Incentive Travel Council Names SFN Group Director as 2010 Advocate of the Year

CHICAGO, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Incentive Travel Council (ITC) of the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) recently named SFN Group Director of Business Meeting Services Dahlton A. Bennington, CMP, CMM, as the recipient of its 2010 Advocate of the Year Award.  In its second year, the award recognizes an individual, business or organization that demonstrates outstanding leadership in enhancing, educating and/or promoting incentive travel as a value driver for achieving performance.  

According to Incentive Travel Council President Jim Ruszala, "Bennington was selected for successfully merging four unique incentive travel programs from six specialized businesses into one 'best-in-class' program called Performance Forum."  He explained Bennington was able to achieve buy-in from all the participating interests by:

• Clearly communicating program criteria, monthly rankings and final results;
• Strategically aligning qualification metrics and limiting subjectivity;
• Providing opportunities for both producing and supporting employees to participate;
• Offering meaningful business meeting content; and
• Successfully executing the new program.

"Bennington wisely convinced her CEO to participate with the Incentive Research Foundation Case Study detailing the Anatomy of an Incentive Travel Program, which helped to highlight the value of incentive programs to all the stakeholders, benchmarked the program's ROI and paved the way for an increased budget to further drive performance for the company," said Karen Renk, CAE, Incentive Marketing Association executive director.

Upon receiving the award, Bennington told her colleagues, "I believe within each of us is a voice and, if we can take better advantage of the tools we have and better articulate our value in what we deliver to drive performance and engage associates, we will continue to elevate our industry."   She also pointed out the value of the IRF study to the industry in terms of the measurement information it provides about the ROI, engagement, cultural and efficiency aspects of incentive travel.

The ITC Advocate of the Year award debuted in 2009 with the Texas Roadhouse Restaurants as the first recipient.  The national restaurant chain was recognized for its public support of incentive travel programs as cost-effective business investments.

The Incentive Travel Council (http://tinyurl.com/2eh9d4m), a strategic industry group within the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) (http://www.incentivemarketing.org), is dedicate to exploring, promoting and educating about how incentive travel strategies can best be designed and leveraged to help organizations achieve better business performance. Earlier this month, the Incentive Travel Council released its first-ever perspectives paper, Behavioral Economics of Incentive Travel, which summarizes the economic, business and participant impact the recent recession had on both the providers and users of incentive travel.  Visit the Incentive Travel Council website for more details.

SOURCE Incentive Travel Council