Business travel and corporate meetings/events are two of the largest expenditures for the average enterprise, and while procurement organizations often find the good ways to reduce costs within these two complex spend categories, the fact of the matter is that both business travel and events play very similar, and very critical, roles for businesses today.

I’ve stated the case for nuanced strategies and “next-gen” approaches to both of these key categories earlier this year here on CPO Rising Click for The Next Wave of Event Management and click here to read our views on Where Can Travel and Expense Go?. One item I’d like to tackle today, however, is how a collaborative approach to modern events management is not only an effective long-term strategy…it’s one that’s necessitated given the evolution of the space.

As noted in my article on the concept of “engagement management,” a notion that takes events management a step beyond traditional approaches to reflect a cycle in which host organizations treat events as “engagements” and regularly engage attendees with some type of value beyond the traditional touch points, this newfangled way of thinking about meetings management ensures that not just one single unit can be (or should be) dedicated to managing this complex category of corporate spend.

With this in mind, it is imperative for the typical organization to cultivate a rich environment of collaboration between key internal units in regards to modern meetings and events management. There are two major units that have a hand in not only effectively controlling spend on this complex spend category, but also helping to improve the quality and true effectiveness of corporate events:

• Procurement. By now, we all realize the value of procurement’s expertise in the spend management side of complex categories. Similar to the business travel category (in the sense that nearly every internal unit has the capability to wreak spend havoc by not following procurement’s guidelines), there are other departments across the organization that can ably plan meetings and events. What’s so bad about that? If an administrative worker books a resort, travel, catering and entertainment for a company gathering without knowing of pre-negotiated agreements with key suppliers, chances are that inflated costs will spur out-of-control budgets. It’s important that companies who frequently organize events (sales incentives, corporate trainings, customer / client events, etc.) involve procurement in sourcing travel, lodging / locations, entertainment and other key materials for meetings.
• Marketing. In most organizations, the marketing team holds the main responsibility for developing, organization, promoting and executing meetings and events. With the concept of engagement management coming into focus, there is a slew of new performance indicators of an effective event, including:
  • The percentage of meetings or events that have actual objectives (i.e. drive seven new customer renewals, spark $400,000 in revenue, etc.)
  • The percentage of meetings or events that actually hit (or exceed) objectives and goals
  • Emotional return-on-investment, also known as “e-ROI”
  • The attendee experience

One interesting avenue that boosts marketing’s play in managing corporate events: the focus on social media within engagement management. The very foundation of effective engagement management is “engaging” attendees on a frequent basis and “touching” them with value. Thus, social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are critical components in not only breaking through to attendees, but also enhancing the attendee experience during the live event. Marketing is typically adept at promoting the company brand, thus they are an ideal collaborative counterpart to procurement in the effective management of the modern meeting or event.

Now, one question some of you may wondering is: “We have a strategic meetings management program (SMMP) in place for all meetings management; do we need to look outside of this program for additional “help”?” SMMPs in our current age have evolved over time and what’s been interesting about these programs and their evolution is that specific attributes can be phased in as necessary and linked to other processes, such as business intelligence, social media management, post-event touchpoints (i.e. webinars and surveys) and strategic sourcing. And, SMMPs may be currently led by members of both procurement and marketing (in additional to operations, sales and finance). If an existing SMMP can support the notion of engagement management while continuing to control spending on corporate events, then it’s in adequate shape.

Tagged in: Christopher Dwyer, Complex Categories, Events Management, T&E