"De-Demonizing" us

I've been invited to a soiree next week in Washington, DC. The Incentive Federation is sponsoring a Symposium to speak to key members of Congress about what we do and why it's not the coming of the Antichrist.

I'm guessing the goal is to put a "face" to the business, to find a way to show the 535 members of the House and Senate that not all corporate meetings or incentives are Boondoggles. And this is a good thing.

It's an amazing path we've taken to get here. Corporate incentives or travel used to be a great way to cement relationships and recognize those stakeholders who made a difference in our organizations. Giving awards and/or tokens of appreciation showed that corporations "cared" about customers and/or employees.

But in less than a year (and amazingly enough, it hasn't even BEEN a year yet) the business in which I make my living has been Demonized. Corporate Events have become Evil--they violate some ethical code and therefore should be discouraged.

And the notion of rewarding or recognizing achievers has become "wasteful" or "excessive". Some have practiced demagoguery by taking extreme cases and extrapolating them onto every program. Others have focused on the pennies (corporate events) while ignoring the dollars (poor management decisions and onerous regulation).

So here we are, almost one year into the severest downturn our market has ever seen (and remember, "downturn" and "our market" were NEVER spoken in the same sentence until this year) we find ourselves heading for Capitol Hill. We seek to remove our Devil Horns and show Congress that there are human consequences for all this railing over Corporate Excess.

Who'd have thunk it?

I'm putting on my tie and shining my shoes--we must look our best while we make our case that indeed we are not the Four Horsemen, but rather just the stable hands looking after the animals...


Pete