San Francisco — Last spring, when the National Business Travel Association released an ambitious white paper on how travel managers can best control meetings and events spending, there was grumbling among some meeting planners.
Why, they asked, hadn't the meetings profession done its own work on the quickly developing trend toward consolidating corporate travel spend, and from a meetings standpoint?
Finally, it has.
Meeting Professionals International hopes to release a position paper on procurement-related issues before year-end, focusing on the meetings side of the equation. It also will add an educational session on the topic at its Professional Education Conference–North America, in San Diego in January.
Beating the big group to the punch, however, was MPI's Northern California chapter. Its August conference, titled The Bermuda Triangle, focused on how three corporate departments — meetings, travel and procurement (AKA purchasing) — can work together without meetings getting the short end of the stick.
The consensus? Partner with the other departments as equals.
"We have been able to show our value to both our procurement and legal departments," said Sharon Marsh, head of event marketing for business software firm PeopleSoft Corp. in Pleasanton, Calif., one of five panelists who discussed their companies' approaches to the topic.
"For example, we showed we are the experts on hotel contracts and know much more about events production and third-party meeting management," she said. "And they agreed."
Planners will benefit, panelists said, by tapping into procurement's sourcing and negotiating expertise, and by using travel departments' resources to combine group and transient spending and thus leverage buying power.
The key is for planners to understand how their own companies address the issues.
"Where meetings reside is different in every company," said panelist Michele Snock, manager of global meetings and events–Americas for computer networking company Cisco Systems in San Jose, Calif. "It could be in finance, like ours, or in the marketing department. Or it could be connected directly to the top executive level.
"The job of procurement is to control costs, so that's a good first step. My suggestion to planners is, knock on their door first and say, I think you can help us."
The meeting profession's lateness in addressing the issue has been particularly galling for Laurie Sharp, immediate past president of the chapter and president of San Francisco-based Sharp Events. In response, she organized the conference and moderated the panel discussion.
"Many of our members want our organization to lead in this direction," Sharp said. "MPI needs to be attending procurement conferences and educating members about that. We as planners need to understand the procurement process and master the presentation skills to sell ourselves and our professionalism."
All acknowledged the unease felt by many meeting professionals, who view consolidation as inherently threatening to their autonomy or job security.
"Yes, there is fear," said Snock. "That's why I say jump on it, be a part of it, and have faith in yourself that they can't do it professionally without you."
Other panelists were Dana Marshall, meetings manager at biotech firm Chiron Corp. in Emeryville, Calif.; Angie Pfeifer, director of travel and meeting management at Investors Group Financial Services of Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Marcia Saurman, global travel manager at software company Cadence Design Systems in San Jose.
Contact Christopher Hosford at
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