Successful Meetings - September 2008 - (Page 32)

Planner’s Workshop Number of hotel room nights booked Food and beverage totals Average room rate Costs per individual Total hotel dollars spent Other meeting components > Pre-Event Leveraging Corporate and Meeting Travel By Michael MacNair PART 2 OF 3 With even smaller budgets (due to recent downturns), organizations continue to be challenged to keep prices low while finding the right space at the right locales and with the right suppliers. With these realities facInside ing meeting and travel managers, > ON SITE How to help your their best hope to combat such exhibitors get the most out of challenges is to develop clear cut attending your event policies and procedures for both PAGE 35 corporate (transient) and meeting > PRE-EVENT What do convention travel that leverage volume, tools, attendees really want? procedures, and technologies to PAGE 37 ensure the best possible value. Organizations need not travel less; rather, meeting and travel planners need to make smart, careful, and creative decisions using their buying power and wisdom to make educated choices. In part one of this series last month we took a look at the role pricing strategies play in getting the most out of a travel budget. This month we’ll look at how shrewd management of procedures and payments can result in worthwhile efficiencies. PROCEDURES Determine what procedures should be followed to enhance productivity and to protect the company and customers. Clarify technology to be used to manage travel and meetings. Taking advantage of technology systems to lower and improve meeting and travel planning costs is another policy item to consider. Most travel management companies (TMC) have online travel reservation tools and many of them now have small meeting management tools attached to them. One such example is Get There which has attached to it an effective meeting management tool called Direct Meetings. Approved Get There users can create request for proposal (RFP) templates for events, customize their own registration page, load in room blocks for housing management, and direct travelers right into the customized travel page of their organization which SEPTEMBER 2008 SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS 32 successfulmeetings.com http://successfulmeetings.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - September 2008

Successful Meetings - September 2008
Contents
Editor's Note
Industry Trends
Supplier News
Technology
Calendar
Incentives
Association News
Corporate Meetings
Independent Planners
Management Matters
Meetings Law
Mouth for Sale
Planner Spotlight
Pre-Event
On Site
On Site
Tools of the Trade
Where All That Glitters May Bring Gold
Stepping Up in Class
Going for the Green
10 Great Drive-To Destinations
Charter Members
Night at the Museum
Places & Spaces
Charleston and Savannah
Los Angeles
Phoenix/Scottsdale
Rocky Mountain Resorts
Caribbean
Monaco
Malaysia
Gurus

Successful Meetings - September 2008