Meeting News - August 11, 2008 - (Page 10)

Inside the Meetings Industry Edited by William Ng william.ng@nielsen.com Government Planners Meet to Discuss Difficult Climate Airlines, logistics challenges, strict budgets, and other demands cause rise in job stress The month of June saw two conferences take place that were aimed at meeting professionals who just might have the toughest road to navigate in this difficult economy: government meeting planners. First up was the National Travel Forum, hosted for the first time by the National Business Travel Association’s Government Travel Group. More than 1,100 government travel managers descended on the Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, June 2-4, to discuss ways to adapt to the needs of government travelers and their agencies, as well as the difficulties of managing fluctuating fees and surcharges for government travelers, the turmoil in the airline industry, and how to build worldclass travel management systems as seen in the private sector. One week later, the Society of Government Meeting Professionals held its annual education confera large number of the 837 attendees sat in on the sessions that addressed self-improvement topics, such as overcoming job stress and managing time better, according to Chris Middleton, SGMP’s conference planner. “We’re hearing that rising costs are forcing cutbacks to the point that [planners] have to make hard decisions about what aspects of their meetings they can eliminate to keep budgets intact,” said Middleton.“Clearly, they are feeling the stress.” In fact, SGMP itself was forced to act in response to the current economic climate. Several weeks before the conference, association leaders decided to shave one day off the originally four-day conference to save money for both the organization and attendees. Medical Meetings See Big Changes Influx of foreign attendees, increased federal oversight spur marketing adjustments More than a quarter of those who attend the 50 leading U.S.-based medical meetings are not from the country, according to findings from the Healthcare Convention and Exhibitors Association’s “Special Report on Healthcare Meeting and Exhibit Marketing Globalization.” The executive summary of the report was released during HCEA’s annual meeting, held June 21-24 in Salt Lake City. In light of the findings, the event’s 752 participants discussed ways to adjust their exhibit marketing in order to better connect with foreign attendees. What’s more, the soft economy and the weak dollar are only making overseas attendees even more prevalent at U.S. meetings— and valuable to health care exhibitors in the foreseeable future. Another critical topic was the shifting regulatory environment. Executives from Wyeth, Eli Lilly and Company, Schering-Plough, and other top pharmaceutical firms spoke in detail about their adjustments to the increasing legal and regulatory oversight of health care marketing. Among the 50 workshops were ones devoted to building environmentally responsible yet cost-effective exhibits and conferences, medical event planning essentials, exhibit case studies related to pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and ROI measurement. And, Karen Prieto, director of convention marketing and meeting services for Forest Laboratories, began her tenure as 2008-2009 HCEA president. r —Section written by Robert Carey www.meetingnews.com costs are “Risingcutbacks forcing to the point that planners have to make decisions about what they can eliminate. —Chris Middleton, conference planner, SGMP ” ence at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas. Given the stress of working under rigid budgets and per-diem limits, NBTA Unveils Studies Of Strategic Meetings Plus New Conference The National Business Travel Association’s Groups & Meetings Committee in mid-June published the latest installment of its series on creating strategic meetings management programs, or SMMPs. Strategic meetings management is the practice of applying enterprise-wide policies and procedures to the procurement of meetings in order to drive savings, minimize risk, maximize efficiency, and enhance value. The newest paper, “Models of Success: Profiles in Strategic Meetings Management,” offers detailed SMMP case studies as implemented at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Xerox Corp., and Scotts 10 MeetingNews August 11, 2008 Miracle-Gro. Representatives of each company answered a series of questions about their companies’ SMMPs. The responses were presented together after each question so that readers can see the similarities and differences among the company approaches. The profiles shed light on practices related to program scope, meetings policy, sourcing and negotiations, and reporting structure. All installments of the series are posted on the NBTA website: www.nbta.org/research/ whitepapers; some are available to all users, while others are available only to NBTA members. Meanwhile, NBTA announced a partnership with the Institute for Supply Management on a new conference geared toward better enterprise-wide meetings man- agement. Dubbed the “Summit on Travel & Meetings: Supply Management’s Critical Role,” the event is designed to meet the needs of senior managers with oversight responsibilities for their companies’ meetings and business travel spend. The inaugural summit will be held January 2728, 2009, in Charlotte, NC. NBTA president and CEO Kevin Maguire said, “One of the most important shifts in business operations in recent years has been the convergence of procurement, travel management, and meetings management.” ISM CEO Paul Nowak added, “As the largest category of indirect spend and generally one of the most complex to manage, business travel/meetings represents the next frontier for supply management professionals.” http://www.nbta.org/research/whitepapers http://www.nbta.org/research/whitepapers http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - August 11, 2008

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