Meeting Planning Technology

Meeting Cards in the Age of Moderation

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

A new report out on commercial card spending notes that 2009 is the first year since purchasing cards were introduced to see a drop in overall spending. In fact, it was a year of decline for the commercial card industry on the whole, which, for more than a decade has posted double-digit spending growth figures.

According to the report, "this explosive growth was driven mainly by the administrative cost savings that card programs were able to deliver. Throughout the decade, as complementary technologies such as program management systems improved, card programs delivered still greater costs savings by improving transparency of spend, particularly in the area of MRO and T&E related purchasing. Taken together, these benefits sparked a secular movement away from costlier paper-based purchasing to more efficient electronic purchasing."

After reading this, I can't help but think how meeting cards -- as part of a comprehensive strategic meetings management program (SMMP) -- have helped countless numbers of companies:

a) discover the scope of their meetings spend separate from T&E,
b) use the data to create policies and rules around purchasing to implement more control,
c) apply what they've learned to increase bargaining power with their meetings suppliers.

Further, meeting cards linked to SMMP technology are powerful tools to help reduce administrative processes, such as budgeting and reconciliation of supplier bills. Card data is pretty solid in the eyes of the CFO, too, and auditors also like the ability to track spend that is documented.

I'm afraid the report, published in the online publication Commercial Payments International doesn't offer too rosy a picture of recovery for spending. It says spend won't keep pace with GDP growth. Not great news for card companies.

But T&E restrictions and purchasing policies that companies have implemented and strengthened won't be abandoned, either. And as I've said many times before, that's good news. The focus -- even when good times return -- will remain on strategic management of spend, whether it's on T&E, meetings or widgets.

Ultimately, I think the power of cards as spend management tools will once again drive up spending levels. Yet, it's surprising that, even today, many companies ignore the benefits of using a meeting card. A new Aberdeen benchmark study due out soon says that over 60% of enterprises have integrated a corporate card into their expense management programs. Yet only 14% are using a meeting card in conjunction with strategic management of their meetings, events and conferences. For more details on that study, click here.

Commercial cards are the instruments of purchasing power that employees hold in their hands -- the first line of defense in spend control. And, when the transaction is complete, cards are the great provider of data that companies need to manage costs. And, in the case of meeting cards, companies can add extra power to the cards by integrating them into their overall SMMP.

The best news about all of this is that if you are in danger of paying a claw back to your credit card provider, due to travel freezes negatively impacting your card spend thresholds for an annual incentive pay out, then issuing meeting cards and funneling their spend volume through your card program may actually help you to meet your basis point hurdles and earn an annual incentive, or at minimum, pay less of a claw back to your card provider. Having managed a very large multinational card program prior to my new life at StarCite, this is an area that you can definitely leverage to your company’s advantage.

SMMP Tech Benefits -- So Simple to See

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

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.

Good Luck! Debi Scholar

Monday, March 1, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

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 se

nt 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!).

Social Media Needs Strategic Management, Too

Friday, February 19, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

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 l

ike 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."

Strategic Meetings Management: Aim for the Whole Package

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

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.

StarCite Annual Meeting News: Bookings Soar in 2009

Monday, February 8, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

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!

Even Hotel Execs Adopt Spartan Meetings

Monday, February 1, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

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.

Congrats to the VIP's of SMM

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by Jessie Berry

Strategic Meetings Management has finally come of age within the meetings and events industry, partly due to the economic pressures of the recession which encouraged companies to gain visibility and control of their meetings and meetings spend. Luckily, SMM was right there to guide them and ensure that their meetings process was streamlined, efficient, and able to achieve maximum cost savings. In addition to the economy, strategic meetings management has emerged thanks to several industry pioneers. Corporate & Incentive Travel magazine has recognized the success of SMM and highlighted these four key players in its rise from luxury to necessity.

The magazine touted Kari Kesler, Debi Scholar, Tracy Wilt, and StarCite’s own Kevin Iwamoto as SMM’s “Movers and Shakers” in the wake of the first ever Strategic Meetings Management Certification course, completed this November by 20 industry professionals. A bit about each “VIP” of SMM:

• Kari Kesler was involved in the birth of SMM and saw the certification course come to fruition through the efforts of NBTA. She was honored to actually teach the course and encourages meeting professionals to get certified, as SMM is the future of the industry.
• Debi Scholar is a sought-after industry expert on both SMM and virtual meetings and emphasizes the difference between strategic meetings management and meeting planning management, the main difference being that SMM takes an enterprise-wide approach to managing meetings.
• Tracy Wilt, manager of global travel & meetings management for Xerox Corporation, is a leading force in the meetings industry and suggests building a strong business case for SMM to guarantee its success within your company.
• Kevin Iwamoto, VP of Enterprise Strategy for StarCite, was a pioneer in the SMMP evolution and helped create the SMMC program alongside NTBA. He strives to raise awareness about the benefits of SMM and help companies realize the disadvantage they’re putting themselves in if they don’t adopt and implement a strategic meetings management program. Iwamoto is dedicated to evangelizing the concept of SMMP and to helping companies deploy the program globally.

These four industry leaders have paved the way for SMM to take hold within the industry and really begin to make an impression on companies’ bottom lines. Between their dedication to the program as well as the economic constraints companies have been facing, the industry is now enjoying the maturity of strategic meetings management. Congratulations to the VIPs of SMM; you have truly shaped and changed our industry for the better!

If you would like to know more about strategic meetings management, check out this webinar or this whitepaper on building a business case for SMMP, or click here for an overview of SMM.

Meetings Don't Have to Produce a Ton of Carbon

Friday, January 22, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

I'm a big believer and advocate of green meetings, so when I came across this figure below, it startled me and motivated me to share some thoughts.

Seems that very large events held in a central location can produce over a ton of carbon per attendee, according to a whitepaper from ClimatePath, an organization that provides industry solutions to help event planners, consumer brands, travel providers, and other businesses measure and reduce the climate impact of their business activities. As you can guess, the major carbon produced from an in-person meeting, such as a conference or convention, comes from airline miles. But ClimatePath also figures in emissions from airport transfers, driving and hotel stays.

Now the good news. ClimatePath says that more regional events can produce up to 70% less emissions. And by going virtual, for example, via technologies such as TelePresence or Webex, an event can reduce its carbon footprint by 90%.

The point is here that meeting organizers and planners have options. Meeting managers and planners hold the key to creating earth-friendly events. For example, you can use e-sourcing to research and RFP green hotels. And you can create policies that mandate or encourage analysis of when virtual or face-to-face events would be suitable over a large, central event. Heck, even if your company must go with a large event, you can pick a central location with good public transportation to cut down on your carbon footprint.

Bottom line: just because your organization needs to hold meetings, it doesn't mean that carbon emission contribution is inevitable. We still have choices in making events as green as possible.

Check out this free webinar for more information on creating green meetings while achieving your cost-control goals.

FutureWatch: Slugging it Out with Fewer Dollars, Staff

Friday, January 15, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

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.

Electronics Show Bodes Well for Face-to-Face Events

Thursday, January 14, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

We've just witnessed an important positive indicator in the convention and exhibition business and thankfully it benefited Las Vegas, a destination hurt by a double whammy of negative public perception and the economy.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which closed on January 10th in Las Vegas, is the largest annual trade show in North America, and it attracted more than 120,000 attendees this year – which is significantly up from 113,000 attendees last year, according to an article in The Economist.

While that's certainly good news, even better is an assessment by The Economist that CES's success bodes well for face-to-face meetings. The article quotes Gary Shapiro of the Consumer Electronics Association, noting that there is little demand for virtual shows even in the consumer-electronics industry, folks you would think should be pretty comfortable with interacting online. Yet, "people still want hands-on experience of the gadgets they might soon be buying, and like to press the flesh with customers and suppliers," says the article. It is at CES where the latest and greatest future technology is unveiled. The advance buzz of future products has historically boosted sales in a very profitable way for the companies who invested in attending and showcasing their wares.

But how green are these giant exhibitions? Isn't it better to save at least some of that expended energy and CO2 emissions and move towards more online showcasing? I'm all for creating green meetings, and that can be done in many ways, for example, e-sourcing for hotels and convention centers that practice recycling. And, yes, virtual events are sometimes good green options.

But it turns out that CES attendees have an average of 12 different meetings with customers, suppliers and partners while at the show, according to Shapiro's data. And if attendees had to make those trips separately, it would amount to 1 billion miles of travel -- which translates to a lot of CO2 emissions.

My point is this, sometimes, in order to make the right decision about whether to go virtual or face-to-face, you have to consider metrics like these.

While CES is only one show, its size makes it important because our industry tends to sit up and take notice of it. I'm glad to see that attendance was higher this year and that it continues to be a visible example of the value of face-to-face meetings as well as a rebounding economy.

2010 FutureWatch Trends: “Digging In and Adapting”

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 by Jessie Berry

The 2010 FutureWatch Report, an annual survey of meeting planners and suppliers conducted by Meeting Professionals International and American Express, was released on January 11 and provides insights and outlooks into the meetings industry for the coming year.

While the 2009 Survey was dominated by concerns over the worsening economy and the uncertainty and anxiety it produced among planners and suppliers alike, the uneasy tone has lightened somewhat according to this year’s results. The economy wasn’t even listed as a top concern for planners; instead, their top three concerns included budget cuts, doing more with less, and a shortage of staff.

These issues indicate that the industry is adopting a new attitude towards the economy. Instead of distressing over the repercussions the economic outlook previously had in store for the industry, planners and suppliers are now accepting the reality of the situation and adapting to the new trends and practices that have emerged.

Planners reported that they expect a 2.8% increase in meetings this year and are now focusing more on working efficiently, measuring and guaranteeing ROI, and eliminating frills. Planners are now paying more attention to reverting back to simpler meetings without all the glitz and garnish, and public perception of meetings is no longer a top concern but remains a challenge for planners in 2010. When it comes down to choosing destinations for events, meeting planners are not as concerned with perception as they are with overall cost. To maintain lower costs, U.S. planners reported that they will hold 80% of their meetings within the United States, which is a significant increase from 61% in 2009.

As far as technology and meetings goes, planners said that their number one priority is “improving the presentation or audiovisual experience at meetings,” and that providing good alternatives to live meetings is also important. Regardless of whether they’re live or virtual, the value of meetings is also especially important to planners according to the 70% who say they use some sort of measurement to gauge value.

So what do these current trends reflect about the state of the industry? First, it suggests that planners and suppliers are adapting and surviving in the new economic climate by reprioritizing their main concerns and addressing each accordingly. Cost will remain key into 2010 and value will be more important than ever to ensure meetings spend is not wasted. The trend of simple, back to basics meetings highlights this emphasis on value, and corporate social responsibility rounds out the way planners will approach meetings in 2010.

The 2010 FutureWatch demonstrates the resiliency, optimism, adaptability of the meetings and events industry and gives us something to look forward to in the new year.

No More Bed Head at Virtual Meetings

Monday, January 11, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

If video or web conferencing is a significant portion of your meetings program, perhaps it's time to consider creating or fine tuning guidelines around how attendees show up for these events -- meaning how they dress and present themselves when they get on camera.

Currently there’s laptop and home computer built-in web cams that allow for visual participation, and I’ve already heard stories of people who were unaware that their images were being viewed during a meeting. Oh, yes, total embarrassment!

It used to be that you could take part in a WebEx or teleconference from home; you could hang out in your robe, pajamas (and accompanying bed head) with no problem, while participating and taking care of business. Soon, however, it will be a whole different story. Technology will soon require your attendees to be professionally attired for virtual meetings.

I thought about this as I was reading a piece in The San Francisco Gate. Apparently, Skype voice and video calling technology, which can be downloaded free from the web and allows subscribers to call and video conference each other at no cost, will be embedded in high-definition LG and Panasonic televisions with Internet capabilities. And LG and Panasonic will sell webcams that support 720-p high-def pictures.

This will all be available later this year. So, I wonder how many home-based meeting attendees will be turning to their 46-inch flat screens -- to see and be seen in virtual meetings? If you haven't done it already, this might be a good time to prepare for this next generation of virtual technology by updating your policy on virtual meetings to set some ground rules on how home-based attendees should dress. Allow me to make some suggestions:

- business casual attire for virtual meetings among fellow employees, meetings with suppliers, and any non-customer facing activity
- suit or coat and tie for gentlemen, business suits for ladies for all meetings that connect employees with clients and business partners
- combed hair, a shave, makeup (for women) – you can make it a gender neutral policy by asking employees for “visually professional appearance” during virtual technology meetings.

If you're thinking that this is a trivial matter. I beg to disagree. Employees representing your company, whether at an in-person event or virtual meeting, need to present themselves professionally for maximum impact. Besides, every day...seems more like every minute...technology is changing the way companies meet and manage meetings. So isn't it a good idea to be pro-active and prepare for these technological developments to better adapt and use them to your company’s benefit?

Have you created meetings policy rules on how virtual attendees should appear on camera? If so, please tell me about them here!

How Will The Sunshine Act Affect Your Medical Meetings Reporting?

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

If you're a meetings manager at a drug company or medical device manufacturer, it would be a smart move to get up to speed on just how the so-called Sunshine Act, a bill sponsored by Senators Charles Grassley (Republican-Iowa) and Herbert Kohl (Democrat-Wisconsin), is going to affect your strategic meetings management program...and what you should do to prepare if it passes and becomes the law.

And let me forewarn you, there’s good and bad.

The Sunshine Act requires drug companies and medical device manufacturers to disclose quarterly to the Secretary of Health and Human Services details on anything of value given to physicians, such as payments, gifts, honoraria, or travel. It applies to companies with more than $100 million in annual revenue, and it aims to create a single, national system for the reporting of information (versus the current hodgepodge of individual state and industry regulations that now exist). The bill would set up standard processes to report on the:

- Identity / location of individual
- Amount spent
- Dates of spend
- Type of expenditure (e.g. food, travel, gifts)

If it passes, the Sunshine Act will require a sea change in the way meetings managers at health care providers capture and collect the meetings-related spending that their companies need to comply with new federal HCP reporting rules. The bill will affect our industry in particular, as meetings and events are, by far, the largest type of health care provider-attributable spend.

Right now, many pharmaceutical and health care companies with their own HCP reporting solutions pay huge sums to third-parties to capture meeting spend information. Or, worse, companies are using old-fashioned, paper-driven processes to store and capture data. But clearly, if health-care providers don't wish to be overwhelmed by the demand for comprehensive meetings data aggregation, they'll have to adopt new, more efficient and automated ways to get the information they need to be in reporting compliance. This is especially risky for companies who do not have a consolidated meetings/events program nor any technology solution to assist with all of the data capture and reporting.

My advice for meetings managers at health care providers is to:
- Work with your purchasing and compliance officers and others (for example, generals counsel and travel managers) to nail down the specifics of what the Sunshine Act will require from you;
- Investigate technology that will easily and efficiently capture the meeting spend data you need and integrate with your own HCP reporting solution;
- Make sure that the HCP meetings reporting technology you're considering can also be configured to specific policies that your compliance organization sets around how regulations are interpreted and followed (because this can vary from company to company).

Also, it's very important to consider whether the automation you're considering will work smoothly with your existing, overall processes for HCP regulatory reporting. For example, StarCite's HCP reporting for meetings tracks all meetings spend on behalf of HCPs, utilizing the tool's Attendee Management, Spend Management and Business Intelligence Reporting modules. HCP meetings reporting integrates with your company's own HCP reporting solution.

In the very near future, watch for a new StarCite whitepaper on changes to come in HCP meetings-related reporting! Once it's published, I'll share a link to it here.

A Tribute to 2009's Strategic Meetings Management Leaders

Monday, January 4, 2010 by Kevin Iwamoto

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!'

Cloud Meetings Deserve Management, Too

Friday, December 18, 2009 by Kevin Iwamoto

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.

Technology + Meeting Planners + Hotels= Success

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 by Administrator

Do the math: by now, it is well understood that technology is an integral part of the meeting planning process. For any company to be more efficient, cost effective, and ultimately successful, technology must be employed to ensure productivity and results. In fact, nearly one third of meeting planners surveyed in 2008 reported that technology is crucial for them to perform their jobs more effectively.

The one area where technology has been especially beneficial for meeting planners is RFP’s, particularly when it comes to a standardized RFP that can save countless hours of the time and energy spent rekeying data in different hotel websites. Not only are planners able to do their jobs more efficiently, but hotels are able to conduct better business with complete, informative RFP’s because no critical data is lost in the process.

The bottom line: for the meetings, events, incentives, and hotel industries, technology is not being used to replace human interaction or eradicate the relationship between planners and hotels. On the contrary, technology is simply being applied to enable these entities to do their jobs more seamlessly, effectively, and efficiently (not to mention the resulting savings and boost in profits as a result.) As we progress into 2010, we can look positively to the growth and success of the meetings, events, and hotel industries. Happy new year!

Measuring Return on Virtual Meetings

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by Kevin Iwamoto

Has your organization staged a virtual meeting in the past year? What's more, has your company bought or leased collaboration/virtual meetings tech? More importantly are you managing the strategy, policy creation and compliance tracking for all virtual meetings technologies as part of your travel and meetings portfolio?

Well, now we know that more than 42% own or lease this type of tech, for example, Hewlett Packard's Halo and Cisco's TelePresence systems (which represent the high end pricier technology). That's according to a new whitepaper that summarizes a poll – the 2009 Executive Travel Survey. The whitepaper is produced by ProMedia.travel and commissioned by GetThere, Sabre Travel Network and Travelocity Business. Meetings tech is just one of the areas the survey addresses, and it's based on the views of over 200 professionals who are directly involved in managing corporate travel policies and budgets -- everyone from CFOs to CPOs to travel managers.

I actually saw a presentation based on these findings when I was in Prague for the ACTE Educational conference this Fall, and I've been itching to write about it since. The whitepaper adds that "a confluence of factors, including lower cost of entry and pressure from executives to reduce travel, allowed many companies to invest in technologies that once seemed too specialized." Yet, the survey finds that more than half polled hadn't yet invested in virtual meetings tools, many citing the expense or "not enough travel to justify the expense."

Interestingly, nearly 20% said that the tools' effectiveness versus "meeting face-to-face is unproven." That could be partly due to the fact that a full 40% who do use these tools either don't know if their firms are measuring ROI or that their companies are not measuring.

As I've said in this blog before, virtual meetings, such as the high-def, life-size and realistic-type made possible by HP or Cisco, have their place in the wide-world of meetings (alongside face-to-face events).

But like every kind of event, virtual meetings needs to be measured and reported for ROI -- as part of a good strategic meetings management program. You need to know the value of your meetings (especially these days, when so many have to justify their jobs to senior executives).

But I'm wondering if most companies even know how to measure ROI for virtual
events. Indeed, the whitepaper says it could be blamed on "a lack of support in the managed travel marketplace to help companies better understand strategic uses for these technologies and how to calculate their travel savings and/or revenue potential."

My advice: seek the knowledge of peers at professional organizations running virtual meetings, for example, NBTA and ACTE. Next time your attending an educational session, stand up and ask how others are measuring ROI for virtual events. If you’re a StarCite customer or potential customer, we have a Value Analysis process lead by a former CFO. Reach out to us to assist you determine your program ROI.

The old adage of “you don’t know what you don’t know” doesn’t fly anymore in the business world; you need to know or risk job uncertainty.

Estee Lauder Creates Winning SMMP

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 by Kevin Iwamoto

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!

Meetings Management Hot Topic at CPO Summit

Friday, November 20, 2009 by Kevin Iwamoto

This week I attended Aberdeen's annual Chief Procurement Officer Summit in Boston and the weather was perfect, though I spent my whole two days there indoors at the new Seaport Hotel and Conference Center. The summit is a must-attend event for procurement executives -- everybody from chief procurement officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers, to VPs of procurement, finance, supply chain, operations, logistics and manufacturing.

Broadly, these executives get together to discuss best practices in supply management -- and strategic meetings management now figures prominently in that.

It's a plain fact that meeting and travel managers are working more closely with procurement executives these days. The directive is typically from up above, as all kinds of indirect expenditures are increasingly coming under senior executive scrutiny and being targeted for improved oversight. From the moment I arrived at the summit, it was wonderful to interact with procurement executives and discuss how to rein in meetings costs, improve processes with technology, improve sourcing efficiencies and -- something near and dear to my heart -- risk mitigation! Indeed, it's no exaggeration to say that this year at CPO, meetings management was front and center.

I was at the front table for an excellent panel discussion on "Strategic Meetings," which featured industry veteran, Lynn Ridzon, Director, Global Strategic Sourcing - Travel, Meetings & Events at Amgen (at right in the picture) and Shirley Kuhloie, Global Meetings Program Leader at Hewlett-Packard (on the left). Forgive the quality of the photo, as I used my Blackberry to snap this shot. I want to commend them both for their advice (and they used layman's terms) on the how and why of putting together a SMMP. They were candid enough, too, to articulate that, yes, there'll be some pain points over the life of developing, winning support, communicating and implementing an SMMP, but the ROI outweighs any difficulties. And that's something that will get C-level executive attention, especially in these challenging economic times! They also stressed the importance of SMMP technology in making changes happen uniformly, streamlining tasks and winning with suppliers.

Congratulations to Lynn and Shirley for a terrific job in articulating the merits of strategic meetings management.

If you're a meetings manager and considering how to coordinate with your corporate travel and procurement departments to create an organization-wide SMMP, I suggest you read this helpful white paper that lays out some best practices and will help you get started.