Kari Wendel drives CWT Meetings & Events’ Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) practice in the Americas region, where she is responsible for leading a team of program management professionals who identify and implement strategies for ongoing improvement of clients’ M&E programs. www.cwt-meetings-events.com

Meeting planning has come a long way over the past couple of decades, having evolved from an organic practice to a managed profession that now integrates with procurement and other areas of the business. Transformations have taken place and best practices have been established, which is leading to another pivot point in the industry that I refer to as Meetings Strategy 3.0.

Meetings were designed to bring people together for a specific purpose or business reason. Historically, planners have had to deal with a perception in the corporate world that meetings were simply excuses to throw big, lavish parties without a defined purpose. As we know, this perception brought a heightened focus on meetings spend in the late 1990s and early 2000s due in part to the shift of procurement’s focus from primarily tangible goods to include services such as meetings. The Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) practice was born during this time, with the original focus being primarily on spend control. Then the recession hit and not only did spend controls tighten, but planners were expected to defend the true value of their meetings and quantify the return on investment for their organizations.

Thus, the pivot point is defined. Meetings are now being elevated as a vehicle for business success to attain specific objectives. SMM is no longer only about spend management, but can be used as a strategy to drive business and functional objectives forward. While travel and procurement have in some part been utilizing meetings to drive their functional objectives already, their counterparts in marketing, sales and finance are beginning to see the benefits that meetings can have within their functions. This is great news for planners and the meetings function as a whole, as it speaks volumes to the value that meetings provide to any organization.

Marketing is responsible for communicating the value of a company’s products and/or services to its customers, while also driving brand awareness and managing corporate reputation. In order to achieve these objectives, marketing needs the ability to shift and influence corporate messaging both with internal and external stakeholders. Meetings provide that platform, allowing access to select colleagues, such as those in sales or other client-facing roles, who will serve as the embodiment of the brand to customers and ultimately be responsible for influencing purchasing behavior. On the other hand, if a company is launching a new consumer-facing product, the marketing team likely will be held responsible for communicating the value to external influencers such as analysts, bloggers and journalists, who have the ability to impact the company’s success in the marketplace.

Meetings provide the touch points that marketing professionals need to drive their business objectives and can provide a measurable return on investment, which can be communicated up to the C-suite. In fact, a recent survey conducted by the Exhibit & Event Marketers Association in partnership with the CMO Council found that 89 percent of marketers say events still hold some level of importance and value for their organizations, and 31 percent consider them essential. Events within the marketing function are primarily viewed as revenue-driving opportunities, as they allow for intimate face-to-face conversations with customers, prospects and influencers.

On a related note, sales meetings also provide key face-to-face opportunities to drive results, and with the advent of technology, clients and prospects can now opt in to future opportunities on the spot, in real time. For example, pharmaceutical reps have the ability to sign up doctors for upcoming education sessions via a live registration link that they can access during their meeting instead of asking the doctor to visit a website at a later date to register. Integrating this functionality with current meeting activity greatly increases the value of the one-on-one meetings and oftentimes leads to higher attendance at larger educational and sales conferences, which in turn may drive revenue for the company.
While procurement professionals focus on sourcing, cost containment and savings, finance professionals are often looking at the bigger picture: debt payment terms and back-end rebates on payment vehicles. So, while they may not be using meetings to drive sales of a particular product or service, they have a vested interest from a dollars and cents perspective. Meetings offer one of the largest savings opportunities in the corporate world today, ranging from 10 to 25 percent. This may be one of the last savings opportunities of this size, so it’s no wonder it’s become a focus area in recent years. Buying in a prescriptive fashion and driving high volume to preferred suppliers allows procurement professionals to realize discounts for the organization while finance looks at holding on to that cash for other investments and to pay down existing debt.

Finally, let’s take a look at how the travel function can use meetings to meet their business objectives. Travel is travel no matter how you slice it, meaning that people travel the same whether they are on the road for a business meeting, industry conference or personal client connection. The process feels the same regardless of the purpose of the trip, so travel managers can look to leverage meeting travel in their safety and security programs, hotel program development and deployment, and card programs to drive efficiency and savings, contributing to the bottom line.
Additionally, traveler tools, including on-the-ground services and mobile apps, can be leveraged across functions to enhance the travel experience overall.

Meetings have become more than a way to bring people together; they drive business results across multiple functions of the organization, providing exceptional value for the company. Some companies are beginning to put meetings management practices into place, while others haven’t yet begun to think about them. Beyond these specific functional areas, companies also can look at utilizing meetings to fulfill other corporate goals around company culture, employee on-boarding and corporate social responsibility, to name a few. Just think about how this could showcase the value of the meeting planning function to the C-suite! C&IT