On The Cover - November/December 2006

“I think the general trend in technology is the same as it’s been forever, and it’s especially true in the high-tech applications to the meetings industry, but things are just getting faster, better, cheaper all the time,” said Jeff Rasco, CMP, an award-winning former meeting planner who is now president of technology service provider Attendee Management Inc. in Wimberley, TX. “Meeting planners were just some of the last to be automated, to get computers on their desks, to get access to databases, to get just about anything. But as technology became more accessible — cheaper, faster, better — then they started being able to use it, and that has continued to grow.”

Kristene Hawk, director of guest services at Westfield Center, OH-based Westfield Insurance, is among the enthusiastic converts. “Technology right now is really putting everything into the palm of meeting planners’ and attendees’ hands,” said Hawk, who, along with colleague and corporate event planner Sara Tester, plans between 250–300 meetings and events a year for groups ranging in size from 10 to 200. “Our guests are so much more accustomed to doing everything online in terms of registering than to do it via paper. Things like digital name tags are cutting-edge technologies that meeting planners should explore and make good use of.”

One example is nTAG Interactive, which offers a computerized “smart” badge. The badge provides attendees with real-time information on conference schedules, electronic trading of contact information with other attendees through targeted networking and information-sharing, session interactivity with automated surveys and audience responses, plus solutions to drive and measure event and sponsorship ROI. The small, wearable device also automates onsite logistics such as attendance tracking, messaging and more.

Corbin Ball, CMP, another former meeting planner turned technology consultant, based in Bellingham, WA, noted that despite the many emerging niche technologies in the field, those dedicated to strategic meetings management, or “consolidation,” are at the forefront. “I think one of the things meeting planners are well aware of, and that will have an increasing impact, is the technology for strategic events management and procurement — tracking meeting spend, using technology to source hotel rooms more efficiently, those types of things. That is a huge trend that is just now coming down. It really started with the Fortune 1000 and now it’s working its way down. This is a very big trend and planners are going to see more and more of it.”

In February, the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) weighed in with a white paper entitled, “Choosing the Right Technology in Support of Your Strategic Meetings Management Program.” The NBTA reported, “The right technology is a key component of a successful Strategic Meetings Management Program (SMMP). The purchase of an effective technology solution is critical to the success of an SMMP. The structure of an SMMP will be unique for each organization, and the considerations that drive technology decisions should embrace those specific nuances.”

For his part, Ball puts it in plainer English: “There is no one-size-fits-all solution for any of the meetings technologies.”

The Top Triumvirate Of SMMP Providers
The emerging, ever-evolving technology directly related to strategic meetings management — everything from approvals and calendaring to budgeting and financial reconciliation — has so far been dominated by three powerful innovators — Philadelphia-based StarCite, which announced a merger last August with top competitor OnVantage of Santa Clara, CA; San Francisco-based Lenos Software and Toronto-based Arcaneo.

“The StarCite-OnVantage merger was the equivalent of Microsoft and Apple coming together,” said Ball. “They are undoubtedly the leader. That being said, I think there’s a huge opportunity in the marketplace because it wants choices.”

StarCite, whose clients include MetLife, Allstate, AIG, Prudential Financial and Lehman Brothers, has carved out its market-leading position by aggressively marketing its comprehensive suite of services that power a strategic, end-to-end, five-step meetings management process: Plan-Budget-Buy-Attend. Its combined database includes a total of 93,000 hotel properties and meeting suppliers. If a user so desires, individual airfare purchases can be incorporated into the system. Through the registration tool, individuals can make air arrangements as part of the process of registering for a meeting. Those registering can leverage all group discounts that have been arranged for the meeting.

Another of StarCite’s core capabilities is attendee management, which includes 24/7 online registration, a custom Web site for each major meeting or event, air integration if desired, rooming lists and individual add-on purchases that an attendee can register for and pay directly, such as a round of golf not included in the company’s budget.

Most important, however, StarCite has forcefully addressed the foundation of SMMP programs — consolidated cost accounting and financial management that provides improvements in both internal accounting and external compliance with regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley, and insurance and financial industry standards.

Another key benefit, the company said, is data aggregation that allows planners and management to compile and analyze a comprehensive history of the company’s entire meetings program for comparisons of objectives, costs and results.

In the near term, as a result of the merger with OnVantage, the company will focus on enhanced attendee management capabilities and adherence to the emerging RFP standards by industry initiatives such as OTA,  NBTA and APEX.

Laying Low At Lenos
While StarCite has been busy establishing its high-profile dominance, seven-year-old Lenos Software has concentrated on maintaining a low profile while developing what it says is a superior solution with stronger bottom-line business benefits.

“We are a solution platform, not a product,” said Lenos co-founder and president Patti Tackeff, who pointed out that at least 75 percent of her business comes from clients who have converted from other providers. “That means that for the same amount of money, you get a lot more capabilities. A product implies that it’s a one-size-fits-all. Each of our customers, such as Charles Schwab, Wells Fargo, Boston Scientific, Microsoft, Shaklee and more, leverages Lenos in unique ways, ranging from small internal meetings to large customer conferences. We solve problems, not sell a product and say it will do everything for you. Our technology is an enabling technology. It should provide you with insight, revenue generation, data consolidation, data management, reporting, leverage. How we differentiate is that if you have a global view of your meetings, you can start to assess the value of those meetings and those customers. We don’t just do spend management, we do trend analysis so you can tie that meeting to a customer’s purchase history. We really look at how you optimize a B customer into an A customer, a C customer into a B customer. Lenos has a much wider scope.”

The company also has a very precise business model for competing with StarCite. Lenos just launched a live venue source tool free of paid listings, banner ads or other promotional fees, which account for 30 percent of StarCite’s total revenues.

“We spent six months researching the industry with hotel executives, meeting planners, corporate compliance, lawyers, procurement and marketing executives,” said Tackeff. “A lot of people complained about the present model. What people want is more neutrality, not paid placements and banner ads.”

Jim Glickman, president and CEO of Woodland Hills, CA-based LifeCare Assurance Company, the world’s largest long-term care re-insurer, is among the customers who made the switch from OnVantage to Lenos this year. “There are two major benefits to Lenos,” said Glickman, who uses the company’s attendee management solution for an annual conference he chairs for the Inter-Company Long-Term Care Insurance

The 2006 Meetings Technology Expo, held recently in New York City, provided technology education and solutions geared specifically to meeting prof-essionals. Here, an attendee learns about Lenos Software’s meeting management solutions from company President Patti Tackeff (right). Photo by Eric Wong

Conference Association, which he helped found. “One is that they are significantly less expensive. Second and perhaps more important to us, Lenos is a much smaller operation and therefore, they’re quite a bit more nimble and flexible in terms of being able to customize and do things that are outside a general ‘here’s how it works’ approach.” At his conference this year, 800 of the 805 attendees used Lenos’ online registration functions.

What’s In A Name?
According to Merriam-Webster, arcane is defined as “known or knowable only to the initiate — secret.” For Arcaneo, a provider some say is poised to become the mouse that roared, the definition is apt. Its major clients include Humana and Accenture.

Like Lenos, Arcaneo, whose solution is named Metron, positions itself as a provider of more comprehensive, bottom-line business benefits than the much ballyhooed SMMP/consolidation model. “Managing meeting spend, the focus of our key competitors, is of questionable impact if the value of the meeting is not understood,” said Clement Ng, vice president of client services. “The critical questions are how does each meeting drive the strategic goals of the enterprise holding the meeting, and what objective measures are available to justify this expenditure? At Arcaneo, we believe that strategic meetings management goes beyond tracking hard costs. Soft costs such as the value of the time spent by various meeting stakeholders, attendees as well as organizers, should be taken into account and combined with the benefits of the meeting in order to measure true meetings ROI.”

Like its major competitors, Arcaneo offers an end-to-end solution, from meeting request to final reconciliation. It touts simplified pricing — unlimited usage for a flat licensing and maintenance fee, with no hidden costs — as one of its distinct market advantages. Like Lenos, it boasts that it is “transparent,” or free of brokerage or promotional fees or commissions from vendors.

  Andrew Latta, head of corporate events and hospitality at Norwich Union, a UK-based division of Aviva that provides life, home and car insurance, is a satisfied user of Arcaneo Metron.

“The Metron system has helped transform the way my team and I work within the business,” said Latta, who plans 550–600 meetings and events a year, ranging in size from 10 to 1,000 attendees. “This is the first system the entire team has used which has taken us from a paper-based working environment to an online, Web-based system.  The information the system provides, from the transparency of the individual events to the detailed reporting, provides us a foundation of management information that we can use to influence the organization on the most effective way to use meetings and events to achieve corporate objectives. The detailed information we are now getting, broken into the areas that we specify, is also showing us a much clearer picture of the world we are working in. Our procurement and finance teams are also finding it very interesting and helpful.”

Latta said he finds unique advantages in the Arcaneo platform. “The Arcaneo system stands out for the corporate planner as its design and functionality are more aligned to the reality of the corporate world,” he said. “It is the only system that can be hosted internally, inside IT firewalls, which eliminates hosting fees and potential international contract regulations. It also allows a single license fee cost structure versus a cost-per- user based system.”

A Simpler Solution
For planners who want a simple, easy way of managing and reporting meeting costs, without the additional features of the more complex systems, American Express earlier this year launched a new online tool Corporate Account Reconciliation, to be used in conjunction with its revolutionary Corporate Meeting Card introduced in 2000. The IBM-based system allows planners to reconcile all meeting expenditures to their own financial and accounting systems.

The new tool has particular importance for insurance and financial planners. “Compliance is a real concern,” said Anita Bathija, director, product strategy and marketing, corporate services, at American Express. “Nearly a third of our clients don’t use any dedicated internal or external planning resources, so we know that payments are fragmented. You’ve got spend coming in from all different sources. So it becomes virtually impossible to get a handle on that spend and meet compliance standards.”

Attendee Management
While SMMP-oriented solutions are the elephant in the room when it comes to technology trends, more specialized attendee management solutions are becoming increasingly popular. Two of the leading providers are San Francisco-based Certain Software and Lindon, UT-based WingateWeb.

Since 1994, Certain Software has been recognized as an industry leader. Its Register123 is widely acknowledged as one of the most powerful Web-based online registration and attendee management tools. “They’re in the lower-priced niche, and they do an excellent job,” said Ball. “They’re committed to doing things in the right way.”

Hawk added, “We did a lot of research when we were trying to decide on a provider. They just offer exactly what we were looking for by way of reporting. It’s very user friendly. We were going from not using any kind of online products to initiating this product with our agents, and we just wanted something very user friendly. Attendees get an automatic confirmation. That was a big part of our decision as well. We don’t have to do a lot of the steps that we did before. It’s all automatic.” Register123 also includes financial management and compliance tools.

WingateWeb provides higher-end systems designed for more complicated conference planning. Its Events Console 2.0 is designed for fewer than 500 attendees, Conference 4.5 is for larger events. One of WingateWeb’s key advantages, the company said, is that its products offer a view into all aspects of meetings, including reporting, from a single product. Another advantage is the ease of cutting and pasting meeting elements into a vast schedule of annual events in many different locations. WingateWeb’s claim to fame is that it is used by many of the world’s leading information technology companies such as HP, Oracle and Microsoft.

Going Interactive
For meeting planners who want more insight into how important content is being perceived and retained by attendees, technology can now provide that capability.

iDNA Information Systmes, based in New York City, offers a state-of-the-art wireless keypad system that can provide real-time data for meetings of up to 1,500 attendees, within eight seconds. User studies have shown that this technology improves attentiveness and retention, increases attendance, fosters peer interaction and discussion, and allows for precise adjustment of a presentation to facilitate better communication and results.

“We use the iDNA technology to keep abreast of what my meeting participants are thinking and what their goals and concerns are during a meeting,” said Eleanor Schaffner-Mosh, senior executive advisor and director of marketing at Booz Allen Hamilton in Greensboro, NC. “It allows me to know what they’re thinking, as they’re thinking it. The technology actually polls your audience, then virtually within seconds gives the audience the opportunity to understand what they and their peers are all thinking about a certain question or topic. It keeps the audience more engaged. It keeps the audience in the loop, because they know what the folks sitting next to them are thinking. It also seems to be to the audience a much less canned presentation.”

In September, iDNA announced a new partnership with the Birmingham, AL-based ROI Institute that will help it meet growing demand for actual measurement of the bottom-line results of meetings.

Another innovative provider is 16-year-old Extreme Meetings of Tampa, FL. Its technology is more geared toward what company president John Collins called “the big push for ROI and accountability. We work with companies based on what their objectives are for the meeting and how well those objectives are met. We offer a tool to measure ROI in a way nobody else can. You’re going to know by the time the audience walks away whether they got your message — down to the individual attendee.”

 Expanding The Universe
Another maturing technology allows planners to reach a wider audience, such as support staff at the company or at customer enterprises, via cost-effective webcasts over the Internet. The presentations can be viewed in real-time or on-demand later.

A leading provider of this technology is Sonic Foundry of Madison, WI. Its flagship product is dubbed Mediasite.

“We needed technology that would allow us to capture and deliver timely information to employees,” said Alison Cate, CPCU, director of employee development at Des Moines, IA-based EMC Insurance Companies,  a property and casualty provider. “Before discovering Mediasite, we often conducted meetings over the intranet or sent staff for on-site training for roll-outs of new projects and products. While this was adequate, it was expensive with 21 remote locations nationwide. Mediasite allows our organization to capture training sessions and meetings for our employees to watch at their convenience on their desktop through any Web browser. Mediasite empowers us to quickly and cost-effectively create and deliver rich media content that includes fully integrated audio, video and presentation graphics with the ease of a few mouse clicks. It creates a rich end-user experience that surpasses conventional Web conferencing or text-based blogs.”

Hotels Of The Future
Cutting-edge technology is affecting more than just the way meeting planners do business. It’s also having a dramatic impact on the way hotels and other vendors serve the meetings industry.

The Vocera Communications device, worn by every key hotel support staff member, allows planners to re-main in constant contact throughout their event. Photos courtesy of Vocera Communications

The Talbott Hotel, Chicago, IL, has become the first hotel in the world to implement a customized Vocera Communications system that puts planners instantly in touch with any support staff from catering to audio-visual. Until now, the Vocera system has been used in hospitals and medical facilities to enhance emergency response time.

Barbara Barnett, vice president of event management at Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, experienced the innovation in August when she hosted a national peer group meeting for home loan bank marketing executives. 

“The technology is very helpful if you have a lot of moving pieces or a property that wasn’t following your banquet event order to the letter, where you really need to get in touch with someone, the right person quickly,” Barnett said. “You simply touch a button and speak. You can ask for a department or someone by  name and get them instantly. For example, if you need to have a break earlier as you’re watching the agenda roll forward, then you simply push a button and announce that you’d like to speak to catering, and then someone comes on the line. That all translates into efficiency.”

The device looks like a narrower iPod, and every key support staff employee at the hotel wears one throughout the meeting.

“Anywhere else, the banquet captain might give you his business card and point you to a house phone and say, ‘If you need me, do this,’” said Barnett. “The Talbott system is just drop-dead efficient. I think any forward-thinking property that is looking for not only efficiency on their side but satisfaction on the planner’s side would snap that up in a minute.”

Take-Out For Staying In
Another venue-related innovation is SeamlessWeb, an online system owned by foodservice giant Aramark that allows planners to order food from caterers or restaurants in 14 major cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Washington, DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco. While the service has so far been used mostly for internal meetings, the company has also facilitated deliveries of food to hotels.

Bob Morse, vice president of facilities and services at Assured Guaranty Corporation in New York City, uses SeamlessWeb for more than 200 meetings a year, including some offsite events.

“It simplifies the way we were booking and paying for catering,” Morse said. “It’s an enormous burden on our accounting department if we have 20 or 30 different accounts open at different vendors, all with different payment policies, all with different invoicing techniques, and some whose strength is catering and not in billing. By using SeamlessWeb, all of that is rolled into one bill, listed and sorted the way we want it. We get the same service. We talk to the same people in the restaurants and at the caterers. We end up doing what we did before, but the billing is much easier. It makes the accounting people happier, which comes back to make me happier.”

A Maturing Industry
Now that technology has begun to transform the meeting planning process, industry observers say change will come fast and furious in the future.

“I think what’s happening is that the industry is beginning to mature, and I’m a firm believer in core competencies,” said Lenos’ Tackeff. “We are a software company. As requirements grow for every company, and everybody needs different types of solutions, I think the real, true technology providers will start to differentiate themselves with deeper capabilities and fulfillment of the promises that are made on behalf of technology, and that it will be seen more as an enabling tool, or enabling platforms. But we’re only 10 percent of the equation. The other 90 percent is the brainpower of the meeting planner. That’s the critical issue.”   I&FMM