<B> Dupont Mulls Mtgs.</B>
By Chris Davis
Traditionally decentralized DuPont Co. has saved money by having BTI Americas review all of the meeting contract proposals drawn up by its employees--but now DuPont's program head wants to take it even further.
Currently, DuPont--which has no in-house planners--permits its meeting sponsors to stage and schedule their own meetings if they choose, said manager of global business travel Joyce Bembry. But before anything is signed, BTI Americas must review the proposed contract. This, she said, allows the company to track suppliers and offers it leveraging potential in negotiations. DuPont currently spends about $5 million on meetings expenses annually.
BTI Americas reviews about 1,500 meetings per year for DuPont, Bembry said. But she acknowledged that figure likely is nowhere near the total number of meetings the company holds. The program has worked for DuPont, so far, she said, though she'd like to expand it.
"We are working now to improve what we have in the United States. The current program is far better than having everyone doing what they choose on their own and not leveraging where we can, but we still know that this can be improved," Bembry said. "We are looking at maybe having different meeting planning companies based on the type of meeting that we're doing. We may look at whether it's appropriate to have two or more preferred meeting planning companies, with all of our air travel going through our transient company."
Bembry mentioned McGettigan Partners and Maritz as examples of companies that could possibly be brought into DuPont's meetings equation. She declined to commit to a definite timetable on changes, but said she is hoping to move things along in short order. "I do have to make some decisions soon, and I would like to start in early 1999 with a new way of doing this. If there's any timetable, that would be it. I haven't committed that to anyone," she said.
Under the terms of the current program, BTI can recommend venues but in the end cannot forbid DuPont employees from staging their meetings where they want.
"When BTI gets a meeting proposal, based on what the requirements are and where folks want to have it, they have background knowledge of what locations would be good," Bembry said. "They get the question in several different ways, from 'Where should we have this meeting?'--which is ideal--all the way to 'I want to have the meeting at this property,' which is not ideal. It's up to BTI to help planners find the most appropriate venue, but the business has the ultimate choice. BTI cannot say unilaterally where to go--not if it wants to continue to do business."
Bembry also cannot force a meeting into a different hotel or meeting space. "I can advise, I can say these are the advantages. I can even say when I think the organization is making a mistake," she said. "But I still can't make the choice."
DuPont's officials, though, usually make sound decisions concerning the suppliers chosen and the costs incurred. "By and large they make the appropriate decision if you give them the facts," she said.
A decentralized system isn't for everybody, but the program has served DuPont and its meeting sponsors well. The sponsors can create the meetings specifications they want, and DuPont still gets most of its meetings data to leverage.
"Satisfaction is hard to measure, but there isn't widespread dissatisfaction with the current system, because I do know how to measure that," she said. "We monitor that based on how many people are complaining and how many calls we get. Be assured that if people were not happy, we'd hear about it. Any time a meeting gets screwed up, we hear about it. In recent months, perhaps since spring, we have not had any complaints about a meeting or meeting planning. So we must be doing something right."
Still, Bembry can see a future with more parties involved with the program, an arrangement that she hopes will have a positive impact on DuPont's bottom line.