Meeting Registration

I loved the August 24th article in MeetingsNet written by Alison Hall that explains how key performance indicators (KPIs) can be applied to meetings management. And don’t feel bad if you're asking yourself right now, "What the heck is a KPI?" It's a strategic procurement term. It essentially means a way to measure how any program you're managing, including meetings, is faring at any given time.  

One of the reasons I like this article -- and I urge you to check it out -- is that it acknowledges the pioneering work done bringing procurement management strategies to travel and meetings, and it quotes my good buddy George Odom, who is now president of his own consultancy, Strategic Travel and Meetings Group, but, for 18 of 29 years at Eli Lilly and Company, led travel and meetings. In the article, George describes KPIs like this: "Way back when I tried to do this at Eli Lilly and Company someone said to me, 'If you had to call in once a month and had only five minutes to ask how things are going, what are the things you would want to know?'"

Believe me, if anyone is an expert on creating and reporting KPIs for senior management, it's George.  Another great piece to check out on this subject offers six examples of KPIs.

I knew George back when he was at Eli Lilly, and it was a special honor for me, when I was just starting at HP, to be named along with him in BTN's "Best Practitioners" issue for the year 2000. A copy of the magazine cover still hangs in my office. It was a thrill because George was such an industry veteran and visionary (even back then he was doing things like strategically managing meetings and consolidating enterprise meeting spend). And even though I was still relatively new at HP Procurement, we were both speaking the same language and foretelling the same things  --  that procurement strategies were ideal for meetings management and would grow in practice and application. Even though BTN honored me with two more Best Practitioner designations since then, that first one, in which I was honored along with George, was most memorable for me.

Of course, today, procurement and meetings management are enjoying a fruitful marriage, yet it's amazing to look back and consider what a radical concept the idea was that the two should join and benefit from each other. And not surprisingly, experiencing all of the initial push back and resistance there was. It's a wonder, too, what a little public shame, a global economic recession and meeting spend transparency can do in terms of vaulting SMM from “nice to have” to “must have”. 

Who would have ever thought that a decade later people would be referring to KPIs for meetings instead of just information on the service and experience of events.  

Just returned from ACTE Asia in Singapore, where over 400 business and meetings professionals came to learn and network. What a great conference!

The panel session that I moderated focused on the convergence of transient and meetings spend management and what kind of challenges (and rewards) that means for businesses in the Asia-Pacific region. It was a great success, largely due, I'd say, to the two featured practitioners: Meredith Smith, Travel Manager, APJ for Merck and Aileen London, Senior Manager for Global Meetings Services, APAC, for Oracle.  Both of these women are accomplished professionals, and they freely shared their experiences and knowledge about their respective programs with an audience eager to learn more about how transient and meetings management is approached by both of these companies.

Congratulations go out to Aileen London who won the prestigious 2010 President’s Award from ACTE for her work in developing collaboration and internal support for her program consolidation and cost containment and risk mitigation strategies.  Given how challenging it is to streamline, consolidate and innovate in the Asia-Pacific region, her accomplishments are remarkable and her recognition is well deserved.  To top it off, she is so wonderfully down-to-earth and always such a pleasure to deal with.

I must comment, too, about the gargantuan deluxe host hotel for the conference -- which is now the famous Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  I don't know about you, but my usual experience with large, new convention-type hotels is not very positive. But, in all honesty, given the size of the hotel (more than 2,500 rooms in three separate towers, an adjacent world-class convention and conference center, and the first-ever casino opened in Singapore), the service was terrific.  Although the hotel is massive and impressive, you could still manage to get around relatively quickly. The hotel is part of the Sands Hotel group, and is grander than the deluxe properties you see in Vegas.  My one regret is that I didn’t have time to really explore the hotel property and grounds, but I did get to attend a private reception on the top floor (57 stories high) and walk around the “cruise ship” configured roof top, where the infinity pool seems to drop off the edge of the roof (yikes) and the sights, sounds and smells of Singapore are all around you. Simply beautiful! Someone told me that, in southern Indonesia, on a clear day, you can see the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and I believe it.

I also want to give a shout-out of appreciation to Qantas Airways and express a special thanks to Vice President, North America Sales, Cathie Sych.  Here’s how I would describe Qantas – excellent world-class service.  That’s what I experienced on the ground and in the air from Melbourne to Singapore.  My only regret is that the flight wasn’t longer in order for me to get the comfy in-flight pajamas that are handed out for long-haul flights. Oh well, I have no doubt there'll be a next time - given my crazy travel schedule!
 
In the meantime, I'm looking forward to the ACTE Berlin Global Education Conference from October 3-5, where I will be in a session (T204, Tuesday, Oct. 5th, from 2:45 to 3:45 pm) talking about risk mitigation in SMM. If you're going, please come to this session, as I'll be identifying the critical steps companies should employ to reduce their vulnerability to potential risks, and I'll be touching on:

    * Policy and communication
    * Sourcing and contracting
    * Tools & technologies
    * Managed payment processes
    * Crisis management planning

Hope to see you there!

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

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

According to CWT, higher meeting costs will come from:

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

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

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

You’ve got the power; use it!

We've just wrapped the NBTA Australia/New Zealand annual conference.  The speakers and sessions were outstanding! I want to express a special note of appreciation to NBTA Australia/NZ President Monica Gardner, as well as Boardmember Chris Telfer and Manager Elizabeth Montgomery, who so graciously invited me to come "Down Under" and be a featured presenter on "SMMP: The Final Frontier of Managed Travel." The accommodation arrangements and hospitality they extended to me is so typically and graciously Australian. It's always a pleasure to visit with friends and colleagues there.

I was reminiscing with Chris Telfer, whose real job is Senior Contract Manager of Travel for the Australian Federal Police, about how many NBTA Australia/NZ conferences I have attended and/or presented at, and we ball-parked that number to be around five or six. Considering that this year was their 15th annual conference, I’ve been to more than one third of them, and I hope I get asked back for many years to come. 

The sessions on this year's agenda were excellent and provided a range of information -- from local Australia-centric topics to global and regional business travel information.  I also want to extend a special "thank you" to Mike McCormick, Executive Director and COO of NBTA (to be known as GBTA in 2011), who, as the sole representative from the North American association, was kept busy during the conference with numerous press meetings, panels and presentations. Mike mentioned SMM several times and always acknowledged StarCite.  He is, indeed, a special friend to us here at StarCite, and he's doing a fantastic job for NBTA globally, I might add!

Particularly insightful was a local, public commentator, Michael Pascoe, who is on Aussie TV. He's usually the go-to expert on finance and economics for Australia. Michael was bullish on the local economy, then provided data to show why. It seems that the global financial crisis really bypassed Australia, so he was puzzled by why the local politicians and media keep harping on doom and gloom for Australia when the data shows GDP growth and no real ramifications. His findings were so compelling, I half joked with the audience when it
was my turn to speak, that I’m seriously considering moving to Australia and transferring all my assets Down Under!

My session on SMM went over well -- judging from all the nodding heads I saw in the auditorium.  I predict that this time next year, more Australian companies and TMCs will be reviewing, implementing or formulating their own SMMPs based on the knowledge that it’s really the last area of managed travel that can be tapped into for cost savings, but more importantly for risk mitigation and duty of care.  

Years ago, when I addressed the audience at what was then the ABTA (Australian Business Travel Association), I made a similar prediction about self booking tools. Then, a year later, when I returned, more than half the audience indicated they were looking at, researching or implementing self-booking tools.  I’m making the same prediction for SMMP, so we’ll check back next year and see if I’m right.

At an awards dinner, I had the privilege of sitting with NBTA executives and volunteer leaders, as well as this year’s winner of the 2010 Excellence Award for best-in-class travel management program achievement.  The applicants have to submit their business case and a panel of judges selects the one travel program that made significant improvement or achieved best-in-class status.  This year’s winner was Andrew McGregor of the Queensland Government, whose team basically re-created their travel program, changed suppliers and processes, and re-engineered their business travel policy, processes, and solutions from "end to end." Considering the amount of change management he and his team had to anticipate, endure and work through, the end result is not only modernization and automation, but it will also save the Queensland government millions of dollars. As a reward, a representative from their team will attend next year’s NBTA annual conference in Denver, Colorado, with all expenses paid.  Congratulations to Andrew and his team; well done!

On the last day of the conference, Mike McCormick and Monica Gardner announced the plans for the NBTA name change (to GBTA) and the sight of next year’s regional conference: (drum roll) Sydney!  Thank you to everyone for asking me to be part of the conference agenda this year.  

Enjoy the photo...just a snapshot from my room on a lovely Winter Melbourne day.

In a BTN article this month, reporter Michael Baker interviewed our CEO Greg Dukat, and among many revealing and interesting comments, Greg mentioned that we have many customers in vertical industries with regulations and requirements around them – for instance, pharmaceuticals – that have developed SMMPs and are successfully using our technology to keep track of data and abide by those rules.

I bring this up because I recently attended a Meetings.net webinar on compliance -- an issue that's very top-of-mind and critical to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries -- indeed any business that employs or contracts with Health Care Professionals (HCPs). The webinar was a revelation to me, because, as much as I knew about the various state (a total of 12) and federal reporting regulations around meetings (including the so-called Sunshine Act) involving HCPs, I was bowled over hearing details of the extensive burden of keeping track of and reporting on the required data.

The impact of not abiding to these data reporting rules is astonishing: the government can both pull products off store shelves and, just as damaging, stop buying the products, themselves (for the many government-run healthcare facilities).

No detail is too small to track and record for healthcare meetings. For example, the value of books, flip charts and invitations to attendees. A big spend category is honoraria that are paid to doctors and HCPs for presenting or sitting on panels. A valuable piece of advice given by panelists Angie Duncan, Vice President, Strategic Meetings and Project Management at meeting planning specialists VMS, Inc., and James Vachon, Associate Director, Millenium: The Takeda Oncology Company, was to make sure your communications strategy includes three stakeholders (attendees, vendors and venues) and includes compliance details. For example, on the subject of honoraria, doctors need to be clear on how much they’ll get paid (especially if they customize their participation and come late and leave early), travel restrictions and expense guidelines, expense reimbursement policy and any disclaimers that may apply (some states bar providing food and beverage as well as compensation). Communication should be consistent throughout the event life cycle, too. For example, in the case of attendees, aim for consistency in everything from contracts and “Save the Date” information, to on-site materials.

Other advice that made this a great session ranged from the logistical (providing sign-in sheets to prove HCPs actually attended and which sessions and meals they came to), to the more strategic  (linking up with your company’s legal counsel to regularly keep abreast of state regulations for meetings involving HCPs).  

There is so much great advice and wisdom from these two medical meetings specialists in this webinar (moderated by Sue Pelletier, editor of Medical Meetings magazine), and if you’re managing medical or pharma events, I urge you to see the replay.

Before I go, let me leave you with one key take-away expressed by James Vachon of Takeda: how valuable meetings management technology is in not only planning medical meetings but also tracking data. I’m proud to say that Vachon uses StarCite, and I’m glad to be part of an organization that provides sophisticated tools to make it easier for medical and pharmaceutical companies to abide by these strict state and federal reporting rules.  

Want to read about compliance in action? Check out this case study of Novartis, a pharma company that has scored sky-high compliance on meetings air travel policies.

After a lengthy slump, Americans are meeting overseas once again, according to a new survey by the U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism Industries. That's great news for our global meetings industry, for suppliers, of course, but also for corporate and association buyers looking for international destinations that offer value and cultural richness. The rising numbers also confirm for me that we're finally shaking off the negative public stigma around meetings travel during the worst of the recession. 

So here are the numbers. Survey says: More than 6.4 million U.S. business travelers in 2009 spent about $25 billion on trips outside North America (13% were for meetings). While that number is about 1 million shy from 2008. The better news is that during the first four months of this year, international business travel was up by 1.5% over the same period a year ago.   

Top spots for U.S. visitors last year were Asia (I'm one of those long-haul travelers to the Far East  -- several times over!) to premier destinations like Japan. And China, which just became the world's second-largest economy, surpassing Japan, received nearly half a million business travelers. Wonder how long it will take for China to become the top spot for US business travelers, too? Europe also was a top destination for American business and meetings travelers (more than one-third of us who travel overseas go there every year), and there was a 16% rise in business travel visits to the Middle East last year.

What I found interesting about the report were statistics profiling your average ocean-hopping business and meetings traveler. Here's one little ditty: 73% fly coach class. Having worked for a company that was one of the first to downgrade policy to coach class, the overall savings in the first year was in the millions of dollars; so it’s no wonder more companies and industries (much to the road warrior’s inconvenience) have downgraded to a "coach-only" policy.  It’s also no coincidence that, due to supply and demand, a lot of global airlines have eliminated first class and created a mid-tier class between business and coach -- reducing business-class seats and installing flat bed seats. I find it ironic that airlines created business class because companies would no longer pay for first class, and now the same thing is happening to international business class. A proverbial "Everything old is new again" scenario!  Personally, I think airline revenue management people just like to keep the churn going to maintain job security!

Now that international business and meetings travel is rising again, meetings managers should take great care to ensure that policies on spending in overseas locations are well communicated to each and every attendee. More international travel should also spur you to step up best practices around risk management, for example, making sure your meetings management technology can instantly give you data on where your attendees are -- should an emergency arise and you need to get them home.   

Speaking of international travel, I'm heading to Melbourne, Australia (talk about long-haul!) to the NBTA Australia conference, where I'll be speaking on Strategic Meetings Management: The Last Frontier of Managed Travel Spend.  If you're attending, please come to the session -- August 23, 11:30 am to 12:15 pm. From there I will be heading to Singapore to attend the ACTE Asia-Pacific Education Conference, where I will be moderating a panel on Thursday, August 26, 10:30 am – 11:30 am. The topic: A New Relationship Between Transient Travel and Meetings. It'll feature Aileen London, Senior Manager of Global Meetings Services, APAC, Oracle as well as Meredith Smith, Travel manager - APJ, Merck.  If you happen to be attending either conference, please come to the sessions and I would enjoy an opportunity to meet you!    

If you're working under a strict budget (and who isn't these days?), I recommend that you take a look at a new report authored by the NBTA Foundation and Concur. The report highlights the "best" and "worst" of 50 U.S. cities' travel taxes -- that is, cities with the highest to lowest taxes on rental cars, hotels and meals.

First, let me tell you about the report's overall findings: Shockingly, on average, travel-related services taxes and fees boost visitor costs by 56% over cities' general sales taxes. In the most extreme, the report found that costs rose by 144% over sales taxes.  Now as someone who travels a lot for his job, I’ve experienced these extraneous taxes over and over again. I got a great fare on a recent booking on Southwest for a personal trip, but the taxes and fees added a whopping $76 dollars to the ticket price! Consider, too, our poor friends in the car rental business who can’t raise their rates because that industry is overrun with state and federal taxes and surcharges that add so much to a car rental transaction that, if the supplier did raise rates due to economic pressures, people would just walk away...maybe take the bus.

This is a report that was clearly designed to help buyers make better choices about where to steer their meetings dollars. The data is presented in a variety of ways, for example, the top 50 markets are ranked by overall travel tax burden (including general sales tax and discriminatory or travel-specific taxes) and, separately, by discriminatory travel tax burden -- minus general sales taxes. You can also find data for central city and airport locations, as the taxes for those separate locations can be different, too.

Just to show you how those different statistics can affect choices for cost-conscious buyers, take a look at these report findings:


Cities with highest total taxes:

- Chicago, New York, Boston, Seattle, Minneapolis

Cities with the highest discriminatory travel taxes:

- Portland, OR, Boston, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, New York

Cities with the lowest overall taxes:

- Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers, FL, Portland, OR; Detroit and Honolulu

Cities with the lowest discriminatory travel taxes:

- All in California: Orange County, San Jose, Burbank, San Diego and Ontario

Why do I think that this report -- which is available to NBTA members and Concur clients -- is so valuable? For one, planners and organizers can refer to it when putting together meetings and events to avoid high-cost cities and keep within their budgets. And, on a more strategic level, meeting, procurement and travel managers can use the information to consult with their finance department folks to determine whether moving events to lower-tax cities could result in overall program cost savings.   

Bravo, NBTA Foundation and Concur for the new research! I hope this report is used by planners and managers alike as the "go to" standard for information and data on travel tax burdens -- many of them way too heavy. This should provide the ammo the industry needs to make a powerful statement about the power of meetings purse strings to local governments that impose such high taxes on business and meetings travelers! And if your blood is still boiling, get behind all of the industry lobbying efforts to get government officials and bureaucrats to stop the "taxation without representation" activities that seem to proliferate in our industry and marketplace.

Sometimes bright news for the hotel industry doesn't necessarily translate into good news for corporate buyers.

According to a recent article in BTN, the party is just about over for companies negotiating low hotel room rates (due to the recession), as hoteliers cite rising demand and a slowdown in supply growth.  Many hotel companies' second-quarter earnings have come in stronger than expected, and they're warning that buyers should be ready for requests for increases at the bargaining table.

“Buyers should prepare for the most aggressive negotiating posture in three years,” Bjorn Hanson, who is divisional dean of the New York University Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management, said in the article. “In discussions three or four months ago, the thought was there would be a small increase, if any, in rates in 2011. This increased amount of business travel has shifted the balance of power.”

Expect the largest rate increases to come from the upper-upscale and luxury tiers. But in BTN, Hanson predicted that even those higher rates will seem like a good deal to buyers -- because the rates will still be pre-recession...below 2007 levels. 

Based on the news above, this is where I want all buyers to accelerate their risk mitigation activities. It's worth repeating what the robot in the old "LOST IN SPACE" TV show said whenever danger lurked: “Danger, Will Robinson!.” Hotels will likely ramp up their cancellation and attrition clauses due to the increased demand for sleeping rooms and meeting space.  If you haven’t created a standard contract template or at least developed an addendum collaboratively with your legal, contract and procurement teams, you will be at great risk when the balance of power shifts back to the hotel suppliers.

Some good news for meetings buyers, though: rate negotiations will still be more fruitful for buyers in convention cities, such as Las Vegas and Orlando, because meetings demand recovery is still taking shape (although the U.S. Travel Association sees a 7% jump in meeting spend this year, versus a 15% decline last year). The same could be said for Europe's tepid recovery.

This is positive news for hoteliers, who in 2011 will get their first crack at raising rates in a long while. But, as we enter negotiation season, this is also a good time for meetings managers, many of whom are still bound by restrictive budgets, to think more creatively and explore lodging strategies that provide more value for less. For example, it's a good idea to approach new hotels that, under a recent supply streak, have opened in major cities and are eager for business.

This is a key time, too, to rely on meeting planning technology to source for hotels, for example, to broaden search criteria in order to find new, more affordable properties and build up a history of buying leverage with those hotels -- for future negotiations.  In this period of change, ensuring planners are complying to your policies and procedures and making sure that your SMMP is truly centralized and being adhered to is another winning way to keep your buying power at its strongest. 

I'm finally back from NBTA 2010 in Houston. What a wonderful conference, especially because there was such a strong focus on strategic meetings management. While the details are still fresh in my mind, let me present them in diary format:

Sunday, Aug. 8: Getting to NBTA was a real pleasure (and not a burden), largely due to the fact that I flew on Continental Airlines, the best business network airline -- in my opinion, anyway. Continental's in-flight service, equipment (the plane), quality of meals and terminal experience was consistently excellent. It's no wonder they always receive industry awards and accolades. Thanks to Kay Ikawa (Managing Director of Asia/Pacific Sales) and Bich Lien Kaldahl (Meeting, Incentive & Group Sales Manager) of Continental for making my journey to and from Houston a really wonderful experience.

Monday, Aug. 9: Had front-row seats for the lunch featuring keynote speaker Condoleeza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State for President George W. Bush. Coming from the Bay Area, it's hard to not be proud of Condi -- as a hometown woman who “made it” in the world.  And, as expected, she was well prepared, articulate, elegant and engaging.  I'll bet both Democrats and Republicans in the room were united in appreciating her accomplishments and sharing her life experiences.



Tuesday, Aug. 10: The SMM Maturity Model panel that I participated on with Tracy Wilt of Xerox and Paulette Miklas of MT Bank (moderated by Kari Kesler) was a success -- judging from the interest of corporate buyers and suppliers that we all received during and after the session. I was extremely proud to witness the birth of yet another industry standard centered around SMMP. Despite the early start time for the session, there were more than 60 in attendance.

At lunch, Sir Richard Branson, Founder and President of the Virgin Group, spoke to attendees. I've had the privilege of meeting and conversing with Sir Richard over the years -- I'd say at least three or four times. A couple of those were at previous NBTA conventions, and a few were at small customer events.  I have only two words to describe this man – inspirational and genius. Nothing more needs to be said.

In the early evening, the SMMP reception that StarCite hosted was very special, as most of the first graduates of the SMMC designation class were present as well as some of the NBTA Groups & Meetings Committee, StarCite executives, the SMM Maturity Model Task Force members and other SMM VIPs. I was asked to welcome and address the crowd, and my dear friend, Jim McMullan of Monsanto (who is also NBTA VP) introduced me. But when he left the podium, he broke the microphone (thanks, Jim), and that forced me to “wing it” -- much to the crowd's laughter. It's a good thing I'm a veteran at public speaking, and it takes a lot to rattle me. 

What was very special for me though, besides introducing the SMM Maturity Model Task Force members and SMMC graduates, was presenting a special gift to a woman and very special friend who I've nicknamed and often times refer to as, the “Mother of SMMP” -- Kari Kesler.  For the first time ever that I can recall, Kari was touched and speechless in receiving the recognition and gift, and of course had to pay me back by thanking me for being the original thought leader and “Father of SMMP.” Hmmm…well, since I don’t have children of my own, I guess being the father to SMMP is a blessing.

Later that evening, I elected to go to only one event, the Virgin Group’s private concert featuring INXS, with an appearance from Sir Richard Branson. No one does events and parties better than Virgin. And, as I've experienced in the past, my expectations were exceeded, and I'd have to say that the concert was one of the highlights of this year's convention for me.  Imagine my surprise and delight to be invited -- as one of only very few guests -- to go backstage and take pictures with INXS and Sir Richard!  I really want to thank all of my friends at the various Virgin Air companies, but I especially want to thank my dear friend Neda Nazem of V Australia airlines for making it all possible. Neda, you are the best!

Wednesday, Aug. 11: The bittersweet, final day of the conference, and I made my goodbyes to longtime friends, colleagues, NBTA staff and executives, the Board of Directors, Allied Leadership Council, and so many others too numerous to name. 

Closing day lunch: Watching and listening to Lance Armstrong -- again from the front and center -- speak candidly and share his life experiences with the audience was very special to me, as I’ve had the unfortunate experience of losing so many friends and loved ones to cancer.  I normally give to cancer causes and foundations every year, and this year is no exception.  Now I'm adding a new organization to my list, Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation.  And I will probably continue to give until, as Lance says, we have cures for cancer and he can dismantle the organization.  Fight on Lance! I have always respected your spirit, courage, super-human athleticism and now, especially, your embracing this new role as chief ambassador and philanthropist for cancer research and assistance.

Evening:  After getting a lot of work done, including writing this blog post, at the beautiful Continental President’s Club lounge at the airport in Houston, I’m heading home in comfort and style on Continental. My head and body is missing my bed and home.  And tonight I will sleep really well, and I won't miss Houston's heat and humidity!

Scary! I read a story recently that originally appeared in USA Today that international travelers are failing to protect themselves from dangerous, infectious diseases. Ever since then I've been traveling with bottles of hand sanitizer and anti-bacterial wipes bulging out of my jacket pockets. That's a slight exaggeration, but the article really hit home, especially with the H1N1 and SARs emergencies fresh in my mind.

According to the report, based on recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, airlines, cruise ships, immigration officials and local health departments reported significant growth in sick travelers last year, partly due to the H1N1 outbreak. Top illnesses are the flu and gastro problems, but diseases like tuberculosis, chicken pox and shingles and typhoid fever have been widely reported. All told last year, 3,000 cases of potentially infectious diseases were reported.

More significantly, the USA Today story quoted figures that said only 36% of travelers sought medical advice before traveling to areas prevalent with exotic diseases, and less than half traveled to areas with malaria with pills to prevent the disease.

All this raises a few serious points to consider. To protect your business and meetings travelers, you should have policies and procedures in place to:

- Review destinations for information on public health issues and the prevalence of infectious diseases;
- Ensure attendees going to international destinations get vaccinations or, as mentioned above, carry pills to prevent diseases.

Like so many other meetings management best practices, requirements for vaccinations and other rules for traveling to destinations with health hazards need to be well communicated, for instance via emails and your intranet. You should also make sure the rules are incorporated into your meeting planning automation. Perhaps, too, you can find an ally within HR at your company or organization to lend the communication some added authority. 

As our global village gets smaller and smaller, it's in your best interest to help protect your meetings attendees from communicable diseases and from the already seriously sick travelers out there -- whether knowingly or unknowingly -- that are flying the skies and milling about hotels.   

Here in hot and humid Houston, I was much surprised with the announcement by the National Business Travel Association (That's its name for now, anyway!) at the annual convention and exposition that the organization next year will be known as the Global Business Travel Association. As a former executive and officer of NBTA, I’ve been in many meetings and discussions about changing NBTA’s branding to something else.  Quite frankly, I have to say that I've seen it coming for years.

On Monday, the first full working day of the convention, NBTA President and CEO Craig Banikowski said that the name change is due to the evolving nature of the organization -- that is, global in scope and character.  He said that just as people working in our industry have come to re-think their jobs as global in nature, so too has the organization.

Don't get me wrong. When I say I've seen this coming for years, I'm not claiming psychic powers or inside information. What I'm saying is that, through my past at HP in a global category manager role, in addition to working closely with our own customers and business partners (and increasingly more and more beyond the 50 states) we, ourselves, at StarCite, have built a more global business. (For example, Corporate RFPs within StarCite's Global Online Marketplace were up 82% for the first five months of 2010, compared to the same period last year.). And, if you could take a look at my frequent flyer mileage statements, you'd see that I have become a truly global evangelizer of the wisdom of strategic meetings management (although sometimes with the very necessary help of translators).

So I truly "get" Craig's connection to how our changing jobs reflect the NBTA morphing into a more global entity. And I especially applaud Craig's comments about the change: "As your elected president and CEO, my primary strategic focus is taking NBTA from being a national organization to being a truly global business group that gives you seamless access to best-in-class resources, information and the global network you need—anytime, anyplace."     

Progress and change; good move NBTA!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I hear the seats are filling up fast (100 + so far) for the panel discussion on SMMP Maturity Models that I'll be presenting at next week during the NBTA convention in Houston -- on Tuesday, August 10th, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m.

The session (#TA7) will offer a great chance to learn more about the new SMMP Maturity Model developed by the NBTA Groups & Meetings Committee -- in partnership with StarCite -- and it will give you a chance to gauge just where you are in the strategic meetings management process. The model offers plenty of examples for learning new best practices. To sum it up in very plain language, the new SMMP Maturity Model is a kind of roadmap for continual improvement and advancement in meetings management. So, if you're going to the NBTA conference, I suggest that you register now to grab one of those fast-disappearing seats!

My dear friend Kari Kesler, who is President & Chief Strategist at her own consulting shop, KK Strategic Solutions, will be moderating. I'll be presenting along with Paulette Miklas, CCTE, CMP, Corporate Travel & Meeting Manager at M & T Bank, as well as Tracey Wilt, who is Manager of Global Travel & Meetings Management at Xerox Corporation.

My StarCite colleague and partner in crime, Linda McNairy, who is Vice President of Business Development, as well as chair of the NBTA Groups & Meetings Committee, will also be busy with her own session the same day, Tuesday the 10th, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. She'll be moderating a panel, #TB9, called "Small Meetings = Big Problems?" Linda's session will illustrate various management strategies around small meetings and also feature models of success. I urge you to sign up for this one, too, because if you've got a lot of small meetings at your organization that have slipped under the management radar, you'll walk away with a toolkit that will assist you in developing an appropriate approach for centralized management. Linda's panelists will include: Tim Bone, Director of Union Conventions at Event & Travel; Renee Epple, Vice President, Global Innovations, American Express Business Travel; Charlene Rabideau, CMM, Senior Vice President, Account Management & Operations, at BCD Meetings and Incentives; and Julius Robinson, Vice President, Global Sales, Intermediaries, for Marriott International.       

I'm looking forward to a great convention this year and another chance to catch up with colleagues and friends and to continue spreading the word about the power of strategic meetings management and its positive effect on the corporate bottom line. Hope to see you there! Please feel free, too, to stop by our booth -- #2018 and say, ‘hi.’ 

Oh one more thing, whether you are a Direct or Allied member of NBTA, please take the time to vote for your new Board of Directors.  The candidates running for a Board position will be representing your interests in the years to come; so it’s important that your voice is heard and reflected in your vote.  You will have numerous opportunities to vote, so exercise your right to choose NBTA leadership.  See you in Houston!

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.

Hooray!

We’ve just passed a major milestone for the Strategic Meetings Management blog. Since its launch early last year, more than 5,000 visitors have stopped by. I just wanted to take the opportunity here to sincerely thank all of you, the readers and regular followers of my blog, and all those around the world truly interested in furthering the science of strategic meetings management. When I first joined StarCite, I was introduced to our two talented Marketing leads, Christine Ottow and Don Neske, and in my initial de-brief meeting with them, Christine mentioned that I would be writing the company blog on SMMPs, given my previous background as a global category lead in procurement for HP. 

Honestly, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about the idea, and I really couldn’t fathom why anybody would even care about my opinions or my views of the industry.  I was nevertheless convinced that it was something that I should do. (Besides, as I've learned over the years, when you're starting a job with a new company, it's never wise to begin by saying 'no' to assignments.)

So from that hesitant beginning, look how far we've come! At this milestone, all of us at StarCite want to thank all of the blog's followers from around the world for taking the time to visit, read the posts and, sometimes, leave comments.  I personally want to thank our team (including Christine Ottow, Don Neske, and Don Munro, as well as Kristine Nalbonne and John Hartz from our Public Relations firm, Sloane & Company) for all you collectively do to help me blog better and learn new methods and ideas when it comes to social media.

I’m looking forward to our next milestone! Who knows how far we'll go?

Wow, good things sure do happen when associations collaborate!

I just wanted to give kudos to Lyndsey Pomella (formerly of Phillips) for organizing and constructing the SMM education tracks for this year’s WEC for MPI in beautiful Vancouver, BC.  MPI was very responsive to their members, who were seeking SMM education and tracks. Rather than create another industry standard for SMM, they collaborated with NBTA and used the great SMMP roadmap, definitions and standards established by the NBTA Groups & Meetings Committee. To create another industry standard would have taken time, resources, and a literal re-invention of the “wheel” so to speak. So, MPI in collaboration with NBTA, developed thought leadership tracks based on the existing industry standard. That's why truly great things happen when our associations collaborate.

I can’t say enough about Vancouver! The city is still basking in the successful glow of hosting the last Winter Olympics. The surrounding mountain ranges and open harbor are nothing short of spectacular. The city itself is very easy to get around, and it's efficient and a modern masterpiece of architecture. The hotels are world-class, and the food is remarkable -- a blend of different cultures and organic local treasures from the sea and land.  The best part of the Vancouver experience is the beautiful convention center complex. Not only does it have the best views, as it sits right on the harbor, but the glass atriums and layout make it so enjoyable to walk around and get from meeting room to meeting room, all the while giving you great views of the harbor and skyline.

I’m grateful to our esteemed panelists for making my SMMP session on in-sourcing and out-sourcing an informative and helpful interactive dialog. In my opinion, Steve O’Malley, General Manager of Maxvantage, summed things up the best, when he said that it’s all about “collaboration;” forget about other terms and words, at the end of the day, collaboration makes everyone successful.  I whole heartedly agree, and that should be our collective industry mantra moving forward, as SMM matures and companies benefit from that growth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Filing from stunning Vancouver, BC, Canada, today!

I'm at MPI's World Education Conference (WEC) 2010, where some new sessions on Strategic Meetings Management -- produced by both MPI and NBTA -- prove how much better collaboration is than conflict. It's just what we need more of in this industry!

Vancouver, fresh from successfully hosting the Winter Olympics, is a world-class gorgeous venue for meetings, events and conferences. The Convention Center on the harbor offers spectacular, enchanting views!

Yesterday, Sunday, I started the conference on my best foot by attending a must-see hot topic session: End-to-End SMMP Meetings Technology Solutions. It was great, and one reason was because it featured our own Louann Cashill. Yes, that's right, I said "our own" because, Louann, who was formerly Meeting Services Manager at Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., is now with StarCite managing strategic projects. And boy, are we lucky to get her! On Sunday's WEC panel, Louann was the only panelist who offered actual experience and wisdom from her recent role leading Toyota's meetings and events program.

Today, I'm moderating a high-powered panel from 3:30 to 5:00 Pacific time that features some of our industry's most influential players, including:

- Bruce Morgan, Sr. VP, Marketing and Business Development, BCD Meetings & Incentives
- Steve O'Malley, General Manager, Maxvantage
- Ann Craig, Director of Strategic Meetings Management at Meetings & Incentives
- Terry Sloan, Director of Business Development of CWT Meetings & Events North America
- Rick Binford, EVP, Event Management Services, Experient Technology

We'll first give an overview SMMP, and then the panelists will break down each of the roadmap components and offer insights as to why companies insource some activities and why they outsource some responsibilities.  I'm betting it will be lively and interactive, so I encourage you to come by if you’re attending MPI. But come early as the demand for seats has been high -- and that's a good problem to have for the MPI organizers. They've just added more seats due to higher RSVP demand for this afternoon's panel, so show up early or you may be turned away. Right now there's more than 100 people scheduled to attend! 

More on my impressions of this year’s WEC in Vancouver, BC, in my next post!

It’s not a pleasant topic, so why, in this blog, am I bringing up Arizona's bill, much criticized as it is, to deal with illegal immigration (it’s set to become law on July 23rd)?

One reason only – to underscore the importance that politics, legislation and the media can have on the hospitality and meetings industry.  In Arizona’s case, almost a dozen groups have canceled events over concerns about possible civil liberties violations, and it's estimated that destinations in the state have lost millions in potential attendee spend. Meanwhile, the US Travel Association has come out and called for an end to the boycott, and the hospitality industry has been pretty supportive of Arizona, taking the stance that the state's legislation, any state, for that matter, should not unfairly affect hotels and meetings business

Gosh, I feel like we just fought (and won) this battle for the hospitality industry when the government and media began criticizing meetings as “lavish” during a backlash over TARP. Organizations like the US Travel Association and NBTA fought back with public campaigns that emphasized how important meetings are to jobs and economic stimulus for communities.  

I know I’m over the "AIG effect," and I bet you are, too, especially now that we know that for every dollar invested in business and meetings travel, companies earn $12.50 in incremental revenue, according to an Oxford Economics study. 

One other thing, from a strategic meetings management point of view, if your organization decides to cancel an event because of a political situation or a state or government’s policy on an issue, don’t forget about the legal, contractual angle and the penalties involved. For your memberships’ sake, you should ensure that your terms and conditions protect you – or at least limit the damage of cancellations. Political convictions can be costly in many ways!