Event Registration Software

I've been meaning to congratulate CWT Travel Management Institute, the research arm of Carlson Wagonlit Travel, for its study on the state of meetings management -- Meetings and Events: Where Savings Meet Success. StarCite collaborated extensively with CWT on the research, which substantiated what we already know, that companies can save an average 10% to 25% of their Meetings and Events (M&E) spend when they apply best practices to such areas as policy and compliance, sourcing, and processes. 

The report's top savings mark is in line with benchmarking statistics that StarCite has been finding among our customer base, that is, using meetings management automation to make budgeting, planning, sourcing, attendee management and other key meetings tasks more efficient can save you up to 25% of meetings spend.  

The new study says that savings and ROI from meetings come from three key areas:

- Creating or fine-tuning an organization-wide meetings policy and enforcing compliance,
- Sourcing best practices, for example, selecting a limited number of preferred suppliers for accommodations and venues, enforcing usage of preferred suppliers and defining standard contract terms and conditions to help maximize purchasing power and protect an organization from onerous cancellation and attrition fees.
- Technology that optimizes processes such as online registration and aids in strategic meetings management.

I have spent a lot of my time evangelizing around the world via industry panels, conferences and with customer round tables highlighting these very same recommendations. On the issue of policy alone, I've repeatedly offered advice about the importance of at least establishing or updating and mandating policy since this blog started. Remember, you can’t expect people to do what’s right for your company in absence of a policy; so take the guesswork out and give employees M&E policies and/or guidelines or they'll make decisions based on their interpretation of “doing the right thing,” and that may not be what’s good for your company.

What I really like about the new CWT-StarCite survey are the practical steps it offers for maximizing meetings management, including:

- Analyzing spend company-wide to allow firms to estimate total spend and begin taking the reins to set up a centralized meeting management organization,
- Designing a well-defined policy that spells out precise rules, standard contract terms and specific processes,
- Selecting and negotiating with preferred suppliers and meetings services and technology partners -- allowing companies to save and benefit from outside expertise,
- Establishing a formal planning process that defines business objectives and sets a formal approval process -- for consistency and compliance and getting the ultimate ROI,
- Replacing manual processes with automated meetings management tools to perform tasks such as attendee registration and sourcing -- which saves time and labor, improves data quality  and spend management overall,
- Consolidating to a single payment solution, such as a meetings charge card, enabling companies to better analyze data, improve compliance and boost leverage with meetings vendors
- Evaluating the ROI of meetings, including attendee satisfaction, savings, compliance and other metrics.

Oh, one other thing. I must say that I'm a bit discouraged by another finding of the study -- that two-thirds of the more than 200 meeting planners surveyed manage their events in a decentralized way. I say that I'm discouraged, but I still have faith that more and more firms are seeing the need to centralize management of their meetings, especially in today's economic climate -- where every expense is being scrutinized.  The real winner in this common decentralized environment is one company, Microsoft, because that means there’s a ton of Excel spreadsheets that are being manually maintained and utilized often times simultaneously with little to no time to verify accuracy.  Sound frightening and inefficient?  I assure you this is what’s happening globally every day in decentralized programs at companies who conduct meetings and events as part of their business.

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. 

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.

Different companies have different priorities when it comes to being good corporate citizens. Your firm may be focused on feeding the hungry, while another may be into cleaning up the environment (or at least committed to preventing it from becoming more polluted). Or maybe you're lucky enough to work for a company with a wide target list of how to help out humanity.

Regardless of the particular program, there are great ways that you can build a more socially responsible strategic meetings management program (SMMP).

I was very pleased to read an article in Procurement.travel's June issue focusing on this very subject, and it gave a lot of great examples of how you can build CSR practices into each and every meeting. The piece gives proper due to the NBTA's 62-page toolkit, developed last year by the group's Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, that outlines many areas of responsible travel procurement. And it also gave some great tips on being more proactive in building socially responsible meetings, including some super advice for dealing with vendors, including:

- Sharing your CSR objectives with hotels and other vendors in your RFPs, and including questions that will allow you to measure eco-impact; also, asking vendors to share their CSR policies in responses;
- Requiring all invoices be delivered electronically;
- Requesting vendors estimate their carbon footprint on the services they're providing;
- Establishing SLAs for green components in contracts -- with penalties for failure to meet conditions and incentives for hitting goals

NBTA's toolkit also recommends strong communication to employees about your company's CSR initiatives, for example, via attendee registration automation. Share details such as :

- Amount of carbon emissions to be reduced over a specific time period
- Amount of internal meetings intended to be reduced
- Tips on how attendees can reduce their carbon footprint at meetings

Overall, its crucial to strategically build CSR-responsible meetings practices and policies that planners should follow, for example:

- Creating a CSR policy where at least a minimum of components can be applied at all events
- Educating planners on green policies and how to incorporate them into eco-friendly events
- Budgeting for green policies and requirements
- Sharing reporting on green meetings outcomes with senior executives
- Establishing goals for meetings alternatives (where it's suitable), such as virtual meetings   

Even in this financially focused age of ours, when every meetings nickel is being counted, meetings managers can continue to push for incorporating social responsibility (both tactics and strategies) into their meetings program. We can save and be better citizens at the same time!   

Consistent with other indicators and reports, the numbers that have come out of the new American Express/CFO Research Global Business & Spending Monitor indicate that business (granted it’s the “new normal”) is rebounding. The survey of 479 senior finance executives from the U.S., Europe, Canada, Mexico, Asia, and Australia, show that they're upbeat about economic growth. And better yet, many are planning to increase spending in areas that will support revenue growth -- like meetings.

For example, a majority (57%) say they'll maintain or increase business travel spending versus 2009. And here are some more details that point to a meetings renaissance:

- 27% plan to loosen restrictions put in place on travel to meet with new clients or for business development;
- 34% of respondents reported that they'll restrict travel for staff meetings or internal business. While that's a pretty big chunk, it's actually much-improved from the
81% who indicated they'd restrict travel for such meetings in 2009;
- only 35% say they plan to limit or cut travel to conferences and events; compare that to the 79% who clamped down on conferences in 2009.

But what I also liked about Amex's new survey was the clear evidence, that, in spite of plans to move forward on meeting spend, senior finance executives are trained on staying fiscally responsible -- even as the economy improves. In fact, a large majority, (85%), expect that over the long term their companies will focus closely on cost control.  

I'm sure that CFOs who took part in Amex's survey are thinking on a much wider scale than meetings and events when they're talking about maintaining management disciplines born during the recession. But some of the same strategies that they mentioned are -- more and more -- now routinely being applied to meeting planning as part of a good strategic meetings management program (SMMP).  For example, it's more important than ever that meeting managers show senior executives ROI for events. I hear this everyday from clients and prospective accounts -- especially since the NBTA study quantified that for every $1 spent on business travel the return is $15. What does the Amex poll say about measuring ROI? More than two-thirds (69%) say that, over the next two years, project and investment ROI requirements will stay in place.

Further, I know that companies are increasingly adopting SMMP automation to holistically save on expenditures across the meetings spectrum, for example, from budgeting and planning to sourcing, attendee management, registration, payment and data analysis.  Similarly, in the Amex survey, senior executives are eying process improvements, such as 44% who say they'll investment more by upgrading technology systems; and 42% will invest more to improve administrative processes such as finance, accounts payable, and procurement.

The Amex survey provides new evidence that businesses recognize the power of meetings and they want to increase spend on events, but it also shows how companies globally have matured when it comes to managing their business and costs. And that's always a good thing.

Mandates to use preferred hotels and other suppliers are here to stay; they're becoming less of an option in this "new normal" atmosphere of renewed -- yet fiscally sensible -- business and meetings travel levels. Many companies used the recession as an opportunity to cut costs and impose more policy compliance throughout the enterprise.  

Of course, travel, meetings and procurement managers in every part of the world tell me this when we meet to discuss business or network at industry events. But a recent article in an online publication offered a couple of great examples of how some firms are re-thinking what used to be an "option" and applying tougher standards.

One company, Deltek Inc., a VA-based firm that makes enterprise management software, revamped its travel policy over the past year, adding "stronger language and mandates" and delineating which travel services provider to use, said Karoline Mayr, Deltek's Senior Manager, Global Travel Procurement, in the article. "We knew this was an opportunity to get language in while budgets were tight and allow us to achieve higher savings in this economic environment,” said Mayr. “Mandates are going to stick for us. We don’t see things changing for now and become looser as they did in the past.”

Meanwhile, health insurer Wellpoint reviewed policy language through its compliance committee and toughened it up. "We took away the grey areas and made the policy uniform throughout business,” said Cindy Heston, Manager of Strategic Sourcing for Travel, in the piece. If travelers don't follow policy, they don't get reimbursed.

Siemens Corporation, also interviewed in the article, implemented a system of reason codes for trips. That information helped it determine that a lot of its travel was for internal meetings, and as a result, many of those gatherings are now done virtually.  Reason codes are something I am very familiar with, having used them for behavior analytical purposes while I was at HP. But they are most effective when you can modify policies to increase compliance.  

Whether or not your company's culture fits a mandate environment, your travel and/or meetings policies could probably use a good review. Perhaps, like Wellpoint, you need to eliminate the grey, that is, firm up statements around preferred supplier usage, proper sourcing processes (e-sourcing) and other matters that travelers, meeting planners and attendees might interpret too loosely. Keeping employees constantly up to date on changes in policy is extremely important, too, and it helps to have a senior executive weigh in on the matter and give their endorsement.

Don't underestimate the support you can get from suppliers, too, by keeping them in the loop on changes.  Suppliers have a vested interest in your ability to track and manage behavioral compliance, especially if it means improved market share support for their preferred program with you.

Want some guidance on how your meetings policy can help you gain more control of spend and improve your relationship with suppliers? Check out this replay of a recent StarCite webinar that spotlights risk and how to protect your organization!   

Are you seeking more information on your return on investment (ROI) for meetings these days? With budgets continually under pressure, many of the companies that I meet with daily tell me they're making decisions about meetings based on ROI metrics of events, and that it's not just about getting the most favorable rates anymore. This has been a common theme since even before the Great Recession began.

Now, however, a new survey confirms this trend. A poll of planners attending the 10th Annual HSMAI Affordable Meetings Mid-America Conference & Exposition in Chicago this week, says that nearly half (49%) "feel increased pressure to show metrics/statistics that attest to the success of events," a release from the organization says.

So just what are the meetings ROI measurements that companies these days want to see? According to the survey, top metrics most often requested are:

- event evaluations and satisfaction surveys
- net revenue
- attendance size
- room night count
- sponsorships
- ability to stay within budget
- rate of repeat attendance
- level of responsiveness to client needs
- and increased service per attendee for each dollar spent.

These are all great metrics and can really help you, as a meetings manager, make more informed decisions about the worth of some types of events, whether they should be expanded or, on the other hand,  discontinued and replaced with an alternative such as web conferencing. ROI stats are also helpful to have handy when communicating SMMP milestones to senior executives.

And I was very encouraged to see that, at least in this survey, meeting planners are using technology to plan and budget events: 84% said that they "rely" on technology such as online registration tools, social networking, e-sourcing, e-mail blasts, marketing and blogs as business resources.

Want to learn more about measuring ROI and what to do with those numbers once you've found them? Check out the replay of this recorded StarCite webinar!

This past weekend, I was shocked and saddened to read the news about the tragic plane crash that killed Poland's president Lech Kaczynski and 95 others, including his wife, the entire high command of the country's armed forces, top cabinet members such as the central bank governor and even the main opposition party leader. It seems incomprehensible that so many top officials could be gone in an instant...an unbelievable loss.

But it reminded me that, while we know that there are many companies who don’t have a separate meetings policy, I'm willing to bet that there are even more who don't have a separate policy dictating limitations on the number of executives and department staff traveling together to attend a meeting and/or event. (Many wrongly assume that the corporate transient policy covers meetings and events.)

In the wake of this stunning loss, this is perhaps the best time to consider how your organization can protect itself against this kind of tragedy. Consider these points:  

- If you have a meetings policy, does it spell out a limitation of the number of executives and/or attendees allowed on a single flight?
- If there is no meetings policy, does your policy on corporate transient travel outline the maximum number of executives and same-department employees who can travel together to avoid catastrophic effects to your company’s leadership and intellectual property?
- In fact, most companies usually default to the transient travel policy when it comes to limitations on executives and staff traveling together. But that policy is often ignored when it comes to meetings and large scale events. To protect your traveling employees and stay within policy, make sure that your meetings travelers are booking centrally via a single travel management company (TMC) or a self-booking tool linked to your meetings registration site. That will ensure they're registered for travel to a single meeting or event. Then, if too many employees are traveling to the same event, your meeting planners will be better able to spot the policy infraction.
- Seek assistance from your TMC and/or Event Management agency on the front line to ensure that policy is being enforced and that the travel whereabouts of all attendees and executives are accounted for.
- If you use meeting management technology, use your attendee management tool to quickly gather information on the whereabouts of attendees at any given moment.  

No nation or organization should have to go through the tragedy of losing so many of its leaders in a terrible instant. As a meetings manager, you can play a big part in helping ensure that this doesn't happen to your company.  To ignore this would not only have a deadly impact to business continuity, but it could also be fatal for a company’s economic livelihood.

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." 

Doing more with fewer dollars and less support staff is a common theme in the meetings management industry these days (Actually, this is pretty common among most industries -- at least judging from complaints I hear from friends in other lines of business.). So I wasn't surprised to read a new FutureWatch study that found one in five corporate planners polled are doing more with less, and 14% are concerned about a lack of staff and too much responsibility.

FutureWatch, an annual study by Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and American Express, says that these issues have replaced last year's worries over the economy and falling attendance. So the realities have sunk in, and we're dealing with them, says a summary of FutureWatch, which I read about on management.travel.

But the good news for our industry overall is that the 356 corporate planners polled are expecting nearly 4% more meetings and and 11.7% more participants at their events this year versus last (although, ironically, that'll mean even more work for the already over-stretched). And a good amount of both suppliers (41%) and planners (28%) interviewed expect industry conditions to improve gradually this year.

And if you don't already know this from your own experience, meetings will not return to the way it was before the Great Recession, says the survey. The majority of planners (967 overall meeting planners were polled) expect this year to concentrate on more stringent budget controls, improved operating efficiencies and closer attention to value and ROI of meetings, among other things.

Those are good developments and reflect increasing awareness of strategic meetings management and the planning, budgeting and meetings management software behind it that drives results. Another bonus from technology is that it actually cuts planners’ and managers’ workloads – as it automates routine sourcing, budget-making, attendee management and other tasks.

So, from my perspective, the main message of this year's FutureWatch is that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And even though we've got our hands full, we as an industry have come to a healthier respect for doing meetings right – the managed way!

Check out this whitepaper on how meetings technology can reduce your work load and help you better manage meetings, too.

As we begin 2010, I want to take a moment to mention some of the tremendous accomplishments of some very exceptional meetings managers during 2009.

Last year was truly the 'Year of the Meeting!' as our own business travel industry, the major media and the government all put a huge focus on corporate events and strategic meetings management. Some of it was positive, like the launch of NBTA's Strategic Meetings Management Certification (SMMC) program. And some of the attention was negative, like the misguided focus by the press and in government circles on corporate events as extravagant investments in recessionary times (when in fact it's been proven that meetings contribute enormously to a company's bottom line.

But aside from these major trends last year, were stories of some very hard-working and talented people who created or improved upon innovative strategic meetings management programs (SMMPs) at their companies. While I don't have large enough space in this format to mention them all, I want to draw your attention to some highlights:

Many were featured in Corporate Meetings & Incentives magazine's "20 Changemakers,” including:

- Louann Cashill, Meeting Services Manager at Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. (Louann significantly expanded centralized and automated hotel sourcing throughout her organization and worked pro-actively with hotels to re-book contracted space that planners had canceled for future meetings and re-negotiate credits.

- Lee Ann Adams Mikeman, VP, Conference Planning & Special Events, Science Applications International Corp. (Lee Ann and her team are streamlining the meetings payment process to track payments and reconciliations via their meetings technology system. She's also integrating her firm's online booking tool for air ticketing with the meetings technology platform.

- Other "Changemakers" who created outstanding meetings solutions for their firms included: Debbie Andersen, Senior Manager, Americas, Meetings & Conventions at Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics; Jeff Calmus, AVP, Conference & Event Planning at MetLife; Susan Lichtenstein, Director of Travel and Global Meeting Solutions at Cisco Systems Inc.; Donna Foppoli-Patrick, Manager, Group Meetings, Events, and Travel, Medtronic Inc.; Marybeth Roberts, Director of Global Meeting Management, Amgen; Tom Tolvé, Senior Manager, Meeting Operations, Novo Nordisk; Tracey Wilt, Manager, Global Travel & Meeting Management for Xerox; Alice Woychik, Director of Meeting Solutions at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.

Learn the full details of how these meetings executives enhanced their management programs by reading the full article in Corporate Meetings & Incentives!

And then there were others, singled out elsewhere, such as in Business Travel News, both for their outstanding contributions to their own companies and the industry at large, including:

- Debbie Dayton, Global Head of Travel Related Services at Deutsche Bank, who was named BTN's 2009 International Travel Manager of the Year. Debbie, along with VP and meetings program project leader Shawn Radek, made great strides last year consolidating and automating business and meetings travel processes worldwide. The bank, automated budgeting, requests for proposals  (RFPs), reporting, reconciliation and data modules. In just one improvement, Deutsche Bank's automated budgeting now projects the total cost of an event, including transportation spending -- before the meeting is approved. Further, the bank stays on top of things by pre-loading average negotiated hotel rates, airfares, F&B costs and other metrics biannually.

-  Cynthia Shumate, Executive Director of Global Travel and Meeting Services, Estee Lauder, who was featured in BTN's 2009 Large Market Benchmarking Report for creating a new SMMP. Cynthia's program now covers U.S. meetings -- about 12 large, annual gatherings of up to 350 attendees, plus thousands of smaller meetings for employee training and product launches. Expanding internationally is on the horizon. Among accomplishments, Shumate has centralized registration and sourcing of meetings, deployed a single meetings technology platform, created a central policy and  launched a meetings charge card.

There are so many other meeting, procurement and travel executives that brought strategic meetings management improvements to their firms in 2009. In doing so, they elevated our whole industry. It's unfortunate that I can't mention them all -- because you'd be reading this post all day. But my sincerest appreciation for being leaders in our industry goes out to you all, even if you're not singled out here. You know who you are!

Let's continue the progress we're making in creating new, higher standards in indirect expense management for corporate meetings and events, and let's make 2010 another  'Year of the Meeting!'

 

Ever see yourself conducting business meetings on a cloud, yes, a cloud?

The growing trend of cloud computing, which enables companies to stop pouring resources into internal servers and instead run applications and databases on the web (accessible virtually from any computer), is helping organizations cut down on the need to travel. According to a recent article I came across, 34,000 municipal employees of the city of Los Angeles will now be using cloud-based Google Apps (e.g., Gmail, Google Docs and other collaborative programs) in place of software previously loaded on their internal servers.

If this sounds like it's getting too techie for a strategic meetings management post, let me quickly make the link to how this is going to affect the city's need for meetings. In the story, Randi Levin, Chief Technology Officer for the city, said that, by going with Google's suite, she "expects L.A. employees to benefit from instant messaging, video conferencing, and simultaneous review and editing of documents by multiple people."  

Let's face it; the money tap is still twisted tight in this recession, and companies are looking every which way to avoid expenditures on "unnecessary" meetings, while still spending for critical face-to-face time with potential and current customers. So, now, in addition to virtual technology such as video conferencing, teleconferencing and TelePresence, organizations are turning to cloud-based apps, such as Google's, to help cut down on the need to travel for meetings.

OK, so now you can meet on the cloud, but regardless of the technology you use, meetings managers need to make sure they're incorporating these types of events into policy, for instance, addressing the circumstances for which they're appropriate. And, as I've said before here, like all events, it would be wise to have the strategy in place to measure a cloud conference's ROI.

As part of its new 2009 Large Market Benchmarking Report, Business Travel News has also written about the advance of strategic meetings management at large companies. The magazine included a great profile on Estee Lauder's new SMMP and the woman behind it all.

 
Estee Lauder is channelling all its meetings bookings through a new SMMP -- the result of two years of work led by Cynthia Shumate, the company's Executive Director of Global Travel and Meeting Services and supported by Meetings Manager Jami Stapelmann. Estee
Lauder’s program is an excellent example of how to gain new insight into meetings spend (broken out from transient travel), establish firm control over events and leverage new buying power with suppliers.  It also is a shining example of taking your existing program and continuously improving it for optimum efficiencies and adding company value.

To name just a few accomplishments: Shumate has centralized registration and sourcing of meetings, deployed a single  meetings technology platform, created a central policy and  launched a meetings charge card. She also manages a group of part-time meeting planners throughout the company -- "power users" of the meetings technology.

As part of the program, Cynthia also spearheaded creation of standard contracts. Before that, hundreds of employees planned meetings and signed contracts with little formal training in how to properly record meetings expenditures. According to BTN, Shumate said that "for years our T&E has been overstated and meetings have been understated because
people have been covering these budgets out of T&E, not realizing that some of it is attached to the meetings budget."

Right now, Estee Lauder's SMMP applies to U.S. meetings, about 12 large, annual gatherings of up to 350 attendees, plus thousands of smaller meetings for employee training and product launches. But Shumate plans to expand the program internationally, and is working to get a clearer picture of overseas meetings spend.

Cynthia, who has been a close friend of mine for many years, has always been open to new ideas and improvements, and her latest accomplishments are a testament to her dedication to program excellence.  I vividly remember several productive meetings with Cynthia and Jami, discussing their current program and how they could tweak it to align more closely with the SMMP model.  Of course any visit with Cynthia doesn’t go without ancillary benefits (a trip to their company store, one of the best places to visit!)

Congratulations to Estee Lauder on creating this excellent SMMP model. Cynthia, you continue to be an inspiration to the industry!

Just back from Prague -- a charming old-world city where I attended ACTE's Global Education Conference, as well as StarCite's own 2009 EMEA Leadership Symposium for Excellence in Strategic Meetings Management.

While at ACTE, I talked to many travel and procurement folks from companies who want to extend savings and control that they've got in place for transient travel to their meetings spend. The initial problem with most, however, is finding out how much they spend on group events.

This is one of the very reasons why I thought it was so valuable to join Ian Flint, Managing Director of Inform Logistics Limited and Carolyn Pund, Senior Global Meetings & Events Manager at Cisco Systems, in a panel discussion on "Trapping MICE (meetings, incentive, conference and events) Data." (Kate Harris, Director of Strategic Meetings Management, EMEA, at American Express, did a wonderful job moderating.

If you're just getting started gathering meetings spend data in order to better manage it, here's a few points from our panel that'll prove very helpful:

- (From my presentation): forge relationships with people around the company who'll help you gather the information (for example, folks in sales and marketing or HR), and check data from meeting histories and financial records, such as expense reports and corporate card records. Some tell-tale signs: dinner tabs for groups of 10 or more, payment for large hotel room blocks, checks to conference centers;

- (from Ian Flint): adopt meetings management tech that will enable you to automate meeting registration, set up approvals, enforce policy and best practices, centralize procurement and produce management reporting on spend);

- (From Carolyn Pund at Cisco, who has put together a company-wide network at Cisco to manage global meetings and events): collaboration with different audiences is key to strategically managing meetings, for instance, external partners such as hotels, meetings tech vendors and meetings management companies, as well as internal partners from travel, finance, procurement and other departments. Don't forget, too, to seek assistance from senior executives for help in communicating policy and process changes, as well as for support. 

It was a great panel with a lot of input and questions from the audience -- which did not surprise me, given the level of interest in SMMPs that I encountered from ACTE attendees. Check out our entire presentation on gathering MICE data from ACTE's archives.

Getting a bit confused by mixed signals on the seriousness of the H1N1 flu virus (aka swine flu)? On the one hand, President Obama has declared a national emergency over the current rate of outbreaks, and more than 1,000 people in the U.S. have died from the virus.

Yet, so far, it doesn't seem like businesses are letting the threat affect travel.

From Prague, where I'm attending ACTE's Global Education Conference, the organization has released findings of a survey of 109 international companies. It found that 91% were not delaying planning meetings or conferences. Further, 96% said business travelers had not asked to put off trips during the flu season.

But this isn't to say that companies, meeting managers and event attendees, themselves, aren't concerned about the spread of the virus.

One way to address those concerns would be to create or update your company policy addressing how to handle issues like H1N1 and other potential emergency situations and to communicate those policies effectively to your employees and meeting attendees. For example, at our company, our head of HR e-mailed all employees and advised that if they did have flu symptoms, but felt they had to work, to carry on from home in order to prevent infecting fellow employees. 

Key to making decisions about events and communicating with meeting attendees is having one meetings registration system that gives you visibility into all companywide events.  That way, you can quickly assess potential situations and make decisions.  Similarly, using one enterprise-wide online attendee management tool can give you the comprehensive data you need to locate people and make quick decisions.  

For prevention tips, you can visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This week at StarCite we announced two new agreements with some important meetings industry players that I'm sure will significantly benefit meetings managers and their strategic meetings manangement programs.

First, StarCite's partnership with the Valorem Group, which provides sales and marketing services to hotels, resorts and destination management companies globally, enables us to offer personalized service to StarCite's Destination Solutions customers. That's the service where we offer corporate and incentive meeting planners guidance through personal introductions to our Global Supplier Network -- including hotels, airlines, destination management companies and convention and visitor bureaus. Putting our RFP technology to work together with Valorem's services and companies will enable users to more comprehensively match meetings services to need, and, in the end, that means less waste, more savings and greater overall meetings management.

Our other new partnership is with Acclaim Meetings, a dynamic business community for independent meeting planners and travel agents. In this arrangement, Acclaim's meeting planners will get access to StarCite's technology to fully automate their meetings planning and procurement process, including planning, venue sourcing, audience acquisition, and attendee management. That means more efficiency: for example, the ability to automatically create and brand unique meeting registration websites. On top of that, Acclaim agents and planners can access our global online marketplace, expanding their choices for clients and in the process helping them to save money, too.

These partnerships seem to bode well for the meetings industry, especially in these challenging economic times, seeing as how we can seek out each other's strengths and form alliances to strengthen companies' ability to strategically manage their meetings.

Death and taxes. Ben Franklin was right-on the money when he said that these were the only certainties in life.

But while we may not have a say in how the former plays out, we can certainly exercise some control over the latter--especially the ubiquitous and seemingly ever-increasing taxes we pay for traveling on business or meetings. You may not be able to actually escape paying municipal taxes on hotel rooms, car rentals and meals, but as a meetings or purchasing manager, you can certainly limit tax spending by carefully choosing where that money is spent.

I propose this because of a recently released study by the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) Foundation and Concur that revealed both the highest and lowest travel taxes in top U.S. cities. This is the kind of information that you can easily refer to when making decisions about where to hold your next event. The study looked at total daily tax rates -- which include general sales taxes plus "discriminatory" travel levies, such as those imposed on services like hotel rooms and rental cars and paid by end-users.

Among the highest taxes in the nation:

-Chicago ($40.99)
-Seattle ($37.95)
-Dallas ($37.26)
-San Antonio ($37.20)

Among the lowest:

-Portland, OR ($21.49)
-Detroit ($22.37)
-Honolulu ($22.55)
-Ft. Meyers, FL ($22.91)             

Ironically, while cities this year have been hiking travel taxes to make up for revenue shortfalls, a story in USA Today about the report says travelers this year paid slightly less travel taxes from 2008, as the cost of travel overall has fallen.  But as recovery sprouts, and taxes continue to rise, how long do you think this little respite will last? 

What to do with this information? Rates on sleeping and meeting rooms, F&B, ground transportation and other meeting elements figure heavily into the mix of decisions you and your planners make on where to hold events. If you've got some sway with suppliers, you can use that leverage to reduce your costs. But you also have options when it comes to travel taxes. When considering locations for events, why not also look at cities where tax rates are relatively low to determine where the best bargains are? In other words, make travel taxes a bigger part of your decision-making process. Meeting planning software can help, too, with comparison reports used for sourcing hotel companies. 

Who knows, perhaps if enough companies and organizations switch their events to lower-taxed cities, municipalities with high rates will take notice of the shift and cut discriminatory taxes to attract meetings attendees back? Remember when New York City's hotel room taxes were so onerous that it caused a backlash from travel professionals? When business was diverted from the Big Apple, the city reduced taxes. In our world of supply and demand, this strategy has worked before – as I’ve always said, nothing gets more attention from a supplier than a negative change in corporate market share or revenues. 

Picking up subtle nuances in communication. Building lasting bonds. Enjoying another person's company.

If you've ever had a successful face-to-face meeting, these are just some of the benefits you've probably come away with. But in these budget-crunching times, when virtual meetings are growing more popular, for example, web conferencing, there's a new study out that confirms what a lot of people already know: face-to-face meetings are most rewarding. According to a Forbes Insights study of 760 business executives, "Business Meetings: The Case for Face-to-Face," more than 84% polled said that they still preferred in-person contact to virtual meetings. Of those, 85% said in-person meetings helped them build stronger, more meaningful relationships, while about three-quarters polled relished both the "ability to read another person" and the superior social interaction.

Also, at least 80% of executives liked face-to-face events because they felt interaction with co-workers is essential for effective teamwork, and downtime at in-person conferences built stronger client bonds.

I can personally attest to all of the above benefits. I've experienced them at my most rewarding in-person meetings -- whether they were gatherings with current or potential customers, meeting industry colleagues (such as at conferences and conventions) or sit-downs with my boss or fellow employees. Now, if you're a meetings manager that oversees hundreds of events every year, imagine the satisfaction--and the resulting productivity--you're creating for your attendees and your company.

But this survey by no means discounts the value of web-, tele- or video-conferencing. For certain types of events, these technologies are growing in usage, and I think it's very important that meetings managers should incorporate them into their overall strategic meetings management program, in order to competitively source for services and control costs, among other benefits. (Read more about this strategy here. In fact, in the Forbes survey, 59% of executives interviewed said that their use of "technology-driven meetings" increased during the recession -- in part due to lower costs and greater reliability of the technology.  Savings were important to those who like virtual meetings, as 92% cited paring event times and 88% valued trimming budgets.

The most advanced virtual technologies like Cisco’s Telepresence and HP’s Halo Room have been the only industries to grow about 30% year over year during this recession, according to media reports. That's a clear indication that companies have elected to invest in this technology to perpetuate their costs savings, and that they plan on continuing to remain fiscally responsible even after this recession is over.
 
On the downside, there are attentiveness issues to less sophisticated virtual meetings, mostly teleconferencing, for example, the insane amount of multi-tasking that goes on preventing full focus on the meeting. The Forbes survey confirms: 58% frequently surf the web, check their email, read unrelated materials and handle other ancillary work during digital meetings. Let’s be honest, how many of you are guilty of playing Solitaire, Freecell and other games during a teleconference?  I’ve even heard dishes being washed and the occasional toilet flushing for people who forgot to mute their phones, plus a variety of animal noises in the background.  None of the above would be happening in a face-to-face meeting!

But whether your company is having more virtual or face-to-face meetings these days, it's important to note that both types of events -- managed properly via enforcement of spending rules, centralized sourcing, automated attendee registration and other best practices -- can produce savings, great ROI, tighten control over costs and build better leverage with suppliers.  As all of the above are part of “Enterprise Mobility”, a concept of travel and meetings that I’ve been evangelizing around the world during speaking opportunities or customer forums, the management of all virtual technologies belong in the portfolio of company Travel & Meetings departments.    

I recommend reading more details from this survey here. Perhaps this information can help you make decisions about when to go virtual and when in-person events are best. Good reading!

Today, it makes more sense than ever to regularly audit your meetings management processes, policies, vendor contracts, expenses and other areas. After all, you'd want to know if you were paying too much for a service, let's say, a third-party event planner or that your meeting planners aren't using the approved software to centrally source for hotels. Maybe it was true once that what you didn't know didn't hurt you. But not these days; what you don't know might even mean the loss of your job or worse yet, public scrutiny and criticism.

I saw a great list of auditable areas of corporate T&E in a blog written by Debi Scholar, CMM, CMP, CTE, CTT, and Assurance Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in The Beat.  There were several in there that are absolute essential for auditing meetings programs. They include:

- a financial review to uncover higher prices you may be paying for services -- compared to what other companies are paying,
- a policy review to spot language not clearly defined,
- an operations review to identify who, besides meeting planners, is planning meetings within your company -- including executive assistants, human resource and marketing staff,
- a risk review to determine if meetings are held and contracts are signed without your company's approved terms, as well as without the proper legal review,
- a supplier contracts review to uncover key business terms that might be missing around hotel cancellation and attrition penalties,
- a technology review to find out things like whether your meeting planners are using spreadsheets to track hundreds or thousands of meeting attendees annually
rather than using attendee management software.

Regular auditing is a great way to make sure your SMMP maintains program integrity, mitigates risky areas, helps you to better manage your company meetings expenditures. To read more about how to find spending holes (and protect your job) in your SMMP, click here!

I'm a baseball fan; so remember the movie "Field of Dreams" starring Kevin Costner? Well, building a successful strategic meetings management program (SMMP) and buying technology to deploy it for success is NOT like the "Field of Dreams." OK, there's an analogy here, and as you know I always speak using analogies, so more about that later.

Whenever I get together with meetings managers and procurement folks -- whether it's in Paris or Poughkeepsie -- the #1 subject these days is how to apply strategies that have been successful in controlling travel and entertainment (T&E) costs to meetings and events. For many travel and meeting managers, the impetus is coming from senior executives up the chain of command, all too often in the form of: "Find ways to cut costs and do it now!"; Usually there's almost always a reduction percentage target conveniently provided as well.

But whether these professionals decide to implement a full-scale SMMP that streamlines everything from budgeting and planning to sourcing and measuring ROI, or whether they decide to implement event managment software to improve just a single area, it's essential to effectively communicate what you're doing to all your key audiences.

Whether you're making changes to your meetings management program or especially launching a companywide SMMP, I highly recommend building an on-going communications strategy that addresses what you're doing and why. The communication should contain different messages for different audiences, for example:

- For event planners, include very basic "how to" information on following new policies and procedures for such tasks as centralized sourcing of hotels and new rules around signing contracts with suppliers and using standardized terms and conditions; Also make sure you communicate ramifications for non-compliance.

- For senior management, keep the focus high-level, explaining your new or beefed-up meetings management program and how you expect the company will benefit in terms of savings and control.  These should be sent out with less frequency and cycled around earnings reporting season.

E-mails are a convenient and effective way to communicate new meetings management procedures. But you may also want to consider holding company-wide demos for planners. Also, ask your technology vendor for assistance or resources in promoting usage of your meetings management software. For example, StarCite creates quarterly newsletters to our meetings manager clients with tips and advice on how to increase internal usage.  For some customers, we’ve even created launch videos and online "how-to" videos.

Remember, just because you communicated about your program once, doesn’t mean you’re done!  You must have consistent and strategically timed communications for maximum success.  In addition, all communications should be tailored for each level of internal customer you service.

Spreading the word about changes to meetings management  is equally important as creating a new SMMP because, (Are you ready?  Here comes the analogy that I'm overusing!) unlike in the movie, "Field of Dreams," even if you build it (SMMP technology), I can assure you from my own experience that they (meeting planners) will not come and use it. You will need a communication plan to maximize utilization and gain success!