Strategically Managing Meetings & Events

Meetings and Events are an imperative part of any business environment. There are many businesses however that do not place much emphasis on meetings/ events program and do not drive the procurement strategically. Meetings and Events used effectively can be a channel to promote products and services to clients, used to train staff and promote internal organisational programs. However in many cases organisations do not utilise correct approach or management of meetings and events to run their business.  Of course there are many considerations for running such a program at a group level, however in its simplified manner the key focal should be on value (ROI) and cost to procure (Hosting/ managing) events.  There are a few different types of meetings that an organisation typically conducts sponsors in a every calendar year, hence  they all have their own requirements and entail some sort of strategic meetings management and procurement:

Meetings— these are the most common types of meetings, and they simply involve a group of people meeting in a small room to resolve issues and conduct business operations.  Typically run my teams that are local to each other.

Conferences— this type of meeting is a bit different. It involves far more than just the immediate member of an office, and might actually involve the entire region. At these events it is not unusual for the company CEO or senior executive to  address the employees. Typically these are not mandatory, but it would be helpful to attend.

Events— These are entirely optional, but are commonly used  to showcase products that the company has released or is about to release, for example the recent launch of Apple’s iphone 4, where a launch event was held hosted by their CEO Steve Jobs This is just one among many, and can be  open to employees and prospects  in the same industry. These Exhibits and Conventions such as InfoTech are open to anyone that wants to take part.

Incentives: Whereby an organisation arranges various awards and rewards for staff and/or clients which typically are awarded to groups of individuals all at one time.  Moreover it would involve a group to travel to ascertain destination as a reward.

What is it that makes for a successful meetings & events program for an organisational?

Many organisations do not consider the total spend value of their organisation’s meetings & events, hence leave the procurement of events at the hands of organisers at lower business unit and department levels . Many upon further spend analysis are staggered by the overall cost of their meetings and events; many industry experts claim that typically total group meetings & events cost totals to 1 and half times airfare spend of an organisation.  Consequently if this cost/spend is not diligently managed substantial spend savings are foregone.  As a result a consolidated meeting & events procurement program provides the platform for optimised procurement, supplier management and spend management.  Accordingly organisations need to consider how best to manage this group wide and often unmanaged spend.   

If you want to do this right, you will need to come up with a consolidated structure, gain group executive support and drive this as central organisational function, which enhances and guides the event managers/ organisers decision making process. Some of the key focus areas as suggested:

* Centralised Expense Management policy – setting out purchase process and guidelines
* Procurement Strategy – centralised approach on establishing and managing an approved supplier group across all the sub categories e.g. venues, AV, PCO, Staging & theming etc.
* Procurement Competence – Provide guidelines and education on how to procure and negotiate services at the buyer level.
* Spend Governance – reporting on spend type, ROI and leakage
* Centralised events calendar – group wide view of all annual events
*  Human Resources supporting guidelines OHS and conduct expectations for all external meetings & events.

The above will allow you establish and manage an effective group-wide function, which in turn will you to develop, implement and manage centralised Meetings & Events platform which provides you with superior management of:

* Spot market / variable pricing suppliers
* Fixed price suppliers
* PCOs and Event Management required to assist your program

It provides you with the ability to better manage/ report on spend and set out pricing model of your approved event suppliers. Hence also allows you consolidate and leverage the relationships with approved event suppliers and proactively manage spend to achieve desired cost savings.
Gain Executive support – You can’t do it Alone!

As this an emotive category it is strongly suggested that you gain executive involvement and support which will allow for you to push the program into your business.  A Governance and steering committee is of great benefit as it will allow you to set out group wide initiatives and directives.Hence this way you can get all stakeholders to support the program which in turn is aimed will enhance your organisations spends value significantly.
Scheduling is Key

A problem that many companies seem to have is a lack of coordination when it comes to group scheduling meetings and other events. Typically meetings are planned in isolation within a business unit and often meetings/ events clash with other parts of the organisation, which in turn impacts participation/ attendance, venue availability and ultimately outcome.   Doing this can at times be a hindrance to the organisation.  Hence one way to overcame this is to create a group wide events calendar which sets out all key dates and events for an organisation.  Then that needs to be cascades to units and departments within an organisation so everyone is able to work within the dates.  This approach often leads to better utilizations of suppliers, better delivery of events, higher number of attendance and better participant satisfaction.  Granted there are some events that are called and arrange spare of the moment or confidentially, but they are an exception and should not be the rule.  As much as possible an organisation should attempt to conduct and manage a group wide event calendar.   It would be best to develop a corporate calendar and list all of the meeting dates, as well as other organisations events. That way one can also get a feel of competitors and/or complimentary organisation event types and dates.
Using Technology in Meetings

Technology is also readily available; it only makes sense that we would do our best to make use of it in meetings. There are a number of ways that you could do this. Booking portals, online meeting/ conference planners, event calendars and budget and financial planning tools are available to assist meeting organisers plan their events.  Of course other technologies can assist with the delivery of events such as virtual events, digital and visual technology.  Of course all these offerings and aids come at cost so the procure process needs to consider the true ROI of any event.

Opportunities for optimising necessary spend

A consolidated meeting & Events program provides you with the opportunity to generate further savings, for example:

* Reduce number of staff BU functions per annum, e.g. Quarterly to half yearly or annual functions, etc
* Utilise virtual events/conferencing technology for multi-region meetings and conferences
* Utilise Room-based and desktop video conferencing reducing overall meeting cost
* Apply catering guidelines/limits, e.g. catering only allowed for meetings of four hours or more
* Book in advance conferences/events in known ‘soft spots’ to avoid peak months where costs escalate.
* Book Variable price venue space well in advance to avoid fluctuated pricing if booked close to event/meeting date
* Run all internal business meetings, where feasible onsite within the organisation, reducing cost of external meeting room hire, or
* Only book external meeting rooms if onsite meeting rooms are not available, attempt to go with cheapest quote
* Be flexible with dates
* Control and centralise meeting activity- All venue bookings to be made through a centralised booking team or agency allowing you to gain best booking option and gain productivity savings by reducing admin time
* All event bookers to utilise the services and products of approved suppliers
* Load booking guidelines on organisation for accurately forecasting a meeting/event budget. Also guiding event managers. organisers  how to negotiate with suppliers on meeting/event costs to drive pricing/greater value
* Reduce staff function/event budgets (price per head), e.g. Christmas party budgets, team building budgets

The final word!

Meetings are very important. Not only do they provide the prospective clients and employees with important information, they also assist with organisational culture. Making sure that everyone is on the same page and working together is very important and is not something that should be taken lightly. With that in mind, talk to members of management and discuss ways in which you can deliver a MICE program for your organisation. Once all of you are able to agree on approach, work towards implementing a consolidated program by which the whole organisation can take advantage of better management and procurement of meetings and events suppliers.   In an competitive global environment, strategic procurement management of supply is critical, procuring meetings & event suppliers is no different, this needs to be done with considerable planning and implementation discipline.