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American Express Business Travel has just published its 7th annual survey of professionals with oversight for travel in China -- a poll of 280 companies in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou ... and the findings are fascinating.

One factoid in the study, Business Travel Management in China: Barometer 2010, is that $76 of every $100 spent on travel by Chinese companies is dedicated to growing and sustaining their businesses. Compare that to Europe, where Amex figures show 63% of companies' travel budgets are dedicated to client acquisition/loyalty and partner visits (The rest is on intra-organization trips.)

The study found that formal travel management in China is becoming "more entrenched as policies and program measures are adopted." A big caveat, however, is that companies need to "continue to evolve in order to increase expenditure visibility, enhance compliance, and drive travel and managed travel program cost-efficiencies."

I was most interested in the section on the maturation of travel spend policies and procedures. Among Chinese companies, there's a 69% compliance rate to travel policies -- up from 28% in 2006. That's a startling improvement ... perhaps because 83% have management procedures in place for controlling travel expenditures (up from 47% in '06).

One finding I was very encouraged to see was that tracking employees has become a "major priority" for Chinese companies -- for business continuity and to comply with regulations and the legal environment regarding the safety and security of employees. The latest Amex data shows that 97% of Chinese companies consider it a priority to have the ability to "contact business travelers at any moment." That's versus 78% in 2008!  And 64% consider it important to repatriate business travelers immediately -- up from 27% in 2008.

These days, global duty of care is truly a global concern for both corporate travel and meetings travel ... and now we have more stats to prove it. I've made it my mission to spread the word about global duty of care -- everywhere! Several of our multinational customers are expanding their SMMP footprint in China, and, from our four offices in the country, we're right there to help them.

For more information on Global Duty of Care, read this Active Network|StarCite whitepaper: http://www2.starcite.com/starcite/resourcecenter/downloads/meetings-and-global-duty-care-what-you-need-know-now
 

MeetingsNet recently offered some great tips to help you cut down on food and beverage costs when planning events. Here are some top tricks:

Beverages

• Pay for coffee and bar drinks per consumption. Even with alcohol, most times it works out cheaper than opting for a hosted bar;
• If you do go with a hosted bar, offer only wine and beer (in draft rather than bottles) to reduce your bill;
• Chill your water bottles in tubs of floating ice--people tend to take fewer when they're dripping with water;
• Skip the juice for plated breakfasts; it's costly and most people won't even notice.

Food

• Don't assume boxed lunches are less expensive than plated, especially if you choose a salad meal as the main course;
• Save money by skipping the lunch dessert or the appetizer (people don't normally have either when eating lunch at home);
• Choose one grab-and-go item for a break, such as whole fruit or a protein bar;
• When serving hors d’oeuvres, use servers rather than offering them buffet style, as people tend to take less that way.

For more information on technology to help you plan cost-effective events, click here!

I recently read a blog post by Bob Johnston of SponsorHub about working with vendors. To sum it all up, Bob’s point was that vendor management is super important, and you should take the time to learn the ins and outs of negotiating. He noted that “your bottom line and profit margin depend on it.”

Of course I agree with him completely.  I’m proud to say that all of us at Active Network|StarCite have been fully supporting this recognition of working effectively with vendors for years.  We’ve advocated full transparency in negotiations and planning so that budgetary surprises are minimal to non-existent.  That buyer-supplier negotiation transparency is the crux of Strategic Meetings & Events Management. By transacting business in writing online, you not only eliminate misunderstandings form the beginning before it can become a budgetary problem, you also have a built-in documentation trail of negotiations in case of an audit or satisfying a Sarbanes-Oxley requirement.

And it doesn’t hurt to know what suppliers are looking for in terms of contracting business with corporations and buyers, either.  In this part of the supply and demand cycle, the suppliers currently hold the upper hand in terms of pricing power – due to high demand and not enough supply.  Ironically, buyers are now competing with each other to get space and room inventory, so knowing what makes your business more attractive to suppliers can only help to ensure you get what you need.  

Read this informative article from Meetings and Conventions magazine; it will help you to improve your chances for sourcing success with your suppliers!  Also, check out this Active Network|StarCite webinar: Strategic Meetings Management: Best Practices for Strategic Sourcing.

As a world traveler, I've been watching the progression of the euro crisis with interest. But sometimes, as it relates to the meetings industry, it can seem like a far-away issue.

But a recent story in HotelNewsNow.com brought the problem home, and it raised some issues in my mind that all meeting managers should be aware of and thinking about.

The story presented one pretty scary statistic, direct from a recent report from the Global Business Travel Association: If the crisis of credit and confidence gets so bad that banks fail and the European Union dissolves, between 2012 and 2013, meeting spending from the U.S. would dive by 16%, about $88 billion worth. Trip volume would fall by over 76 million trips (down 9%).

Wow! That's the GBTA's worst-case scenario, and I certainly hope that doesn't come to pass. Still, over that same time period, a prolonged recession in the region could result in the leveling off of travel growth -- with a paring of spend by about 7% (equating to nearly $40 billion) and around 42 million trips (down 5%).

So here are the issues I'm thinking of:

• Long-term, are you prepared and have contingency plans to switch destinations should a severe crisis suddenly develop -- perhaps with some hotels closing and staff being laid off?
• Do you have system-wide policies and processes in place to quickly find new hotels and venues?  Do you currently do destination analysis and cost comparisons?  And, do your terms and conditions spell out clearly what refunds you expect?
• Conversely, with business contracting in southern Europe due to a drop-off in demand, occupancy rates and RevPAR, have you got an eye out for bargains at properties you may not have previously considered? HotelNewsNow says bargain hunting by leisure travelers from the more prosperous northern European countries is up sharply.   And, the article says the corporate segment there has noticeably cut back on expenditures -- including meetings, incentives, conferences and events bookings.  

If you have events booked in southern European locations like Portugal and Spain, now is the time to consider your risk. It's also time to hunt around for new bargains.
 

Kudos to ACTE for thinking outside the box and creating a  wonderfully interactive annual conference in San Francisco at the end of April. All of the education sessions and interactive networking were very well done.  I had a blast at one of the education sessions called:  "Is it time to eliminate the hotel RFP process?"  And instead of hearing acrimonious dialog between buyers and suppliers, a gamification exercise kept attendees positive and creative.  My table, being the "type A" personalities we are, won first place!  There were four power corporate buyers and friends, two suppliers (including yours truly) and we had the privilege of having my good friend Michael Baker of the BTN Media Group as part of our table.  If you’d like to see his comments about ACTE and our table here’s the URL link to his post:  
http://www.thebeat.travel/post/2012/05/02/Buyers-Approach-Hotel-Purchasing-Hotel-RFPs.aspx/?a=btn&cid=eltrDaily

What was extremely meaningful for me, was the announcement of our collaboration in tackling the long sought-after and elusive emotional engagement ROI for events and meetings.  ACTE Executive Director Ron DiLeo made the announcement during the first general session -- and in every general session after that.  I was privileged to get up and talk about the project during the last general session of the conference.  We also tried out multiple on-going surveys throughout the conference to kick off this study on “eROI” -- as we’re calling it informally.

Active Network hopes to provide project updates at future ACTE global conferences and to announce the results of this study at the Rome ACTE conference this fall.  The study is being conducted by Lynn Randall, managing partner of Randall Insights LLC.  From now until then, if you want to volunteer an event or meeting to participate in this study on how to capture and report eROI, please reach out to ACTE directly or Lynn Randall at lynn.randall@randallinsights.com.

Hopefully, the end results of this study will provide some quantifiable measurement of the emotional engagement and effectiveness of meetings and events. Meetings/event managers can use the data as part of their reporting metrics to their senior management to address not only any cost ROI issue, but whether or not the meeting/event captured and accomplished emotional goals laid out when organizing that event!

Kevin Iwamoto, VP, Enterprise Strategy, Active Network|StarCite, will lead an educational session at MPI's North Florida Chapter on May 8th, from 11 am to 1:15 pm, at the Prime F Osborn III Convention Center, in Jacksonville.

The topic: Strategic Meetings Management – The Intersection of Meetings, Travel and Procurement.

The presentation will cover all the critical issues surrounding meetings management within the industry today -- from selling an SMMP to executives to meetings risk and compliance to the recently launched SMM Maturity Model.

Iwamoto will talk about current industry trends and the increasing convergence of procurement with meetings. He'll also review the various components of a best-in-class SMMP as well as a level-by-level breakdown of the SMM Maturity Model to assess where companies are presently and how they can mature their programs.

Rounding off the presentation, Iwamoto will discuss how companies can take this information and present it to key stakeholders to gain executive buy in and support.

The latest in the on-going saga over the GSA meetings scandal is that Congress is sending legislation to President Obama to sign that would cap 80 percent of government agencies' 2010 meeting spend through to 2016. The bill would also set new restrictions on government agency participation in meetings and conferences. For example, it would require that no agency spend more than $500,000 to support a single event.

Really?  Am I crazy or aren’t there already policies and guidelines around what the GSA can spend, do, etc.?   That being the case, why would new policies and guidelines be any different than what exists today?  While I don’t disagree that new and more relevant policies enhance what is currently on record for policy (i.e. only one pre-convention site inspection is allowable), the issue isn’t lack of policy or guidelines; the issue is that there appears to be a lack of better checks and balances around expense approval routings, having sourcing documentation trails and regular audits, tracking of budget versus actual spend, and other prudent processes that many corporations have implemented in their SMMPs.

I strongly believe that rather than cutting back or banning meetings, the smartest way to build a better event is to strategically manage meetings, for example, implement and automate approvals of purchases, and e-source for the best hotel options and other meetings services. How about mandated travel policies that restrict certain types of entertainment and require use of preferred suppliers? How many of them are in force in government agencies?  

It's bad economics to do away with or demonize meetings travel -- after all, the meetings industry contributes more to the nation's GDP ($106 billion annually) than the mighty auto industry ($78 billion), the socially powerful movie business ($60 billion) ... even the air transport industry ($62 billion)! And the tax and job implications of meetings are enormous.

No, rather than a ban ... the government needs a plan that spells out how to better manage meetings.  Forgive my pre-disposed bias, but our government needs a SMMP implemented -- not more rules, cut-backs and restrictions!

I have been particularly reflective lately. It may have something to do with it being my birthday month (no, not the big "Four-O," but almost) and that, next month, I celebrate 10 years with the same company.

But what really hit me was when I updated my "elevator pitch" to state I have been into technology for 30 years! At the tender age of 9 years old, I got my hands on the wonderfully whacky ZX Spectrum, an 8-bit personal home computer, which had just launched in the UK. Yes, I was one of those kids who cut their teeth on BASIC and spent many hours playing simple and infuriating games such as Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy!

Fast-forward to the present day. This month, I sat with my 15 year old son attempting to be one of the first to order the brand new Raspberry Pi - the $30 bare bones credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard (that's its size on the left!) . The Raspberry is attempting to get a new generation enthused about computing. And what will we do with it? Learn some LINUX and play Angry Birds, probably!!

In the last 30 years, technology has advanced massively, but has its use changed that much?

Rewind 15 years when I first started working in the events industry as an IT Manager for an events agency. A typical and much loathed job prior to going on-site for an event or conference was the mail merging and printing of delegate packs. And guess what, in this day and age of numerous mobile devices, have we managed to phase out this timely and costly process? A resounding "no."

So, has technology actually changed anything? As a technologist I often get frustrated with product releases that focus on the specifications rather than solution benefits. Each laptop I have owned has claimed more memory, faster processor, more disk space - but after a few months of using it, it still feels sluggish and takes 10 minutes to reboot! Similarly, as I meet with event planners from different companies, I hear the same complaints that I heard when I first started in this industry - their daily jobs involve so much manual cross-checking processes, reams of paper, multi-coloured hilighter pens and sticky notes!

I recently invested in a popular tablet device that allows me to be more productive on the move (like writing this blog whilst on a packed commuter train into London). It is often written that people are finding new ways of working with such devices that were not even thought about when purchasing them.

I say, this should be the mantra of event planners and technology providers. Surely, now we have the tools and opportunities to really change the way events are administered - using the freedom modern technology provides and no longer being a slave to outdated manual, time-consuming processes. By the way, are you waiting for your IT department to invent and deliver your miracle time saving process? The only way they can, and will, is if you demand it of them.

So, have a think about how you use your own "personal" technology, and start to consider how those same "freedoms" could be applied to your event management processes. You will be surprised what you come up with. Then, work with IT to drive change. Many will welcome the suggestions. Also, look at your events technology, and ask yourself: Does it allow you to work the way you now need to work? It is time to demand more!

For a great read on how meetings management technology can transform your work processes and benefit your organisation, click here.

Now, time to go and play Angry Birds before I arrive in London!

Congratulations to our business partner, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, which last week released CWT Meeting Optimizer, a new tool that Active Network|StarCite helped develop. We're really pleased to have worked with CWT to bring another money-saving resource to meeting planners.

The industry could certainly use a new tool to help companies save money -- especially now, with meetings under public scrutiny again! Get more details about the Meeting Optimizer via the link above.

When test users saw the new attendee features coming out as part of Attendee Management Release 15.6 rolling out on May 4, they cheered! The website design page will now feature new, intuitive layouts and quick and easy options for stylizing text, colors, background, borders, links, and more! Designing and customizing your event website page has never been easier. 

New standard layouts will become the default layouts available on the Website Design>Layouts page, each featuring a basic format that you can then customize with the drag and drop function and new formatting options.

Once you select your layout and arrange your page elements, it's time to customize it.  Want to change the text font and color? How about the background image? No problem- simply click on the "Change" link at the top of the page, select "Formatting," and you will be able to choose colors, sizes, fonts, borders, margins and more- all in one centralized place.  Each property element has a drop down menu for easy selection so anyone can get the look and feel they desire- no HTML knowledge required!

You can also customize the font type, size, and color of the registration form field labels, mandatory field labels and activities names.

Why wait when you can start using the new layouts and features now? You can access these by clicking on the "Use New Interface" link at the top of the Website Design>Layouts page to start building new templates and taking advantage of the new features now! (After the release, this page will become the default.)

If you have any questions about this release, please contact your account manager or StarCite Technical Support. 

GBTA Europe has announced the first in their series of speakers for the introductory session of its European conference in Budapest, September 19th - 21st.  GBTA Europe chose a 17 year-old Brit, Max Keegan, to present a case study of how “Digital Natives," often referred to as Generation Y, think about technology, the use of social networks, their approach to the workplace culture and sustainability.

Max, GBTA Europe reported, is in the debating society at his school and is a musician.

This was so brilliant and typical of Paul Tilstone, Managing Director of GBTA, to change things up and offer meaningful and engaging programming. In GBTA Europe's announcement, Keegan said: "It is going to be great to be able to give the audience insights into how my peers and I communicate and use social media. I think it’s great that this conference wants to hear our thoughts since we behave and think differently than your typical conference attendee.”

I'm sure Max is a great spokesperson for Gen Y, and it will be fascinating to hear “from the horse's mouth” (no pun intended) on his peers' attitudes and use of technology and social media in their daily lives and careers.

No doubt, there will be a creative aspect to the yet to be defined CEO Panel, and knowing Paul, it won’t be the traditional and often times boring CEO-speak.

I hope to see you all at GBTA Europe!

Macau, located about 40 miles southwest of Hong Kong and formerly a territory controlled by Portugal, is now an unexpected hotbed of new hotel construction. 

The area, which is now controlled by China, is home to the brand new 13.7 million-square-foot Sands Cotai Central.  This site includes the 1,224 room Holiday Inn Macao Cotai Central and the 636 room Conrad Macao, each the largest hotels in the Holiday Inn and Conrad chains, respectively.  The site is also set to include a Sheraton property which will also be the largest of their brand once it opens.

Macau is already an attractive new destination in the gaming industry, and its visitor count is growing every year.  However, the Sands Cotai Central project breathes new life into the Cotai Strip, which now includes the hotels mentioned above, in addition to shopping, dining, meeting and convention space and other attractions- making it an exotic and impressive choice for meetings and events.  For more details on the exciting new Sands Cotai Central project, click here.

For more information on Macau as a meetings destination, check out this webinar on Global Business: Doing Business in Macau hosted by MeetingsNet on April 26th.

Once we pondered how Gen Y and Z would affect meetings. Now the question is, how will generation "C" change the industry?

Who is Generation C, you ask? Nielsenwire defines them as 18-34 year-olds "born sometime between the launch of the VCR and the commercialization of the Internet."  What characterizes this group, and what accounts for the "C" is that this generation is the most connected -- digitally, that is.  Even though they make up just 23% of the U.S. population ...

- 27% of them watch online videos
- 27% visit social networking/blog sites
- 33% own tablets
- 39% use smart phones

Meeting managers everywhere should take notice of Gen C's technology-loving ways. I meet and work with these folks on a daily basis, and they don't just want to attend events to sit in sessions and learn ... they want to use their tech toys to be active participants via electronic feedback; they want to shape content by contributing comments (and sometimes present content themselves), and they want to -- before an event even begins -- find out who'll be there so they can network with those who can give them the best ROI.

Can you see the day when meetings become truly interactive -- with Generation C types stepping up to an "open-mike" event to present their knowledge and opinions? I can, especially when I'm surrounded by them here at Active Network where the average employee age is 28!!!

To some extent, technology is rapidly making this happen. Mobile apps put up-to-the-minute information such as agendas and bios into the hands of attendees. And then these savvy attendees make their own choices about where to go spend their next 45 minutes. And it's by now a well-established best practice that many attendees are tweeting suggested questions for speakers -- as those presenters are talking.

But what meeting managers need to get ready for is the demand for more and more meetings that will be structured to enable attendees to use the tools they're carrying in their front pockets and backpacks. And the questions for managers then become ... what kind of goals to create for this brave new world of meetings ... how to make them pay off ... and how to make them support my companies' goals? More importantly, how do we protect our company's intellectual property and employee safety and security when everything is so open and on-line?  Don't proscratinate in putting in safeguards now, because before you know it, you may encounter a "should've, could've would've" type scenario that will be too late.

With public scrutiny over spending on conferences in the news again, there's no better time to remind lawmakers, the industry and local communities about both the business value and economic benefits of meetings.

Back in January, the U.S. Travel Association introduced a year-long "Vote Travel" campaign, and as part of that campaign, the organization offers a "Keep America Meeting" toolkit for meetings professionals and venues. It's aimed at creating a dialogue between lawmakers and the people who work in the meetings industry. U.S. Travel suggests:

- Inviting a member of Congress to your event or venue, and to speak with employees -- to share why the travel industry matters
- Visits to Congress, utilizing such tools as a one-page leave-behind document on the economic impact of meetings
- Writing to the media and government officials, including using suggestions for two sample Op-Ed articles.

These are all great suggestions and practical, useful tools that all of us in the industry can use to quell the often unjustified fuss over perceived conference and meeting spend wastefulness!

Personally, I'm taking a more active voice in talking with people outside the industry on the economic influence of meetings, for instance, how meetings create a web of jobs that go beyond hotels and restaurants. I'm thinking of meeting planners, managers, purchasers -- all of whom are employed in various industries. And I'm thinking of companies spawned to support meetings services, like technology firms that create and sell automation to help firms strategically manage meetings and engage with employees. This list goes on, for example, meeting and event production companies, travel agencies, consulting firms.

When you sit down and think about it, the conference, events & meetings industry is a veritable production machine of jobs and GDP. This is the message that we all need to be sharing with our elected officials on a regular basis -- so it's always front of mind and not an afterthought.

The Global Business Travel Association's latest Business Travel Quarterly Outlook report for the U.S. forecasts that business travel will grow by just 3% in 2012, a drop from 8.5% in 2011.

Why such a big drop-off in growth? The GBTA says that continuing economic uncertainty in Europe
and slowing economic growth in Asia means more companies will hold off on sending travelers on business or meetings trips.

Regardless, 2011 was a very strong year for U.S. business travel spend, says the report. Last year, there was a 7.6% year-over-year increase, totaling more than $250 billion -- even though that rate, at least for the first quarter of 2012, is expected to slow to an estimated 4.5%.

Despite the declining percentages, the GBTA still forecasts that business travel will reach its pre-recession levels by the middle of 2012.

Thank you, MeetingsNet, for giving us a detailed view into the social media habits of meeting planners! The media company, which polled 800 readers of its magazines -- Association Meetings, Medical Meetings and Corporate Meetings & Incentives -- probed how respondents use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs as part of their jobs.

Let's cut to the chase and talk blogs.

According to the survey, 50% maintain a blog, and of those, 73%, the largest percentage, use the social media venue as a way to promote and build community around meetings and events. Blogs are a great resource for marketing, but better still is linking your blogs with your event marketing strategy and associated technology to create an ecosystem to connect event suppliers, organizations and attendees. It's technology that drives cost savings, efficiencies and deeper audience engagement. My point is, blogs are a great communication tool. But why not maximize your event effectiveness and add value with time-saving online attendee relationship management tools that allow you to see and measure your marketing efforts by engaging your audience before, during and after the event?

Another fascinating tidbit from the MeetingsNet social media survey is that, when asked how valuable respondents found different forms of social media for their career, 70% of meeting planners, again the largest proportion, said blogs were somewhat or extremely valuable -- versus 59% who said so for Facebook (which a lot of people see as a jobs marketplace), 55% for YouTube, and 50% for Twitter.

On a personal note, I'm happy that more than one-third of respondents (37%) follow industry blogs written by others. Ahem ... that would be by people like me.  :)

On Supplymanagement.com, a UK procurement magazine, I recently read about a global study of purchasing executives, and the results seem to scream out the need for payment cards to replace old-fashioned purchasing methods.

In the study, "The Cost of Control – Disrupted Networks," 550 chief financial officers (CFOs) and finance directors were polled. While 38% acknowledged that paying suppliers late was likely to negatively impact the performance of both parties, around 15% of their invoices are nonetheless settled later than the agreed date.

In the corporate meetings world, one of the biggest potential areas for improvement when it comes to
strategic meetings management (SMM) is simplifying payments and reconciliation -- in other words making purchasing and paying for services more efficient, less costly and more timely.  There are many savvy meeting managers who opt to channel all purchases of air, hotel meeting and sleeping
rooms, food and beverage and other meeting costs through a single meeting charge card. A meeting charge card eliminates the need to obtain purchase orders at the time of purchase for meeting supplies or services, and it allows meeting managers to conveniently pay a single card bill (and on time), rather than cut checks to pay multiple suppliers.

Esa Thila, CEO of Basware, which published the study, said, in the story: “Supply chains have become a complex web of commercial interactions and each organisation that is part of the network has a role to play in minimising commercial risk.  Finance executives are aware that late payments or erroneous payments will create problems for their suppliers, yet late payments still exist.”

Some meeting charge cards also help to improve control over spend -- using preset spend and time limits on individual cards. Further, advanced SMM technology allows meeting planners to go online to reconcile purchases against what was actually budgeted. The benefits? Greater visibility into actual spend, maximum process efficiency and higher control.

For a checklist of features -- including meeting card integration -- that will manage your meetings smoothly, click here.

If the numbers in several different meetings forecasts that I wrote about in this blog weren't enough to convince you, a new survey conducted by Embassy Suites Hotels, says a significant number (one-third) of business travelers are traveling more than they did a year ago.

That's great news, and the better news is that they're hitting the road more often to have face-to-face meetings with clients.

What I found interesting about this survey -- that's entirely in line with what I'm seeing in the industry
-- is that, to keep in touch with clients, companies are altering the way they've traditionally traveled.
For instance, 19% are cutting back on meals and other incidentals, while 22% are looking for hotels that are a better value.

Many companies are making sacrifices in order to be able to continue building and strengthening relationships with their business clients. And the best way to do that, in my books, is to be there in person ... lunching with them or sitting across a conference room table.  As I've said before in this blog, telepresence, teleconferencing, web meetings and other remote conferencing methods are all extremely valuable tools that meeting managers can use to keep costs down and extend the reach of their meetings programs.  Yes, we'll see some companies increasingly rely on them to keep in touch with employees, salespeople and others. But they are no means a replacement for in-person events, especially with clients and prospective customers -- where the nuances of body language, facial expressions and good old-fashioned human-to-human contact can go miles toward solidifying bonds and business.

To read more about how the mix of virtual meetings and face-to-face will play out in the coming years,  check out Active Network|StarCite's book: "Strategic Meetings Management Handbook: From Theory to Practice."

Attention all procurement executives, the General Services Administration (GSA) has just learned a hard lesson about how sensitive the press, public and the government is to perceived lavish spending at conferences. The New York Times reported yesterday that Martha Johnson, the administrator of GSA fired her two top deputies and then resigned, herself, just before delivery of a report investigating a 2010 internal conference that was criticized as wasteful.

Apparently, the training conference -- which cost $822,000 for 300 people and took place at a resort/spa outside Las Vegas -- included a mind reader, clowns and comedians and a team-building exercise that alone cost taxpayers $75,000, all details that were first reported by The Washington Post.  On face value these costs may seem excessive, but one thing I’ve learned is there are always two sides to every story.  The tragedy is whatever cost justification there was for these expenses, no one was able to articulate and show documented sourcing enough to disprove any of the allegations of excessiveness.

The reality of meetings is that most events are filled with educational sessions as part of dawn-to-dusk agendas, followed by dinners and receptions where networking is done -- but which also may include entertainment or other team-building events that help break down barriers and build relationships.  Also, spending and locations that might appear lavish to some can actually be very smart bargains. But then again, the other side of this issue is that, as many meeting managers already know, we are living in very difficult times -- where every dime is being watched and where proof of return on investment in meetings is increasingly being demanded by senior executives.  Needless to say, one of the major benefits of establishing a SMMP is the ability to audit and monitor spending in real time versus post event -- when it’s too late.  Is there any wonder that CFOs everywhere are highly desirous of auditing meeting and event spend?

Now is a good time to ensure that your meeting policies are being established, communicated and adhered to and that spending limits and guidelines are being followed. And if you have not yet created a policy, it's time to implement one, get senior management backing and communicate it to all planners. Further, use business intelligence from your meetings management technology to measure ROI, and present those figures to senior executives -- the ones who are watching!  Oh and don’t be surprised if auditing is introduced by your CFO or Finance group – it’s just a matter of time.

Click here to view a free StarCite webinar on the value of business intelligence for your meeting.

Compliance to the Physician Payment Sunshine Provisions of U.S. healthcare reform was a big topic at the 8th Annual Pharmaceutical Meeting Management Forum in Orlando, FL, March 25-28, of which Active Network | StarCite was a sponsor.

For example, on Monday, the 26th, one educational session was titled: "U.S. Compliance and Regulatory Oversight for Meeting Managers." On Tuesday, Allan Brown, Director of Strategic Accounts at Active Network | StarCite, and James Vachon, Associate Director, Events, Meetings and Conventions at Millennium: The TAKEDA Oncology Company, presented in an educational track: "Best Practices for Tracking and Reporting in the Life Sciences Industry."

That same day, a Master Track session, "Identify Proven ROI Measurements and Communicate the Value of Meetings," featured Will Anderson, Deputy Director, Travel Services, Strategic Meetings Management at Sanofi Pasteur, Inc., who is using StarCite's Life Sciences Strategic Meetings Management system to track meeting spend on healthcare professionals.