Mtgs. Vet Wendel Joins HRS to Forge New Approach

HRS's Kari Wendel discusses: 

• Four key pain points in meetings management
• HRS's evolving approach to meetings
• Differences between the U.S. and Europe in meetings management strategy

Kari Wendel, a meetings management veteran first on the buy side and long with CWT Meetings & Events as a senior executive, has joined HRS as VP of HRS Meetings. It's a new role for the company and one that is redefining how HRS wants to approach the market. Wendel sat down with BTN editorial director Elizabeth West during BTN's recent Business Travel Trends and Forecast event in Dallas. The following is an edited excerpt of that interview.

BTN: This is the first time HRS has had a dedicated meetings leader in North America, and you also have a role for global strategic meetings customers. That all seems new for HRS, so what is your remit in the new role?

Kari Wendel: I'll take the second part first. When a company specifically says, "we want to care globally about our top-tier customers so they have the right experience across our multiple platforms," that shows to me a real commitment that HRS wants to be successful wherever our customers need to be in the world. Whether that means we're in every market with boots on the ground is not the point. They want to be globally relevant and globally capable.

For the North American market, candidly, even from my first discussions with HRS, it was about wanting to understand how the North American market works, how the buyers think and what is different about this market than others HRS has been successful in already. The very first conversation I had with [HRS CEO] Tobias [Ragge] was how to speed our success in this market. We don't want to be plodding and patient about it. We want to rock and roll, and I'm ready to dig my teeth into something new. The tenet beneath that for me, though, is the work that I've always done to build a credible reputation as a good business partner, as a strong buyer and as an [industry] volunteer for a decade. I think that network was also very appealing to HRS.

BTN: What do you see as the prime opportunities for meetings management in North America right now? What are the market gaps that we can solve for now that perhaps we couldn't before?

Wendel: There are pain points the industry is at a level of exhaustion with. In particular is the inability to really have seamless payment solutions that result in quality data. Payment and data have been two very elusive components for meetings management. It's an excruciating issue, and it's crazy that it hasn't been solved. Another gap is this variable return-to-office scenario, which has resulted in an increase of smaller, simpler meetings because people aren't getting together in the office anymore. That's really been a trend as well. And lastly, [we've seen] recently a real appetite to build an agile tech stack for meetings. Buyers are looking at their problems and saying, "I can't find a single company that solves all of what I want to automate and drive efficiencies around." They want to build a tech stack of solutions they choose in order to achieve their end objectives.

BTN: Of the four trends you mentioned, do you see them as specific to North America? HRS has been more deeply adopted in Europe for meetings, so are other needs a priority there?

Wendel: I do think that they're different. But I would also say that the distinctions maybe aren't about the regions. I'd rather articulate that those four points are most relevant to global companies no matter where they're headquartered. [Strategic meetings management] in general started in North America with big North America-based companies, but it quickly spread across the globe, because SMM can achieve clear benefits.

For smaller companies in smaller regions … those aren't necessarily the things that they're interested in or focused on. More local bespoke solutions can work wonderfully for them. Trying to provide solutions across 30 countries—60 countries, if you're a global company, or 100—that's a much harder problem to solve. At that end, those four trends are very profound. So it's not necessarily about Europe versus North America. It's just that North America is the headquarters for a lot of large global companies.

BTN: Speaking about HRS then, how is HRS positioned to key into those needs?

Wendel: HRS is solving the two biggest pain points for the meetings market. That is via a revolutionary payment solution driven by AI that results in beautiful level-three data. This has not been feasible to date with any other platform or solution I have seen—and I've seen a lot of them. In terms of simple meetings, obviously that's a component of the HRS Connect platform that is available in the North American marketplace. We're launching here in the next quarter or so with our first big global customer. This is part of why I took the job … because the solutions HRS has envisioned and, indeed, built are addressing exactly what's going on in the marketplace.

BTN: Is it my misconception that HRS has played mainly as a small meetings platform provider? Because what I am hearing from you today is very global and very different.

Wendel: That is not a misconception. HRS's existing platforms and solutions do focus on simple to small meetings because that was the most transient-adjacent segment and was a very natural segue for the company. When I talk about payment solutions and data solutions, the vision is that those are applicable to all meetings, not just simple meetings.

I have felt very welcome at HRS in the ability to give my candid opinions about everything they were planning and wanted to do and their vision. I've been 150 percent supported in being able to help frame that vision for North America and say, let's shift this road 30 degrees to the west. That's part of what's happening right now. We've been able to quantify the value of the payment solutions, the amazing business intelligence and the simple meetings platform in terms of reference to the available market in North America. It's a very compelling story, and it was not hard to help HRS see that we have a much bigger opportunity.

BTN: I assume the product development, then, is largely on the roadmap and not necessarily existing in final form right now.

Wendel: We are creating steering councils or co-creation councils, starting in the North American market. [We want to gather] seasoned buyers who have remit for travel and meetings and get feedback going. Let's tell them where we're headed, let's get their input, let's get their dreams about what could exist in the market and figure out if that's something that HRS wants to do and can do well. We need seasoned buyers and current partners on this council to help ensure HRS solutions resonate in the marketplace best.

BTN: What about internally? Are you building a team and what roles are coming on board to pursue the bigger opportunities?

Wendel: Absolutely building a team right at this moment. I learned at my last job [CWT Meetings & Events] that the strongest foundation for enabling growth is to have a team of operational experts. They will define how we operate successfully with our customers now, but in a way that when we have 50 customers, it still works well. And when we need 20 more operations leaders, our foundational hires can then lead how those folks do their job well.

Additionally, we're hiring account executives. I have never been hired to be a salesperson at CWT or anywhere, but I have been heavily involved in the sales process for almost every single major global bid. Being able to relate to a customer and understand how to talk to a customer is important. At HRS I want a team of consultants that I can trust to go out and meet with people that I've known for 20 years and represent us well and create long-term relationships so, as our solutions develop and further evolve, we're listening and hearing what the market needs and we're responding accordingly.

BTN: HRS has always had some support services for clients, particularly around the sourcing and procurement piece. But I have not thought of HRS as a meetings agency. Is that changing?

Wendel: No. We are not looking to be a meetings agency. We are looking to be a SaaS solution, software as a service solution, that facilitates complex processes with AI in a way that saves—period.  Saves money, saves resources, saves time.

BTN: My last question is more personal, Kari. You spent 14 years at CWT. How does it feel to start something new and why is this the right time?

Wendel: It's no secret what CWT has gone through in the past couple of years. And if you've ever been involved in an acquisition, then you also know what it feels like to sit in the middle of an acquisition … with a really significant focus on cost controls, right? That's not even about CWT, that's just what happens. [Editor's note: American Express Global Business Travel in 2024 agreed to acquire CWT.]

And you know me: I like to be busy, I like to solve problems. I like to have someone say, "We largely want to do X. Go figure out how." So over six months of discussions with HRS, I needed to make sure that's what would happen here. It wasn't easy to leave CWT. It truly was a family to me for so many years as it was for other people in the industry. Even before talking to HRS, I knew I needed a role in an organization where my expertise and the network I've built was valuable. When the HRS opportunity came to me, it squarely fit. The conversations were compelling, and I caught the excitement and the vision. It's clear HRS is very serious about being wildly successful. As long as I know that, then I know that I can make it happen—because there's just some unbelievable talent and vision here.