September 11, 2006
The Accepted Practices Exchange initiative by the Convention Industry Council in the fourth quarter likely will release its most anticipated product: a paper about meetings contracts, according to the panel chairwoman. However, unlike previous Apex papers that promoted the use of specific forms and templates for housing, requests for proposal and data reporting, the contracts paper focused more on education and less on standardization, she said.
September 11, 2006
A growing number of corporate meeting buyers are attempting to use standard addenda in their contracts with meeting vendors to protect their companies from risk and mitigate fees and surcharges, according to an exclusive survey of 220 corporate meeting buyers. However, since acceptance of these addenda is negotiated on the property level and are dependent on local market conditions, consultants said their effectiveness is limited and even could be risky for companies that rely too heavily on them.
September 11, 2006
The third-largest U.S. brewing company during the past year has completed stage one of an initiative to better track and manage its corporate meeting expenditures and already has achieved an 85 percent compliance rate and an estimated 10 percent savings this year in per-attendee costs, according to the company's strategic sourcing manager. Golden, Colo.-based Coors Brewing Co.'s meetings department has chosen to roll out changes based on meeting type, rather than by department or all at once, with incentives the first events targeted for more strategic negotiations.
September 11, 2006
Travel management companies expect corporate meeting budgets in 2007 to rise at the same pace as hotel rates, with percentage increases generally in the single digits. Buyers across the board will continue to do more with less, and attendees can expect host companies to be less generous with gifts, entertainment, upgrades or other add-ons as higher hotel rates take up the majority of budget share.
September 11, 2006
Minneapolis-based Carlson Marketing last month announced the acquisition of meetings and incentive management provider TQ3Navigant Performance Group, after the approval of the acquisition between both sides' parent companies.
September 11, 2006
Corporate meeting buyers shrugged off a merger announcement last month by the industry's two leading technology companies and said they will continue to push customization and development of any tools to help them strategically manage their events. Competing tech providers, meanwhile, scoffed at the notion of market dominance in an industry this volatile.
September 11, 2006
Incentive travel buyers have grown a thick skin during the past two years when it comes to booking international trips and are not canceling bookings in the face of last month's spate of bombings and reports of planned terrorist attacks. Buyers said they take every necessary precaution in booking incentive trips, but that their employees still appreciate a foreign destination.
August 14, 2006
Business Travel News is seeking candidates for recognition in an effort to determine the International Travel Manager of the Year for 2006. BTN will honor the multinational program travel buyer deemed by editorial research and judgment as the most proficient in creating or redefining international travel management practices or policies during the past 12 months. Business Travel News is seeking to learn about not just those travel buyers who have advanced their own companies, but who also have helped reshape or redefine the industry.
July 17, 2006
Hotel negotiations this year are becoming decidedly tougher for corporate meeting buyers, but Piscataway, N.J.-based American Standard Cos. has been able to maintain its costs by developing a program in which hotel rates for small corporate meetings are negotiated once each year, along with transient negotiations. The program includes one dozen chains in 15 cities and has been successful in leveraging a combined spend.
July 17, 2006
Two years into the use of a comprehensive meetings technology system, Hewlett-Packard Co. still does not know exactly how much money it spends on corporate events and meetings. It does know, however, that in 2005 the use of its "SmartMeetings" tool saved the decentralized company more than $3 million, and is expected to save at least an additional $18 million during the next two years.