Business Travel News congratulates its Best Meeting Practitioners of 2008:
Cindy Heston, Thomson SA manager of corporate travel worldwide;
Kevin Iwamoto, Hewlett-Packard global corporate card, hotels and meetings commodity manager; and
Paul Tomaszeski, Novartis executive director of business support services. Each practitioner, in their own way, is emblematic of a meetings industry seeking the best methods by which to strategically manage its spending.
Business Travel News solicited nominations from readers and the industry at large during the spring of meeting buyers whose programs either completed or began to show verifiable results during the past 12 months. We appreciate the cooperation of the Best Practitioners and those in the industry that participated in the process.
Download the Practitioners' stories as a PDF here, or click on the links below to read their individual stories online.
Thomson's Heston Develops KPI-Based Hotel Sourcing GaugeFrench professional media and entertainment services group Thomson SA last year introduced a key performance indicator checklist that shows the overall costs for a meeting stakeholder's choice of venue, and developed a meetings registration and agenda tool, enabling hotel spending data to be tracked.
HP's Iwamoto Deploys Policy, New AddendumHewlett-Packard last year rolled out a global meetings and events policy, implemented a hotel contract addendum that already has been accepted by one worldwide chain and negotiated day-meeting packages in one of its biggest locations.
Novartis' Tomaszeski Scores Sky-High Compliance For Mtgs. AirPharmaceutical company Novartis this year linked its meetings registration to its online booking system, requiring attendees to concurrently register and book air travel for meetings, increasing overall online booking adoption. As a result, only six of about 7,000 applicable meeting attendees in June did not book their air through Novartis' online booking tool.