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Brought to you by Bondurant Consulting:
Volume 5, March 8, 2011
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Greetings!
Welcome to Keeping it SiMMPle, a bi-monthly newsletter aimed at making and keeping your Strategic Meetings Management Program Practical, Light, and Effective. For Meeting Managers and Procurement Specialists, this newsletter will assist you in finding practical solutions and provide advice on actionable steps to gain visibility and control of your organization's meeting spend. For Suppliers, you will gain insights into the issues that your clients face, and how you can support their SMM programs. In addition, Keeping it SiMMPle will highlight key industry trends and identify tips that will make your job easier.
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Each issue of Keeping it SiMMPle addresses a component of the A to Z of SMM from a Practical, Light & Effective perspective. In this issue we will focus on the letter E by discussing the Evolution of Strategic Meetings Management.
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Back in the early nineties, we starting talking about "Meetings Consolidation"; which was looking at our meeting spend on an enterprise wide basis for the first time. In the early 2000's there was the introduction to Strategic Meetings Management which broadened the scope to not only understanding the total meeting spend, but also to manage and control it. In this decade, we have recognized that it is not enough to do all this, but we now need to prove the effectiveness of our meetings. In the current evolution of SMM, having cost effective, well run meetings is the expected baseline. Now it is incumbent upon meeting managers to measure the value, or Return on Investment (ROI) of the meetings they manage.
We hear a lot of talk about Return on Investment, why is it important?
- The practice of measuring ROI is something everyone in business understands - therefore when we report on the ROI of meetings, we are talking the language of our business colleagues, rather than the language of meetings, which most people outside of the meeting/event industry don't understand.
- ROI is different than budget management. Budgeting determines the allocation of money for a meeting. Measuring ROI determines the value of a meeting. In other words, measuring ROI helps you answer the question, "Does this meeting add value?" regardless of what it cost.
- By measuring Return on Investment, meeting managers can produce quantifiable results which demonstrate that their meetings and events are in alignment with company business objectives and deliver measurable value. Alternatively, they could get data that determines a meeting has outlived its usefulness and needs to be redesigned.
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To answer the question, "How do we calculate Return on Investment" I have reached out to Terri Breining, of Breining Group, LLC and co-author of the book Return on Investment for Meetings and Events with Jack Phillips, founder of the ROI Institute. Terri says "The cornerstone of the ROI Methodology, as developed by the ROI Institute, is the development and measurement of solid objectives. We get to good objectives by asking questions like "What do we want to accomplish in this meeting or series of meetings?", "What do we need people to learn?", "How do we want people to perceive the organization after the meeting?" The process of measuring ROI does not always have to be complex. There are many levels of measurement that can be accomplished with relative ease. By implementing some of the basic aspects of ROI, you will have engaged in this current evolution of Strategic Meetings Management.
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Tip #1: If you don't have the need or resources to measure a financial return on your meeting, the ROI Methodology is a very effective tool to measure the achievement of very basic objectives, well beyond the 'smile sheets' that are common for most meetings.
Tip #2: Some planners don't want to implement ROI because they are afraid they'll find a negative ROI from their meeting. However, it's far better for the meeting manager to make that determination and recommend changes than to have the meeting killed by someone who doesn't understand the importance of meetings. They could mistakenly believe that the meeting brings no value at all, rather than seeing the potential with a meeting redesign.
Tip #3: Even if the ROI Methodology feels like it's too complicated, most meeting planners can begin to use it after just a little training and/or reading the ROI books available for the meeting industry
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- MPI's 2011 Future Watch study indicates that an increasing number of meeting professionals will embrace SMM Programs in the near term and that they are actively using, developing or trying to understand ROI measurement tools in almost every industry type?
- The Meetings Focus 2011 Meetings Market Trend survey indicated that 29.2% of corporate planners surveyed indicated the biggest threat to their career was the perceived value of the profession? (Even more reason to adopt ROI methodology to demonstrate the value of your meetings.)
- Terri Breining is conducting a series of 2 day ROI workshops throughout the country. For more information on these workshops and other resources for ROI education, contact Terri directly at tbreining@breininggroup.com
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Sincerely,
Betsy Bondurant, CMM, CTE
phone: 619.701.7709
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| About Bondurant Consulting |
Bondurant Consulting provides the following services:
- Assessment of SMMP potential for your organization
- Development and implementation of SMMP for meeting & travel managers.
- Training programs for hotel companies and 3rd party meeting planning agencies which increase their understanding of Strategic Meetings Management, resulting in more successful engagements with clients who are involved with SMMP.
- Support for the RFP response process
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