly, she’s a multi-tasking, omniscient
wizard who has saved my butt on more
occasions than I care to remember!”
Marymor gets
Hosansky Award
shoe shine business.
“He then moved into Kool-Aid sales,” Pompan
reported. “Subsequently he created a plant watering
service, a house cleaning service, and eventually
wound up as a free-lance percussionist.”
In Marymor’s career as a professional musician,
he also worked as an independent music calligrapher,
teacher, accompanist and composer for
modern dancers. In 1982, he borrowed some
money and opened a recording studio, which
evolved into a music and entertainment production
company.