American Express Business Travel's Meetings & Events
division, generally targeting corporations with unmanaged or lightly managed
meetings programs, this month announced several services and partnerships that
broaden its offerings for ad hoc meetings management.
The Amex Meetings Expert service includes planning, sourcing
and onsite services for events held by corporations without a strategic meetings
management program. The new service is separate from the existing Amex Maxvantage
SMM partnership in North America with Maritz Travel.
"We believe having a strategically managed program
drives the most benefit and value to corporations, but the fact is that
companies need to start somewhere," said American Express Meetings &
Events vice president and general manager Issa Jouaneh. "Many departments in
an organization have meetings sourcing and planning needs, but they cannot all
be centrally planned. Any professional responsible for planning a meeting can
have Meetings Expert plan, source, negotiate and have onsite support. It helps
to mitigate the risk and exposure that often comes when those who are not
professionally trained in meeting planning have the task to plan a meeting."
Jouaneh said the new service is broader than previous
American Express efforts in ad hoc meetings management. "In the past, we
had provided a very limited set of solutions outside of our SMM offerings,
which is Maxvantage in North America," he explained. "We had a number
of phased solutions that provided clients with a roadmap to progress to become
a strategically managed program. What's new about this is that it is a broader,
more flexible program targeted at all companies."
American Express Meetings & Events recently announced
other developments , including:
• Collaboration with The Carbon Accounting Co.'s Green
Hotels Global lodging industry environmental assessment and reporting effort,
in which Amex will sponsor the submission of 100 properties. "Many clients
have a need to demonstrate the impact of their meetings and events programs
from a carbon-footprint perspective, and we recognize that in many cases it's
difficult to get started with such a program," Jouaneh said. "Our
collaboration with GHG is to facilitate that process. We identified the top 50
properties for two of our clients and one of our preferred suppliers, and
sponsored addition of these 50 properties into the program to provide a case
study for those clients to understand the impact of the carbon footprint they
have today and how they can influence that over time."
• A solution through Amex's FX International Payments
currency exchange service that enables meeting planners at pharmaceutical
clients to manage and track payments to health care providers.
• Partnerships with Le Public Système and WRG Communications
to add communications and event production in France and the United Kingdom,
respectively. "There's a need to manage strategically, but business
stakeholders also need to drive the right outcomes and deliver the right
experience," Jouaneh said. "With the creative content and production
capability we have now in France and the United Kingdom, we believe we can bring
that seamless experience to clients."