American Express Corporate Services has combined resources from its meetings and incentives division and interactive travel group to form a team dedicated to offer assistance to clients choosing and implementing meetings technology. The new Interactive Meeting Solutions group will work closely with the meetings and incentives group, headed by vice president Jay Roseman, to assess clients' needs for online sourcing, attendee management and reporting solutions.
"It expands the capabilities and focus of both areas," Roseman said. "Technology is a large part of corporate meeting management and there's been a lot of work done on interactive technology and support of that technology."
What has been left murky by American Express, though, is the relationship between its new team and the meeting technology companies it has selected as preferred partners.
As a matter of policy, Amex does not disclose who those partners are, although it has been acknowledged in the past by the tech companies themselves that StarCite, B-there and GetThere's DirectMeetings division are among the solutions. SeeUthere Technologies confirmed earlier this month that it too has developed a partnership with American Express.
Neither Roseman nor Henry Blinder, who is vice president of product development and communication for the interactive travel group, directly would address the new team's charge with respect to its technology partners. "I do not want to discuss our product portfolio, but we're hopeful that this will meet all needs," Blinder said. Added Roseman: "We have relationships with a diversified offering of best-in-class tools."
Blinder said the new team would work both with new and existing meeting clients, many of whom already have experience with travel management technology through the integration of online self-booking tools into their programs, and seek to expand their breadth to include group travel.
"Some of those booking engines have relationships with meeting tools, some don't," Blinder said. "By combining the services of the interactive travel group with meetings and incentives, we can help represent the needs of customers in ways we couldn't before."
The move illustrates a gaining level of interest in and acceptance of attendee management technology, as well as site sourcing and reporting solutions. "It continues," Blinder said. "The online meetings business is growing nicely, and clients certainly appreciate the value and cost-savings opportunities. They're looking for ways to expand the savings and value of their existing online booking systems. We want to offer customers tools that help them make the best decisions."
In other American Express meetings and incentives news, the division earlier this month expanded its sales staff and technical support team—including the appointment of three new executive-level sales positions—to meet demand for controlling meeting management expenses.
"We want to expand the business development side because there's more demand of customers seeking group travel solutions," Roseman said. "We can't predict the future, but looking at year-over-year growth and the number of calls we get, it looks like there are more customers on the bandwagon."
Roseman added that much of the interest in meetings management services emanates from existing American Express corporate travel customers and new clients also considering American Express' corporate travel or corporate card services.