Tuesday, February 22, 2011

February 22 APEX Glossary Term: SMERF

Welcome to Planners Pointers! 

Each month I like to share words commonly used by professionals. The words along with their meaning will be from the APEX Industry Glossary.

The Convention Industry Council is the organization of 33 associations coming together to exchange information among the meetings, convention and exhibitions industry. One of the initiatives is APEX, Accepted Practices Exchange to develop practices that reach industry wide. One of the practices is a glossary of terms used in the industry. The goal of the glossary is to standardize the definitions of words used by the meetings industry.

This months definition is SMERF. No, not the blue cartoon people on television.  SMERF is an acronym for a category of event market segments including Social, Military, Educational, Religious and Fraternal groups.

I used to think that SMERF or SMERF market was a derogatory term until I realized that each one of the markets listed was worth millions of dollars spent.  For example the Social markets includes weddings, a billion dollar business. Military includes events like military reunions which are very valuable to cities because the people who attend them do things outside the planned events like visiting museums and shopping at local stores.  See what I mean? 

Say it proudly!  I am a planner who caters to the SMERFS!

Planner's Pointers is written by me, Mary Pam Kilgore, CMP, of Kilgore Business Services, LLC  You may reach me through my website www.kilgorebusiness.com  You can find my blog at http://plannerspointers.blogspot.com/  Follow me on Twitter @marypam

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