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September 2013

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9 Steps to Making International

Attendees Feel at Home
By Molly Brennan, Contributing Editor

In a global economy, international meetings are critical.

But they can be rife with cultural landmines. From
registration materials and food-and-beverage to name
badges and content, the chances to slip up (at best) and
offend (at worst) are many. Here's how to avoid the most
common errors.

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Heres what to keep in mind when you invite the world

to your meetings:
1. How to make contact
Organizers should start thinking cross-culturally long before
attendees arrive at a meeting, said Terri Morrison, an intercultural
communications consultant and author of Kiss, Bow, or Shake
Hands, a bestselling business-etiquette guide. All marketing and
registration materials should be viewed through a multicultural
lens, and organizers should be mindful of even the most
innocuous-seeming details, such as colors and graphics, Morrison
cautioned. You need to be looking at all your images and colors
to ensure youre not unintentionally insulting anyone, she said.
Even the most boring-seeming symbols in your marketing
materials can generate the wrong message. You could use a plant
or animal like an owl, that means wisdom to you, but might
signify stupidity in some Asian countries.

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If a meeting expects a large number of attendees from a

particular country, it may be worth translating registration and
marketing materials into those attendees language, said Carol
Lazier, vice president of membership and international relations at
ASPS. About 15 percent of attendees at the ASPS annual meeting
are international, with large contingencies from Brazil, South
Korea, and the United Kingdom. In years past, ASPS even created
country-specific marketing materials with unique content targeted
to attendees from South Korea.
If a U.S.-based meeting is expecting attendees from countries that
require an entry visa, the conference website is a good place to
provide information and support, said Stephen Graham,
managing director at the Society for Petroleum Engineers (SPE),
which annually co-hosts the Offshore Technology Conference
(OTC), one of the largest meetings in the United States in terms of
attendance. Of the 105,000 attendees, about 22,000 are
international, and many come from the Middle East, according to
Graham.
On the OTC 2013 website, there were separate tabs for
international attendees and visa information. SPE also worked
with in-country consulate offices, as well as the Houston airport
authority, to ease the entry process. Anything you can do to
make their application process easier and get them to the
conference, Graham said, the more willing they will be to
accommodate the little slip-ups you might make along the way.

2. Build a relationship
For many cultures, a mass email declaring, Registration now
open!, will not suffice, and organizers should plan on a more
lengthy and personalized registration process, said Cynthia
Nerangis, president of LemonLime Consulting, a global cultural
consulting firm. For relationship-based cultures, such as India,
Brazil, and Italy, she said, a follow-up phone call after the initial
email invitation would be welcome and appreciated.
Morrison agrees. A relationship is what you need to get people
there, she said. Were very short-term orientation, while most of
the world is long-term orientation. You need to demonstrate
youre committed to building a relationship. If you have incountry people you work with, thats who you use to facilitate the
process.
For some cultures, the invitation and outreach needs to be both
personal and appropriately hierarchical. If an association is trying
to attract senior-level attendees from China, for example, the
outreach needs to come from a high-level member of the host
organization, said Pamela Eyring, president of The Protocol School
of Washington, which provides protocol and etiquette training to
expatriates and diplomats. Status matters to them. If youre
going to communicate via email, you want to communicate by
level, Eyring said.
Even if a staffer is authorized to communicate with attendees,
you might need to pull in her boss or her boss boss as a show of
respect.
The extra outreach may seem burdensome to attract a relatively
small number of people, but if growth of an international
attendance base is the goal, you have to make an effort to
provide these extra touches, said Phelps Hope, CMP, vice president
of meetings and exhibitions for the Kellen Company Most
planners these days are focused on the masses and processes, not
subsections, he said. Theyve got the basics down, but its
generic. You have to look at whats appropriate for specific
subgroups.

3. Roll out the red carpet

Getting international attendees in the door is not the same as
welcoming them; and for visitors from many cultures, the more
formal and official the welcome, the better, said David Adler, CEO
and founder of BizBash.com and a protocol and events adviser to
the U.S. Department of State. Have a special banquet for them,

Adler suggested. You greet them and you take their

photographs and add a bit more formality and elevate the
welcome.
Lazier organizes just such an international reception at ASPSs
annual meeting. We host an international reception for all of our
international attendees and include all of our leadership. That
provides a very prestigious welcome, she said. Additional
recognition in program materials and opening remarks can go far,
Lazier added. In our opening session, she said, we make
mention of the fact that we have people from certain countries,
and we may ask them to please stand.
Also, recruit your domestic attendees to be part of the welcome
wagon, Hope said. Utilize your membership base to help
attendees feel comfortable, he said. Maybe you attach
international visitors to a mentor from your membership. If you
make a big deal about it and say, We have 47 countries
represented, our industry is really growing people get excited
and they want to be a part of that.

4. Customize their experience

When it comes to programming, organizers must walk a fine line
between creating customized content and isolating international
attendees. The mistake that I often see is that the international
visitors are not exactly ghettoized, but they might be separated in
their own track, said Martin Sirk, CEO of the International
Congress and Convention Association (ICCA). The international
issues should be integrated into the overall program.
That said, you cant create meaningful programming if you dont
understand why attendees are there. The best way to integrate
international visitors is to get a more sophisticated understanding
of what their motivations are, Sirk said, and then try to
incorporate some solutions into the congress program.
Its interrogating the rationale for why theyre there. Once you
know that, you can integrate elements into the program or create
small sessions, he said. Most organizations dont ask those
questions; they assume people have come for a certain reason, but
they havent interrogated it. By understanding those elements in
detail, a smart organizer can redesign certain aspects of the
congress to facilitate that.

5. Pay attention to pacing

The pace at which organizers present that content should also be
considered, said Gary Weaver, executive director of the
Intercultural Management Institute at American University. You
have to anticipate that people in some cultures tend to not be as
time-conscious as we Americans, so leave a little leeway, he said.
If its an international meeting, youve got to leave a little slack
between events or the seats are going to be empty.
Morrison agrees that attendees need some downtime between
sessions so they can catch their breath and mingle with other
attendees. Yes, theyre here to build their network and do
business and learn, but not everyone is going to love this very
edgy, high-tech frantic [vibe] we have in the U.S., she said.
Theyre weary and they need their cup of coffee and a civilized
moment and to check with their family. They might want to talk
to the presenter or the people they just met. Theyre not running
straight to the next session.

6. Consider making space

International attendees needs and customs should also be
considered when organizing event space. This is particularly true if
there will be a large percentage of Muslim visitors, Graham said.
We have prayer rooms at most of our large events, and well put
that in our program guide, he said.

You need to schedule breaks around prayer times and put a sign
on the wall so they know where east is, Hope agreed. Its not a
must-do, but it s a courtesy. If you dont do it, theyll find their
own place; but by making it more convenient for them, it shows
youre paying attention to their needs.
A designated hospitality suite for international attendees is also
appreciated. It s a safe zone. They can go in and feel relaxed,
Hope said. If theyre relaxed, they become flexible and forgiving
of any other mistakes.
Finally, dont forget that much of the world still smokes and a
frustrated, nicotine-craving attendee is not a happy attendee.
Europeans and Asians smoke. But you come to a U.S. venue and
theres no smoking anywhere, Hope said. You have to
communicate where the designated smoking area is and make
sure they know where it is. Then make sure theyre not just
shoved out on the back dock. Make sure its an accommodating
area.

7. Research dietary needs

Some of the most common cultural slips are those involving foodand-beverage. Many organizers are sensitive to religious dietary
restrictions and know they must have vegetarian options, avoid
serving pork to Muslim attendees, and make sure there are
nonalcoholic beverages. However, there can still be gaffes. Eyring
notes that many sauces contain alcohol, and those can derail the
most carefully selected and culturally conscious menus.
It's important to consult with the chef or caterer to make sure
everyone understands which ingredients and food items are
taboo.
Beyond the food and drink, the organization and pacing of social
events are important to consider, Morrison said. When youre in
a convention, you often have these very large tables that make it
hard to talk with anyone besides whos right next to you. I would
make the tables smaller and give them more time for the meal,
she said. Forget that its harder to serve small tables; the
attendees will get more out of it.
Also, think hard about opening and closing parties. Often, we
create these events with a band that we think is going to be very
fun and relaxed. Because were loud, we think thats great, but
the noise levels can be abominable for people from other
cultures, Morrison said. Maybe put the sound as a backdrop, but
not as the function of the evening.

8. Formality Matters
Finally, when in doubt about how to communicate with your
international attendees, err on the side of formality, experts
agree. It drives people from countries that put a great emphasis
on hierarchical order crazy when a name badge has only the
persons first name, Weaver said. At the least, make sure you
include both first and last name. Making it too casual is not a
good idea.
Be especially mindful of this when introducing speakers, he
added. Ive had people say This is Gary, and be very casual with
the introduction. I have no problems with that, but if people in
the audience are from non-Western cultures, they see a person
with a beard and gray hair and to them that introduction is an
insult, Weaver said. We think were making them feel
comfortable by being very casual, but were actually making
people from other cultures very uncomfortable. Theyre far from
home, they dont know the rules, and then the formalities that
theyre used to have been pulled away. That doesnt make them
relaxed.
At its root, thats what protocol is all about making people
comfortable, Weaver said. And thats why protocol is relevant to
all international meetings, even those that have no dignitaries or
official delegations in attendance. If people know who will speak
first (the most senior person) and how they will be greeted
(formally and with deference), it puts them at ease. Protocol is

very important, because what protocol does is eliminate

surprises, he said. At a meeting or conference, its to make
things move along smoothly. If its done well, you dont even
notice; everything just seems to move smoothly.

9. Find common ground

For some very global organizations, such as ICCA, which attracts
70 nationalities to its annual congress, asking people to leave at
least some of their own customs at the door might be the best
route to cross-cultural understanding, Sirk said. We have to
create our own cultural environment, he said, so that the ICCA
culture is not viewed as European or American or Dutch.
We work very hard and quite consciously at defining and
creating a style that exemplifies our organization. We then use
that as a bridge between nationalities so nobody has to go so far
from their own business culture into someone elses business
culture. Instead, everyone is invited to join our business culture,
Sirk said. It requires an organization to think about what is
special about that organization, then highlight those elements
and turn those elements into the associations own protocol.
Test Time

Once you finish reading this CMP Series article, read the following:
An explanation of the Geert Hofstede cultural dimensions
scores, plus profiles of five regions (bonus: snapshots of 31
countries)..
A cross-cultural international communication brief from the

Reference for Business Encyclopedia of Business, 2nd edition.

To earn one hour of CEU credit, visit pcma.org/convenecmp to
answer questions about the information contained in this CMP
Series article and in the additional material.
The Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) is a registered trademark of the
Convention Industry Council.

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