The "rapid move toward globalization" is among the challenges meetings professionals expect to face in 2008, according to the annual FutureWatch survey of more than 1,600 meetings professionals issued this month by Meeting Professionals International and American Express. While globalization no doubt will complicate business for meetings professionals, devising an effective meetings management strategy that can work around the globe--not just in North America--is the challenge detailed in a new white paper issued by Advito, a consulting arm of BCD Travel.
"Although the majority of FutureWatch 2008 respondents work for organizations with operations in only one country, 20 percent expect their global reach to expand over the next year," according to the annual survey of 1,643 meetings professionals. "Companies with the widest spheres of operation are most likely to expand--57 percent of respondents in organizations with offices in six or more countries expect expansion in 2008."
Independent planners "are more than twice as likely as their association counterparts to see a globalized industry as a top trend for 2008." Globalization is a leading issue for about 33 percent of European respondents, 21 percent of Canadians and 16 percent of Americans, according to FutureWatch 2008.
Thus far, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiativethat dictates new passport requirements for travel between the United States and Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, has had "only moderate impact," according to U.S. and Canadian respondents. However, the federal regulations "could become more significant in the next year ... Nearly three quarters of Canadian and more than one-third of U.S. meetings professionals believe attendees have been confused by changing WHTI rules and timelines."
This year's survey also found that city hotels are the most frequent venue choice for all types of planners--corporate, association, government and independent--in all of the geographical locales studied: United States, Canada and Europe. "Interest in resort hotels is driven primarily by corporate and independent planners, predominately in the United States. Conference centers and university settings are most likely to draw government-hosted events and are most popular in Europe."
Unlike prior FutureWatch results, this year's survey noted that "a small, but visible number of organizations appear to be stepping back from the tendency to centralize responsibility for meetings functions with a single individual, team or department." Of corporate planner respondents, only 38 percent said meetings functions were mostly or completely centralized by geography this year, a drop of more than 10 percentage points from the nearly 49 percent who so responded last year. Corporate respondents who said meetings functions were mostly or fully decentralized rose from 32 percent last year to more than 44 percent in 2008. MPI said 343 corporate meeting planners were among the total respondents.
In an unaffiliated white paper, called "The View from the Other Side of the Pond," Advito noted that "differences between countries are larger than generally acknowledged and, as a result, the strategies focusing on standardization that work well in the North American market are less effective in Europe, where regional meetings management alignment requires a focus on communications, cooperation and cost capture."
The advice was garnered from Lilly Corp. European travel and fleet manager Richard Darley, who helped guide the company's strategic meetings management program in Europe. Among the challenges he faced: "Almost every country in Europe had different individuals with responsibility for meetings management, multiple department codes and no standardized purchasing. Further complicating the situation was the fact that the department to which meetings reported was inconsistent from country to country, and organization goals and objectives for meetings varied greatly as a result."
Communications, cooperation and cost capture also helped Pfizer Inc. consolidate its meetings strategy, first in the United Kingdom and Europe and now to 39 countries with special focus on 24 of its larger European markets, according to Sue Shillam, Pfizer director of global travel for Europe, Middle East and Africa. "To facilitate communications and decisions, a global meetings council was formed, together with four regional councils made up of individuals who are responsible for both consolidated travel and meetings. These groups centralized within each region under regional processes and global meetings management guidelines. Through the consolidation of responsibility and data, Pfizer identified that meetings spend is five times greater than transient travel spend."
With assistance from Pfizer's global finance services, the stakeholders now are working to "change behaviors and drive program changes. Today, with improved communication and coordination, the Pfizer program is centralizing supplier relations, reducing internal scheduling conflicts and minimizing attrition and cancellation costs." Next up is centralization of meetings management in Asia-Pacific.
Business practices and policies in Europe differ from those in the United States and prevent corporations from simply extending a North American meetings management strategy across the pond, said Advito senior director of global business development George Odom. "To date, strategic meetings management (SMM) discussions have focused largely around the North American market framework," Odom said. "However, our experience points to clear differences in meetings program practices in the European market that require recognition and careful adjustment in the application of the traditional North American SMM framework." Odom led travel and corporate meetings for Eli Lilly until he joined Advito last year.
Characterizing strategic meetings management initiatives in the European market are the presence of local meetings policies, use of MICE (meetings, incentive, congresses and events) specialists to secure venues, individual purchase or spot buying, data capture through third-party travel management companies and use of delegate technology only with larger events. Key components of strategic meetings management programs in North America often include formal meetings policy, centralized accounting codes, global guidelines/local policy, standardized hotel contracts, standardized hotel RFPs and internal venue sourcing, chain contracts and purchasing, a focus on cost containment, standardized meetings process, use of technology for delegates and logistics and data capture of meetings spend.
As a starting point, Advito developed minimum, moderate and aggressive changes that a company can make to begin a global meetings management program. For example, minimum changes include centralized meetings registration or post-program data consolidation, while the most aggressive changes include centralized supplier contract review, development of company specific meetings contracts for supplier usage and regionalized preferred meetings supplier programs and lists.