While a strategic approach to meetings management is not a new concept to corporate America, the current economic climate could be prompting companies to manage and track their meetings expenditures as never before.
“One major result of this economic crisis is that more companies will consolidate their meetings and travel operations, and both will be linked with procurement,” says Kevin Maguire, president and CEO of the National Business Travel Association. “Now that we’re in the middle of the strangest time in the travel industry that I’ve ever seen, there’s going to be a culture change in the way meetings are handled.”
He adds that as more companies place their meetings and travel operations under the dictates of procurement departments, procurement managers are becoming “more understanding that travel is dependent on relationships with suppliers—it’s not just like buying pens and paperclips.”
Issa Jouaneh, vice president-global meetings solutions for American Express Business Travel, also says interest among companies in managing and tracking meetings spend, often in combination with travel, is on the rise.
“The interest in centralized sourcing is a key trend we’re seeing in the market,” he says. “Corporations are focused on meetings spend more than ever. Meeting planners are being asked to do more with less and they are being asked to justify the value of the corporate investment in meetings.”
Among companies that have come on board with centralization is Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, which recently created a meetings and events department to oversee operations. According to Meetings and Events Manager Kathleen Zwart, CMP, the centralized approach is helping the company to not only leverage its spend with suppliers, but minimize attrition penalties.
Under the new system, she says planners can “alert other departments when a meeting is canceled or under the block and to see if we can work with the hotel or venue to minimize any penalties.”
Independent meeting planners are also seeing the need to play a strategic role with corporate clients in ways that go far beyond handling logistics.
“We start by looking at their goals and objectives, and work with them to ensure that the meeting, including its core content, reaches these goals,” says Donna Valentine, CMP, president of San Francisco-based Excel Meetings and Events.“
