Successful Meetings - August 2008 - (Page 30)

Planner’s Workshop Corporate and meeting travelers share many common experiences > Pre-Event Leveraging Corporate and Meeting Travel By Michael MacNair PART 1 OF 3 The demand for corporate and meeting travel continues to rise while overall capacity remains stagnant. There are not many new hotels, airlines are cutting back on flight options, the car rental industry is smaller and they have a handle on the capacity required to keep rates high, and suppliers’ costs are rising. Previous Inside predictions of increases in 2008 have gained greater credibility in light of > ON SITE Understanding the Dos and Don’ts of the PhRMA recent American Express Business PAGE 32 Code Travel forecasts which suggest that hotel rates will rise by 8 to 10 percent, > PRE-EVENT Three ways to make and that a domestic transient trip your pre-event promotion pop including airfare, car rental, and hotel PAGE 33 will increase 6 percent bringing the total trip expense to $1,100, while an international trip will increase by 7 percent or $205, which brings the average cost to travel abroad to $3,171. With no relief on the horizon, organizations will continue to be challenged to keep prices low while finding the right space at the right locales and with the right suppliers. The best hope to combat these challenges is to develop clear-cut policies and procedures for both corporate and meeting travel that leverage volume, tools, procedures, and technologies to ensure the best possible value. Meeting and travel planners need to make smart, careful, and creative decisions and use their buying power and wisdom to make educated choices. There are powerful synergies to be gained by leveraging meeting and corporate travel costs, but they are often missed. The path to gaining maximum leverage for 2008 and beyond lies in developing one strong combined travel and meeting policy that defines the rules, provides direction, and offers suggestions with emphasis in the following five “P” areas: Price, procedures, payment, preferreds, and packaging. Part one of this three-part series takes a look at the first piece of the solution: Price strategies. Consider a balance of company, planner, and attendee/traveler desires to establish budgets, win-win price thresholds, content, locations, value-add items, and more. Inside of the price category, there are several areas to manage these cost benefits and value-add items; they AUGUST 2008 SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS PHOTO: LANDOV 30 mimegasite.com http://mimegasite.com

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

Successful Meetings - August 2008
Contents
Editor's Note
Industry Trends
Industry Events
On the Record
Technology
Calendar
Websites of the Month
Personal Success
Technology Talk
Food & Beverage
Pre-Event
On Site
Tools of the Trade
Pre-Event
Crude Awakening
Oil’s Well
Betting on Development
The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of
No Spa, No Dice
New & Improved Bean Counting
Places & Spaces
Cleveland
Palm Springs, Desert Resorts
Midwest Meetings
San Antonio
Yucatan Peninsula
Gurus

Successful Meetings - August 2008