November 14, 2005
Following two years of collecting basic data on meetings expenditures, Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc. in 2006 plans to roll out a program to outsource large events to a meetings and incentives management company and leverage small meetings volume with its transient preferred vendors. The company already has successfully secured transient preferred hotel rates for group room blocks in its top cities, said the company's travel manager.
November 14, 2005
Proposed legislation aimed at protecting personal information and deterring identity theft could affect both corporate meeting buyers and suppliers, as the industry would be forced to reevaluate how it collects and stores attendee reservation information.
November 14, 2005
Higher air and hotel costs in the past six months have not deterred corporations from holding more events with greater numbers of attendees, according to a survey of corporate meeting buyers.
October 17, 2005
Members of the Association of Insurance and Financial Services Conference Planners are considering a proposal to change the group's acronym to better incorporate financial services companies, according to the association's newest president. As mergers and acquisitions in the industry continue, ICPA in 2006 plans to step up member educational events under the direction of a new committee and provide benchmarking data to members, he said.
October 17, 2005
Incentive travel among financial corporations seems to be on the rise some analysts estimated more than a 20 percent increase in such travel during the past several years due to a strengthened economy, an increasing emphasis on global business and a growing comfort level with federal regulatory requirements.
October 17, 2005
Some financial services companies have yet to increase 2006 meetings budgets, even as hotel rates increase and availability tightens. Some events may have to be scaled back and cuts may be made in food and beverage services or in other flexible costs, buyers predicted.
October 17, 2005
Such developments in onsite event data management as automated attendee tracking, data transfer and wireless options may take years to be adopted by companies, according to analysts, as corporate meeting buyers look for basic technology to automate time-consuming and low-value tasks. Compatibility between technology systems also may slow the development of attendee management tools.
October 17, 2005
Maritz Travel Co. last month introduced an employee-polling and data-analysis tool designed to measure the effectiveness of corporate incentive travel programs.
October 17, 2005
Meetings technology provider StarCite Inc. and third-party hotel request-for-proposals provider Uversa International Inc. last month introduced for mutual clients access to a combined supplier database and technology solutions. Customers of both companies would have preferred access to Philadelphia-based StarCite's RapidRFP technology and Uversa's Hotel Runner solution, according to a company release. The companies would then be able to offer combined transient and meetings benchmarking data, according to StarCite executives. "Through this partnership, for the first time ever in the travel industry, customers will be able to truly capture and leverage the entire breadth of their hospitality spend," said Michael Boult, president and COO of StarCite. Uversa executives said the partnership would give mutual clients greater visibility into their spending on transient travel and meetings.More rigid U.S. government-mandated cruise passenger reporting rules went into effect Oct. 4, announced travel management technology-provider Pass Consulting Corp. The rules are a result of U.S. laws passed requiring detailed recording and evaluation of all incoming and outgoing travel, said the company, which has offered technology to streamline the entry and management of data required for the electronic Notice of Arrivals and Departures. The system increases the speed, ease of access and integration into existing cruise line passenger reporting systems, said the company. "If a cruise line does not comply with these laws or if they inadvertently fail to enter certain information, they could be fined by the government and/or not be allowed to dock at a port," said a spokesman for governmental law and travel technology consulting firm Pragmatic Systems International Corp.
October 17, 2005
Meetings sourcing technology provider MPbid last month formed a partnership with New York-based event registration, payment processing and information management firm ERSVP to offer combined attendee management products and services for the meetings industry.