Meeting Sites Resource

Today, meeting planners / departments are doing more with less, yet expected to increase meeting value, reduce costs and enhance the meeting attendee experience.  Meetings are big investments and new skills and resources are required to make the shift from “logistics to strategic” and assure more meeting value and ROI.

Strategic Meeting Management (SMM) is a disciplined approach to enterprise wide meeting consolidation and the big picture goals include:

• Efficient planning processes / procedures / logistics

• Focus on core competencies

• Risk mitigation (financial, legal, compliances

• Preferred Supplier Program

• Meeting consolidation / leverage spend

• Hotel / vendor master accounts / deposit and payment process / reconciliation

• Specific metrics to define and measure success

• Management / financial reports (including cost savings /  risk reduction, by meeting)

• Robust technology that drives strategic decisions

Although there are plenty of white papers, webinars, workshops and articles on SMM, there is no “one size fits all” solution.  Every organization must conduct their own needs assessment, create an SMM action plan and get senior management’s buy-in based on the many benefits (team productivity, cost savings, risk reduction, attendee learning /  performance and achieving stakeholder goals).

The Meeting Needs Assessment and Action Plan define the roadmap as you manage forward and include the following 12 Step Process:

1. How meetings are generated / approval process
2. Identify key stakeholders / core competencies
3. Meeting needs assessment goals & objectives
4. Sourcing / negotiations/cost savings
5. Hotel contract / risk reduction
6. Planning processes / procedures / logistics
7. Preferred suppliers (services / evaluation / pricing / outcomes / agreements
8. Hotel / vendor master accounts / deposit & payment process / reconciliation
9. Meeting budgets / variances
10. Management financial reports
11. Post meeting evaluation / learner outcomes & meeting value
12. Technology tools & resources that drive SMM

MSR offers an umbrella of SMM solutions including sourcing, custom hotel contracting, advanced technology (meeting consolidation / leverage spend / 24/7 management reports), professional meeting support services and SMM consulting.