Government Connections - Winter 2013 - (Page 28)

THAT’S TECHNOLOGY Strategic Meetings Management 101 By Blake Rouhani Cvent FOR YEARS NOW, the term “Strategic Meetings Management” has been pervasive in the corporate meeting and event space. According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) groups and meetings committee, Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) is the management of enterprise- wide meeting related processes, spend, volume, standards, suppliers and data in order to achieve measurable business objectives that align with the organization’s strategic goals/vision, and deliver value in the form of quantitative savings, risk mitigation and service quality. For a corporation, meeting spend can be estimated at .5–1% of annual sales, 25–30% of total travel and expense spend, 60% of air volume, or 2–3% of revenue. 28 GOVERNMENT CONNECTIONS | Winter 2013 BUT WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR GOVERNMENT MEETING PLANNERS? In the face of negative publicity surrounding government meetings in the past year, now is the perfect time to adopt a strategic approach to tracking and managing your organization’s events and meetings. The ultimate goals of SMM – reducing organizational risk and streamlining costs in order to enhance meeting and event ROI – are concepts and ideas that government meetings planners can, and should, adopt. SMM encourages planners to look at meetings and events as a whole, instead of in individual bits and pieces. All event activ ity from initial event and budget approval, to site selection, attendee management and post-event reporting should flow together. Technology tools exist to automate these processes and, by using technology, planners are able to gain more visibility into these activities across all of their events and meetings. When looking to adopt a strategic approach to your events and meetings, there are four key stages to consider: 1. Plan/Meeting Registration and Budgeting: When meeting planners think about “planning” a meeting, they often think of the event itself - lighting, AV, attendee needs, etc. In a SMM environment, the planning stage consists of all the pre-event activities such as budgetary approval and managing a calendar of all events within your organization. This stage is what http://www.naylornetwork.com/sgm-nxt/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Government Connections - Winter 2013

President’s Letter
Editor’s Letter
Going Places
Dieting on a Per Diem
Plan Green
Education Edge
Ethics and Site Visits
Why the Government Should Hire Qualified, Professional Meeting Planners
Supplier Strategy
Good to Know
That’s Technology
Conference Connection
Travel Tips & Trends
Membership News
SGMP Nation
The Meeting Minute
Advertisers’ Index

Government Connections - Winter 2013