Strategic Meetings Management Program

Need information about implementing a Strategic Meetings Management Program? Are you looking for tips on negotiating contracts? Or maybe you just need to check out the latest food & beverage trends for events? MeetingsNet is the perfect resource!

MeetingsNet’s websites and magazines are conducting their annual subscription drive and invite all professionals with meeting planning responsibility to sign up for free subscriptions to Corporate Meetings & Incentives (now including Financial & Insurance Meetings), Association Meetings, and Medical Meetings. Religious meeting planners can get more information about obtaining a subscription to Religious Conference Manager.

MeetingsNet also publishes the popular MeetingsNet Extra, delivered every Tuesday to your inbox with newsbreaking stories, and MeetingsNet Tech Extra, a monthly newsletter that takes the mystery out of meeting technologies. It just takes a few minutes, and planners have the option of signing up for digital or mail delivery.

Visit MeetingsNet to subscribe today!

Slow and steady is the motto for business travel next year, according to a recent survey by the National Business Travel Association. According to its 2010 Business Travel Buyers' Cost Forecast of 180 direct corporate travel buyers, 69 percent of respondents expect to see business travel volume "grow slowly" throughout 2010.

For meetings, 58 percent of respondents said that reducing the number of meetings is one of their measures to cut costs in 2010. However, on the bright side, this percentage is much lower than last year, when 85 percent said they would be cutting meetings.

To save money, travel buyers also cited auditing travel and entertainment expenses (84 percent), enforcing travel policies (77 percent), mandating online booking (76 percent), and reducing nonessential travel (71 percent) as their cost-cutting measures. Just over half of respondents—more than twice as many as last year—also said they would start implementing Strategic Meetings Management programs for their meeting in 2010.

One year ago, Cvent Meetings & Events blog was born! We've certainly grown—we're now over 1,000 posts strong!

To celebrate, I decided to take a look back at some of the year's highlights with a recap of our 10 most popular posts. Enjoy!

• How to Add Attendees—Not Expenses—to Your Event You can roll out an expensive marketing campaign or turn to discounted event prices to encourage registration, but you don't always have to do so.

• 3 Benefits of Banquetology Usually you'd think that bigger is better when it comes to catering at meetings and events. But in fact banquetology's "less is more" concept can be quite beneficial to planners in a number of ways.

• What to Include in Your Invitation Reminder Emails What can you do to increase your invitation response rate? Reminder emails are the answer.

• 3 Centerpiece Ideas to Save the Environment and Your Budget One area of meeting spend that can definitely get out of hand quickly is that of decor. It's also one that can be very wasteful, especially when it comes to centerpieces. Can you really save on centerpieces and be eco-friendly?

• How to Create a Custom Meeting Request Form In your already busy world, handling multiple meeting requests can get overwhelming. That's why meeting forms can be an invaluable tool in your Strategic Meetings Management program.

• 3 Caterers Offering Gluten-Free Menu Options One growing dietary concern among event guests is the need for a gluten-free option. Luckily, event caterers are hearing the call from planners to offer gluten-free meals.

• Creating Name Badges Doesn't Have to Be a Pain The task of creating name badges can be a time-consuming one. Event registration software such as Cvent makes it so much easier.

• 3 Ways Team Building Events Benefit Your Organization and Staff While professional networking, training and education are all key facets to your events, the benefits of team building to your employees and the organization as a whole should not be overlooked.

• 2009 Top 10 Meeting Trends Benchmark Hospitality International has released its Top 10 Meeting Trends for 2009, as observed at 30 award-winning properties.

• 3 Reasons Why Michael Scott Needs Cvent for The Office It's great that Michael can use Evite to quickly create an invitation and get some data on who is attending and who is not. But a 0.2 percent response rate? He could do better than that.

On the heels of Tuesday's news that more meetings are being booked already this year, a study from American Express Business Travel found that we will likely see an increased demand for meetings in 2010. As such, rates are likely to increase slightly in most travel categories.

"Considering airfare, hotel, and ground transportation, we expect the average domestic business trip to increase 1.2 percent, or $13, to a total of approximately $1,080," said Herve Sedky, vice president and general manager, American Express Business Travel. "An increase of 2.4 percent, or approximately $67, is expected for international business trips to bring the average cost to $2,818."

At the same time, the Global Business Travel Forecast predicts that companies will have more formal oversight of their meetings next year. Companies are expected to loosen purse-strings on events and conferences, with potential in-roads made by travel category managers adopting strategic meetings management programs.

What do you think? Is your organization preparing to host or attend more meetings next year?

Given the beating our industry has taken of late, there is no better time for planners to demonstrate the value they bring to an organization. A number of experts are predicting the birth of a new corporate position: meetings architect, or meetings designer. The key is to think strategically, not just logistically.

Join Meetings & Conventions on October 20, 2009, at 2 PM EDT for the webcast "The ABC's of SMMP," sponsored by Cvent. Moderated by Senior Editor Michael Shapiro, the webcast will provide an introduction to Strategic Meetings Management Programs, or SMMP, the tenets of which the National Business Travel Association has been developing since 2004. With a new SMMP certification in the works and strategic planning more important than ever, this webcast will get you up to speed, so register today!

And don't forget, you can get involved in the discussion on Twitter using #mcwebcast. Follow Cvent for any updates!

Cvent will be attending HSMAI's Affordable Meetings National Exhibition and Conference, held Wednesday, September 9, to Thursday, September 10, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. Held annually, the conference is expected to host 1,700 professionals representing all segments of the industry.

A major focus of HSMAI's Affordable Meetings National is the tradeshow featuring roughly 475 exhibitors, including hotels, top destinations, industry suppliers and in-demand products and services. Make sure to visit Cvent at booth 6010 during the show, which runs Wednesday from 12:30 PM to 3 PM and Thursday from 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM.

In addition to the expo, both Reggie Aggarwal, Cvent founder and CEO, and Brian Ludwig, Cvent vice president of sales, have been selected as featured speakers at this DC event. Reggie will present Wednesday from 9:30 AM to 10:45 AM on "Dispelling Common Misconceptions about Online RFPs—Uniting Planners and Suppliers to Increase Industry Efficiency." Brian will present Thursday from 8 AM to 9:15 AM on "SMM: Manage and Measure Your Meeting Spend."

Additionally, on Wednesday, September 9, from 6 PM to 9 PM, Cvent executives will be hosting a private cocktail reception at Acadiana restaurant in Washington, DC. If you would like to come to the reception, please click here to RSVP. Or, to set up a private meeting during this tradeshow, please email Reggie Aggarwal at raggarwal@cvent.com.

For more information about Cvent, please visit www.cvent.com.

We look forward to seeing you at HSMAI's Affordable Meetings National!

At the Cvent Meetings & Events blog, we often discuss best practices for event management. Now, at the CventVideo Channel on YouTube, you can actually watch them!

You'll find Cvent client testimonials, virtual "tours" of the Cvent Supplier Network, live presentations on best practices for Strategic Meetings Management, event sourcing and eRFPs, plus much more! Visit the Cvent YouTube Channel today!

Cvent was recently profiled in MeetingsNet!

Check out an excerpt from the article: "Meetings technology provider Cvent has made a flurry of announcements recently that include major partnerships that enhance its Supplier Network of more than 75,000 hotels and venues, budget-friendly tools for organizations building a strategic meetings management program, and an integration with Cisco’s WebEx webinar technology. Long known for its expertise in online registration for meetings and events, Cvent has upped the ante with more than 100 feature upgrades."

Read the full article online! And don't forget to sign up for our May 20 webinar with MeetingsNet, "Deal or No Deal: Best Practices for Booking Meetings in a Tough Economy."

Whether you are a third-party planner or you work for a large organization, it's not uncommon to receive requests from multiple people asking you to plan their meetings. In your already busy world, handling multiple meeting requests can get overwhelming. That's why meeting forms can be an invaluable tool in your Strategic Meetings Management program.

A meeting form is basically an easy way to streamline your meeting requests and keep things organized. When someone wants you to plan a meeting, they access the form; enter the key event information, such as contact information, event dates, attendees, or room requirements; and submit it for your approval. It only takes a few minutes of their time, and it gives you an organized overview into the meetings throughout your company.

The types of events requested at your organization may vary greatly, which is why Cvent offers highly customizable meeting form options. You can select fields to appear on the form, which may relate to the Requestor (such as email address); the Event itself (such as start date); or the RFP for the event (such as sleeping room requirements.)



You can even ask custom questions such as "Is this your first event?" Thanks to Cvent's extensive question type feature, you can set up questions and answers of virtually any type.



Aside from the content of the meeting form, you can change the look of your form as well. Choose from one of Cvent's various professional form templates. Then, customize it to match your organization and/or department by uploading images for the header and footer.

Best of all, we give you customized controls over the administration of your meeting forms. Create custom statuses for your request forms to let the requestor know where his or her request is in the process. Additionally, you can set up user access rights within your account.

Did you miss our webinar on "Making Meetings Management More Efficient"? No problem—now you can watch it online!

In the Cvent-sponsored webinar, you'll hear from industry experts Christopher Davis, executive editor of Business Travel News; Kari Kesler, partner, Strategic Management Solutions, LLC; and Anil Punyapu, vice president, enterprise sales of Cvent. They'll discuss how to optimize your meetings process, giving advice on tracking, reporting, and incorporating cost-saving strategies such as the use of meeting cards and strategic meetings technology.

If you have questions about starting a Strategic Meetings Management program, or are looking for a way to maximize a return on investment for your meetings, this webinar is sure to help! Watch it now at the Cvent's news room.

We recently received a note from Samantha Bowerman, a Cvent client at the Strategic Meetings Group. Check out what she thinks is Cvent's greatest strength:

"What I consider to be one of Cvent’s greatest strengths is their customer care. There are always little things that come up when you’re planning an event, but you don’t have to stress about them when using Cvent because help is just a phone call or email away. When you call, you rarely have to wait to talk to a representative and they are always very courteous and helpful. 

I was in the process of launching an email campaign while I was in London and the staff there were just as helpful and responsive. My company prides itself on customer service and responding to all inquiries in a timely manner.  Having a technology partner with the same philosophy helps my company provide the highest level of service to our clients."

Samantha Bowerman, CMP
President
Strategic Meetings Group

What do you think is Cvent's greatest strength? Feel free to contact us with your thoughts anytime!

In today's tough economy, meeting planners are in need of effective strategies to reduce meeting spend and make their meetings management more efficient. But how do you successfully manage this with an increasingly limited budget?

Cvent is here to help, having just announced major enhancements to our Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) toolset. These enhancements will help organizations capture meeting activity, gain heightened visibility into meeting and event spend, and document savings associated with strategically managed programs.

Best of all, Cvent's user-friendly toolset is affordable for organizations large and small. In fact, our SMMP platform is available at a 50 percent to 60 percent discount as compared to other solutions.

To learn more about our SMM enhancements, read the press release at the Cvent website.

Do you know how much your organization spends on meetings? If your answer is No, you're not alone. Many meeting planners have little to no insight into meetings spend.

This poor control over meetings is the industry's "dirty little secret" and what may have led to its downfall, at least that's what some experts told Corporate & Incentive Travel recently. In the article "The Meetings Industry Fights Back," Sharon Marsh, CMM, CMP, meetings group manager at Medtronic Cardiovascular, attests to the fact that meeting planners and their management teams can't account for meetings spend nor demonstrate return on investment (ROI).

"I’ve been in this industry a long time and I’ve seen how little thought is put into the decisions that are made," Marsh said.

Rhonda Marko, CMP, CMM, DMCP, president and CEO of Destination Nashville and president of the Association of Destination Management Executives (ADME), agrees, and says that planners need to start changing their ways now.

"There is now a negative perception about having meetings,” Marko told C&IT. "But the truth is, you have to have meetings—if there is a reason to have a meeting. If there is not a genuinely good reason in the first place, you shouldn’t be holding the meeting. So the job of a meeting planner right now is that if they haven’t been doing it already, they have to start measuring ROI now. They have to be very clear about the measurable objectives and the results of their meetings."

Most of the planners quoted in the article seem to agree that right now planners need to first set the record straight about meetings and events to the public, then "walk the talk," if you will," by becoming accountable for their meetings spend.

Marko summed it up: "Don’t cancel the meeting. Instead, demonstrate the value and ROI of the meeting."

What are your thoughts? Could the backlash against meetings have been avoided—or at least curtailed—if planners stayed accountable for their events using Strategic Meetings Management programs and meeting policies?

Read the full article online at Corporate & Incentive Travel

Have you started using meeting cards as part of your Strategic Meetings Management program? If not, there are quite a few reasons why you might want to consider doing so. Here are a few key benefits they provide:

• Less time spent on paperwork. Meeting cards streamline payment processes, which means you'll spend less time tracking invoices, writing multiple checks, etc. Time normally spend processing invoices, check requests, and other routine paperwork can be devoted to more important tasks.

• Oversight into ALL meetings. If your organization is planning several events (and spending a lot of money on meetings), meeting cards can make it so much easier to track your spending and budget items and reconcile your accounts. A meeting cards program can be especially useful for organizations that host multiple meetings throughout the year. Using a meeting card as part of your SMM solution makes it easy for you and your colleagues to keep an eye on even the smaller meetings put together by non-planners, which otherwise might get lost in the mix or filed improperly under miscellaneous expenses.

• Accountability to the organization. Budgets are tightening across all departments these days, especially in meeting planning. Using a meeting card to record and track your meeting spend provides a detailed, permanent record. This record can than quickly be used to create reports that show how and why you spent as you did.

Learn more about using meeting cards as part of your Strategic Meetings Management solution by contacting Cvent today. And don't forget to check out our recent webcast with Business Travel News on Making Meetings More Efficient, now available at our Event Resources page.

More companies believe they can save money on travel by implementing procurement techniques this year than in 2009, according to Business Travel News' 2009 Procurement Practices survey. The percentage of those expecting to save less than five percent through procurement practices dropped to 7 percent this year from 19 percent in 2008. Meanwhile, those expecting to save more than 16 percent increased from 19 percent to 26 percent.

Using procurement techniques, which can measure the return and impact of travel on revenue objectives, has been a go-to practice for organizations for the past few years. In fact, 55 percent of travel managers surveyed say they use procurement practices to meet revenue goals.

What are some popular procurement strategies? About 73 percent of travel managers cited managing demand for travel services, 65 percent said mandating the use of preferred suppliers, and 37 percent said enforcing restrictive pre-trip approval processes.

"We've found that travel managers are also seeking more sophisticated advice, tools and tactics to strategically cut costs while protecting the value of their travel program," said Frank Schnur, vice president, Global Advisory Services, American Express Business Travel. "Procurement practices, which now include compliance and demand management, are an effective complement to traditional savings efforts. The survey results underscore the continued success of these tactics at maximizing the return generated by travel investments."

What, if any, procurement practices are you enforcing at your organization? Do you factor in your travel as it relates to meetings and events?

If you're not part of the 55 percent making the most of procurement techniques when it comes to meetings travel, make sure to check out Cvent's Strategic Meetings Management solution to learn how our technology can help you better organize and manage your cost-cutting efforts.

We've already seen that public opinion has an affect on meetings and events, specifically on an organization's decision to cancel. Now, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) has found that a a fear of public perception is actually raising expenses on meetings you do decide to have.

It turns out that organizations are going out of their way to host what will be taken as sensible meetings. They'll pass up on all the great deals at venues with easy access to air transportation, then spend more on venues not associated with entertainment.

The survey's 110 U.S. respondents were asked, "Would your company avoid a perceived resort location (like Las Vegas) for a corporate conference or meeting in favor of a less leisure-oriented location (even if rates were better in the resort city) to avoid any external negative perceptions?" A surprising 60 percent said "Yes."

"Paying higher rates and spending more time getting to a business location when less expensive and more easily accessible alternative locations are available will quickly deplete a corporate meetings budget, thus wasting funds that could provide someone with a job," Susan Gurley, ACTE Executive Director, said in a statement. "Not only is this bad business from the standpoint of a corporate balance sheet, but it is also bad business for the travel and hospitality industry."

Regarding site selection, 58 percent of the respondents said suitability and price were key factors. However, 38 percent also said public and media perception is a factor, too.

What will it take to address this issue? Gurley said promoting business travel management techniques and controls is the answer.

If you're looking to implement more control over your meeting spend, consider getting started with Cvent's Strategic Meetings Management solution.

The National Business Travel Association's industry-first certification program in Strategic Meetings Management will be launching as a pilot program this summer before the NBTA convention, held August 23-26. An industry-first, the Strategic Meetings Management Certified (SMMC) program is intended to help those involved in SMM programs to learn the discipline's key tenants, unique competencies and best practices.

"Since forming the Groups & Meetings Committee in 2003, NBTA has proudly led the charge to help businesses develop strategic meetings management programs," said NBTA President & CEO, Kevin Maguire, CCTE, GLP, in a statement last year following the SMMC announcement. "The business community has enthusiastically adopted the practice, and now we will again advance strategic meetings management by developing a professional certification program to codify and teach its core competencies and best practices."

In an interview with Corporate Meetings & Incentives, Kari Kesler, NBTA board member and co-founder of NBTA's Groups and Meetings Committee, described the required coursework for the SMMC.

"Participants must complete Core Week 1 and Core Week 2, as well as five electives," she told the magazine. "Core Week 1 is about the 'business of SMMP'—the many basic business principles that you need to know, such as stakeholder management, policy, sourcing and data analysis. Core Week 2 is very specific SMMP knowledge, things like technology, risk management and trending."

Kesler said the rollout of the certification program comes at a very appropriate time.

"Because of the economic state we’re in, it’s the perfect time to have an SMMP in place," Kesler said. "All the questions senior execs are now asking about meeting spend and tracking spend cannot be answered without an SMMP."

After the pilot program for Core Week 1, NBTA hopes to hold revenue-producing classes in the fall.

We read about the public backlash against meetings and events everyday, but is it really affecting planners' decisions to host events? Yes, according to a recent Meetings & Conventions survey.

The survey questioned 135 people, only nine percent of whom actually work for a company receiving bailout funds. About 21 percent said that their company had canceled events as a direct result of the bailout backlash against meetings and travel. About 15 percent said that it was unclear whether concerns about perceptions motivated their cancellations.

The survey also found that over half the respondents (52 percent) believe that mass media backlash against meetings is extremely or moderately influential in the company's decisions to hold events. In terms of the new federal guidelines, only seven percent of respondents are adopting new policies to meet federal requirements. However, 24 percent said they are adopting new policies "to demonstrate good faith and intelligent spending."

If your organization is looking for better ways to stay accountable with your meetings spend, make sure to check out some of our previous posts on Cvent's Strategic Meetings Management solution.

Organizations often times find themselves planning several events throughout the year. These range from company-wide employee meetings, intimate gatherings with top clients, large conferences with sales prospects, small team-building events within a department to something else entirely. Many of Cvent's corporate clients find themselves hosting a variety of events, and not every one of them requires online registration.

Though online event registration is certainly a key feature of Cvent's software, don't think that your organization can't keep using Cvent for unique events that don't require it. In fact, if you're only using Cvent for you company's online registration events, it's time to reconsider.

Using Cvent to track all of your meetings—both those requiring online registration and those not requiring it—is a good business practice to put into place. Entering all of your events into Cvent and having them go through the appropriate approval process gives a corporation a clear audit trail of what's happening within your organization. For some of these events, you may use online registration; for others, you'll simply be keeping track of all the details.

The increased scrutiny on meetings and events demands accountability within an organization: who's spending what, in what amounts, when, and why? Even if your events don't require the use of every piece of Cvent's comprehensive software, you'll benefit from gaining visibility into each one of your company's meetings and maintaining and audit trail of spend.

We've discussed the benefits of having a formal meetings policy for your organization, which include cutting costs and increasing visibility across your organization. Now that you're convinced a meetings policy is a must for your business, you may want some help figuring out where to start.

Check out some of our key components for a formal meetings policy:

• Definition of scope. To whom does your policy apply? The entire company, certain divisions, specific departments? Does it cover on-site programs, off-site programs, or both? Your scope may also cover the minimum number of attendees or travelers, attendee type or meeting type. In a nutshell, the scope should define your meetings policy thoroughly enough for understanding, without overloading internal resources with too many details.

• Roles and responsibilities. Essentially, who is in charge of what? Outline the tasks that certain employees are responsible for, from budget approval to on-site execution.

• Policy statement. The policy statement elaborates on all the guidelines and requirements for different aspects of your meetings. You may include information on how to secure off-site meeting space, the procedure for meeting registration, group air travel details and supplier/venue selection, including preferred hotels.

These are just a few of key parts of a solid meetings policy, which will undoubtedly vary based on your business, the size and extent of your meetings, etc. For more information on developing a meetings policy as part of your Strategic Meetings Management program, contact Cvent.