George P. Johnson

Auburn Hills, Mich.
(508) 513-3340
www.gpj.com

Founded: 1914

Leadership: Robert G. Vallee, Jr., chief executive officer; Larry Vallee, president

Corporate meetings in 2007:
550+

Incentive travel programs in 2007:
100+

Portion of meeting and incentive travel programs held outside the U.S.:
30%

Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
240,997

Full-time employees:
1,319

At a glance: See sidebar, page 26.

Gray Consulting International Meetings & Incentives

Philadelphia
(215) 413-2034
www.gcimi.co

Founded: 1994

Leadership: Scott A. Gray, CEO; Kathleen A. Murphy, president

Corporate meetings in 2007:
205

Incentive travel programs in 2007:
2

Portion of meeting and incentive travel programs held outside the U.S.:
3.5%

Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
25,216

Full-time employees:
53

At a glance: Gray Consulting does about 95 percent of its business with the pharmaceutical industry, listing Merck & Co. Inc., AstraZeneca, and GlaxoSmithKline among its top clients. President Kathy Murphy says the company has added to its portfolio of clients in 2008 and, while corporate meetings remain its prime focus, the company also has increased its number of incentive travel programs. The Philadelphia Business Journal named Gray among the Top 25 Women-Owned Businesses in Philadelphia in 2007.

Maritz Travel Co.

Fenton, Mo.
(636) 827-4000
www.maritz.com

Founded: 1958

Leadership: W. Stephen (Steve) Maritz, chairman of the board & CEO of Maritz Inc.; Christine Duffy, president & CEO of Maritz Travel Co.

Corporate meetings in 2007:
2,124

Incentive travel programs in 2007:
395

Portion of meeting and incentive travel programs held outside the U.S.:
11%

Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
876,000

Full-time employees:
About 855

At a glance: A part of Maritz Inc., ranked No. 305 on Forbes's 2007 list of America's largest private companies, Maritz Travel is a giant in the meeting and incentive field, with special expertise in the automotive, financial services, pharmaceutical, and information technology industries. Recent company news includes the acquisition of Cascade Promotion, a rewards fulfillment house, and becoming the exclusive distributor of Maritz Leadership Engagement, a Web-based tool that helps company leadership use employee recognition more effectively.

McVeigh Associates, Ltd.

Amityville, N.Y.
631-789-8833
www.mcveigh.com

Founded: 1990

Leadership: Frank McVeigh, president; Robert LeValley, executive VP; Ellen Montuori, executive VP

Corporate meetings in 2007:
425

Incentive travel programs in 2007:
22

Portion of meeting and incentive travel programs held outside the U.S.:
42%

Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
125,000

Full-time employees:
86

At a glance: McVeigh Associates, which does 80 percent of its business with pharmaceutical companies, grew its client base 20 percent in the past year, now boasting ten clients listed among the Fortune 500, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott Laboratories, and GlaxoSmithKline. The company has a “meeting portal” product under development that, according to company president Frank McVeigh, will give users real-time access to their meetings' budgets, attendees, programming status, and other meeting data. The company expects to launch the portal in the first quarter of 2009.

Meeting Alliance

Robbinsville, N.J.
(609) 208-1908
www.meetingalliance.com

Founded: 1999

Leadership: David D'Eletto, managing partner; Barbara Jackson, managing partner; Michael Franks, Managing Partner

Corporate meetings in 2007:
75

Incentive travel programs in 2007:
6

Portion of meeting and incentive travel programs held outside the U.S.:
1%

Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
68,000

Full-time employees:
19

At a glance: In 2007, Meeting Alliance earned spots on both Entrepreneur magazine's Hot 500 and Inc. magazine's Inc. 5,000 for its fast-paced growth. Company revenues jumped from $7.2 million in 2003 to $18.6 million in 2006. Today, top clients include Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk, and Boehringer Ingelheim. The vast majority of revenues come from meetings (90 percent), with the balance coming from incentives.

Meeting Expectations

Atlanta
(404) 240-0999
www.meetingexpectations.com

Founded: 1992

Leadership: Brian Meyer, president & managing partner; Jeff Rausch, COO & managing partner

Corporate meetings in 2007:
220

Incentive travel programs in 2007:
20

Portion of meeting and incentive travel programs held outside the U.S.:
10%

Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
30,000

Full-time employees:
70

At a glance: Meeting Expectations has had success in the high-tech sector, and top corporate clients include Vignette, Riverbend, and Manhattan Associates. Meeting Expectations produces user group conferences and sales meetings throughout the U.S., Europe, and other parts of the world. It is also an accredited association management company, and about 30 percent of its revenues come from outside the corporate meeting and incentive arena.

Meridian Group Travel

Hazelwood, Mo.
(314) 592-3000
www.meridiangrouptravel.com

Founded: 1978

Leadership: Sam Toumayan, president & founder; Michael Jordan, executive VP

Corporate meetings in 2007:
32

Incentive travel programs in 2007:
180

Portion of meeting and incentive travel programs held outside the U.S.:
25%

Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
155,000

Full-time employees:
100

At a glance: Meridian Group Travel is part of Hazelwood, Mo.-based performance improvement company Meridian Enterprises Corp., which designs performance-improvement and customer-loyalty programs and offers technology for incentive program management among other services. Celebrating 30 years in business in 2008, Meridian Group Travel's top clients include Siemens, Sysco Foods, and Panasonic. Seventy percent of its revenue comes from incentives and the rest from meetings.

MotivAction, LLC

Minneapolis
(763) 412-3009
www.motivaction.com

Founded: 1976

Leadership: Williams Bryson, owner, president & CEO; Marlyn Sjaarda, CFO

Corporate meetings in 2007:
64

Incentive travel programs in 2007:
28

Portion of meeting and incentive travel programs held outside the U.S.:
38%

Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
56,000

Full-time employees:
145

At a glance: See story, below.

R/A Performance Group

San Francisco
(415) 869-6500www.raevents.com

Founded: 1986

Leadership: Donna Riser, CEO; Mimi Almeida, president

Corporate meetings in 2007:
26

Incentive travel programs in 2007:
48

Portion of meeting and incentive travel programs held outside the U.S.:
65%

Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
53,000

Full-time employees:
30

At a glance: This full-service firm offers site selection, communications, program operations, and post-meeting services. Top clients include Lincoln Benefit Life, BMW of North America/MINI USA, and Hollywood Entertainment/Game Crazy. In 2007, it earned a place on the San Francisco Business Times 100 Largest Women-Owned Businesses. (See story, page 24.)

SDI Travel and Incentives

Chicago
(312) 587-8200
www.sditravel.com

Founded: 1992

Leadership: Scott A. Dillion, president & CEO; Amy Michel, VP

Corporate meetings in 2007:
40

Incentive travel programs in 2007:
48

Portion of meeting and incentive travel programs held outside the U.S.:
37%

Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
23,700

Full-time employees:
15

At a glance: SDI's top clients are in the healthcare, building supplies, and insurance industries, with more than a third of their 98 meetings last year being held outside the U.S. Fifty-five percent of company revenues come from incentives, and the balance from meetings.

TBA Global, LLC

Los Angeles
(818) 226-2800
www.tbaglobal.com

Founded: 1994

Leadership: Lee Rubenstein, president & COO; Robert Geddes, CEO

Corporate meetings in 2007:
547*

Incentive travel programs in 2007:
76*

Portion of meeting and incentive travel programs held outside the U.S.:
10%

Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
164,550

Full-time employees:
210

*TBA Global played a major role in 1,097 meetings and 110 incentive programs in 2007. However, the number listed reflects only events for which TBA was the primary meeting/incentive management company.

At a glance: TBA Global formed in 1994 and has grown to become one of the industry's largest privately owned event management, production, training, and destination management companies. In 2005 the company acquired PGI to strengthen its business production services and add new destination management solutions. Last year it expanded again by adding both Digital Media and Learning and Performance Solutions groups.

USMotivation

Atlanta
(770) 290-4700
www.usmotivation.com

Founded: 1962

Leadership: Dan Leong, COO; Michael Ruege, executive VP

Corporate meetings in 2007:
30

Incentive travel programs in 2007:
62

Portion of meeting and incentive travel programs held outside the U.S.:
33%

Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
91,176

Full-time employees:
137

At a glance: USMotivation won a Crystal Award in 2007 from the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives for the “Most Outstanding Incentive Event” in the under $80,000 category for its client Diebold. The company specializes in a mix of incentive strategizing; marketing and communications to support incentives, loyalty programs, and other events; and merchandise and travel rewards. Forty percent of its revenue comes from corporate meetings and incentive travel.

CMI 25 Methodology

Welcome to the CMI 25, Corporate Meetings & Incentives' annual report on the meetings industry's top North American full-service meeting and incentive companies.

Now in its second year, the CMI 25 project brings you market intelligence that is unavailable elsewhere in our industry. This year, we invited 58 meeting and incentive companies to fill out the CMI 25 questionnaire — all the companies on last year's list plus 33 others that we identified as likely candidates. In the end, 35 companies supplied us with company data including their business volume, business focus, number of employees, and awards they've received.

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 number of corporate meetings and incentive travel programs, but they considered all the supplied information before arriving at the final list.

The CMI 25 is focused on full-service meeting and incentive companies and does not include site-selection companies.

After the inaugural CMI 25 list was published in September 2007, the editors surveyed the CMI 25 companies as well as other industry experts for feedback on the project, asking about the data we collected, the companies that made — and didn't make — the list, and how we could improve.

Among the adjustments you'll see this year: We're listing the number of meetings a company manages separately from the number of incentives, giving readers a better sense of the company's market focus. Also, companies that would not supply us with specific data on the size of their operations were not included on this year's list.

CMI 25 by the Numbers

Median number of meetings managed in 2007:
115

Median number of incentives managed in 2007:
68

Median number of Room nights booked for meetings and incentives:
108,000

Median number of employees:
115

Median portion of meetings and incentives run outside the U.S.:
25%

As a whole, the CMI 25 companies booked more than 29,800 corporate meetings and incentives in 2007, representing more than 5.5 million room nights.

Sidebars

Playing on the International Scene

What Glass Ceiling?

George P. Johnson's Long Road to Success

MotivAction: How to Thrive in Tough Times