Stepping forward to meet what it sees as a trend of corporations merging travel and meetings into one department, midsize travel agency Valerie Wilson Travel Inc., based in New York, last year bought International Meeting Services, a Westport, Conn.-based independent corporate event management company. While transient clients' embrace of meetings offerings has been slow, the agency expects the segment to grow, according to its new head of meetings and incentives, former IMS president and owner Barbara Sivak.
Though the growth of crossover customers so far has been small, the agency sees its clients converging their own transient and meetings programs, Sivak said.
"Valerie didn't have anybody that did meetings, and we are starting to see a trend where corporate travel or procurement departments are looking toward travel to provide everything," Sivak said. "It's a very forward step and we'll start to see a lot of larger and midsize agencies offer meeting planning."
Sivak's department works under the name and umbrella of Valerie Wilson Travel, but continues to operate independently from the agency. Valerie Wilson was the 19th-largest travel agency by ARC transactions in Business Travel News' 2006 Business Travel Survey
(BTN, May 29)."All of our projects are handled by professional meeting planners with a minimum of 10 years of experience, not travel agents doing meetings," she said. The department currently employs 10 people and Sivak plans to expand the staff soon.
Sivak said the department tends not to work with existing meetings technology providers due to security concerns.
"A lot of the registration sites that are out there are not server-based," she said. "We want to be able to have control over all of our data. We have servers that are backed up and tight security so that we can gather sensitive information. Some clients have specifically said to us that if we didn't host it, they wouldn't work with us. They want that level of comfort."
International Meeting Services had 60 to 70 Fortune 500 clients and focused on high-level board meetings, incentives and customer events, Sivak said, and previously used a Valerie Wilson agent for group air sourcing. She said there were enormous synergies between the two companies.
"In order for the agency to continue to grow, they really need an inroad into this marketplace because there's so much volume there. It is something their current corporate customers can utilize and the growth potential is enormous," she said.
Travel and procurement departments continue to increase influence over corporate meetings, but Sivak said most companies have not paid excessive attention to return on investment and commoditization. "The difference when we're working with purchasing or procurement centers is that they just want to know what the bottom lines are," she said. "The types of budgets we typically run are so detailed. For a standard-sized meeting, I could have a budget that is four or five pages long."
The department also aims to establish offices overseas. Sivak said she has seen a trend of corporations moving events back to Europe. In the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, international meetings withered and many European companies held events in the U.S. because of favorable exchange rates, she said.
"I would like to see us expand into the European arena with offices overseas, because I have a lot of clients that would love to have a local person to call," she said.
The meetings and incentives department at the agency is focused on single-event production, and offers comprehensive site selection, attendee management, sourcing, production and onsite services, Sivak said. Most projects include between 250 and 350 attendees, but Sivak said events could range in size from five to 3,000 attendees.
Many third parties typically present three properties for buyers to consider, Sivak said, but she recently presented a client with 15, with budget estimates, fact sheets and other comparable data. Many clients know their preferred destination, but are unaware of what hotels may be available, so the department sources as many properties as possible.
The department has begun to make slow inroads into Valerie Wilson's client base, Sivak said. The agency in October will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a roadshow and the department will assist in some client events and use the opportunity to reach out to the agency's regional offices, she said.
"Our goal is to grow the business," Sivak said, adding that she expects most new customer growth to come into her division directly, rather than cross over from Valerie Wilson.
Travel management companies tend to be more transactional, and meetings are complex projects that require services beyond sourcing. Sivak said she has reassured her meeting clients that the new ownership will not change any service offerings. "I'm laying the groundwork for the growth to come."