Three key trends are shaping the way meetings are being organised in order to increase their return on investment, a yardstick that has become more important as companies seek to make every dollar count.
They are: the consolidation of global suppliers, the use of technology or online tools and an enforced corporate policy.
While companies used to organise meetings on their own, many are now looking to reduce cost by focusing on meeting management. This has resulted in greater commoditisation as meeting planning becomes more of a price-based model and suppliers become driven to capture market share.
Major players include Maritz/McGettigans handling US$1.5 billion, Carlson Wagonlit Marketing (US$600 million), World Travel Partners (US$130 million) and American Express Meetings & Incentives (US$120 million, land only).
Online meeting players include Starcite/BeThere, SeeUThere and GetThere – Direct Meetings.
According to the Meetings Industry Association in Australia, websites are thought to be the third most important source of information on venues and other facilities. The Internet is used to help source venues by 53 per cent of association planners and by 44 per cent of corporate planners. This enables meeting planners to visualise 30,000 suppliers, 40,000 hotels/meeting facilities, congress centres and event agencies globally.
Global hotels such as Marriott, Mandarin and Le Meridien are starting to entice event planners to directly book meetings on their own corporate websites. MNCs are also utilising web-tool registration for reporting capabilities, spends and savings tracking.
But according to Intel Technology Asia, global sourcing manager, corporate travel and purchasing, Ms Meg Stowe, based in Singapore, there are good reasons why companies should spend on getting professional help, whether human or electronic.
“Different divisions in a company do not know what the other is doing, and if there is no company-wide calendar of events, meetings are planned in isolation.
“Administrative assistants, rather than meeting professionals, commonly organise many of the smaller meetings in a large company and often do not know how to negotiate for maximum financial benefit and minimum liability exposure. As total meeting spend is unknown, companies can’t leverage meetings spend with suppliers.
“And lastly, there are no standard ways of distributing company meeting policy to all employees who may be involved in planning meetings.”
The benefits of consolidation are many. There will be consistency in the quality of meetings, cost savings through volume buying, sharing of information of how previous events are organised, improved response time to meet customer requirements, and reduced transaction, material, overhead and operational costs. It provides for an automated request for proposal process including document and drawings transfer, maximises product research activities and improves efficiency and productivity across the enterprise.
Ms Stowe gave the example of Intel, which went from having 60 people to four arranging meetings.
Meeting planners also pride themselves on being able to provide MNCs with “tailored customer support” and being able to standardise their operating and reporting systems along with policies and practices.
But the job of the professional meeting planner is being challenged as lead times get shorter, contract negotiations get lengthier, job responsibilities get broader and as clients now want expenses and ROI to be tracked. Since the last few years, new issues such as security and insurance have also come into play.
Their roles are further challenged by the rapid advancement of technology with new options emerging such as e-conferencing, audioconferencing, webconferencing, virtual trade shows, cyberconferences and webcasting, just to name a few.
Ms Stowe said: “The meeting industry faces increased commoditisation, less human interaction between buyers and sellers and solutions must be developed to support the value of interpersonal communication.”
Since last year, there has been a shift to suppliers to help prove the value of meetings. Planners and the organisations they plan for are not willing to take economic risk via inflexible attrition and cancellation causes. Suppliers must now prove the value of their offering and absorb more economic risks.
Event types with the greatest ROI are tradeshows (32 per cent), seminars (22 per cent), sponsorship of a sport or entertainment (20 per cent), roadshows (16 per cent) and conferences (13 per cent).
