Corporate Event Planning

You've got to be happy that demand is rising once again for corporate and meetings travel, but the effect of higher demand, of course, is higher prices. That's exactly what's going to happen next year, and this is a good time to prepare for it.

This week, Carlson Wagonlit Travel released its annual forecast, and in its look ahead for 2011 sees a rise in per-attendee, per-day cost for corporate meetings between 7% and 11%. Of course, I didn't know how much, but I knew the hike in meeting costs was coming. 

According to CWT, higher meeting costs will come from:

- a 3% to 5% hike in domestic economy airfares and a 2% to 7% rise in international economy and business class tickets,
- a 6.4% to 7.4% rise in U.S. average daily rates (and as high as 12%
in the Northeast).

If you're a meetings, travel or procurement manager, now is the time to review budgets and make sure that you're covered for these expected hikes in costs. If you find the numbers are falling short, take action! One way might be to gather data, such as CWT's forecast numbers (American Express usually comes out with a forecast around this time of the year, too, and I'll keep you posted on that one!), and present them to your VP or boss as proof that you need an injection of funds.

But if there's no budging on your budget, use your e-rfp tool to easily expand the hunt for more moderately priced hotels, such as airport or lower-star properties. And, when dealing with suppliers, don't forget about the negotiating ability you already yield.

You’ve got the power; use it!

I found a couple of really interesting findings from a broad, new study by Egencia and the NBTA Foundation on the importance of travel policy to good business travel management -- and a few of the results touch on groups and meetings, specifically. I thought I'd share because I'm always trying to spread the word about how setting and enforcing strong policies will transform your meetings management program.

The study is called The Corporate Travel Policy: Benchmarking and Insight Study, and it includes responses from 689 organizations (with a range of those spending less than $1 million on travel to those with tabs of $50 million or higher) from the U.S. and Canada.

As I often hear in my conversations with companies, the survey confirms that few today (although I feel that the number is still growing) address meetings in their travel policy. The survey found that 54% don't include meetings in policy, while 6% said they don't know. Four in 10 define groups and meetings by size or cost, and/or have requirements to register or review such events.

The new NBTA-Egencia study also found that only 22% require that groups and meetings be registered centrally. That makes it challenging to negotiate with hotels and other suppliers when you don’t have complete spend information and breakout of the spend -- in terms of transient versus meetings. And if you don't know that a trip is actually for a meeting, how can you collect data and analyze reports about meetings to ensure preferred suppliers are being used or cost-control methods are being enforced? Also, by not registering meetings centrally, you're missing out on the chance to apply workflow rules that promote cost-consciousness, for example, routing meeting requests to approvers (those guardians of policy), as well as attaching a standard pre-approved and vetted contract addendum to safeguard your organization from hotel cancellation and attrition fees. (By the way, the survey found only 28% require that meeting and event contracts be vetted through an attorney!  Really? That may be worse odds than gambling!.

There have been other recent studies that have reported some discouraging numbers on the meetings management front. But as I've said before, I am confident that the adoption of best practices by companies is continuing, as the benefits of SMMP receive more attention in the media and the marketplace, the emphasis on SMM education grows (e.g. the creation and advance of the SMMC program) and our struggling economy continues to put pressure on companies to find additional ways of reducing costs while bringing in new revenue.   

Thanks to Egencia and the NBTA Foundation for this valuable new view of the state of North American meetings management!

Want to learn more about the link between strong policy and saving meetings dollars. Check out this replay of a recent StarCite webinar!

Seems like more and more surveys, as well as individual companies, are reporting positive news in terms of a comeback in business travel and meetings. And it makes me happy to read about each and every one.

This time, according to a BTN article, American Express reported that its earnings from corporate travel sales ballooned year over year by 28% during the second quarter, and that corporate travel growth outpaced leisure travel sales slightly. In the same issue, David Kong, CEO of Best Western International, predicted stronger demand from corporate travel buyers who are now readying their RFPs to send out. He said that Best Western's reservations in the past 90 days have picked up by double digit percentages -- compared to where they were a year ago.     

Things are looking up here at StarCite, too. As I recently reported, corporate client RFPs for meetings services in our marketplace have grown 82% from January to May 2010, compared to the same period in 2009.

But I keep thinking that amidst all this good news, there's even better news: I'm more sure than ever that the state of business travel and meetings management has changed for the good and will continue to evolve. Travel, purchasing and meetings managers are buying smarter and adopting intelligent techniques and best practices to watch over their companies' budgets. This is the silver lining in the proverbial dark cloud of the recession and travel pullback.

And one milestone sign of the "new normal" is that the first students of this year's inaugural Strategic Meetings Management Certificate (SMMC) program will officially graduate at this year's NBTA in Houston -- just around the corner August 8-11. Personally, I can't wait to witness that event, having created and launched the NBTA's Groups & Meetings Committee and helped to spark the idea of a meetings management certification.

I hope you plan on attending NBTA, too. And if you bump into me, please say "hi" and tell me about any meetings management progress you may be making at your organization.

There's a new and very telling survey out about senior meeting managers, their strategies, average salaries and other important data. The story about it is definitely worth checking out on Meetingsnet.com because some of the numbers are eye-openers (at least they were for me).

Take salaries. Nearly one-third of senior meeting managers made $75,000 to $99,999 in 2009, while another 26% earned between $100,000 and $124,999. And as terrible as 2009 was in terms of the fall-off in business travel and meetings, most senior managers were still rewarded for keeping costs in line or finding new ways to strategically manage meetings expenditures: last year more than 61% polled got a salary increase and 83% got a bonus.

But as far as salaries go, what pleasantly surprised me was the finding that, while 37% are responsible for corporate travel and meetings, there was little difference in their compensation and that of those responsible only for meetings (only a difference of about $5,500). I guess this is a classic case of being asked to do more with shrinking budgets -- something that's pretty common place these days across all industries.

The survey, created by Corporate Meetings & Incentives magazine, along with the NBTA Foundation and Financial & Insurance Conference Planners magazine, revealed that just about two-thirds outsource sourcing for hotels and other suppliers, as well as contracting, and more than half farm out both registration and on-site logistics.  I was struck reading those stats because I just got finished swinging through Asia-Pacific, meeting with companies at a series of round table discussions on the value of an SMMP combined with automation (like e-sourcing) that's designed to reduce costs and labor associated with sourcing processes. (Don't take my word for it alone; check out this replay of a webinar on SMMP and technology! It’s just a matter of time before this trend hits the other geographic regions as companies look for new ways to reduce costs to better compete worldwide.  Cultural differences are one thing, but the bottom line is a major change management driver.

Most encouraging about this survey is the finding showing that just over two-thirds either have an SMMP in place now or plan to implement one within the next two years. And the largest percentage, 44%, implemented their SMMPs over three years ago, with the next biggest group, about 21%, saying that they've taken the plunge about a year ago. That shows growing momentum, a hopeful sign. Meanwhile, nearly one-quarter have gone global with their SMMP, and another quarter or so plan to.

I encourage you to check out this survey. If you're a meeting planner and/or travel manager, it could be a great way to benchmark your salary against others (Of course if you’re one of the lucky few whose compensation is above the norm, you may want to just keep that information to yourself!), and the findings also dramatize the incredible progress companies are making in strategically managing their events. 

Even though I'm traveling through Asia-Pacific this week taking part in a series of round table discussions on meetings management, I'm still keeping up with industry news. And I was heartened to read about some real positive developments on the business travel recovery front.
 
Smith Travel Research has just come out with new numbers that says revenues, rates and occupancies during May were up in many markets worldwide -- on a year-over-year basis.
 
For example, in the Americas, occupancies climbed by 7.5% above May 2009. Rates in this region were flat, with some exceptions, including New York, which saw a 15% increase. In the economic powerhouse that is Brazil, rates in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo climbed, too. But on the other end of the spectrum, Chicago saw the largest rate rate of decrease -- 5%.
 
While I'm here in Asia-Pacific, it's interesting to see that this region had the largest increases in revenues, rates and occupancies than all others globally, according to STR, which I read about in BTN. Occupancies here were up year over year by more than 15%, rates by nearly 9% and RevPar by over 25%. Some outstanding occupancy numbers for individual markets here: Shanghai up 55%, Beijing up over 34% and Hong Kong up nearly 29%.  And yes, our round table corporate customers have all confirmed their respective company spend is rising and travel moratoriums have been lifted to some degree.
 
I'm happy to see that companies globally are traveling more, and I'm sure, as usual, a very big share of that is for meetings -- even if most companies don’t realize that yet. As we climb out of negative territory, however, it's the perfect opportunity for companies to assess how much they spend on meetings and then try to gain power over costs and additional leverage with suppliers via strategic meetings management best practices, for example, centralized planning and e-sourcing. At a minimum, you should have all meetings and events registered so you can build an emergency contingency plan for employees worldwide.
 
If your company is one of those that’s stepping up business and meetings travel, here's a very helpful whitepaper to read on how to uncover hidden meetings spend within your organization and then harness the information to build and execute a powerful SMMP. 

Yesterday was the last day of our Global Leadership Symposium in Boca Raton, Florida, and I have to say I enjoyed myself thoroughly -- mixing with clients from around the world, our valued supplier partners and other industry executives and friends.

Anybody who's ever been to corporate meetings or events knows that -- no matter if they're in a location surrounded by palm trees or airport runways -- they're usually made up of long days spent going to educational sessions and seminars (even trade shows, like ours to the left), as well as networking receptions and dinners (I wish those who criticize meetings as "wasteful" had more of a clue about how busy a meetings day really is!). And yesterday was no exception for me at our symposium. I had the pleasure of leading a breakout session on "Mitigating Meetings Risk & Maximizing Compliance," and from the questions and comments I received from the group who attended, it was obvious to me that protecting corporate interests as well as traveling attendees is a growing area of concern for meetings managers today.

Many in the audience have worked with their legal departments to create formal contracts, or addendum, that they're attaching to e-RFPs when dealing with hotels to protect themselves from excessive attrition and/or cancellation fees. We discussed this strategy and it's agreed that it is a highly effective one. Others are tightening rules to make sure only those with experience and knowledge of meetings purchasing deal with suppliers. Still others are mining data from their meetings management automation, such as attendee management tools, to run quick reports on the whereabouts of attendees during emergencies so that they can get travelers home quickly. And among many other points raised during the session, I stressed the importance of creating and continually fine-tuning corporate meetings policy -- and getting senior management endorsement -- as a way to mitigate risk and raise compliance.

Managing and preventing risk is such a hot topic today -- not just because companies are making stricter demands on meeting, travel and purchasing managers to contribute to the bottom line, but also because it's a dangerous world out there (Has it ever been safe?), and companies want to keep their employees protected as much as possible. Most importantly, what many companies neglect to address is the gap in identifying and locating employees attending a meeting that has no travel booking associated with the event. They have a false sense of security that the current process of relying on their TMC partners to run a review of PNRs and generate a list of employees who may be in harm’s way is sufficient for their contingency plans.  Wrong!  Consider this, if the majority of corporate meetings being held carry no travel booking (i.e. the meeting is at a local hotel in a bigger city nearby, etc.) you have no way of identifying and assisting those meeting attendees because you don’t have a process in place that reviews meetings and attendees.

For more insight into mitigating meetings risk, check out this replay of a StarCite webinar!

I read recently that Starwood has developed Sustainable Meeting Practices for its North American properties, and that the hotel chain will extend the program globally next year.

Kudos to my friends at Starwood for establishing these guidelines! In my power buyer days for HP, I had the privilege of serving on Starwood’s Global Corporate Advisory Board for several years, and I've always appreciated Starwood management's drive for excellence and thought leadership.

The hotel company's SMP centers around five components:

- Paperless Meeting Planning
- Sustainable Meeting Services
- Sustainable Food & Beverage Practices
- Impact Assessment Tools
- Socially Conscious Activities

And within those core components there are 18 best practices that will become part of all on-property meetings and events, for example, replacing fresh cut flowers with potted plants, offering sustainable menu choices and using alternatives to bottled water. As part of the program, Starwood even has a new Meeting Impact Report, an online tool that produces a report showing customers the carbon footprint of their event.

I’m really pleased but not surprised (given the corporate demand for green events) that Starwood has developed these meeting guidelines, as I know that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been on Starwood’s roadmap for quite some time now.  You should also know that all of the other major hotel companies have some green initiatives in place and/or their own green roadmaps, and that is all good!

With everyone doing their part no matter how small, it collectively adds up in a big win for our precious environment -- and more importantly -- for future generations!

There's a fascinating new report out by the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, "Hospitality Business Models Confront the Future of Meetings," that discusses how companies are increasingly relying on virtual meetings such as webinars, video technology (such as Cisco's TelePresence technology) and tele-conferencing -- especially in light of the drop in demand during the Great Recession and even from recent events like the Icelandic volcano eruptions.

I should tell you upfront that both the paper's authors are from Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group; Indeed, the consulting group produced the paper. The paper contains a font of data and statistics that clearly shows that both companies and hotels are embracing meetings automation. For example, it quotes Wainhouse Research from 2009 that says 76% of corporations polled are using room and executive videoconferencing now, with another 8% set to deploy it within a year; and 50% are using webcams with PC software, with another 18% planning to use it by 2010. 

Since installing its TelePresence system more than three years ago, Cisco has saved nearly half a billion dollars in travel and registered more than $150 million in productivity gains. On the eco front, the company cut greenhouse gas emissions by 225,000 metric tons. "Coupled with policy changes on internal travel, communication and collaboration technologies enabled Cisco to reduce travel expenses from $750 million in fiscal year 2008 to $240 million in fiscal year 2009," says the paper.

Interesting, too, is the discussion around hotels increasingly recognizing the value of virtual meetings, in the form of TelePresence as a Service (TPaaS). For example, Starwood, Marriott, Taj Hotels and others are installing equipment in their properties -- sometimes in partnership with corporate clients -- to be able to take advantage of current and future demand.

But if there was one overriding thing that struck out at me from the Cornell paper, it was the question: "But what if technology-based meetings are deemed enduring substitutes for business travel? It is hard to believe that companies will be willing to surrender cost savings when viable alternatives have emerged to preserve them."  

As I've said before in this blog, you may see this happen for certain types of events, perhaps a company's internal training sessions. But not all. Indeed, even the Cornell paper says that "not all meetings can be held remotely, and face-to-face meetings will certainly endure."

There can be no holding back the march of time and advances in technology, including virtual meetings, but nothing replaces the experience of face-to-face meetings, especially for complex negotiations with clients, finalizing sales agreements, recruiting for executive positions and building relationships with key customers or prospects (as the paper duly notes).

Yet, I don't need a whitepaper to tell me that; that's the truth...and I've experienced it.

I've been traveling so much lately that I haven't been able to write about a recent Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Business Barometer survey that I saw that indicates good, steady growth in meetings. So, here goes:
 
In the survey, an MPI poll of its Industry Advisory Panel, a group of senior-level meetings professionals, found in April that 58% of respondents (about two-thirds of which were meeting planners) saw business conditions more favorable than the same time in 2009, with 25% calling them worse. Looking down the road a few months (which should be right about now), 65% foresaw favorable conditions, and only 17% saw negative conditions.
 
Meanwhile, two months before the last survey, in February, 43% saw conditions as favorable and 31% perceived them as negative.  A story that I read about the survey said that that was the first time since June 2009 that favorable responses outweighed negative reactions.
 
So, it looks like April's numbers are even better, and when I see June's numbers I'll report on them, too, here.
 
But the latest MPI survey also points out a rather strange phenomenon happening in corporate meetings that's still plaguing the industry. First the good news: The poll noted that more than four in 10 (43%) say domestic corporate meetings had seen the greatest growth over the past year. Now the bad: The same number noted that domestic corporate meetings took the greatest dive year-over-year, too. (This may sound odd, but unfortunately, I hear this alot from meetings managers.)
 
On a positive track, 27% said they've had an increase in domestic association meeting business, 11% said the same about international corporate meeting business and 8% and 6%, respectively, reported more international association and government meetings versus a year ago.
 
Overall, I'm encouraged by MPI's poll; it's good news for our industry, and I'm glad to see that there's been an increase in meetings activity. I'm looking forward to seeing if the advance continues.

But with a slowly filling cup, comes more responsibility to design and execute a good strategic meetings management program, to make sure you're keeping within budgets, staying on track with cost-control goals, eliciting senior executive support, addressing risk and other key strategic goals.
 
Now is the time, as we recover, to remain vigilant with our strategic goals! 

Being out on the road so much, meeting with corporate travel and meeting managers, and procurement executives, I never doubt what they tell me: that procurement departments are actively adding new levels of discipline to corporate meeting planning and management.

This is a trend that's long been building (Speaking from personal experience, before joining StarCite, I was a senior procurement manager with Hewlett-Packard's Global Travel & Meetings Team,where I helped negotiate worldwide purchasing and supplier strategies.). And every day I speak with more and more procurement folks who are making meetings management more strategic. Like travel and meetings managers, they're trying to adhere to corporate-wide, cost-containment directives from senior executives to get meetings in shape and within budget. They're trying to bring more transparency of meetings and event spend, and then report on it to senior leadership.

That's why I'm eager to talk about the the contributions that today's procurement executives are making at the latest Regional Chief Procurement Officer Leadership Summits -- in Chicago on May 6th and in San Francisco on May 20th. (StarCite and the Aberdeen Group are co-hosting this summit series). The keynote speaker in Chicago is Gregg Brandyberry, CEO, Wildfire Commerce (former CPO of GlaxoSmithKline) and the keynote speaker in San Francisco is Ron Carcamo, CPO at Yahoo!

What goes on at these summits? They offer:

• Leading research on operational excellence within procurement
• Best practices in supply management strategy, processes, and execution (including strategic meetings management)  
• Unique opportunities for collaboration with other procurement leaders to address critical components of procurement and global supply management
• Recommendations from best-in-class procurement organizations that will immediately improve how you procure and manage meetings.

What I love about them is that they're very intimate gatherings with a small executive-level audience that encourages people to share their knowledge and experiences about procurement best practices.

If you're a procurement executive in a leadership position, I invite you to come and discuss global supply management strategies -- including for meetings and events -- and how to use them to bring more value and profitability to your organization.  I hope to see you there!

Show ROI...build a business case for meetings...work with procurement departments...apply strategic meetings management best practices.

These aren't just what many corporate meeting buyers today are voluntarily doing to build and maintain good strategic meetings management programs (SMMPs). Many of them are now expected to practice these important tactics and strategies.

I see and hear about it daily with the meetings professionals I talk with at corporations and other organizations. To senior executives, these are not new concepts anymore; it's getting more and more common that higher-ups not only understand how these best practices benefit the company, but, once CEOs and others are on board, they expect these practices to be part of the "new normal."

But I did read with interest a Successful Meetings story describing how meetings professionals who gathered recently at an MPI event are adapting to this new, more professional environment we're in. For instance, Deloitte director Margaret Moynihan, who manages her firm's meetings, says her company is now training planners to become procurement specialists. Meanwhile, Angie Pfeifer, assistant vice president of corporate meetings at Investors Group Financial Services, said her firm's procurement department is helping by developing business cases for meetings and building more efficient processes.

And again, as I've said many times in this blog, good communication goes a long way in proving the worth of a meetings program -- even during the roughest times. In the Successful Meetings story, Pfeifer said her team has been able to educate senior management about how meetings contribute to the bottom line, preventing drastic cuts in events at her firm.

Bravo to these strategic-thinking meetings managers and planners.  Perhaps the best of the article comes in a quote from former MPI chairwoman and independent planner Terri Breining, CMP, CMM, also a good friend of mine, about why meeting planning and management has morphed into its more strategic state. "This is business," she said, during an educational session at the MPI meeting on calculating and communicating meetings ROI. "It's not meeting-planning lingo. This is business and this is the language that we need to speak."  

To Terri’s point, we ALL need to be speaking this language until it’s commonplace in corporate America and the rest of world commerce.

There is startling news from American Express' "Managing Travel in the New Normal" survey that was released this week. I say startling because, on one level, it shows increasing sophistication around meetings management, yet I'm dismayed by other findings about the lack of movement on some very basic principles.

First I'll focus on the sophisticated. Amex found that almost three-quarters of 169 respondents -- from more than 30 industries globally that it polled -- say their companies are now using or planning to use audio conferencing as a meetings travel alternative.

- Another 15% are looking into more sophisticated technology, for example, high-broadband collaborative type tools.
- Only 10% have no technology-based travel strategy to replace face-to-face meetings.

It's encouraging to see evidence that so many of today's meetings managers are incorporating virtual conferencing into their strategic meetings management programs. The technology is there, and, for certain types of meetings (for example, training events), it makes "cents," as in dollars and cents. And it didn't escape me that they consider the technology "alternatives" to face-to-face meetings, which companies -- even in these tough times -- find essential for doing business successfully.

Now, for the disappointing findings: fewer than 30% have a formal, enforced meetings program policy, while 11% have a policy with no teeth, that is, one that's enforced. Worse, one-quarter don't have a policy at all. I think what shocked me most about that finding was knowing that 44% of Amex's respondents said they were managing global travel programs. I know first-hand how tough it is to manage a travel and meetings program globally, and it's tougher if not impossible without a meetings policy in place.

One of the most important aspects of a true SMMP is a comprehensive policy that addresses all aspects of meetings management -- not just spending guidelines or rules but also areas as diverse as using corporate contract addendum, spelling out who's authorized to source and how to access technology to simplify planning, budgeting and attendee management.  And of course, getting executive endorsement (and a mandate) of your policy gives it a major boost and sends the message that this is a matter to be taken seriously.

This is an age when every meetings dollar is being scrutinized, and a strong policy is essential for controlling costs and ensuring compliance.  And, in an unstable world where having a corporate contingency plan is mandatory because of natural calamities, disease outbreaks and dangerous radicals, not having all of your meeting attendee information in order to initiate a well developed contingency plan could be financially and morally devastating to any company unwilling to take a solid stand.

There's a new story in Corporate & Incentive Travel magazine that, from the outset, gets to the heart of why automation is so important to a strategic meetings management program. The first few paragraphs highlight how a professional meeting planner used to source for hotels -- manually, that is. That meant lots of faxing, calling and emailing.

Now, however, after adopting SMMP technology, she sends RFPs "with the push of a button" and in 24 to 48 hours she receives replies in a centralized format, enabling her customers to make important decisions about meetings costs and services. "It makes it easier on our budgets and saves companies money because they get the best deal,"
says the planner in the story.  More importantly, using her technology-driven process, she’s creating a side benefit of leaving a sourcing documentation trail that will stand up in any future internal and/or external audit.

When planners who actually use SMMP solutions tell their stories, it's so simple to see what it's all about: efficiency, cost savings, control!

I was also very honored that the magazine called me for a quote, and I got to speak about the increasing importance of SMMP automation in helping organizations track event costs, especially TARP recipients and pharmaceutical companies under the watch of legislative or industry oversight.

How many of you are still using spreadsheets, phones and faxes to source for and plan your meetings? "When you multiply the number of planners in a large corporation who handle hundreds of meetings a year that way, it's easy to see the large amount of inefficiency there," I noted in the article.

I’d say it’s pretty unusual If you’re not under the gun to reduce meetings budgets at your  company. Perhaps it's time to think about adopting SMMP automation to help you make a dent in costs, boost efficiency and extend control.

For more information, check out a replay of a recent webinar on the connection between technology and an SMMP.

When I think of Debi Scholar, two things come to mind. One is waiting for her in an airport-bound overheated black sedan in Dallas. But another, more significant thought is about her long, distinguished career in the business travel and meetings industry, and how much she's helped corporate and meetings managers build best practices.
 
Debi, who for 13 years was PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) Lead for Travel and Entertainment Expenses strategic management and cost reduction, late last week sent me and others in the industry a note to say she's decided to go solo and open her own consulting practice.  Debi is someone that I have tremendous respect for and admiration. At PwC, Debi became a sought-after industry expert on both SMM and virtual meetings, and she emphasized the difference between SMM and meeting planning management (SMM takes an enterprise-wide approach to managing meetings). Many of you know her as an industry thought leader, and she was recently recognized by Corporate Meetings and Incentives magazine as one of the founding thought leaders for SMMP.  

Now, Debi's embarking on a new phase of her career, launching her own independent consulting practice, and I want to wish her the best of luck, not that she will need it, as she is so well respected in this industry and is known for her in-depth knowledge of the travel industry and suppliers.  She consults with Fortune 1000 companies on expense management categories such as airlines, hotels, meetings, ground transportation, corporate card programs, travel management companies, and entertainment assets such as country club memberships, venue suites, boxes and tickets. Debi is a pioneer in the face-to face and virtual meetings industry; she began using virtual tech a dozen years ago to connect distant participants. She was the first Meeting Director to have included virtual meetings under her direction back in 2002, and since, has become a leading expert in how to effectively drive virtual meeting adoption to reduce travel costs and complement or reduce face-to-face meetings.

There’s so many great things about Debi that I could share -- but I'm sure that many of you already know her well, as she's rarely out of the public spotlight. So what I will share is this: there’s no one with more passion about SMM than Debi.  She’s a master educator and presenter, and her depth of knowledge is tremendous.  I know she will do well in her new career endeavor because her name immediately comes to mind for people who seek the best consultation.  

Oh, and by the way, I won't leave you hanging about the overheated limo story. Here it is: I first met Debi while impatiently waiting for her in a sedan waiting to embark for Dallas Fort Worth airport.  We had both been on the speaker’s agenda for the annual Texas BTA Education Day, and I had presented earlier. The chapter organizers had efficiently booked Debi and I into a single sedan bound for the airport, and she was scheduled to leave directly after her panel.  Of course her panel ran late, and my airport security clearance time was diminishing minute by minute. The sedan was hot, and I was getting cranky and impatient. The driver finally turned on the air conditioning because I threatened to start stripping to stay cool and dry. Finally, we both saw a petite blond woman with her roll-aboard baggage exiting the hotel looking like she was running late and looking for a ride, and sure enough, it was Debi.  Long story short, she settled in the car; we introduced ourselves, became instant friends and managed to make our flights home.

Congratulations, Debi, and I look forward to seeing you in New York on March 15-16 at the upcoming NBTA Strategic Travel Symposium (I'll be moderating a session on Building a More Strategic Meetings Management Program, and Debi will participate, along with Tamara Gordon, formerly with Boston Scientific and United Healthcare, as well as Jami Stapelmann of Estee Lauder.  You’ll get a chance to hear some SMMP wisdom firsthand; so see you all there!).

More signs that meetings are on the mend!

A MeetingNews story about their recent survey of 220 meetings managers has put it this way: "The findings represent the first time in more than a year that the majority of group budgets are growing or holding steady, and support a growing sense that things are improving in the meetings business shared by hoteliers, industry associations, corporate travel buyers and meetings planners."

The survey found that, while 40% of respondents decreased meetings spending in the past six months, only 19% plan to do so in the next six. More than half expect meetings spending to stay flat in the coming half-year period.

I wasn’t surprised to read, too, that 17% had actually spent more on meetings in the last six months -- as I've been seeing a lot of anecdotal evidence of more activity at companies I talk to. Our bookings growth in 2009 certainly testifies to that.

And a separate survey of 26 corporate travel buyers at the recent NBTA Masters Program
found that, in 2010, 35% planned to spend more on meetings than last year.  

These and other encouraging statistics, such as some recent positive news by individual hotel companies, all point to an opportunity to get really focused on capturing all your meeting spend through a single solution for budgeting, sourcing, booking and other strategic tasks, such as attendee management.

Because if a turn-around is coming, there's no going back to unmanaged meetings. It's just not smart.

When I first wrote about using social media tools, such as Twitter at meetings, attendees were using the technology to tweet back and forth during event sessions about how the presentation was going, exchanging opinions and then collaborating to propose questions to the panelists or presenter. How industrious and efficient!

Now, social media tools are taking on greater importance in overall strategic meetings management, according to an article in MeetingNews. While planners have been busy using social media to do things like integrate the tools into their online registration and conference sites and send out speaker and logistical information, organizations are making broader decisions about how and why to use the tools in their meetings programs.

That's a smart move because you'll want to make sure planners and their attendees are using social media to support your SMMP goals and increase your program value -- as well as adhere to corporate guidelines and policies around internal and external communications.

The article quoted a meetings tech consultant who said that companies are formulating policies on who will be responsible for the technology, which tools to implement and how to attract users. I work with some of our customers to accomplish the same thing, encouraging them to own this space as part of their travel and meetings programs; it’s all about enterprise mobility remember?

Understandably, there's a certain degree of cautiousness out there to implement an organization-wide tool. In the story, one association executive which used Twitter to satisfy members' needs to communicate in real-time and distribute conference material, acknowledged that "there is a fear of lack of control, and you don't have control over social media. It is an open forum, people can say what they want to say, and that makes people nervous. Our strategy is definitely cautious, but we are getting there."

In the meantime, social media continues to revolutionize how people and organizations communicate. Consider some of these statistics I found on the blog Socialnomics:

- 96% of "Generation Y" members have joined a social network;
- It took 38 years for radio to reach 50 million listeners, but Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months;
- 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, but only 14% trust advertising.

Yes, social media is cool, and it can streamline planning processes, enrich content, facilitate instant feedback to help you measure ROI -- and even attract new event sponsorship opportunities. But be careful to choose tools that match your SMMP goals and company policies, and make it a priority to appoint a watchdog who monitors how your employees or association members use -- or abuse -- the tools.

I'd call it exercising "enthusiastic caution." 

Because Technology sits in the middle of the NBTA's SMMP Model, I think some people in the business travel and meetings industry confuse it with the term "strategic meetings management." Often, in conversations with folks at conferences or even meeting with some prospective clients, I find myself explaining that SMM is way more than just the technology that allows companies to streamline meeting planning and budgeting, search competitively for suppliers, take care of attendees, enforce policy, analyze spend data and other important meeting management tasks.

To build a true, comprehensive end-to-end SMMP, you need to construct a meetings management strategy that reflects your company's values and ethics and lays out goals for areas as varied as cost-savings and preferred supplier relationships. And of course, you want to make sure that you have a policy in place that supports and enforces your meetings management program and is endorsed by senior executives.

My point in mentioning this is that it disturbs me to see very well-intentioned corporate meetings and procurement executives -- especially those just getting started centralizing meetings procurement and planning -- place so much emphasis on putting automation in place that they forget about the very challenging strategic tasks involved in building an SMMP.

That's why when considering implementing a meetings technology platform, it makes sense to expand the breadth of your efforts and make sure that you have the knowledge and know-how to implement a true SMMP:

- Do you need help implementing best-practices, such as strategies for optimal sourcing?
- What are the best policies, processes, usage goals, communication plans to get the word out about the SMMP to employees and elicit participation?
- How do you track and monitor spending?

In my travels, I've met with many executives that have rolled out failed technology initiatives without doing due diligence on how to roll them out effectively. There is always some degree of regret, and often those companies have to go through more change management by changing suppliers mid-contract.  A technology provider has an obligation to their customers to provide consultative expertise, best practices, and a range of services.  If you are just buying technology focusing only on price, you’re missing the bigger picture and sacrificing enterprise adoption -- your proverbial penny-wise and pound foolish scenario.  Your technology supplier needs to partner with you and understand your business objectives, challenges and work hand-in-hand with you to ensure that training, adoption, risk mitigation, data reporting and all of those other important functions and processes are properly in place and operating efficiently.

If you're considering strategic meetings management technology, the best advice I can give is be thorough and consider the back-end support and guidance you'll need as well as the front-end of how the online solution will work. It'll make all the difference in creating a comprehensive end-to-end program, or what I call a true SMMP.

Last week was StarCite's annual associate meeting in Philadelphia. It was my second associate meeting, and what a difference a year makes.  Who knew that 2009 would be such a horrible year for so many people and companies.  Although it was a very tough year,  it was a great year for strategic meetings management and meetings management technology.

Meetings management came out of the shadows and stepped on to center stage and into the spotlight due to the scrutiny of meetings spend and ROI by the public and senior executives. 2009 was a very good year for StarCite, but it was also great for companies that wanted to get their meetings spend under control, implement efficient sourcing, planning, budgeting and attendee management automation and create purchasing leverage with hotels and other suppliers. Our CEO Greg Dukat kicked off the meeting by sharing that StarCite had a record number of customer renewals and expansions (many with multi-year contracts). And we signed on a dozen or so new enterprise accounts, the names of which I can't reveal. One of them, however, is among the largest global companies on the planet.  

Second, I don't usually reveal information like this in my posts, but the demand was so great among cash-strapped companies last year for new ways to actually hold important sales and corporate events (despite misguided public criticism of events as wasteful) that there was a mass embrace of strategic tools, for example, e-sourcing. As a result, StarCite far outpaced its operational objectives for meetings bookings in 2009 (The rate of increase from 2008 was in the triple digits, and that's all the detail I can share without getting in trouble.).

Aside from higher demand, what drove this growth? The company also made a number of strategic partnerships to bring new functionality and enhancements to our technology during 2009. For example, buyers can now take virtual tours of many of the 93,00-plus properties in StarCite's Marketplace through our deal with VFM Leonardo. That means companies are saving money by skipping in-person site inspections. Another example: to bring the benefits of automated meeting planning and management technology to independent meeting planners and travel agents, we aligned with the meetings marketing organization Acclaim Meetings. And Experient, one of the world’s largest meeting planning firms, last year agreed to use our platform for meetings management, international sourcing and attendee management.  

Again, I can't reveal specifics, but expect more key agreements with business partners in 2010 – all with one thing in mind: to bring new value and functionality to our platform. And that'll give customers yet more control of meetings costs and buying power.

At the end of the day, the secret to any company’s success is its people. Greg Dukat believes in that, and as he and I have discussed over many a meal, if we celebrate the successes of our people, success will also result for the company.  At the meeting, we gave recognition to our top performers, and I was so happy watching them get their dues in front of their peers and management.  It was exciting seeing the progress all the talented StarCite people around the world made possible, especially given the trough the industry was in in 2009. 

Despite the challenges, our company was fortunate and managed to pull out a great year -- thanks to our associates, our partners and most importantly, our customers.  We have, and I’m not exaggerating, the best quality customers in the world. 

So a big congratulations to all of our top performers, and you can bet I will keep you updated on our progress during 2010, too!

Some people are media shy. I guess they don't like the idea that whatever they say has the potential to be published. And so they go to great pains to set up interviews at ideal times of the day, with lots of quiet around them and a prepared script in front of them.

That's definitely not the case with me. Tuesday, I was quoted in The New York Times article "New Meetings Industry Emerges After a Boom and Bust," and I was most happy to talk about how important strategic meetings management is in today's environment. The story talks about the falloff in meetings demand, the change from lavish to toned-down entertainment and the move toward virtual meetings.

“We try to help companies understand that they have to be more strategic about their travel and meetings spending, and that there has to be a lot more transparency on that spending communicated to senior executives,” I told reporter Joe Sharkey.

I was happy to contribute my views about how the meetings business has changed from the pre-Great Recession heydays to today's more moderate events -- where the emphasis is on savvy meetings procurement processes, controlled spend and measuring return on investment.

But, let me tell you, you would have laughed had you seen the actual interview. Joe contacted me on my mobile phone as I was boarding a flight, carry-on in one hand, boarding pass in another, PA announcements blaring above me and a line of people ahead and behind me. It was definitely not a controlled setting. But, despite the sounds of crying babies and flight boarding instructions and the jostling of the crowd, I did my best to field his questions. Whoever said that multi-tasking is not a valuable skill would’ve changed their views watching me in action!

Thanks for calling, Joe! Read the entire article and catch more quotes on how strategic meetings management is changing corporate meetings for the better.

USA Today has provided a unique look at what went on at the recent annual Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS), a very insider-type hotel industry meeting attended by hotel CEOs, developers, owners, investors, analysts and others. I found the story really interesting because, for one, it gave a glimpse of how lodging leaders really expect 2010 and 2011 to progress, and also, it provided a first-hand account of how these executives are still hurting from public criticism of meetings.

Reporter Barbara De Lollis interviewed Choice Hotels CEO Steve Joyce, who said that, given the dramatic falloff in rates and revenue last year, the mood of the conference was "guardedly optimistic" because stronger growth is expected this year -- but not as robust as what's hoped for in 2011.

But what really caught my attention in the interview was the pervasiveness of the sense of a new "appropriateness" at corporate meetings. Even among these folks, "there were parties but they were scaled back and a little less boisterous than years past," said Joyce. "I would say there was a sense of appropriateness - a kind of speed regulator on the fun part of it. It was very business-oriented. At a lot of dinner receptions, a lot of the discussion was on return on investment for their travel in going to this meeting."

Joyce said hotel executives are still very much aware of the "AIG effect," and he noted that he got healthy applause when he said the government was wrong in its criticism of TARP recipients holding meetings in luxury hotels.

Frankly, I think the new buttoned-down behavior at meetings -- all business, little or no play -- is what's needed for a while, if we're to get beyond this criticism. Incentive meetings are a different story; those are meant to reward top-performing employees and, naturally, some serious fun (a round of golf, special dinners, glamorous outings) is expected for the event to be successful.

But for most corporate events, like it or not, our industry is under a microscope, and the media, government, stockholders and the public are watching. This is not just me talking, either. Meetings industry polls confirm this trend! If your company is a TARP recipient (or just under C-level orders to cut meeting spend), here's a question you should be asking yourself: Does my current meetings policy reflect this new Spartan atmosphere? Do you need to do some fine-tuning to set spending limits and delineate the types of parties or events that should be allowed for various types of meetings? Don't forget, too, to communicate your changes to company planners and their supervisors. And if you're using meeting planning and budgeting automation, make sure you put those tools to work to automatically snag maverick spenders, rein in those with visions of grandeur and, via attendee management, communicate policy changes to attendees!

Remember: you're in control, and control is what's needed to make today's meetings workable -- and acceptable. Here's more guidance on how to build strong meetings policies and other best practices for an SMMP.