Successful Meetings - January 2008 - 18

News & Analysis > On The Record AmEx Meetings Guru on Hotel Costs companies have scaled back attendance or consolidated their meetings. Their strategies vary. The commonality is that companies are changing the way they manage meetings, in order to keep spending flat. SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS: Your title at American Express is a mouthful: meetings management advisory services practice leader. But it signifies that you’re on the vanguard of corporate meetings management. What’s new for 2008? For More: SM: What are the best CHRISTINE WILKES: ways to limit spending at The hotel industry is going the level of individual to make this a difficult year events? for negotiations. We predict that guest room rates WILKES: A lot of stratefor meetings are going to gic levers can be pulled to rise on the order of eight to lower the cost of meet10 percent in 2008. Higher ings. Even though room occupancy in the transient rates are going up, comworld is trickling down and panies can focus on more impacting meetings. And controllable costs like food as hotel costs rise, the task and beverage. We of negotiating meetings encourage companies to costs is going to be more take a strategic approach Practice Leader, American Express and more difficult. Meanto managing spending, while, corporate meetings managers will see increasing rather than simply eliminating events. scrutiny on their spending. SM: Are we finally getting better at managing meetings SM: What specific hotel costs are spending? going up most? WILKES: The meetings slice of corporate T&E spending Christine Wilkes will be the WILKES: It varies from meeting to is getting clearer, but even now many companies don’t keynote speaker at the first meeting. Our studies show that 90 understand it very well. That’s because the costs are hidever Virtual Meeting World percent of all meetings costs are genden, in places like travel budgets and training budgets. trade show and conference on erated within the constraints of conBut in general, we’re finding that meetings spending is January 31. tracts with host hotels. Things that bigger than we thought. Corporate meetings spending Registration is free. Visit used to be easy to negotiate, like could nearly match the size of corporate air spending. www.virtualmeetingworld.com meeting room costs, are now difficult. It underscores the importance of havSM: Is the procurement model that’s evolved in corporate ing professionals negotiate contracts. air purchasing taking root for meetings? ON THE RECORD: CHRISTINE WILKES SM: With higher hotel costs, does this mean companies are spending more on meetings? WILKES: No. Our studies show that corporate meetings spending is pretty flat. To mitigate higher costs, some WILKES: The best practices are evolving, and there’s no effective one-size-fits-all approach. However, consolidation of meetings spending is very important. In terms of the processes, it’s about formalization and consistency. It’s key to capture the data: who’s spending what. mimegasite.com JANUARY 2008 SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS 18

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

Successful Meetings - January 2008
Contents
Editor's Note
Associations
Research
Events
Suppliers
Associations
On the Record
Associations
Suppliers
Planner Spotlight
Websites of the Month
Management Matters
Meeting the Law
Personal Success
Mouth for Sale
Food & Beverage
Professional Development
On Site
Pre-Event
Tools of the Trade
Veggie Power
Tennis, Anyone?
Seeing is Believing
The Wild Green Yonder
Game On
Places & Spaces
Galveston & Texas Beaches
Greater Seattle
Singapore
Gurus

Successful Meetings - January 2008