On the whole, corporations who employ independent meeting planners do so on a contractual, case-by-case basis. Most who already have in-house planners on staff will contact an independent meeting planner or third-party meeting planning company to outsource the logistical aspects of the job.
However, the Global Meeting Solutions Department at San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Systems has found another way to balance outsourcing with in-house managment, according to Sharon Marsh, CMP, CMM, vendor relationship manager for Cisco.
“Cisco does it differently than other companies do it,” Marsh says, explaining that the organization outsources the logistics of their meetings, but does so through an employment company with planners dedicated full-time to Cisco.
The department employs in-house program managers to oversee strategic meetings management and vendor relations, while logistics are handled by outsourced meeting planners who also work on-site at the company.
She says that the arrangement is somewhat similar to a corporation that has an on-site travel agency handling all of the organization’s business travel.
“The planners work full-time on Cisco meeting management, but they are employees of a third-party,” Marsh says. “They don’t have benefits through Cisco, but through another company.”
