This week I attended Aberdeen's annual Chief Procurement Officer Summit in Boston and the weather was perfect, though I spent my whole two days there indoors at the new Seaport Hotel and Conference Center. The summit is a must-attend event for procurement executives -- everybody from chief procurement officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers, to VPs of procurement, finance, supply chain, operations, logistics and manufacturing.
Broadly, these executives get together to discuss best practices in supply management -- and strategic meetings management now figures prominently in that.
It's a plain fact that meeting and travel managers are working more closely with procurement executives these days. The directive is typically from up above, as all kinds of indirect expenditures are increasingly coming under senior executive scrutiny and being targeted for improved oversight. From the moment I arrived at the summit, it was wonderful to interact with procurement executives and discuss how to rein in meetings costs, improve processes with technology, improve sourcing efficiencies and -- something near and dear to my heart -- risk mitigation! Indeed, it's no exaggeration to say that this year at CPO, meetings management was front and center.
I was at the front table for an excellent panel discussion on "Strategic Meetings," which featured industry veteran, Lynn Ridzon, Director, Global Strategic Sourcing - Travel, Meetings & Events at Amgen (at right in the picture) and Shirley Kuhloie, Global Meetings Program Leader at Hewlett-Packard (on the left). Forgive the quality of the photo, as I used my Blackberry to snap this shot. I want to commend them both for their advice (and they used layman's terms) on the how and why of putting together a SMMP. They were candid enough, too, to articulate that, yes, there'll be some pain points over the life of developing, winning support, communicating and implementing an SMMP, but the ROI outweighs any difficulties. And that's something that will get C-level executive attention, especially in these challenging economic times! They also stressed the importance of SMMP technology in making changes happen uniformly, streamlining tasks and winning with suppliers.
Congratulations to Lynn and Shirley for a terrific job in articulating the merits of strategic meetings management.
If you're a meetings manager and considering how to coordinate with your corporate travel and procurement departments to create an organization-wide SMMP, I suggest you read this helpful white paper that lays out some best practices and will help you get started.
Broadly, these executives get together to discuss best practices in supply management -- and strategic meetings management now figures prominently in that.
It's a plain fact that meeting and travel managers are working more closely with procurement executives these days. The directive is typically from up above, as all kinds of indirect expenditures are increasingly coming under senior executive scrutiny and being targeted for improved oversight. From the moment I arrived at the summit, it was wonderful to interact with procurement executives and discuss how to rein in meetings costs, improve processes with technology, improve sourcing efficiencies and -- something near and dear to my heart -- risk mitigation! Indeed, it's no exaggeration to say that this year at CPO, meetings management was front and center.
I was at the front table for an excellent panel discussion on "Strategic Meetings," which featured industry veteran, Lynn Ridzon, Director, Global Strategic Sourcing - Travel, Meetings & Events at Amgen (at right in the picture) and Shirley Kuhloie, Global Meetings Program Leader at Hewlett-Packard (on the left). Forgive the quality of the photo, as I used my Blackberry to snap this shot. I want to commend them both for their advice (and they used layman's terms) on the how and why of putting together a SMMP. They were candid enough, too, to articulate that, yes, there'll be some pain points over the life of developing, winning support, communicating and implementing an SMMP, but the ROI outweighs any difficulties. And that's something that will get C-level executive attention, especially in these challenging economic times! They also stressed the importance of SMMP technology in making changes happen uniformly, streamlining tasks and winning with suppliers. Congratulations to Lynn and Shirley for a terrific job in articulating the merits of strategic meetings management.
If you're a meetings manager and considering how to coordinate with your corporate travel and procurement departments to create an organization-wide SMMP, I suggest you read this helpful white paper that lays out some best practices and will help you get started.
Powered by Compendium Blogware
Comments for Meetings Management Hot Topic at CPO Summit