The words American Express to many conjure up images of finance and credit, yet for 37 years the global company has also been in the meetings business in the UK. In 2011 American Express Meetings and Events managed 20,000 meetings globally, ranging from small board-type meetings through to large meetings of several thousand delegates in one sitting. Meetings are a lucrative part of the company’s business and the number has trebled in size in the last two years.
Peter Manning heads up the UK division of the company, overseeing services ranging from venue sourcing and meeting planning through to full event management.
A new partnership with marketing and production agency WRG last year further strengthened the company’s offering to include creative marketing communication, full production requirements and in addition group air transportation services to get delegates to and from their meetings. To say Manning is a busy man is an understatement, but he thrives on the MICE industry. “I love this business,” he tells CN.
“Meetings still remain the biggest unmanaged spend for many companies and our knowledge can really deliver value to a client in identifying meeting spend and effectively controlling and managing it.”
But how does a company successfully spend its meetings budget? CN gets the Amex answers.
What trends are you seeing in the MICE industry?
At the beginning of 2012 American Express completed a meetings forecast study and we have found the output of that study becoming the reality. We are seeing a steady increase in the volume of meetings, but these tend to be shorter meetings with smaller numbers of delegates. There is
a move to more local meetings reducing travel cost and time. Agendas are fuller with a keen focus on meeting content. Many customers are combining business planning and strategy meetings with incentives.
The clear message from corporates is that meetings are essential to drive their businesses but the requirement is to maximise the value of their meeting spend.
How important is sustainability to your clients?
Our studies and ongoing experience show there is a firm commitment to meetings, in fact the volume of meetings is increasing but the profile of them is changing and there is a keen interest in more ‘green’ meetings. Hotel suppliers have reported that 47 per cent of clients have green requests/requirements for their events.
In North America a partnership is already in place between American Express Meetings and Events, Maxvantage and Green Hotels Global, which helps compare standardised footprints of carbon and water use as well as waste diversions across all properties generally and per meeting. Additionally, once the event has been completed reports can be generated calculating the hotel’s component of a meeting’s environmental impact.
We are regularly asked for creative ways to incorporate green measures like reducing print materials, encouraging recycling, and cutting down on waste and helping companies find cost-savings to meet their sustainability goals.
Another trend we are noticing is more companies are looking to develop mobile apps designed to distribute materials such as maps, itineraries, speaker information and updates, which helps to reduce paper usage.
The Association of British Professional Conference organisers recently launched its Conference Cloud campaign supporting free Wi-Fi for delegates, what are your thoughts on this?
We need to ensure we provide the best value in selecting venues for our clients and free Wi-Fi can be a differentiator and more and more venues are recognising this and offering the facility. The provision of free Wi-Fi can be a deciding factor in the choice of venue, so we welcome hotels expanding their service offerings and price competitiveness.
What has been your most challenging event to work on?
Each and every event has its challenges and they are many and varied. For example, we had to get 6,000 people from 21 different countries to one location for a three-day event; logistically it was very challenging but we were successful because of meticulous planning, our relationships with airlines and ground transportation companies, plus our global network of meeting planners.
The group transportation for a meeting often represents a significant proportion of spend, and expertise and knowledge of access to hubs and the final destination itself is integral to a successful event.
What has been your most interesting event to work on?
Our meeting planners and event managers have opportunities to travel to interesting and exotic parts of the world to deliver meetings. It is hard work but our teams are passionate about delivering a flawless meeting to our clients. Not many industries allow you to plan a lunch on the Great Wall of China and this was part of an incentive event for an automotive client for 120 people. The attendees were led to believe that as part of their last day, there was an opportunity to walk a small part of the Great Wall. At the end of the walk they were presented with a magnificent lunch beautifully laid out on the Great Wall as a finale to this four-day event.
You travel extensively for your job, which country sticks in your mind?
Requests for destinations for meetings continue to change. Recently we were
asked to manage a complex event in Vietnam, which was a new location for my team. Most countries you can make yourself understood, but language was a challenge and outside of the venues English was not spoken widely. The event involved many high profile VIPs, some heads of state and having police escorts for the whole group to attend a dinner was something different.
Hanoi is a vibrant bustling city and centre of 21st century commerce, yet alongside this the traditional Vietnamese way of life with people carrying goods on their backs, was also part of the city landscape.
What frustrates you about the MICE industry in the UK?
While event management technology solutions are progressing, I would like to see these implemented more quickly, especially with group bookings.
An example is electronic to hotel and meeting venues. This has really taken off in North America and undoubtedly this will follow in the UK and EMEA in time.
It will mean all our hotel and venue partners move to an electronic way of responding to a meeting request. I would really like to see live access inventory and I have no doubt this, too, will come in time.
What are your predictions for the future of the meetings industry?
I predict the need for continued spend optimisation, risk management and measurable ROI will further drive the adoption of various strategic meetings management programme components with leading organisations. Companies will be able to benefit from clear measurement of the value of meetings to the organisation with these measures serving as a guide to optimise enterprise-wide meeting investment.
For many companies, particularly multi-nationals I predict there will be a greater focus on compliance, cost control and the achievement of strategic objectives and this will impact decisions regarding meeting size, destination, property choice and spending on
individual meeting elements.
———————————————————————————————————————————
Quick questions:
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Surrey. I have moved around the country quite a lot, mainly due to career moves.
How did you get into the industry?
Not quite by accident. I have always worked in the financial services sector, mainly in operations leadership roles. The opportunity with American Express came up about 12 years ago, again within operational leadership, but on the travel side. The opportunities within the American Express family are many and varied and I was delighted to move about six years ago into the Meetings business, an area of keen focus and rapid growth.
What sports do you follow?
l now live in Hampshire and was a season ticket holder at the Saints in Southampton. I am ashamed to say my season ticket expired as the Saints slipped down the leagues. Perhaps
it is time to renew as they have just re-entered the Premier League.
What is the key to organising a perfect event?
Clear understanding of the client’s requirements, meticulous planning and flawless execution.
This was first published in the June edition of CN. Any comments? Email conferencenews@mashmedia.net
