Companies
should implement meetings programmes that match their company
objectives and support their employees, rather than focusing only on
spend. This was one of the findings to come from a Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT)
Meetings & Events UK roundtable on strategic meetings management
(SMM) attended by CWT clients, including Pfizer and RWEnpower, who are
at different stages of implementing their own SMM programmes.
SMM,
long established Stateside and quickly gaining ground in the UK, works
by reviewing a company’s meetings and events activity and aligning it
with the strategic goals of the business, delivering value through
savings, risk mitigation and service quality.
Andrew
Gilkerson, European Meetings and Congress for Worldwide Procurement at
Pfizer, said: “We are now in our third year of our SMM programme, and
have found that SMM isn’t based on savings alone, it’s about a whole
value-proposition and creating a strategy that details why consistency
is a benefit to your staff.”
Jane
Baker, Business Development Director at CWT Meetings &
Events, agreed: “SMM isn’t just about strategic meetings, it’s an
all-encompassing solution designed to manage a meetings programme
effectively. Generating buy-in is vital to ensure the programme’s
success, and companies should pick one event or a specific part of their
M&E programme that they can test, learn from and deliver success
in, before moving onto the more challenging areas of the business.”
Nearly
half of CWT Meetings & Events UK customers have expressed an
interest in implementing SMM programmes in their own organisation, and
systems have already been rolled out for six of its biggest clients.
Further findings from the roundtable, sponsored by StarCite, will be featured in a CWT Meetings & Events White Paper, planned for later this year.
CWT Meetings & Events delivers over 35,000 events each year for its customers.
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