Best Meeting Practitioners 2008: HP's Iwamoto Deploys Policy, New Addendum
Hewlett-Packard last year rolled out a global meetings and events policy, implemented a hotel contract addendum that already has been accepted by one worldwide chain and negotiated day-meeting packages in one of its biggest locations.
The global meetings and events policy, rolled out last October, came as the result of a collaboration between HP's global travel and meetings services department and its marketing and events procurement team. The prior lack of policy had been a source of concern and the departments decided to collaborate, said Kevin Iwamoto, HP's global corporate card, hotels and meetings commodity manager.
"Our team took the lead in putting together a first draft of the policy. We sent it over to them to add in their elements, and from that point we collaborated and tweaked it and incorporated our legal department, just to make sure everything was copacetic," he said. "We structure it in a global way, so it's like a baseline for people to follow."
The policy covers such subjects as approved suppliers, use of the Halo remote conferencing system, payment processes, air travel and such standards of business conduct issues as familiarization trips and planner points. Individual countries and businesses can make the policy more stringent, but not more liberal.
"It's a really broad policy," Iwamoto said. However, it is not mandated.
The policy was put together in a couple of months and was communicated to travelers through newsletters and the departments' respective portals. In November, an education forum was held for the key members of both teams involved in day-to-day operations. The policy is referred to in dispute resolution and in internal inquiries concerning program parameters.
Last November, a three-page meetings hotel contract addendum was rolled out in order to mitigate risk. The idea for the addendum came from procurement and was developed by Iwamoto and HP's legal and contracting departments. HP has been able to use the addendum in its existing form or in a modified form in all its regions.
The addendum covers seven areas: noise abatement, confidentiality, substitute accommodation, personal data protection, cancellation, liability and indemnification. "It has been a huge time-saver and a big relief for a lot of meeting and event planners, because contracts are really not their background or their focus," Iwamoto said. The addendum also gives planners peace of mind. "By sourcing and going through our process, they're not only following HP policy, but they are also safeguarding HP against unnecessary risk and cost," he said.
Iwamoto traveled to the company's Meetings Services Bureaus to explain the addendum and how much flexibility was in each area.
"In a few of these, we may be flexible, and in a few we are absolutely not flexible," he said. "With that kind of knowledge, they can negotiate with hotels and if anything reaches an impasse, then it will get escalated to me to deal with the hotels."
One of the company's primary hotel suppliers has accepted the addendum worldwide following negotiations, Iwamoto said. "That gives them somewhat of an advantage when we're doing multiple hotel sourcing for an event or a meeting," he said.
Before, HP had an eight-page addendum with a lot of language already in the hotel contract. "We took all the redundancy out and we basically focused on the seven procurement terms and conditions that we felt we needed to have to protect HP," he said.
The addendum is not mandated but is strongly recommended.
Iwamoto's department also negotiated day-meeting contracts with hotels around its Houston location to meet the company's demand for meeting space earlier this year. The company has an agreement with one chain for city hotels and is looking to expand that, Iwamoto said.
The company also is pushing green practices for meetings. A copy of a green meetings guide is given for every meeting booked through the Meetings Services Bureaus to increase awareness. The company also is working with the San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau to put together prenegotiated green meeting packages for area hotels and the city's convention center.