It is all about motivation and commitment

Monday 16^th  of July 2015

Excursion McCormick Place by Laura Paschedag

Me at McCormick Place

Big. Overwhelming. Huge. Outstanding. These are the words that came up to my mind when my classmates and I entered McCormick Place. The Conference Center, which is based south of the Millennium Park in Chicago, is the biggest of its kind in whole North America. What did I do there? My visit was part of the Summer School programme at Kendall College, where we develop a business plan for a company of our choice. The theme of the trip was “The Strategy of Connection” and had the purpose to get an idea on how customers’ needs can be fulfilled and what kind of challenges are occurring while trying to satisfy the customer.

Kenneth and Jessica with the students

The Technology Services Director Kenneth Schmidt and the Technology Infrastructure Services Manager Jessica Williams welcomed us at the entrance of the Center and showed us one of the 170 meeting rooms, where they introduced us to some facts about their work at McCormick Place. The business both are working in is providing internet on a very large scale to big groups and conferences. Kenneth told us that Wi-Fi was installed in the whole building complex, which means that 2.6 million square feet needed to be covered with high-speed internet. At high peaks up to 49.000 people can access this service and surf with at a speed of 256 kb per second for free. If customers pay extra fees, they can enhance this access to a speed of 10 MB per second. Selling internet to a huge amount of people in XXX is the key competencies that McCormick Place has. Customers are able to access internet fast and in the correct surroundings they need to get their job done. No other place in Chicago is able to provide a product of this kind and at this capacity. Getting to know this kind of Key Value Propositions makes a difference also considering our own business concepts.

 

The Arie Crown Theatre

However, McCormick Place offers more than conference rooms and internet. It tries to fulfil all of their customers’ needs as it consists of three Starbucks, three FedEx Stations and many more services. Furthermore, Chicago’s biggest bar, the “Sky Lane Bar Room”, is part of the Center. With a size of 100 sq. ft., it can take up to 15.000 people. Besides this, the Arie Crown Theatre connects people in a very fun way as big actors like Frank Sinatra and The Rolling Stones played in front of more than 4.000 people in it.

Rob on the rooftop garden

Furthermore, McCormick Place is trying to strengthen their CSR as it has got the largest rooftop garden in the Midwest, which is managed by a sustainable agriculture program Windy City Harvest. Both Kenneth and Jessica were very proud to show the garden to us as it displays the Center’s effort to contribute to the community. This is important to keep in mind as our business concepts may need to contain CSR activities firstly to motivate employees and to show the companies awareness of social responsibilities

Talking about responsibilities and important issues in a company the trip to McCormick Place also showed us some facts about the importance of a good company culture. It’s about the people. It’s about the people running the business. Their “well-being” and commitment is crucial as it mirrors the effectiveness and efficiency of their work. Leaders like Kenneth and Jessica need to be motivate their crew. This is what we should reconsider in our business plan, as our whole team needs to be focused and be led in a way that motivates all team members to finally reach our goal. This is one of the most important things I learned at McCormick Place so I really enjoyed the visit to McCormick Center as impressions like these are important to develop our business idea during the course.