Welcome to the CMI 25, Corporate Meetings & Incentives’ annual report on the meetings industry’s top North American full-service meeting and incentive companies. The third annual CMI 25 list provides market intelligence that is unavailable elsewhere in our industry. This year, we invited 60 meeting and incentive companies to fill out our questionnaire—all the companies on last year’s list plus companies that had contacted us and others that we identified as likely candidates. We require each company to provide us with information on its business volume, business focus, number of employees, and other measurement data. An officer of the company is required to certify the accuracy of the information provided.

In making their decisions on the final 25, editors gave the most weight to the information that they received about a company’s total number of room nights booked and total corporate meetings and incentive travel programs, but they considered all the supplied information before arriving at the final list.

The CMI 25 focuses on full-service meeting and incentive companies and does not list site-selection companies.

And the 2009 CMI 25 companies are...

Advantage Travel & Incentives Inc.; Savage, Minn.

American Express Business; Travel New York

BCD Meetings & Incentives; Chicago

BI; Edina, Minn.

Bishop-McCann; Kansas City, Mo.

Carlson Marketing Worldwide; Minneapolis

Creative Group Inc.; Appleton, Wis.

Enterprise Events Group; San Rafael, Calif.

Excellence In Motivation; Dayton, Ohio

Experient; Twinsburg, Ohio

Fox Premier Meetings and Incentives; Oshkosh, Wis.

Gavel International Inc.; Lincolnshire, Ill.

George P. Johnson; Auburn Hills, Mich.

Gray Consulting International Meetings & Incentives; Philadelphia

ITA Group; West Des Moines, Iowa

Maritz Travel Co.; Fenton, Mo.

McVeigh Associates, Ltd.; Amityville, N.Y.

Meeting Alliance; Robbinsville, N.J.

Meeting Expectations Inc.; Atlanta

Meetings & Incentives; Caledonia, Wis.

Meridian Enterprises Corp.; Hazelwood, Mo.

MotivAction, LLC; Minneapolis

SDI Travel and Incentives; Chicago

USMotivation; Atlanta

VMS; Indianapolis

CMI 25: By the Numbers

The CMI 25 companies are largely a Midwestern phenomenon, with almost 75 percent headquartered in the heart of the country (four in Minnesota alone). Only one company is on the West Coast, four on the East Coast, and two in Atlanta. They are well established, with a median of 29 years in the business. Still, the economic downturn has had its effects: While the median number of meetings managed is up, 17 of the 25 companies have cut staff in the past year and the median number of group room nights booked is down almost 13 percent.

Meetings/Incentives Managed
Total number of meetings and incentives managed by CMI 25 companies*:
31,157 in 2008 (vs. 29,800 in 2007)
Change: +4.5%

Median number of meetings managed in 2008:
221 (vs. 115 in 2007)

Median Incentives managed in 2008:
30 (vs. 68 in 2007)

Room Nights
Total number of room nights booked by CMI 25 companies:
4.8 million in 2008 (vs. 5.5 million 2007)
Change: -12.7%

Median number of room nights booked for meetings and incentives in 2008:
82,000 (vs. 108,000 in 2007)

Employees
Median number of full-time employees in June 2009:
91 (vs. 115 in June 2008)
Net change in the number of full-time employees at CMI 25 companies, June 2008 to June 2009:
-1,138

International
Median portion of meetings and incentives run outside the United States in 2008:
15% (vs. 25% in 2007)