BUSINESS PLANNING & TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT Planning Medtech Meetings and Retreats Effective planning can make or break a meeting's success—and determine a company's return on investment. Courtney Harris

Memorable Meetings Historically, companies reward the top performers within their sales forces. Often, rewards come in the form of a vacation or other travel incentive. Today there are companies that specialize in organizing such incentives, as well as planning memorable, unconventional meetings.

Incentive programs "get employees motivated and thereby benefit companies," says Rick Dunaj, vice president of global incentive sales for RPMC Inc. (Calabasas, CA). "The return on investment is so incredible that these programs become minimal investments."

RPMC, a marketing and promotions company, plans memorable travel-incentive and team-building programs, many in exotic locations. The company also plans senior-level meetings, and understands that after the entertainment, executives need to get to work.

"Companies do have to conduct their business," says Dunaj. RPMC, which has some pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients, targets companies that want "white-glove service and individual attention," he says. "Everyone who attends one of our meetings or conferences deserves VIP treatment."

Fox Hollow Technologies' Trigg says that memorable meetings go beyond skiing and golf trips. "I try to stay away from conventional activities and the types of things that people can do every day," she says, noting the company's recent team-building program of cattle herding.

"I think it's important to extend your brand into everything that you do," says Trigg. For example, she says, the company's coronary catheter device produces "an enormous 'wow' factor when people see the amount of plaque that's pulled out of the arteries, and we try to convey the sense in cultivating the brand that this is something no one has seen before. So Fox Hollow wants to take this idea of unconventional and memorable and make sure that feeling is infused all the way through its marketing materials, communication with customers, and communication with its own field.

"For me, it's all part of building enthusiasm, momentum, and an organizational culture," says Trigg. "If a company is planning meetings that involve golf or spas—something that everyone's done in a million other sales meetings—you really don't get there in terms of creating that unique organizational culture."

According to Dunaj, creating a "wow" factor in meetings and incentives is essential. In the medical device and pharmaceutical world, "everyone wants to keep up with what everyone else is doing," he says. There are three advantages to offering meetings with excitement, he adds. "A company wants to keep its sales force motivated, retain its top performers, and recruit top performers from other companies," he says.

In the medical technology industry, "there are a lot of companies that are trying to differentiate why their products are better than their competitors'," he says, so the objective of memorable meetings is "to differentiate how their sales force is rewarded—which leads to retaining and attracting top talent."