|
We have seen great examples of large companies who were the early adopters of Strategic Meetings Management in the mid 1990's and early in the first decade of the 21st Century. They overcame hurdles, developed cutting edge processes, and led the way for most SMM programs in existence today. Many of the first to implement SMM were in the pharmaceutical, financial and technology sectors. Likely you have read about the programs at large companies such as: Lilly, Amgen, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Deloitte & Touche, Hewlett Packard and Cisco. Since that time we have seen many Fortune 500 companies go down the path of SMM implementation, which is great to see! My frustration is that the majority of organizations do not have, at a minimum, a centralized sourcing process for meetings and events in place. Certainly, the ideal scenario would be a fully deployed Strategic Meetings Management Program for most organizations.
So, what is the Next Generation of SMM? I believe it is in a few areas:
Regarding SMM for small and medium companies, the next question becomes, is it worth it? It seems like a lot of work, is it really worth the effort? My response is, not surprisingly: YES! Employing proven procurement practices and best in class SMM techniques are worthwhile for even a small number of meetings. Employing minimal processes that help you understand and control meeting and event spend can be effective. Through a basic centralized meeting sourcing process the SMM leader would:
- Know who in the organization is buying hotels and contracting for meeting services
- Ensure that standard contract terms are being used to avoid risk for your organization
- Understand the volume of meetings and how much money is being spent on meetings
- Use the spend data to leverage spend with high volume suppliers
Although small to medium companies may not have as many resources to apply to an SMM program, key elements can be deployed which will results in cost savings and control and increased efficiencies. The good news is that positive outcomes are usually achieved in a much shorter time frame with smaller more nimble organizations as implementation and adoption can happen more quickly than with larger companies. So where to begin?
- Develop a central registration process for all meetings requiring a hotel contract - usually 10 rooms or more per night
- Identify one or two people to drive the contract negotiation process
- Develop a meeting calendar to increase visibility to meetings on an enterprise-wide basis
- Begin to capture data, ideally through an automated process. If meeting volume is low (say, less than 50 meetings annually), a spread sheet can be used during the initial start up
With these basic steps you can begin to demonstrate control and savings in this category of spend.
Increasingly, I am hearing talk of Strategic Meetings Management expanding in to the Association market. In fact, MPI's 2011 Future Watch study indicated that SMM was not exclusive to the corporate realm, but will indeed be expanding into the Association marketplace. This makes perfect sense to me! Association meeting managers have always been accountable to their boards for reducing meeting costs and increasing profitability. With the continued volatility of the global economy, reduced conference attendance, fewer exhibitors, and virtual meeting alternatives implementing sound purchasing practices in category of meetings and events in order to maximize savings and control spend makes perfect business sense.
The more I observe the marketplace and speak with various constituencies in the SMM marketplace, the more I believe that the increased consistency of design, implementation and reporting is imperative for a much broader acceptance of SMM on a global basis. I will discuss the concept of 'one size fits all" in the next edition of Keeping it SiMMPle.
|
