Meeting News - April 12, 2010 - (Page 6)

News CARLSON WAGONLIT TRAVEL’S FEDROOMS, a U.S. General Services Administration-approved hotel booking site for federal agencies,last month launched a meetings portal powered by Cvent. The new tool for the first time offers a formal meetings request process across government agencies, which in some cases and depending on the agency, had little structure for planning meetings. “Every agency really had their own process,” FedRooms senior director Tracy Holtan Shook told MeetingNews. “Some just did it themselves, and others had different meetings tools. There was no streamlined effort. There was nothing out there that was approved, and everyone kind of did their own thing.” Shook described the initial unveiling of the program as a soft launch, noting that the first step was to introduce the tool and allow govMeeting Post By Jay Boehmer jboemher@meetingnews.com GSA’s Hotel Solution Adds Cvent-Powered Meetings Portal ernment planners to familiarize get their meeting planners throughthemselves with the process. out their agency to utilize the tool,” “We wanted to start off slow so we Shook said. could get our arms around what this Even without a concerted effort to means for us and our staffing,” gain adoption, Shook said dozens of Shook said. “We agencies already put it in our used the tool to newsletter, and it plan meetings in went to all of our its first month users that way. I after going live, also used social which she called media.” “a lot more than Still, Shook we expected.” expects usage of No common the tool to ramp meetings man—FedRooms senior director up in the coming agement process Tracy Holtan Shook months, as Fedacross the federal Rooms is seeking a few agencies to government exists, Shook said, and more aggressively pilot the tool and meeting planners take many forms push its adoption internally. depending on the agency. Shook said FedRooms at first “For every agency, it can be differwould seek a few agencies with ent people who plan their meetings: structured meetings and travel pro- it could be the procurement officer, grams. “We’re going to pick five it could be the contracts officer, it agencies that have a designated trav- could be the admin,” she said. “We el manager to work with them and tried to make it as intuitive as possible so that any of those audiences could easily fill it out.” To use the tool, which is free to government agencies, planners first fill out an online questionnaire with their meetings requirements, preferably 30 days before the event. After that, FedRooms employees review the requirements and use the Cvent tool to source hotel venues. Within five business days, official hotel bids are presented back to the meeting planner. Shook said all hotels are at or below GSA per diem and are certified by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, meeting federal government requirements. “We offer the meeting planner a side-by-side-by-side comparison of the bids, depending on how many they want to look at,” Shook said. “Some hotels will decline, some will accept, and depending on how much information planners want, we’ll show them who accepted and declined.” ss “We’re going to pick five agencies with travel managers to utilize the tool. ” Northstar Travel Media Acquires MeetingNews MeetingNews and its four sister brands on March 1 were acquired by Secaucus, N.J.-based media company Northstar Travel Media, publisher of Travel Weekly, TravelAge West, Meetings & Conventions and the Hotel & Travel Index, from Nielsen Business Media. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal also includes Business Travel News, Successful Meetings, Incentive and the MiMegasite online meetings industry portal. “The addition of the Nielsen brands greatly enhances our competitive leadership positions in the travel and meetings industries, and extends our reach into important complementary segments of corporate travel and the motivation and incentive markets,” according to Northstar chairman and chief executive officer Thomas Kemp. “We are investing in our core markets at a time of cyclical weakness because of our confidence in the long-term growth and size of the global travel and meetings industries.” 6 MeetingNews April 12, 2010 Report: Mtgs. Spending Up in First Quarter Spending on meetings and events was up by 10 percent in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2008, before the start of the recession,according to a new report from Advito,BCD Travel’s consulting unit. Released last week, the report—an update to Advito’s 2010 Industry Forecast, originally published in October—concluded that while pricing remains low, meeting suppliers are confident it will trend upwards as the year goes on. As a result, Advito reported, many are making an effort to include stricter penalties and attrition clauses in their contracts, and fewer are willing to sign multiyear deals. Advito also revised further downward average daily hotel rates in the United States and several other countries, warned buyers to expect potential costs related to no-show fees for rental cars and affirmed projected average U.S. regional airfare increases of 4.5 percent and 4 percent on intercontinental routes. The revision projects a decrease in regional business class fares in Europe and Africa, driven by lower demand. ss www.meetingnews.com http://www.meetingnews.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meeting News - April 12, 2010

Meeting News - April 12, 2010
Contents
Meeting Post
Newsmaker
Meetings Spotlight
Viewpoint
MeetingNews Research
Event Profile
Association Watch
Meeting People
Construction Cites
Theme Parks
MeetingNews Roundtable
Conv. Center Showcase

Meeting News - April 12, 2010