Cvent said two meeting management firms--Egencia Meetings & Incentives and Meetings & Incentives--and 10 large corporations have selected the meeting technology firm to power strategic meetings management programs.
Expedia's Egencia said it would use Cvent's online meetings management and venue site selection software to power the SMM programs it offers to clients and use the tools internally to source venues and register attendees.
Egencia Meetings & Incentives launched last yearafter Expedia acquired a Canadian meetings management firm. Technology it developed to support meetings, including meeting booking and reporting tools, will be integrated into Cvent by year-end, according to an Egencia spokeswoman.
"Successful meeting programs that deliver quantifiable cost and time savings require attention to detail, intuitive technology and industry expertise. and partnering with Cvent uniquely positions us to bring together the whole package for our customers," said Debbie Grossi, Egencia Meetings & Incentive North America director.
Full-service meetings management firm Meetings & Incentives also selected the Cvent platform to further support its clients' needs. Based in Caledonia, Wis., the privately owned meetings firm serves healthcare, consumer product and manufacturing companies and recently was named the sole provider of meeting services to Travelocity Business.
Company planners have used the Cvent Supplier Network to source meetings "and know that consolidating the entire meetings management process on the Cvent platform, combined with the specialized knowledge of our experts, will allow us to be a more effective partner to our clients," according to a prepared statement from M&I chief financial officer Tina Madden.
In addition to the distribution partners, Cvent said it signed Coca-Cola, WellPoint, Deere & Company and seven other Fortune500 companies as clients in recent months. Corporate clients include those in the pharmaceutical, financial, consumer product and healthcare sectors, according to company officials. "Five of the 10 largest corporate TMCs now use Cvent's software to manage meetings programs on behalf of their clients," according to the company. Among them are HRG North America and BCD Meetings & Incentives, according to Cvent executive vice president of sales and marketing Chuck Ghoorah. "Part of our secret to success is that we'd don't provide technology the way we think it should be done," but how the clients wants it to work, he said.
The increased volume of requests for proposals had led to "95 percent response rate" to those RFPs from properties, Ghoorah added.
Competitor StarCite announced a new agreement with InterContinental Hotels Group designed to expedite the RFP response time for corporate clients as the requests automatically populate the lead distribution systems used at each property. The deal also allows IHG to promote Holiday Inn, InterContinental and Crowne Plaza brand properties in the StarCite marketplace.
Meetings Recovery Underway?
Demand for strategic meetings management programs and meetings overall also appears to be increasing, according to both anecdotal data and results from two recently released surveys.
In a survey of 90 buyers, Maxvantage, the American Express Business Travel and Maritz Travel joint venture forged a year ago, said 60 percent of respondents indicated that the meetings industry is gradually improving and was stable.
"This renewed demand is making availability more challenging and is resulting in slight rate increases," said Maxvantage vice president Issa Jouaneh. Meeting rates for 2010 increased from 2009 for some top destinations such as Phoenix (up 21 percent year-over-year), Las Vegas (14 percent) and Philadelphia (5 percent), but declined in Chicago (-16 percent), Atlanta (-14 percent), Dallas (-8 percent) and Orlando (-1 percent). "The decrease in hotel rates year over year are not as severe as the drop from 2008 to 2009," according to Maxvantage.
In a 2011 forecast released this week, Carlson Wagonlit Travel said it expected corporate spending on meetings and events to comprise 1.9 percent to 2.3 percent of an organization's top-line revenues. "Spending per attendee, per day will increase 7 percent to 11 percent on returning demand, combined with the limited number of suppliers of meeting services," according to the report.
Anecdotally, Egencia's Grossi said demand for meetings appears to be on the rise and demand for incentive programs "never stopped." Her team is fielding more interest for international programs, prompted by favorable currency exchange rates on the euro. "This is the time to go" to Europe, she said.
As for demand for strategic meetings management programs, Grossi said the buying cycle is typically longer than that for travel management services. Egencia "just entered into an agreement for its first new client" for an SMMP.
American Express Business Travel vice president and general manager Lane Dubin said, "We're now beginning to see an increase in meetings demand from our customers and also a renewed vigor from other companies that are looking to gain control over what is still a category that offers integral opportunity. The recession has certainly changed the focus on meetings, but it remains an area of great opportunity when managed entirely and centrally."
To define that opportunity, the National Business Travel Association Foundation, in partnership with StarCite, released a model for strategic meetings management programs. Based on a framework for software development created at Carnegie Mellon University, the meetings model incorporates results from focus groups and industry research to help companies "identify where they stand in the SMMP implementation process and how to progress to the next level," according to NBTA.