ROI Key To Raising Meeting Buyers' Profile

<H1> ROI Key To Raising Meeting Buyers' Profile</H1> <B>I</B> have seen enormous changes in the meetings industry since I first became a corporate meeting planner at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. in 1985. With a background in hotel operations and sales, I joined the company as a logistics expert. I planned and implemented scores of projects; but I was essentially an order taker. I counted coffee cups, did rooming lists and meeting room set-ups, and worked with vendors to ensure they lived up to our contracts. My employer was pleased with my performance, and my team and I enjoyed an excellent reputation of being able to do great things in record time with few problems.

In spite of that, I realized that my value to my employer was limited if I did not become savvy to an integral part of my firm's business strategy.

Being an order taker was not going to ensure my continued success or longevity within the corporation. However, I had neither the time nor the inclination to become an accredited insurance expert, so I searched for tools to help me increase my value to the organization. Thankfully, our industry was waking up to the fact that planners and suppliers needed tools to elevate their status both within the industry and in the greater business world.

Enter ROI, or return on investment-a strategic planning model which was developed by the MPI Foundation in collaboration with Marriott Hotels & Resorts. For planners, this means designing meetings primarily from a strategic point of view; meeting logistics come second.

How does ROI work? First develop measurable goals and objectives. Write a business and/or marketing plan. Identify and collaborate with principle stakeholders who have a vested interest in the successful outcome of the project. Execute the project (this is where logistics come into play) and then measure the success of the project by carefully evaluating all aspects.

Don't be daunted by this paradigm shift. If you believe that your opportunities to effect such changes are limited within your organization, then I suggest that you start with small changes.

Businesses across the globe are yearning for more effective means to achieve their goals-and businesses love to hold meetings.

I did not join Fireman's Fund with the notion that I could immediately change the culture and entice senior management to embrace meetings as part of our overall business strategy.

Today, however, the seeds for many important meetings are often germinated in brainstorming sessions in which senior management and my team dream up ways to positively affect our business goals. This is a major cultural shift in the way in which my team and I do business.

Embracing a mindset that concentrates on measuring ROI doesn't mean that logistics must be relegated to the back burner. Being part of the business strategy within any organization requires raising the bar-elevating one's thinking to include the business of your business.

Unless you are enormously fortunate to have heaps of staff, then logistics will probably continue to be an important part of your job. That's fine; just never revert back to being a meeting planner when in today's business world you need to be a meeting professional.

Embrace each new project from the viewpoint of measurable goals, and the rest should follow with reasonable ease.

<I>David Kliman is a meeting planner at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. and outgoing president of Meeting Professionals International.