<B>Meetings Beat</B>
<B>Amex One's Roseman Sets Benchmarks</B>
During a session on corporate meetings consolidation at American Express One's Viadex corporate travel show in New York earlier this month, vice president of meetings and incentives Jay Roseman offered general benchmarks of consolidation's effect: "Most companies save between 10 percent and 25 percent of non-air group spending in the first year and slightly less in years two and three, with overall meeting spending about 25 percent to 30 percent of total T&E. It's not a quick process; it will take two to four years, depending on the size of the corporation, the type of meeting and how spread out geographically the company is, but there's a huge upside to be gained."<B>
<A NAME="2">TTW: Future Of Online Meetings Is Int'l</B>
During a panel discussion of online meetings management at BTN's Travel Technology World show in Chicago earlier this month, several panelists pointed to international meetings as the future for Internet meeting companies. "Planners outside the United States operate differently, so that's an area we can concentrate on, adapting our system accordingly," said Mark Phillips, vice president and general manager for StarCite. Yet, international meetings don't just involve U.S. attendees going overseas. Said Tony Stanfar, vice president of product development for PlanSoft, "You'll see more tools for U.S. meetings where attendees are coming from outside international locations."<B>
<A NAME="3">Radisson, StarCite Form Partnership</B>
Radisson Hotels & Resorts earlier this month formed an alliance with meeting portal StarCite in which the portal's planning, budgeting and RFP tools will be accessible through Radisson's Web site and each of the chain's properties will receive a dedicated Web page on StarCite to list hotel information and special rates. "Innovative hoteliers like Radisson understand that to be successful online, they need the ability to provide buyers with Web-based communications and sales channels that save time and are user-friendly," said StarCite CEO John Pino. Radisson is the first hotel chain to form such a partnership with StarCite.<B>
<A NAME="4">Certain Names New CEO; Goldman Stays</B>
San Francisco-based Certain Software, creator of the popular Event Planner Plus software package, has named James Pappas its new president and CEO. Pappas is the former CEO of VideoYellowPages.com. Former Certain CEO Douglas Goldman, who founded the company, becomes chairman of the board. Goldman said the moves were made in anticipation of the release of the company's new product, Meeting Planner Plus, which is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2001.