In an effort to focus on an area of growing importance to NBTA Members, NBTA created the Groups and Meetings Committee in 2003 to provide resources and develop industry standards to help corporate travel professionals implement effective meetings procedures in their companies. Over the past five years, the concentration on meetings management within NBTA has vastly increased, and evidence of such is obvious in this year’s accomplishments alone.
“The Groups and Meetings Committee was originally formed to offer guidance and considerations in the management of meetings and events,” said Bill Connors, NBTA Executive Director and COO. “And while our members still receive these valuable resources, the Committee has grown into sometime much more, having pioneered the concept of Strategic Meetings Management and helping to advance meetings management programs across the globe.”
On June 10, 2008, the Groups and Meetings Committee published its seventh strategy paper in the groundbreaking series Framework for Success: Strategic Meetings Management Programs. The newest paper, Models of Success: Profiles in Strategic Meetings Management, offers profiles of strategic meetings management programs (SMMP) as implemented in three different companies.
A representative of each of the three companies answered a series of questions on that company’s SMMP. Their responses are presented together with each question, so readers can see the similarities and differences of the varied approaches, as well as identify best practices appearing across the companies. The profiles shed light on strategic meetings management strategies and practices in areas such as Program Scope and Reporting Structure; Meeting Policy; and Sourcing and Negotiations. The entire series will be available on CD to attendees of the NBTA International Convention & Exposition July 27-30. See series of papers. See series of papers.
SMMP will play a large role in the education offered at this year’s NBTA Convention, with a full program of five courses dedicated to those with strategic meetings management responsibilities. The meetings management program will help meetings professionals to develop an SSMP, address key hotel and air issues, identify technologies to support the program, establish internal policies and engage internal stakeholders.
”NBTA’s membership has grown to include the decision makers responsible for strategy and policy development in meetings and procurement,” said Connors. “In fact, NBTA has more than three times as many corporate travel buyers with “meetings” in their title than that of any other association serving the business travel community. We designed this focused program of education especially for these folks.”
In January 2009, NBTA, in partnership with the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) will host the ISM and NBTA Summit on Travel & Meetings: Supply Management’s Critical Role. The conference will be designed to specifically meet the needs of meetings, procurement and supply management professionals with oversight responsibilities for their companies’ meetings spend. Event Details.
Kevin Maguire, NBTA President & CEO, said, “One of the most important shifts in business operations in recent years has been the trend toward a convergence of procurement, travel management and meetings management. The ISM and NBTA Summit on Travel & Meetings will explore the challenges presented by that convergence and will give attendees tools to advance their companies’ travel and meetings management capabilities.”
NBTA has also taken meetings management education across the globe. As session addressing the importance of strategically managing meeting spend and collaborating with travel and procurement to achieve mutual goals was offered this year to attendees of the 3rd Latin American Corporate Travel and Technology Exchange in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Crossroads Milan, the first pan-European business travel conference held this past May, offered two courses on developing and implementing SMMPs in European companies.
Return to Connecting News June 2008