AT&T Spinoff Opens Mtg. Div.

Lucent Technologies has established a new conference planning division aimed at servicing the meeting planning requirements of employees throughout the organization.

Lucent, the $23 billion spinoff company that was created during the 1995 restructuring of AT&T, designs, builds and delivers public and private networks, communication systems, software, microelectronic components and business telephone systems.

Although the meetings group eschews purchase mandates and has little hard data to support consolidation, it intends to rein in hotel costs by instituting best practices and distributing information about hotel and conference center discounts. The best practices are generated by Lucent's Center of Excellence group, which Mary Bittrich, formerly travel manager with AT&T Bell Labs, recently joined.

This philosophy of best practices is in line with Lucent's general method of operation, which has earned it a Malcolm Baldrige Award for Excellence, a Deming prize and two Shingo prizes for excellence in manufacturing.

BTN spoke with manager of group travel and external conference planning Tracey Lane to discuss the new operation's goals for 1997.

BTN: What strategies will you employ to reach your long-term objectives of providing logistical services to Lucent employees?

Lane: To defray our expenses, we've begun partnering with our vendors to track our meeting volumes--that is, the number of meetings Lucent has held at its facilities and the amount of sleeping rooms we have used. The meeting expenditures are accounted for separately on an individual basis by each of our business units, and are not compiled by my group. We leverage relationships with lots of independent hotels and the major chains, although we don't have any preferred vendor agreements in place.

We're also looking to develop an internal software system that will help my group manage our clients' individual meeting logistics and track the end-to-end meeting process for each client.

We will soon launch a newsletter that will be directed toward managers and administrative personnel who plan their own meetings. It will offer hot dates, tips on saving money, and notification about properties where we've held a successful function or that fit a particular need.

We're not trying to centralize control of spending as much as offer a tool to guide intelligent expenditures. If we've negotiated a small meetings package at a property, that information also will go into the newsletter and will be shared electronically.

BTN: How has the conference services department been organized? Do you really consider it a department, given the geographic separation of its members?

Lane: Given Lucent's proficiency with technology, we can operate without being in the same office or region. Our remote offices are equipped with e-mail, Internet browsers and office software packages to handle our logistics. In addition, since we are conference planners, we're on site often.

My planners work where they live and are often on site, as well. One planner works entirely out of a "virtual office" from her home. Another goes to a Lucent facility two days per week and works from home or on site the rest of the time.

BTN: What is the Center of Excellence program, and how does it help Lucent to standardize its conference planning?

Lane: This program, which consists of conference calls and e-mail communications, originated in the old AT&T to gather the planners together--anyone who plans multiple meetings--and determine best practices. As a group, we discussed and determined, if, for example, we wanted to obtain a group air contract. We're then able to get a consensus from the group by sifting through opinions and thoughts.

I participated in the Center of Excellence under the old AT&T, and when the corporate restructuring occurred, I became the head of the Center of Excellence for Lucent, along with managing the conference planners at Lucent's meeting and conference planning group.

Mary Bittrich is administrator of the Center of Excellence group and does much of the Center of Excellence communications--including planning the new best-practices newsletter and e-mail communication of hot dates, tips and sudden cancellations. Mary also handles various additional logistical functions for us, including budget work.

BTN: Can you give a snapshot of Lucent's meetings for 1997?

Lane: We can't give information on air or hotel volume pre- or post-restructuring because that data is proprietary.

Our group supports all the business units of Lucent Technologies for external services, defined as all meetings requiring an off-site venue. Since our customer base isn't required to use us, we don't have consolidated figures for the corporation.

Last year we handled slightly over 100 conferences. That number doesn't include any off-site meetings held by the Executive Council or planned outside by my group. In terms of support, we offer everything from minimal support to soup-to-nuts.

BTN: What percentage of total meetings volume do those 100 meetings represent?

Lane: I couldn't even speculate. But as I said, we're starting to work closely with the national sales offices of the major hotel chains to start gathering further data on Lucent volume. We also work closely with the Center of Excellence members to gain more information about our employees, who number about 121,000 in more than 90 countries. We're hoping that by going through national sales offices and encouraging all managers who handle meetings on their own to do so, we'll be able to better identify what we're spending as a corporation.

BTN: How is your department structured?

Lane: I work for Pat Capasso, manager of administrative services, group travel and external conference planning, which handles the meeting planning needs, per request, of the rest of Lucent. In this role, nothing is mandated, and our involvement will vary on a case-by-case basis.There also is another department, the executive conference group, that handles off-site board meetings, retreats and other such gatherings for Lucent's executive council members. This group is run by Bonnie Benande, manager of executive services.