Some, but not many, of my industry associates are lucky enough to have a direct reporting relationship to their CEO (Chief Executive Officer). That being said, I am pleased to hear that many meeting managers want to "get a seat at the table". Meaning, they want to be invited to the table where company leadership develops strategy and makes decisions. This is a great aspiration, but all too frequently, I find that it remains an aspiration rather than reality. So I thought it would be helpful to outline some of the steps meeting managers can take to design a successful approach to getting that seat at the table. Keep in mind that it is an iterative process.

It is not as if one day you are sitting at your desk and the next day you are sitting at "The Table". In reality, there are several steps to take that will eventually get you that seat. If you are in a large company there may be 3 layers of management between you and the Executive leadership level or C-Suite (CEO, CFO - Chief Financial Officer, CMO - Chief Marketing Officer) in your company. You may be a manager, your boss may be a director, who reports to a Vice President, who reports to an Executive VP, who then reports to a C-Level. So how can you make the move for the seat at your desk to the seat at "The Table"? Below are some activities that I have seen successfully employed:

Clearly identify the issue, such as: "The majority of our meetings spend is uncontrolled and decentralized throughout the company. This results in overspending, the inability to control and leverage spend and increased contractual risk for our company."

Have a compelling story that speaks to the issues, some points to include are:

• One or two examples of canceled meetings that did not have favorable clauses which resulted in significant financial penalties 
• Multiple meetings at the same hotel during the same time period with a variety of rates and concessions (lost $$$ for your company)

Clearly articulate your strategy and what you are asking for:

• C-level agreement to develop a policy that addresses how meetings and events are purchased for your company
• Re-alignment with another department within the company
• Human or financial resources to design and implement an SMM

Be prepared to answer questions:

We don't have that many meetings, why do you say this is an issue? Actually, we have 120 meeting that are managed through my department annually. Based on data of have from other areas in the company, this appears to be about 50% of the total meeting spend.

What is our meeting spend? We have $18 million in meeting and event spend in my organization, my hypothesis is that there is another $18 million in unmanaged spend throughout the company.

What do other companies in our sector do? Most have a centralized process to source and contract meetings and events. The practice of centralizing the procurement of meetings and events is referred to as Strategic Meetings Management (SMM)

Be sure that you and your supervisor discuss the idea informally throughout the chain of leadership PRIOR TO any formal meetings that would address the issue of SMM. This way you can address concerns and eliminate friction points prior to a formal 'vote' on your initiative. Someone I highly respect and worked with earlier in my career called this process "greasing the skids".  

Championing the deployment of an SMM for your company will get you noticed by the C-Level but may not get you that coveted seat at the Table. The next step is to provide material metrics that prove the value of the SMM program, which we will cover in the next issue of Keeping it SiMMPle.