Agencies Aiming To Aid Consolidation

<B>Agencies Aiming To Aid Consolidation</B>

By Chris Davis

As corporate meeting managers continue to grapple with the questions of whether to consolidate meetings companywide and how exactly to approach it, travel agencies and travel management companies point to their experience, technological data capture and reporting tools as reasons why corporations should involve them in the consolidation process.

"We're trying to assist clients by allowing them to experience ways different customers have approached consolidation," said Jay Roseman, vice president of meetings and incentives at Mt. Laurel, N.J.-based American Express One. "We take the steps necessary to gain access into areas where meeting planning happens, so we can give an aggregate total of activity. Our approach is not necessarily just meeting planning strategy, it's improving and creating resources at every level, including those for professional planners and meeting arrangers in terms of site selection, contracting and reporting."

Agency officials also said the volume of travel they represent will lead to more effective negotiations with consolidated meetings data. "We bring industry standards and practices and the experience to deploy a program across all levels of a corporation," said Janice Blevins, vice president of meetings management for St. Louis-based Maritz Travel Co. "We also have the leverage with suppliers. With our volume, we represent tremendous presence in the supplier community. That, plus expertise, is a good match for savings."

Another advantage of involving an agency is its available resources that allow the corporation to get a program up and running more quickly and at a lower cost than if the company had developed the program itself, Blevins said.

Technology tools that enable organized meeting spending data capture also are key to the consolidation concept, said Dick Zeller, director of global business solutions at Philadelphia-based McGettigan Partners. Carlson Marketing Group, a sister company to Carlson Wagonlit Travel that handles meetings consolidation, for example, recently introduced its new online data consolidation tool.

But, Zeller cautioned, tools travel agencies offer, including McGettigan's Core Discovery consolidation software, will have to evolve or risk obsolescence.

"Today's solutions could be out of date in 12 months," Zeller said. "They have to evolve and migrate to entirely Web-based solutions with front-end Web site access and the ability to register to a common calendar with robust data management. We can pull all that into Core, which will eventually be totally Web-based, which is the way internal information technology infrastructures are headed."

Zeller agreed, though, that an online data consolidation tool in the hands of an inexperienced meetings manager may not be an effective tool at all. "Don't overestimate the value that technology brings," he said. "You need to develop processes and procedures around that technology solution to be successful. Consolidation is creeping up on everyone's agenda, and you're seeing a lot of tools from agencies these days to help with consolidation, far more than four years ago."

The tech solutions offered by agencies should continue to expand as clients seek more comprehensive tools.

"We've never seen so much interest in meetings consolidation in every industry," said Kaye Mulkeen, COO of Atlanta-based WorldTravel Meetings & Incentives. "But the next trend will be companies approaching agencies for attendee management tools to capture consolidated attendee data."

Mulkeen also believes that the complex and specific policies many corporations use to regulate corporate transient travel will migrate to group and meeting travel, with travel agencies helping to create them. "Corporate travel is so mature in its policies, with directives as to who can fly first class and when, for example," Mulkeen said. "You'll see more of that with meetings, with policies governing who can go to what meetings and when they can attend."

"People already see the value in consolidating corporate travel and are looking at that internationally," added Roseman. "The next step is meetings, which is where travel was 10 years ago.