Amex Meets Midmarket Mtgs.

<B> Amex Meets Midmarket Mtgs.</B>

By Chris Davis

With the national presence and deep pockets of American Express behind him, the new head of the American Express One meetings division expects to combine technology and meeting consolidation resources to expand the agency's offerings to the corporate market.

Jay Roseman faces a different world now that he is meetings and incentives vice president for the Mt. Laurel, N.J.-based hybrid, formed by the nation's largest corporate travel agency and its October acquisition, super-regional Travel One, to focus on meeting the needs of small and midmarket companies for travel and meeting services (<I>BTN,</I> March 22).

"We have a unique opportunity, because now we have a national presence in account and business development just for meetings," said Roseman. "We've never experienced that kind of presence on the Travel One side, because our meeting product was sold by existing account managers and the corporate sales team. Now, our buying programs will be changing."

Roseman, who reports to American Express One head Scott Tarte, said new meetings programs and products will be rolled out as the integration of the two agencies progresses towards its targeted third-quarter completion.

"On the technology side, we're coming up with ways to assist our clients in their reporting needs and managing the registration progress," he said. "If we can put that on a standard platform for them--which we already have the ability to do--and link the air reservation with the arrival, departure and rooming needs coming out of a central database, it will allow clients to focus on the meeting content as we work on the logistics."

The added resources, both technological and financial, that American Express brings to the table will allow Roseman's division to bring technology into other areas of meetings management as well.

"We understand the need for technology in the meeting business to track consolidated volume and spend," he said. "Also, Travel One always excelled at the passenger maintenance side--arrival and departure lists, rooming lists, change reports. Now we'll have the stronger technology to back that up."

The increased buying power leads Roseman to hope clients will increase the number of events consolidated with the new agency. "We sit in a great position to work with American Express in understanding volumes and utilizing the systems they have in place to track meeting planning volumes and how our clients are spending money, and to understand industry benchmarks," he said. "We want to leverage our buying power to enhance customers' current contracts or savings, even if they plan their own meetings, so they're not looking past some of the liability issues in hotel negotiating."

The first meetings product introduced by American Express One targets multi-city road shows, often necessary when new products are being introduced, when companies require national employee training or when they are looking for investment capital. Called Roadshow Assist, the program provides services for executive corporate aircraft and ground transportation, lodging, concierge services, registration and technological needs, including videoconferencing.

"Companies are stepping up their efforts to showcase their products in person," Roseman noted. "We need to package the right kind of vendors for a particular show."

American Express One is designed to service clients with annual travel volumes of less than $10 million. Larger clients will be served by American Express Corporate Services' large-market unit, though larger Travel One accounts are being grandfathered into the merged unit and may continue to work with American Express One if they prefer.

The American Express purchase is being viewed as a positive step by the market, and no Travel One corporate meetings account has pulled its business out, Roseman said. "We haven't lost anybody on the meetings side due to the transition," he noted.

Indeed, Roseman, who joined Travel One nine years ago, hopes the new division will bring new customers to American Express and increase the meeting business as the integration process nears completion and the market sees how autonomous the unit is. "I hope the industry will recognize us as a leader in this area very shortly," he said.