She says it's a constant challenge to find an upscale hotel, preferably in a first-tier city, that can take their ugly baby's requirements and not be what she calls “a cookie-cutter convention hotel.” Sometimes, she finds just the right place — for example, the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood, Fla., which they contracted before it opened — only to be priced out of the market later on. For the 2007 Fall International Conference, CMG booked the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina.

“We want to grow, but it gets more difficult to find places that can serve our needs,” Stephens says. Once the right hotel is found, CMG uses cleared-out parlor portions of suites to house the workshops. “A parlor suite can leave something to the imagination. The natural light also is something our members prefer.”

One thing that helps pretty up the ugly baby, she says, is having generally well-heeled attendees, who tend to go to the spa and spend money throughout the hotel. And CMG has a “fairly high food and beverage budget, so it's a nice piece of business for the hotel.”

Another plus is the nature of the meeting itself. “Hotel salespeople tend to be intrigued by us because we're such an unusual organization. Of course,” she adds, “everyone wants us to give them the take on their hotel — are their colors right? A lot of times we'll have to tell them that their carpet could use some improvement, which they're not too thrilled about if they just spent a lot of money renovating.”

Spectrophotometer, Anyone?

One would think that CMG's meetings would be very colorful affairs, but in fact, Stephens says plainer is better. “We don't put a lot into the stage sets and tablecloths.” But CMG does specify that tabletops and skirting in the workshops be white because “our members need a clean slate to look at their colors against.” CMG brings its own high-intensity lights, which allow workshop participants to examine colors in the cleanest possible light.

Audiovisual equipment, however, is “a huge expense,” she says. “We have two general session speakers, and some concurrent sessions throughout, and they need to be sharp. We're not AV-intensive, but the AV we need has to be impeccable.” Especially, she says, when it comes to the report back on the final day. “When they're showing the colors they've selected, we have to have the correct color projected on the screen.” They even use a spectrophotometer to calibrate the colors. “Members want to have a mental snapshot of what's on the screen, and it better be the colors they put forth the days before,” says Stephens. “What would be irritating to most other organizations is critical for us.”

But ultimately, she says, “it's the collaborative nature of the working process that really appeals to our members.” As a participant, Maffeo agrees. “The networking opportunities are some of the biggest benefits of this organization. People may be competitors, but they share everything” during the conference.

“There's something about these meetings that is different from other organizations I belong to: You don't feel like you're working, even though you're working really hard the whole time,” says Maffeo. “You form such close friendships that, even though you might not see each other for a year, when you do get together, everything just falls in place.”

Following the 7 Rules

Speaker Ed Bernacki of the Idea Factory, Ottawa, Ontario, has outlined seven rules that, when followed, result in more engaging and effective conferences. He says the Color Marketing Group's meetings follow all seven.

Rule 1: The experts at your conference are in the audience, not on the stage. CMG offers 30 to 40 small group workshops designed specifically to harness the collective brainpower of its attendees.

Rule 2: Think return on investment. “They engage participants in the process, and they come up with results,” says Bernacki. “There's your ROI.”

Rules 3 and 4: Design your conference with logistics and learning; let the learning objectives drive the design of your content. CMG's conferences have learning goals, expected results, and ways to get there. On the logistics side, all the details — from providing the right kind of light to using a spectrophotometer to get the colors right — go directly toward achieving those results.

Rule 5: Always use the brainpower of the audience to create something. CMG's meetings have the express purpose of creating a color forecast.

Rule 6: Put structure into your networking and mingling opportunities. CMG offers a mentoring program to help new members get acclimated and introduced to others with like interests.

Rule 7: Assume that your conference participants have weak skills for participating in a conference. CMG provides a mandatory training workshop for newbies to teach them how the color-forecasting process works and how to best participate.

A Rose by Any Other Name

Participants in the Color Marketing Group's two annual International Conferences not only predict the color trends of the future — they also get to name them. Inspiration can come from many sources, says CMG Executive Director Jaime Stephens, but about half of the forecasted color names have something to do with the meeting's host city. “For example, when we were in San Francisco, there was an orangy color called Golden Gate,” she says. Names also can be born from anything that's going on at the time, she adds. “Like a couple of years ago when we had Brokeback Bronze.”