The Council s MBA Forums have hosted more than 275,000 potential applicants since their inception in 1975. However, declining attendance in the past few years has served as a strong indicator that the MBA Forums have failed to adapt to changes in how potential candidates gather information about programs. Nonetheless, record attendance in Asia and New York this past year may be a sign that active marketing and promotion can positively impact results. Increasing competition and the number of options available to schools today for this type of recruiting service suggests that GMAC should devote fewer resources to delivering more forums and focus more attention on developing education outreach programs in new markets to stimulate demand and explore other activities as appropriate. After the 2000 MBA Forums, GMAC conducted an extensive survey of both attendees and school representatives and gained a number of key insights into the market for recruiting services.
Schools expect to see new inquirers while the majority of attendees have already inquired.
Technology, specifically, the web, has fundamentally altered the information exchange between schools and prospects. The Recruiting Services Advisory Group also advised us to scale back the number of Forums to be offered in 2001. Based on the advisory group's feedback, management recommended a reduced Forum schedule. This will enable schools who rely on forums to continue to focus on key geographic regions that are not served by other recruiting event providers. After careful consideration of available services, it is clear that we will not expand our offerings to overlap any existing markets already being served.