Strategic Meetings Management

Kevin is a recognized business travel industry leader with 20-plus years experience managing corporate travel and meetings programs. Kevin was president & CEO of the National Business Travel Association from 2001-2003, where he founded the global Paragon Partnership organization, and forged a relationship between NBTA and Meeting Planners International (MPI).  A true visionary, he foresaw that companies were increasingly converging transient travel management and the corporate meetings function, and so he created and launched the NBTA Groups and Meetings Committee to guide travel managers through this process.

In 2009, Kevin received the NBTA's "Industry Icon Award," the association's highest honor.  The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the managed travel industry.

Kevin speaks and listens to a lot of travel, meeting, purchasing and finance executives about how to boost control over meetings expenditures and improve relationships with suppliers.  In the process, he’s constantly learning about companies’ varied meetings management challenges and the creative, savvy solutions they apply.

Many of you know that I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii.  The 50th state will always hold a special place in my heart as my true home, even though I’ve spent decades on the mainland working on my career in the travel and meetings management industry.  I went to the University of Hawaii, which is today ranked 164th out of 1,600 American colleges (by US News & World Report) and, whose Manoa campus (where I went) has more than 20,000 students. I graduated from the College of Business and took some specialized courses in the School of Travel Industry Management (TIM).  I actually had a scholarship from Hawaiian Airlines to attend the TIM School, as it’s called by many, and I graduated with a degree in Business Administration.
 
It seems like just yesterday when I was a naïve and energetic student, eagerly learning everything I could while attending college and wondering what my true life vocation would be.  Flash forward many years to the present and I just got great news from Dr. Juanita Liu, UH's Dean of the School of Travel Industry Management. My SMMP book, STRATEGIC MEETINGS MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK: From Theory To Practice (released last August) is going to be used as part of the education curriculum for the Events Management Class, taught by Laura U. Gershuni, Instructor, School of Travel Industry Management.  It’s class number TIM 316, and she wrote to me, “ I am delighted to use your book in my class, as it covers so many areas that other meeting books do not (technology, strategy, going global, the variety of authors and expertise).  It will be a valuable addition to TIM 316.”
 
I have to say that the inclusion of our SMMP book into a college classroom for teaching purposes means more to me than anything else, especially when the college is my alma mater.  Let me express a sincere and heartfelt thank you, or “Mahalo” as we say in Hawaii, to Dr. Juanita Liu and Instructor, Laura Gershuni for recognizing the value of the information that was generously shared by the many contributing chapter SMMP experts for this book.  This for me was a surreal “Circle of Life” moment come true and I’m deeply humbled and appreciative for the experience.
 
If you'd like to read STRATEGIC MEETINGS MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK: From Theory To Practice, you can buy it online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Target.com, or by clicking here!

"Netizens." That's a word that I keep reading these days. I'm not in the habit of using it in my everyday conversation, but now I'll have to add it to my regular, personal lexicon.
 
Last week, I saw it once again reading The New York Times -- all about how big Web companies like Google, plus an avalanche of "netizens," protested -- via calls, emails and tweets -- Congressional offices against pending anti-piracy legislation. The objections were that, if passed, the laws would lead to web censorship.
 
Impressive. Apparently, 4.5 million people signed Google's online petition and Twitter received more than two million posts on the subject by early afternoon, last Wednesday. The English-language version of Wikipedia even shut down in protest. The uproar worked, and Congress dropped the two bills -- the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act.
 
What does all this have to do with strategic meetings management, you may be asking? To me, it just reiterates what I've been talking about lately in posts on this blog: the power of social media and the web, and the opportunities -- and challenges -- that come with managing the opinions of netizens, or, in our case, web-savvy meeting attendees and business travelers.
 
By now, a growing number of hotel companies have strategies in place to monitor and respond to guest reviews that are posted on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, TripAdvisor and Yelp. And recently, a few hotels, such as Marriott and Starwood, have even started their own review sites. What all this says to me is that suppliers have gotten the message about the power of the "click," and many are seeking to build loyalty and be more engaged with web reviewer customers.
 
Meeting managers should get the message about the mighty click, too. Here are a few tips to operate in this age of instant web communication and socialization:
 
- Create and communicate (via a Twitter message if you have to) a policy on when it's appropriate and when it's not to post communication on social media. Thoughts about how the big industry convention in Dallas went last week -- okay. Personal views on your CEO's speech at the internal sales meeting yesterday -- not okay.
 
- Meet with your company's communications director or manager and pick their brain about how they monitor and deal with social media postings about the company. How do they handle negative comments by customers, investors and business partners? Learn from what's done already and adapt for your needs.
 
- Use social media tools -- not just to police -- but also to respond to attendees' questions and their desire for better service from you and your suppliers. Social media rules! It's a brave, new world out there ... and because more people have a voice today than ever ... the monitoring is never really done.
 
- Stop being in denial about social media!  As each generation enters the workforce it will accelerate the change in the way we currently communicate within corporate environments.  The new generation doesn't use e-mail as a primary vehicle to communicate, they text and Twitter!
 
Remember also the power of this new media, it toppled Middle Eastern governments and invoked massive social changes that even dictators and armed military couldn't suppress.  Knowledge is power, so use it to empower your SMMP and other business initiatives.  Keep up the good work!
 

The meetings industry has been preparing for the start date of the Physician Payments Sunshine Provisions -- which, as of Jan. 1, requires drug and life sciences companies to report to the government payments and gifts to health care professionals (HCPs), including spending on travel and meals for meetings. Yesterday, The New York Times, in a front page story, reported on the new regulation and said that "about a quarter of doctors take cash payments" and "nearly two-thirds accept routine gifts of food" from health care companies.

If you're a meeting manager at a health-related company, you should use your strategic meetings management (SMM) technology to track and collect the data you'll need organizationwide to be in full compliance. I'm pleased to report that meeting managers at a growing number of pharmaceuticals are telling us that technology is the most effective, efficient way to do this.

StarCite, part of Active Network, has done a lot to help companies of all sizes get ready for this legislation -- via webinars, whitepapers  ... even creating a life sciences industry-specific solution for tracking and reporting HCP spend. So there are plenty of resources available to learn about the new requirements and to start implementing the required changes. Many people might think that the legislation only impacts corporations in the pharmaceutical, bio-med or other healthcare related fields. However, suppliers such as hotels and venues would be wise to familiarize themselves with the regulations as well so they can be partners in corporate efforts to comply with regulations.

While reading yesterday's Times article, I couldn't help think that the eyes of the world are upon our industry.  I believe that this legislation gives pharmaceutical and life sciences companies a wonderful chance to demonstrate their very genuine commitment to productive and responsible medical meetings.

Read how one pharmaceutical giant, Sanofi Pasteur is using StarCite technology to help it stay in compliance with the Sunshine Act.

Business Travel News reporter Chris Davis wrote a story last week about how the Active Network -- which acquired StarCite® -- plans to integrate StarCite's strategic meetings management cloud-based technology with Active Network's attendee (DDD) software.

I was happy to see quotes from Active CEO Dave Alberga complimenting the StarCite technology and talking about how well both companies' technologies will ultimately fit together. He said the acquisition is a "key step we're taking to evolve the meetings industry from one that focuses on meeting logistics and spend management to one that includes continuous community engagement, enabling organizations to build lifetime value with their customers and employees."

That echoes my comments I made in this blog on Jan. 5, when I said that, at most corporations there's currently a "chasm" between SMMPs and Marketing/Sales organizations, and they end up having to purchase separate technology solutions, manage multiple suppliers and, often times, have separate internal managers to manage the spend.

No one has ever said that SMM is easy, and it can be challenging to implement SMM and gain adoption, especially in a large, complex global organization. But in the past decade, SMM has gained a huge foothold in the U.S. – with more than than 50 percent of the top travel buyers named by BTN using StarCite |Active Network technology. And, meetings management is now poised to take off in Europe – as evidenced by how much of the Business Travel Show programme taking place in London next month is focused on meetings management.

One of the major barriers to adoption has been the division between those who are focused on managing the spend/risks versus those who are focused on reaching new customers and thus driving new revenues. Now, through technology and the expertise within the new Business Solutions division we’ll be able to better link the management of meetings to the experience of meetings, ensuring they create value -- which is going to expand the scope and evolution of SMM. Here is an opportunity to bridge this chasm I spoke of, and I and others in the industry are excited about the possibilities. The end goal: to help companies generate revenue, boost market share through expertly planned meetings and events --– whether they’re in-person, mobile, remote or via some combination.

But don’t just take it from me. Christopher Dwyer, Senior Research Analyst at Aberdeen Group, who studies and analyzes this SMM space for a living said it the best: "...This comprehensive technology offering will help bridge the divide between marketing meeting spend and procurement/sourcing for both small and large meetings and conferences, and I am excited to see where the evolved event lifecycle will go in the coming months."

In my New Year's resolution post, I said that I'd be on the forefront of reporting new business travel and meetings management trends, especially as it relates to such issues as Global Duty of Care. Well, along comes this latest news tidbit ... that I just had to share.
 
Are you worried about keeping track of travelers and meetings attendees -- especially if they are in the same path as a natural or man-made emergency somewhere in the world? Air & Business Travel News recently reported that Birmingham, UK-based Click Travel has introduced a new cloud-based product that provides real-time visibility of every customer that booked travel over its network (including travelers en route on airplanes via a connection with GDSs). The tool also features an alert system customers can use to inform their travelers of disruptions to service and how to make alternate travel plans.
 
Ingenious. But maybe some of you out there -- looking for ways to further protect your meetings attendees -- may find this kind of software just a bit intrusive to travelers' privacy. That's why there are other options, chiefly, integrated and holistic strategic meetings management (SMM) systems that instantly put information about travelers whereabouts at your fingertips (through the attendee management module) and then allow you to launch established processes to make alternate travel arrangements for those in harm's way.
 
I'm glad we're continuing to see innovation on the Duty of Care front. And I'm happy to see that more companies are for the first time interested in incorporating Global Duty of Care plans for meetings and working with other areas of their companies to make it a reality.

By the way, if you're attending the Business Travel Show in London from Feb. 7-8, why not register for the "Masterclass" session that I'm leading:

- Risk-managing Your Meetings Programme (MT7) on Tuesday, Feb. 7th; 14:50-15:40 pm
 
For more information on Global Duty of Care, check out these two StarCite webinars:
 
- Meetings and Global Duty of Care: What You Need to Know Now! 
- Meetings and Global Duty of Care Part II: Minimizing the Risks
 

My buddy, travel industry consultant Scott Gillespie recently laid out some drastic changes that he foresees for our industry in a great piece in The Beat. He's also written much about this in his blog: Gillespie's Guide to Travel+Procurement .

Scott is watching "the battle for control and compliance" during the travel shopping/booking process unfold, and he mentions such "minor" winds of change as:

- Travel managers losing the ability to apply policy controls to corporate travelers' booking
choices, with some managers essentially side-stepping controls and letting travelers book as they wish
 
- The appeal to travelers of smartphones and travel apps

The "lightning bolts" that warrant our full attention, however:
 
- Rearden's technology that curates travelers' options into a few categories (e.g., for budget-minded, time-sensitive and high-touch travelers) thereby challenging the traditional corporate definition of a lowest logical fare, and giving travel managers a new concept to deal with: the most "valuable" fare.
 
- Short's Travel co-opting every OTA's shopping abilities (Short's Travel technology applies
corporate discounts to travelers' shopping choices -- even those of online travel agencies). This could give rise to lighter, cleaner self-booking tools (sort of like the netbook vs. the laptop) for corporate travelers "because they won't carry the baggage of the search/shop functionality." They'll be designed to do just self-booking.
 
- Voice-based user interfaces from Apple (for example, Siri), Google and Evature -- in other
words, a convenient, voice-activated way of booking -- will beat out compliance to corporate
booking tools.
 
- American Airlines' public questioning of the value of corporate contracts. Frank Morogiello, VP of Global Sales at American Airlines, recently said publicly that airline CFOs are questioning the value of corporate contracts -- chiefly because many companies aren't moving targeted and desired market share for the carriers to warrant sustained discounting.
 
What we're witnessing is a new move toward non-compliance, and technology is leading us there by the nose. Thank you, Scott, and thanks, too, to The Beat, for bringing these trends out to the forefront where we can look at them and analyze ways of meeting the challenges or adopting them.
 
You've heard me say many times that travel and meetings managers need to stop looking down at their desks everyday and occasionally look up to see what's coming down the turnpike!  You need to familiarize yourself with new technologies and investigate who within your organization are using them to circumvent policy and lowest pricing options. From there, I guess it's up to you which road you want to take in order to increase compliance: use new technologies to your advantage or beef up policies to mandate that travelers use designated agencies or OTAs in order to utilize corporate discounts.

Perhaps you need to do both!

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step” – Lao-Tzu

Today marks a momentous step forward in our world of global corporate meetings and events.  If you haven’t heard or read about it yet, let me be the first to share with you the great news.  Early this morning, before Wall Street opened for business, Active Network (NYSE: ACTV) announced the launch of its Business Solutions division.

The new division connects event suppliers, organizations and attendees—powered by a suite of technology solutions that meets the needs of any event or meeting—to drive unprecedented cost savings, efficiencies and deeper audience engagement.

As a part of the launch, Active Network also announced the acquisition of StarCite®—the leader in global corporate travel and strategic meetings management (SMM)—which will become part of the company’s Business Solutions division. In addition to our global corporate customer base, StarCite will also provide Active Network access to a vast worldwide online marketplace of the top hotels, destinations and venue suppliers.

The combination of two of the largest technology providers for the SMM marketplace and the events/conference/association and sporting events marketplace is exciting news and, in my humble opinion, a real game-changer for the meetings and events industry, as well as the general consumer marketplace.

Active Network serves four key markets: business events, community activities, outdoors and sports and has over 47,000 customers. Last year they generated 70 million online transactions!  The combined customer base for both Active Network and StarCite will range from top global corporations and technology companies, to the National Parks Service and state campgrounds, to sports organizers like Little League and IronMan, to local agencies such as the City of Phoenix and neighborhood YMCAs. 

The power of the combined technologies will provide the first-ever global ecosystem connecting event suppliers, organizations and attendees. Specifically for corporations trying to manage an SMMP, plus deliver value and data for their Marketing departments who have different requirements and needs, the combination of these technologies will expand and redefine  a truly end-to-end solution that captures spend and logistics -- from the smallest meetings to the largest events and conferences. 

Currently there’s a chasm that exists between SMMPs and Marketing/Sales for most corporations, and they end up having to purchase separate technology solutions, manage multiple suppliers and often times have separate internal managers to manage the spend.  The end result is continued fragmentation of expense/spend data, disjointed functionality requirements and multiple internal owners.   The combination of our two leading technologies will change all of that by providing a truly end-to-end global ecosystem for meeting and events management.

Needless to say I’m excited about the future of our industry and our customers based on today’s announcement.  I predict that this will be a change catalyst for many global companies, event organizers, government departments and suppliers in 2012 and beyond.  In my recent holiday blog, I promised that I'd go the extra mile to share unique thoughts and observances about current and developing meetings industry trends.  Consider today’s post as the first of many to come -- where I hope to blog about “SMEMP” (Strategic Meetings & Events Management Programs) and the next generation of complete end-to-end technology solutions for a larger, more robust and further diversified marketplace! 

Happy New Year everyone!

An article in The New York Times today made me smile with recognition. It's all about an entrepreneur who travels often on business to meet prospective clients -- and to far-off destinations such as Asia and Europe (Since I'm on the West Coast of the U.S., going to Europe is a trek). And talking about one of his trips, the executive, Ty Morse, CEO of Songwhale, a Pittsburgh, PA-based interactive technology company, reminds us all about the cultural intricacies of doing business abroad. "In China, we had translators, but we were still used to conducting business American style, where you can get a deal done in two hours and everybody leaves happy," he said. "But in Asia, every meeting was about 10 hours long and everyone wanted to serve us food. We were so stuffed and jet-lagged, it was ridiculous."
 
Later in the article, Morse, notes that: "The trip was actually worth it since we eventually opened two offices in China and one in Indonesia. But sometimes you don't get the deal."
 
In this blog, I have often recounted trips that I've taken to Asia, Europe and other parts of the world, and on nearly every trip, I have learned about new, subtle -- or not so subtle -- differences in the way business in done from the style here in the U.S. I consider it a continuous growth experience.
 
For example, did you know that in some countries in Europe and Asia/Pacific, alcohol is very often served at lunch during business meetings? In the U.S., that's a practice that was once fashionable in the "Mad Men"era of two and three martinis, when men wore hats and women gloves. But is now frowned upon, due to cultural changes in the U.S. as well as an aversion to anything that could lead to litigation.
 
And in many parts of Asia, there is a strong culture of consensus, as far as decision-making goes, versus the often quick decisions that can come out of U.S. meetings.
 
If your company has global ambitions, it's wise to consider these and other cultural differences when doing business overseas. And it's especially important to give direction to meeting planners, who, when organizing events, can advise attendees on crucial points like social etiquette tips and proper attire.
 
Start the new year off right -- educate yourself about the world's varied business practices! Here's an intriguing article I read about practicing good manners globally.

There I was this morning, fingers on my keyboard, all ready to write about my resolutions for the new year, when I stumbled across Sue Pelletier's intentions in her blog. Sue, who is the very talented editor of MeetingsNet Web and Medical Meetings magazine, must have read my mind -- because so many of her resolutions touch upon what I plan to focus on next year. So, I thought I'd borrow a few of Sue's intentions for the new year and highlight what I'll be evangelizing about in 2012:


 -  Meetings ROI – Sue’s top five resolutions all center around making meetings better. She discusses how valuable smaller meetings are for participants, and how important it is to structure meetings content, speakers, and session time blocks (including free time!) along with ensuring that meetings are marketed effectively to drive the right attendance. It’s important for all of us to remember that Meetings ROI and being able to measure and report results is critical and I intend to focus more on this in the coming year.

Meetings Preparedness (Safety, Communications, Corporate Responsibility)

- Helping companies be prepared for the "Muffingates" of the future and misperceptions (mostly by those outside the industry) about how wasteful meetings spend is with a good communications /public relations plan. You'll want to make sure that your upper management understands the business value of meetings -- regardless of how things "appear."

- Creating global Duty of Care plans that spell out how your planners should go about helping meetings attendees who are facing natural or man-made disasters. If the past few years (earthquakes, tsunamis, political revolutions) have taught us anything, it's this: We live in an unsafe world, and you need to be prepared to deal with it.

- Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into your meetings program as a way to give back to the communities you gather in. There are so many ways to give back, whether it's a food drive or a park cleanup, and new research shows that a majority of companies have CSR goals and want their suppliers to have programs, as well.  

Expanding SMM

- More emphasis on small meetings management; as Sue states, they're a great format for intimate learning and socialization. And because over 70% of meetings in an organization are "small meetings," a meetings category often overlooked, they should be incorporated within an SMM, and I'll be looking at more holistic management of small meetings, too.

- Embracing social networking and virtual meetings; they're here to stay. Both trends help extend your business goals beyond limited audiences. But both need careful management, too.

I'd like to add some more hours to my day, too, but this post is about realistic goals!

Happy New Year!

Once again, my friends at AirPlus have shed some new light on a meetings industry trend through their surveys. This time, AirPlus polled 175 corporate travel managers in November on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives and found that many companies are doing CSR activities, and they expect their suppliers to be good citizens, too. Yet, surprisingly, few have a process in place to inquire about suppliers' efforts.
 
For example, AirPlus found:
 
- 55% have implemented "green" initiatives, such as setting goals to reduce the carbon impact of business travel, and 42% expect their preferred suppliers to have their own green initiatives (for example, water conservation and waste recycling programs) in place
- About 59% donate money to charity, while just over 27% expect their travel suppliers to do so
- 53% donate services to charity, and almost 26% expect the same of preferred suppliers
 
While many companies are taking the high road in their communities and expect their suppliers to take the trip with them, a surprising few actually inquire into their suppliers' CSR activities and policies. For example, the AirPlus data revealed that more than 62% have no plans to include CSR criteria in RFPs to payment companies.
 
If you're a travel, procurement or meetings manager, make sure your suppliers' CSR policies are aligned with your own -- especially if your commitment to making the earth greener depends on suppliers' own practices. Instruct planners to query airlines, hotels, car rental firms and commercial payment companies on their CSR policies and practices via electronic RFP tools. If you're using a good platform, there should be a feature for asking ad hoc questions.
 
If you're trying to be a good citizen, take that extra step to make sure your suppliers are, too!

I've always felt that the holidays are a great time to reflect on the important people in our lives, what we've accomplished over the past year and where our goals will take us in the new year.
 
I know that I am very grateful to a whole bunch of people for enriching both my professional and personal lives -- all my hard-working and dedicated colleagues at StarCite, my peers throughout the industry who, like me, are committed to advancing the science and practice of strategic meetings management, and the many meeting, travel and procurement professionals that I get to meet around the world -- who inspire me with their determination to holistically transform their meetings program to benefit their companies.
 
This year, I traversed the globe, visiting Asia, Europe and Australia (among dozens of destinations), evangelizing about the merits of SMM and meetings technology and, increasingly, promoting the notion that companies should implement formal Duty of Care plans for meetings -- given the unsafe world we all live in. During my travels, I'm so lucky that I got to meet the architects of change within companies the world over.

This year, I experienced one of the highlights of my professional life: editing and publishing the first true industry guidebook for developing strategic meetings management programs: Strategic Meetings Management Handbook: From Theory to Practice, and I want to once again thank the 10 other writers (all meetings industry thought leaders) for contributing their chapters.
 
I'm also extremely pleased that I got to help StarCite grow--we experienced year-over-year marketplace growth to the tune of a 20% increase in RFPs in North America, a 127% spike in Europe and a nearly 47% rise in APAC.
 
I could take up a lot of space here with more about what a fantastic year I had in 2011. But I'll end with a forward-looking statement for 2012: Watch out for all kinds of innovation from StarCite -- developments that will benefit both corporate buyers and suppliers.
 
And, in this blog space, I promise that I'll go the extra mile to share unique thoughts and observances about current and developing meetings industry trends. In 2011, this 'little blog that could' won a Silver Magellan Award from Travel Weekly magazine in the On-line Travel Services, Blog category. I promise to keep up that standard of excellence ... so keep reading!
 
Happy Holidays to all!

My friend and industry consultant, Betsy Bondurant, CMP, CMM and President of Bondurant Consulting, offers some great, simple tips on managing the nuances of communication in a strategic meetings management program (SMMP) in her latest newsletter. I liked them so much that I thought I’d share with all of you:
 
Tip #1: Don't assume that those you work with inside of your company understand the nuances of the meeting and event industry. Before starting a conversation, ask if you can take timeout to explain some of the processes and define terminology.
 
Tip #2: If meeting rates are coming in much higher than a previous meeting at the same hotel, be sure to proactively share some of the reasons with your client (peak season versus shoulder season, sellers market, or pattern implications).
 
Tip #3: If you are sending out a report or slide deck that you will not have the luxury of presenting in person, be sure that all acronyms and terminology unique to our industry are defined and explained in the beginning or in footnotes.  
 
Betsy offers a lot of great SMMP advice in the Knowledge Center on her website; so go check it out.  In addition, Betsy generously contributed a wonderfully informative chapter ("Integrating a Meeting Card Into Your SMMP") for our book, Strategic Meetings Management Handbook, From Theory to Practice, which you can purchase online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Target.com, or by clicking here!

One of the many things I'm looking forward to in 2012 is watching the Olympic Games in London -- where more than 10,000 athletes from 200 nations will be competing for the gold! It promises to be a grand spectacle, and London, indeed all of Britain, is getting ready for this summer event (For example, a new Olympic Stadium has been built in Stratford, in East London, and there's been many improvements made to public transportation).
 
I was reminded of the impending Olympics and what that means for meetings after reading about a Deloitte survey in a BTN story that found 42% of companies polled had already examined "the opportunities and challenges" facing their businesses as a result of the Olympics, while 53% plan to carry out an assessment but haven't yet done so. If your meetings program includes venues in London, here is some advice -- some drawn from the BTN piece and some from my experience managing global travel during special events -- for making sure your planners are ready for the crunch of this coming event:
 
- Play the "advisor" role in communicating the risk for travel disruption (for example, the possibility of delays from extra heavy use of public transport) during the Olympics, and provide guidance to planners, travelers and meeting attendees on alternatives;
- Work with HR, Travel, IT and other departments to ensure business continuity plans are solid during this special event;
- Act now to book your hotel or meeting space in London, as hotel demand is expected to be extremely heavy;
- Protect yourself from fluctuating rates by making sure your preferred suppliers lock in negotiated rates (It helps, too, to guarantee your full volume commitment during this period.);
- Consider alternatives if housing space is scarce, for example, hotels in outlying towns;
- Avoid the area altogether and make it a travel destination for "mission critical business" only;
- Review air capacity needs with your preferred air partners and reinforce your corporate discount fare categories (Airlines can sometimes change, eliminate and add fare categories overnight to maximize full revenue opportunities and get around their commitment for corporate discounting.);
- Be very wary of advance purchase payment requirements; the wording around restrictions will be extremely narrow and, of course, advantageous to the hotels; 
- Educate business travelers that any bookings made outside of the approved corporate process, policy and suppliers may have severe repercussions for non-compliance as this is when employees (who are not experts) can unintentionally force a company to pay for cancellation, attrition and changes with exorbitant costs because of this special situation.
 
If you have meetings planned in London during the Olympics, act now to prepare yourself to minimize and avoid Olympic-sized logistics challenges and potentially higher penalties and costs!

What a difference a couple of years make!
 
That was when I first started really evangelizing about the need for companies to include meetings in their corporate Global Duty of Care plans -- to cooperate with and learn from internal stakeholders such as those who run Duty of Care plans in Human Resources and Risk departments and then create and implement a program designed for meetings attendees.
 
Why was I so eager to talk about this topic and push change? For one, I was alarmed at the number of procurement, travel and meeting managers I was talking with who had no concept of what Duty of Care meant in all its different facets (In one StarCite webinar about Duty of Care, 63% of attendees had no program in place.)

Why should companies care? There is the obligation to help meetings attendees who encounter emergencies or who are in trouble on the road, and then there's the need to ensure that you're complying with legislation that requires you to take care of traveling employees, just as you would those at home base. In fact, when I talk about this subject in the EMEA region, they seem to jump on the bandwagon quicker than they do in the U.S. Perhaps that's because of strong central legislation, like the U.K. Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act of 2007, which makes clear that the workplace (and therefore liability for corporate welfare) is not restricted to the brick and mortar of headquarters. 
 
Over the past several years, the concept and practices around Duty of Care have gone mainstream, with webinars and whitepapers and studies being produced and sessions at conferences devoted to the topic. No wonder! Just consider what the world has witnessed over the past several years -- a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, blankets of traveling ash from a volcano in Iceland and political uprisings across the Middle East (and now, Russia).
 
Last week, Annapolis, Md.-based iJET, the global provider of intelligence and business resiliency services, released a report saying that the new year would bring "unprecedented challenges and risks" for companies and meeting managers who must ensure the safety of employees. According to a story in Meetings & Conventions magazine, my friend, iJet President Bruce McIndoe, predicted that global unrest would continue next year and "over time, increase in frequency and severity."
 
I'm fully with iJet when they advise that "organizations must continually monitor the environment for indicators and signals of change" so that they can better manage that change. This should be done proactively, in advance of events -- and on a regular basis.
 
Check out iJet's forecast for possible emergency situations around the world, and for helpful advice on what you need to know about Global Duty of Care and how you can protect your employees in this unsafe world, read this StarCite whitepaper.
 
In the meantime, my mission for Global Duty of Care continues! Do you have plans to institute a Duty of Care plan in 2012?

The newest survey of incentive planners by the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) reveals that there hasn't yet been a return to the 'good old days,' before the economic crisis and negative public perception of so-called lavish corporate events. In fact, there's some doubt about whether 2012 will be the year of a return to good times.
 
In its latest poll of planners, the IRF found respondents "less optimistic" than they were in the spring about their ability to plan and implement incentive programs, and they consider the economy as having a negative impact on their ability to run the programs they like, said IRF president Melissa Van Dyke, in a story in Conworld.net. The poll found:
 
- 62% think the economy is having a negative impact on program planning
- 28% expect budgets to decline next year (45% see no change, while 27% expect an increase)
- More than half the programs will only provide air tickets -- no incidentals
- 41% will reduce the number of nights per trip
- 40% are cutting "non-meal" components
 
From my interactions with meeting managers, these numbers make perfect sense. Companies are still skittish about being seen celebrating ANYTHING -- at a time when the economy is so uncertain and unemployment still so high. Those that are holding incentive events are cutting back on entertainment, beefing up the educational content and choosing locales that can be perceived as less flashy. Indeed, the IRF survey found that 83% are providing incentive travel to destinations within the U.S., while, on the other end of the scale, less than 18% are considering places in Asia, South America, Africa or the Middle East.
 
Someday soon, if the economy cooperates, incentive trips will be fully back in fashion. Still, I don't think we'll see a return to the days of excess. The lessons the meeting industry have learned about moderation are here to stay.

Here's a distressing statistic: fewer than 5% of all meetings are measured for their business value, according to research by Meeting Professionals International, and featured in a recent article in Meetingsnet. Of course, having said that, it's because calculating ROI has been the Holy Grail for many SMM executives and their companies and would, of course, vary from company to company.
 
Even though determining ROI to date has been challenging, in this day and age of cost-consciousness, more and more senior executives are demanding proof that meetings are necessary (and a worthwhile outlay of funds).

It doesn't help that over the last several years, there has been relatively few tools to measure ROI (I have to mention that my good friend and fellow SMMP evangelist Debi Scholar, introduced a free tool earlier this year to measure how meetings technology can improve your ROI.).
 
But now, thanks to MPI, we have another option. MPI has just announced a Business Value of Meetings Toolbox, including the following features under development:
 
- instructional videos and podcasts
- articles about solutions and examples of successes
- best practice case studies and related webinars
- how-to guides, tutorials, and workbooks
 
The new tools are free to MPI members, and nonmembers can buy them.
 
Thank you, MPI, for these valuable additional ROI tools that those seeking cost- and value-justification of meetings can use. What I'm also happy about is that the tools are designed to help travel, meeting and procurement managers overcome stubborn barriers to measuring meeting value, such as difficulty getting stakeholder buy-in, defining meeting objectives and expectations, devising meaningful ways to measure value, and analyzing and reporting data on the business value of meetings.
 
Gathering and presenting ROI on meetings is no easy task ... but it's a worthwhile one. That's why StarCite has put together a free webinar: "Demonstrate the Value of Your Strategic Meetings Management Program." Check it out here!

Several weeks ago, I got up at our annual StarCite Global Leadership Symposium and gave my views on meetings trends ahead in 2012 and beyond. One of those trends was: growing use of electronic meetings (webcasting and teleconferencing) -- either as a replacement for non-revenue generating meetings or to boost the effectiveness of in-person events.
 
Well, I'm glad to read that AirPlus International has just confirmed my predictions. AirPlus interviewed 173 corporate travel buyers in Europe and North America and found that, even as we're climbing out of a travel slump, about 32% said that, over the past year, more virtual meetings have replaced in-person travel. The same percentage said that there are more virtual meetings at their companies but that they are not replacing face-to-face events. Meanwhile about 33% said the volume has remained the same.
 
But are those electronic events as successful as in-person meetings? That's a question that I never tire of asking. According to AirPlus, there is ambivalence out there when it comes to this issue. Sixty-eight percent said that remote conferencing is only "sometimes" as effective as meeting in person.
 
Meanwhile, about 21% said remote conferencing was either never or rarely as effective as meeting in person. As I've said before in this blog, telepresence, teleconferencing, web meetings and other remote conferencing methods are all extremely valuable tools that meeting managers can use to keep costs down and extend the reach of their meetings programs.  Yes, we'll see some companies increasingly rely on them to keep in touch with
employees, salespeople and others. But they are no means a replacement for in-person events, especially with clients and prospective customers -- where the nuances of body language, facial expressions and good old-fashioned human-to-human contact can go miles toward solidifying bonds and business.
 
AirPlus's findings bear this out. Thanks, AirPlus, for keeping tabs on this and other important trends.

I just read the news: Jack O'Neill is retiring at the end of the year as President of Carlson Wagonlit Travel North America. CWT's Håkan Ericsson, currently president of the agency's operations in Latin America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will assume Jack's role. 

So I guess this is finally official -- as Jack and I have discussed this off-the-record several times.  All I can say is that our industry is losing a wonderful executive who is a true gentleman and icon.  I for one will miss Jack's wisdom and professionalism immensely and I know his staff and team at CWT will miss his leadership as well.

One of my career highlights that I periodically look back and reflect warmly upon is when Jack stood up at The Masters in 2003 as I concluded moderating an industry executive panel and thanked me on behalf of the industry for a job well done as GBTA President and CEO.  In front of a powerful group of industry executives, Jack took the initiative to express his sentiments over my tenure as GBTA President.  I recall feeling very humbled and touched that a guy of Jack’s stature would do that and lead a huge round of applause.

For one of the very few times in my life, I was speechless.  But then again, those who know
Jack, will tell you that’s the kind of guy he is.  He’s the ultimate, motivating team leader who leads by example and not by empty words and hollow catch phrases.

Congratulations and good luck Jack for a well deserved retirement.  On behalf of our industry, let me now take the lead and say "thank you" for a job well done. But more importantly, please stay in touch with those of us privileged to call you a friend.

I love hearing about savings and efficiencies generated by improved meeting management ... after all, helping companies implement positive changes to their meetings programs is what I do. That's why I was so pleased to read in Travel Market Report about the many different ways that Will Anderson, deputy director of travel services at Sanofi Pasteur,
the vaccines division of the Sanofi-Aventis Group, transformed his meetings program.
 
According to the piece, after adopting our meetings management technology, Anderson turned his "freestyle approach to meetings" into a holistic system of meetings management. For example, the technology enabled Anderson to build invitation pages, register attendees and manage budgets.
 
Sanofi Pasteur's Swiftwater, PA, office now manages 460 meetings per year versus 200 previously.  Eliminating purchase orders has brought the company $60,000 in savings annually. And, with hotel contract boilerplates now established and accessible to all meeting planners, associates no longer need assistance with every contract.
 
Going holistic has also given Sanofi Pasteur a clearer, more detailed picture of its spending, which is very important for a pharmaceutical company -- as it needs to report all meetings-related expenditures on health care professionals (HCPs). And I'm happy to say that our Business Intelligence is providing thorough reporting to the company to give it the information that it needs in order to comply with Sunshine Act provisions of U.S. healthcare reform.
 
More comprehensive data has also improved Sanofi Pasteur's relationships with its suppliers, according to the article.
 
Business travel and meeting managers the world over are looking for new ways to reduce and control costs, and in these very uncertain economic times, one of the more decisive, strategic moves you can make is to study how others are improving their SMMPs. I highly recommend reading Will Anderson's story in Travel Market Report. It proves that SMM is more than a theory; if deployed strategically it can demonstrate significant value for your organization.

Check out, too, the story in Business Travel News, naming Will a 2011 Best Practitioner for implementing an advanced SMMP. Congratulations Will!