T&E Plus

Your SMM Toolkit Book

2013-05-06T04:17:28-04:00

In the last blog post, I talked about the 3 books that were on my hard drive. A few more edits and they will become a reality! I expect by end of May. "Your SMM Toolkit" Book is currently at 536 pages! Where in the heck did I get all that information from? Geeze. I still have more to go and I need to move sections around for a more logical flow. It will be ready soon!

In addition to the numerous chapters in my books, I'm also starting a new chapter in my life! I have been considering a return to the corporate world for awhile and was looking for the right fit. When I was in the training and development field, two of my clients were Dean Witter and PwC. Both hired me...so to continue that same journey...one of my clients offered me a role as Director of Managed Meetings Strategies. And, I'm excited to be starting that journey today with American Express!

Blog will continue! Thank you for reading my blog and supporting me. I SO enjoy working with every one of you!

Debi Scholar

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Thank you for visiting the T&E Plus Blog on expense management, travel management, business meetings, events, incentives, strategic meetings management, entertainment, virtual meetings, tickets, hotels, airlines, ground transportation plus more...

Debi Scholar, GLP, GTP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT, CBST

• Author, Strategic Meetings Management: The Strategy Quick Reference Guide (2011)
• Co-Author, Strategic Meetings Management Handbook (2011)
• Meetings Management Mover and Shaker as selected by Corporate and Incentive Travel Magazine (2010)
• Top 20 Changemaker who influenced the meetings management industry by Corporate Meetings and Incentives (2008)
• Best Meeting Practitioner as selected by Business Travel News (2007)

70 SMM Services

2013-05-02T21:31:03-04:00

Three years ago, I had a conversation with a meetings supplier who was interested in offering Strategic Meetings Management Services. He asked, "Don't we just have to install a meetings management technology system and then we are finished?" I put the phone on mute, said a few words in shock, and took a deep breath and said, "uummm…..no, there are quite a few more things to do." With that, I developed the 70 Services of Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) in 2010 because I knew that many people thought the same thing. Download 70 Services-SMM Organizational Readiness Assessment©

I have presented my 70 Services of SMM numerous times at conferences, and thought it was posted on my blog (it is now!). If you are a buyer, consider asking for these services from your supplier. If you are a supplier, you should be seeing dollar signs in your eyes right now because you can offer these services with the right guidance. It is in the form of a Readiness Assessment so that you can identify which services should be offered first due to priorities.

The same year (2010), in part because of my conversation with this business leader who did not know the components of SMM, I created the SMM Strategy Articulation Map of the dimensions that should be considered when developing an SMM plan and wrote about it in my November 7, 2010 blog here. (You can also download the maturity model and map) Between the Articulation Map and the 70 SMM Services, it was clear to me that a fully mature SMM Program had many components.

Why is all of this important to you? Even though some organizations want to stay at an SMM Lite Program, others are clamoring for "What is Next?" I created the Strategy Articulation Map (in 2010) because it seemed as if no one was really including some key components of SMM that I thought were extremely important such as meeting content design, virtual meetings, ROI, funding models, and corporate social responsibility – to mention a few items. As a certified trainer in three areas* and a meeting strategist, it is important to include content design as part of a successful program. In fact, I discuss meeting content and ROI in these blog posts dating back to May 31, 2009, January 24, 2011, February 12, 2012.

For this posting today, I extracted the SMM Dimensions out of the SMM Strategy Articulation Map; they are illustrated below.(Click on it for a bigger picture)

So, imagine my surprise when a writer asked me yesterday if I thought that meeting content and design should be considered a part of SMM. ABSOLUTELY. In fact, maybe it is just this blonde head of mine, but I have always thought of content, virtual meetings, ROI, CSR, etc., as key dimensions in SMM. Was I the first one to include these components years ago? Probably not, but it seems as though some people in the industry are catching up. Not that every organization needs to include all the SMM dimensions, but why not? These all contribute to epic meetings programs. If your organization wants to stay at an SMM Lite—it's your program. Make it whatever you want to make it. Although, this isn't the first time I have been shocked at information brewing in the industry. Some recently claimed that the first Meetings Management RFP was posted by an industry association. Not. First one was posted here, on this blog, last year, November 8, 2012, months before anyone else posted an RFP.

As you know, I love to share what is on my hard drive. And, there are three books that will be available on Amazon by end of May. One, over 300 pages, is "Your SMM Toolkit" which has plenty of my tools, templates, and secrets. I'm very lucky to have a couple of CEOs who have endorsed the book as well as other industry icons. Another is the "Crisis Management Handbook," and the last is "Meeting Planning Playbook." The SMM Toolkit and Crisis Management Handbook designed covers are complete…the other cover is going through revisions now as we're not fond of the colors / picture (but, we are giving YOU a sneak peak!) A HUGE thank you to Susan Losurdo who co-authored 2 of the 3 books! Look for these books available on Amazon and iTunes by end of May!

*Certified Technical Trainer (CTT), Certified B.A.N.K. Sales Trainer, and Certified to teach Gold of the Desert Kings Course.

Debi Scholar
(908) 304-495
Debi@DebiScholar.com
www.smmbenchmark.com
www.BankWithDebi.com

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Debi Scholar, GLP, GTP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT, CBST

10 Powerful iPad Strategies for your Meetings and Events

2013-04-25T21:49:16-04:00

In high profile meeting environments where the tools need to match the egos and the expectations, the iPad has captured the audience not only because of its fashionable sophistication, but also because of its practicality. With four generations in our workforce, our fluid environments, and the never-ending pursuit to engage attendees better than our competition, the iPad is engaging all audiences, solving most if not all of these concerns, and is becoming the indispensable tool that your meeting requires.

Do you want to offer more in-depth, engaging education, reach a broader audience, increase your revenue opportunities, and obtain immediate results? You will gain the competitive edge by using these 10 Powerful iPad Strategies for your Meetings and Events.

Continue Reading Article. Download 10 Powerful iPad Strategies for your Meetings and Events by Debi Scholar.

Debi Scholar
(908) 304-4954

Debi@DebiScholar.com
www.smmbenchmark.com
www.BankWithDebi.com

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Debi Scholar, GLP, GTP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT, CBST

Meeting Management Technology RFP

2013-04-22T17:56:18-04:00

Excel – a meeting planner's essential tool, but is it? We send out meeting invitations through email, copy the responses into Excel, sort the list of registered names, pair up the shared rooms, categorize by selected activities, and filter the non-respondents. Next, we email our Word or Excel created RFPs, receive the hotel responses, print out the prices, lay the documents on our desk and floor, copy and paste information into our Hotel Cost spreadsheet so that we can evaluate the hotel responses. Geez-o-pete! (I can use that term because I'm from Michigan). I'm tired just typing the steps that we frequently take to get our meetings planned. Didn't even start on our budgets yet!

You are ready for a meeting management technology! Please feel free to Download Meeting Management Technology RFP and price template. Go to Market now! Send your RFP to StarCite, Cvent, Lenos, Arcaneo, SignUp4, Lanyon, eTouches, Certain, and Meeting Evolution. Good luck and if you want any help with your evaluation, contact me.

Debi Scholar
(908) 304-4954

Debi@DebiScholar.com
www.smmbenchmark.com
www.BankWithDebi.com

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Debi Scholar, GLP, GTP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT, CBST

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

• StarCite Webinar, "Financial Controls Chaos: The 3 Biggest Mistakes that C-Level Leaders make regarding Meetings" April date TBD
• Business Travel Association, Jacksonville "Strategic Meetings Management topics," April 25, 2013
• Business Travel Association, Georgia "Strategic Meetings Management topics" May 7, 2013
• Cvent Corporate Meeting Summit, June 5-7, 2013
• Business Travel Association, Arizona "Strategic Meetings Management topics" June 12, 2013
• Meetings and Conventions Magazine webinar, "Strategic Meetings Management Basics" June 19, 2013
• Global Business Travel Association, 2 sessions, August 4-7, 2013

62 Opportunities to Save Money on Meetings and Events

2013-04-03T13:14:18-04:00

Even with the economic forecast in recovery and spend appears to be accelerating, organizations are still cost-conscious on their meeting and event expenses so much so that three clients have asked me recently for a recipe of my secret savings sauce.

Some of the eleven categories return more savings than others, and one or more ingredients may have been missed, but the formula is fairly comprehensive. Your organization is probably already using many of the ideas.

To support your savings goals, it is recommended that you update your policy with many of the ideas listed below if the approach aligns with your culture. For 12 of the best tools and templates to build, communicate and manage a meeting policy, please click here.

Below, please find the 62 Opportunities to Save Money on Meetings and Events.

62 Savings and Cost Avoidance Opportunities in Meetings and Events

Policy

Adhere to policy spending guidelines and budget

Use a threshold for itemized expenses

A policy will drive numerous savings for an organization; for example:

If previous meeting F&B expense was 40% of total budget (for full service meeting) and the new policy states that F&B should not be more than 30% of total meeting expense, it could be a cost avoidance.

Use a cost per person per day threshold per meeting type

Some organizations are using a benchmarked cost per person per day threshold for the type of meeting. E.g. An internal training meeting should not cost more than $$$ per person per day whereas an incentive meeting should not cost more than $$$ per person per day. This will drive cost savings.

Use of preferred travel management company

An organization will save money if one Travel Management Company (TMC) is used vs. numerous companies. Debi often will find multiple TMCs used, with multiple price points, and unused credits with organizations that do not have a policy about using one agency. This single supplier approach to travel management provides for centralized reporting, reuse of airline credits, ability to track meeting / event attendees and lower costs.

Adoption to group online booking tool

If policy states that group travel must be made through online booking tool vs. using a higher priced agent-assisted method, savings will be recognized.

Advance notification of meetings to obtain better pricing

The more lead-time available, generally speaking, the more options on hotel or venue space you will have and an improved ability to obtain reductions in rate and concessions.

Use distressed space for last minute meetings to obtain better pricing.

For last minute meetings, identify hotels with distressed space that want to fill the sleeping rooms and space before they parish without revenue. This will result in cost avoidance.

Use of diverse suppliers

Track and manage spend with certified diversity suppliers which may result in increased business from some clients that require their suppliers to support diversity. Instead of a savings, the contribution to the diversity suppliers spend may be considered part of the ROI calculation.

Charge no-shows

For no-shows, those scheduled attendees that did neither attend nor notify the meeting sponsor / requester or meeting professionals 24 hours in advance, penalties will be incurred. The penalty amount will be determined by the meeting sponsor / budget holder. The budget holder may recognize a recovery to monies lost.

Before going off-site, check office space

Meetings/events that are held at the organization’s offices are the “business norm” and conference rooms should always be considered first before going offsite. Offsite meetings / events may be approved if internal space is not available. This policy clause results in actual savings.

10.

Conduct an air analysis on meeting locations

Meetings that include travelers from two or more locations may require an air analysis to determine the lowest cost meeting location. Not many organizations take this important step in determining the most cost-effective location for a meeting. This policy clause results in cost avoidance.

11.

Close the registration

When the organization closes the meeting registration a couple of days before the meeting start date (e.g. 2 or 3 days), the organization may not have to secure overflow properties that will result in additional costs. [Note to reader: if gaining more attendees is the priority, then obviously this statement is not necessary].

12.

Identify special needs in advance

Identify the special services needed in advance so as not to pay premium prices (e.g., meditation rooms, lactation rooms, language translators, sign language translators, etc.).

13.

Clarify if guests, companions and children are allowed to accompany attendee

Too many times, Debi has found extra unnecessary spend at a meeting because an attendee funded their spouse and / or children without approvals. A policy should state whether an attendee is allowed to bring guests, companions, or children.

Demand Management

Manage the demand of services by reducing requirements, reducing frequency, encouraging substitution, or obtaining approvals.

14.

Reduce length of meetings by using virtual technologies

Move from a four-day face-to-face meeting to a two-day meeting complemented with virtual meetings.

15.

Reduce the quantity of attendees by using hybrid meetings

Reduce the quantity of travelers to a face-to-face meeting by using virtual technologies for a hybrid meeting (both face-to-face and virtual at the same time).

16.

Eliminate non-essential meetings / one-day meetings

One-day travel meetings, with purposes such as training, project management, or non-client related, may be transitioned to a virtual meeting.

17.

Reduce / lower demand of product or service

There are too many options here to list them all. Below are a few samples:

Reduce frequency of meetings
Encourage substitution such as reduce bottled water to pitchers or containers of water
Lower expectations such as move to 3-star property instead of 4-star property
Instead of using black car service for ground transportation, use min-coaches to transport multiple people at the same time.

Control and Compliance

Monitor policy, behaviors, suppliers

18.

Meetings routed through approval

Route all or meetings over a certain spend threshold through an approval process. Meetings that do not align with the organization's goals could be denied. Note that small meetings under the threshold for approval may result in high spend.

19.

Reduction in spend via audits of staff and suppliers to agreed upon contracts

If staff are not using the preferred suppliers for meetings (e.g. hotels, ground, audio-visual), then the rates may be higher than necessary.

20.

Proper rate loading or receiving the right group rates as agreed to in contract

If there was an agreed upon master discount with a chain or supplier (e.g. 10% off all F&B for the most used 20 Hotels in the Chain for Meetings), and if those discounts are not given, then an audit may result in added savings.

Sourcing and
Strategic Sourcing

Negotiating and contracting with suppliers per meeting and for the organization-wide meetings program

21.

Improved negotiations per meeting

Improved negotiations with hotels / venues on rates, concessions, minimums, and guarantees. There are too many opportunities here to mention them all but everything is negotiable. Ask Debi for her thorough master contract and concessions, which include hundreds of places to save money.

22.

Use non-peak room nights

Use non-peak room nights to reduce costs

23.

Use off-season locations / hotels

Use off-season locations / hotels to reduce costs

24.

Multi-year contracts

When an organization has a recurring program, there may be savings in contracting a multi-year contract. Debi has recognized 5-8% on guest rooms and a 10-15% on F&B when negotiating a multi-year contract vs. a one-time meeting contract.

25.

Share rooms

Not popular, but many organizations still require attendees under a certain level of title to share rooms to reduce sleeping room costs.

26.

Cluster meetings from multiple properties to fewer properties, overlapping if possible

If an organization has meetings in Chicago, Oak Park, and Evanston, Illinois, (all cities within a 20-mile radius) and they are held in May and June at three different properties, it is possible to cluster them into one property to improve efficiency and reduce spend.

27.

Move meetings to conference centers with Complete Meeting Packages (CMPs)

Combining all F&B, AV, meeting space and sleeping rooms into one price will often reduce the cost of the meeting.

28.

Use an RFP process for preferred group hotels

By reviewing an organization's total group spend at hotels, it will become obvious which chains and properties are most frequently used. Work with the chain or property to obtain standard group rates, discounts, and concessions with the understanding that the sourcing team will always have the right to continue negotiating once a meeting is on the calendar.

29.

Move market share toward preferred transient and / or preferred group hotels

A preferred agreement with a hotel chain, brand, or property will result in improved discounts. Moving market share towards those preferred properties will decrease costs overall.

30.

Leverage group spend with transient volume and spend

At the chain or property level, discuss the total volume and spend that your organization is bringing to the table, and either on the transient side, or group side, or both, additional discounts will be available. With one mid-size client, they did not have enough spend to negotiate at the chain level, but they did have enough transient and group business at 15 select properties. All properties were willing to lower their transient rates and provide additional meeting concessions.

31.

Use an RFP process for preferred ground transportation providers

By reviewing an organization's total ground transportation spend, it will become obvious which cities and suppliers are most frequently used. Go to RFP using your total volume nationwide or by city, to obtain standard annual rates and discounts, with the understanding that the sourcing team will always have the right to continue negotiating once a meeting is on the calendar. Another option is to negotiate some group movements with your preferred rental car agency for improved discounts.

32.

Use an RFP process for preferred audio-visual providers

33.

Use an RFP process for preferred meeting management company providers

By reviewing an organization's total spend with external meeting sourcing, planning and management companies; it will become obvious which suppliers are most frequently used. Go to RFP using your total volume to obtain improved rates. It is important to understand the 10 different pricing models that could be used with these companies and which one would suit your organization best.

34.

Use an RFP process for preferred destination management company providers

By reviewing an organization's total destination management company spend, it will become obvious which cities and suppliers are most frequently used. Go to RFP using your total volume nationwide or by city, to obtain standard annual rates and discounts, with the understanding that the sourcing team will always have the right to continue negotiating once a meeting is on the calendar.

Planning

Negotiate pre-meeting and during meeting

35.

Negotiate pre-meeting and during meeting

These categories could also be included under "Sourcing" however, for those organizations that separate hotel sourcing from planning sourcing, Debi has categorized these planning suppliers separately.

During the planning stages, negotiate improved rates and concessions with the following:

Hotels – even after the contract has been signed, there are opportunities to negotiate for improved services or reduction in prices based on factors that may occur at the meeting
Ground transportation
Audio-visual
Meeting Planning Company
Destination Management Company
Décor
Entertainment / Speakers / Facilitators
Food and Beverage

36.

Buy vs. rent common AV equipment

Many organizations will use their own AV equipment for local meetings because buying and reusing is far cheaper than renting.

37.

Reduce F&B spend by Rebates through Dinova

Restaurants through Dinova

By signing up with Dinova, meeting planners will receive rebates back to their budgets or to another corporate budget by using restaurants that are in the Dinova program.

38.

Reuse and go green

Reuse, eliminate or make electronic- content, collateral, signs which may cost more for the first meeting, but will return high valued savings meeting after meeting

Resource Management

Managing the people involved with meetings

39.

Reduce quantity of resources / gain efficiencies

Numerous ad-hoc planners are in place at most organizations with administrative assistants, coordinators, and professional, high-priced resources planning meetings. With a resource analysis study, an organization often can reduce the quantity of resources needed by removing the meeting planning tasks. Use the right priced resources, in the right capacity, at the right time, in the right location. Many companies are using ad-hoc inexperienced people who perform a task in six hours sitting in a high-priced office vs. using an experienced planner who can perform the work in two hours in a low-priced, virtual location.

40.

Reduce duplication of effort

Numerous ad-hoc planners spend many hours creating Excel and Word forms, checklists, and other processes that could be replicated throughout an organization. Instead, each person often has their own method, thereby costing hundreds of hours of resource time.

41.

Use the right ratio of onsite staff

Use the right ratio of onsite planners to reduce costs. For example, some organizations state that onsite planner assistance may be requested if the meeting/event is over 100 attendees or for certain types of meetings with less than 100 attendees. Or, the organization may use a ratio of 1 onsite planner for every 50 attendees as a common metric; some meetings/events require more or less onsite planners. Using common sense without over-resourcing, use the meeting planner's guidance as to the right number of onsite staff, recognizing that most meeting planners work 12-14 hour days onsite.

42.

Use local resources

Use local travel directors (onsite staff) vs. paying for meeting planners to travel to location. However, some meeting planners that have been involved throughout the planning stages are necessary to go onsite.

Technology

Automating and using technology to streamline activities

43.

Automate tasks for improved efficiencies

Automating tasks through the use of Meetings Management Technology will:

Improve pricing because of the historic data available to support negotiations
Reduce manual tasks by numerous resources

Many tasks may be automated. Some include:

Approval of meetings through automated routing
ERFPs provide automated negotiations for the first round (professional sourcing staff still needed to continue negotiations)
Resource management / assigning staff to meetings
Estimated budgets through online calculators
Compare all incoming RFPs (vs. inputting everything into Excel)
Manage attendees automatically
Surveys
Reconcile meeting expenses
Report metrics

44.

Limit meeting management technologies

Organizations should only allow one major meeting management technology be used throughout the organization to save money and strategically align the data captured within the tool. If another tool is used because of functionality or another reason, then the data should be integrated into one of the technologies or into a business intelligence system.

Debi has found multiple disparate technologies used in hundreds of organizations that cost these firms millions of unnecessary dollars.

45.

Integrate technologies for improved efficiencies

Integrate the meeting management technology with the online booking tool to automate arrivals / departure manifests. This will reduce the time that planners need to compare travel manifests to attendee lists, which often takes a long time.

46.

Integrate technologies for improved efficiencies

Integrate the meeting management technology with the learning management system to automate the transfer of information between a) who is attending a learning program, b) who actually attended the program, and c) who is allowed to obtain credits from attending the program.

47.

Integrate technologies for improved efficiencies

Integrate the meeting management technology with the mobile apps to automate the transfer to engagement metrics back into the meeting management technology for reporting purposes.

48.

Integrate technologies for improved efficiencies

Integrate the meeting management technology with the enterprise resource planning technology to report meeting spend.

49.

Reduce costs of connectivity at meetings

Consolidate IT connectivity of all meetings in hotels and other venues. Many cost-reduction techniques are taking place today to make connectivity more affordable.

ROI, ROO, ROE

Measure the value of your meeting

50.

Obtain the investment in a quantifiable deliverable

Integrate the meeting management technology with the customer relationship management technology to show the value that meetings with clients have on the revenue received from those clients.

51.

Prove value by ensuring the meeting / event achieves objectives using measurable metrics

ROI can be measured and offer savings by:

Meeting Purposes

Savings Calculation

Motivate Communicate

Educate

Generate Revenue

Did the attendees do something as a result of the meeting that would increase revenue or decrease costs?

Payment and Recovery

Use the right payment method, collect commissions, and reduce costs of invoices by uncovering disputes

52.

Using point accruing corporate cards to pay for meetings

When an organization allows its employees to collect membership rewards points on the corporate card spend, and when the corporate cards are used to pay for meetings, the organization pays for its level of participation in the point program. As a result, the organization pays the financial services company for the membership rewards point earned by the person who uses the card to pay for a meeting. And, the person usually keeps the membership rewards points for personal gain. Savings can be recognized by paying for meetings using a Meetings Card or P-Card. Debi will show you how to calculate this savings.

53.

Using checks through Accounts Payable to pay for meetings

When the National Association of Purchasing Card Professionals (NAPCP) analyzed the cost of the traditional purchase order process to that of the purchasing card process, the estimated savings was $63.04 per transaction and 25 steps were eliminated in the process, which improved efficiency and sped up supplier payments.

54.

Commissions received

Hotels and other hospitality suppliers will offer commissions on the rates, usually called commissionable rates. Sometimes, the commissionable rates and the non-commissionable rates are the same, and it is possible to use the lowest rate, yet still earn commissions, which are usually ten percent in the United States in the hotel industry. To collect commissions from hotels, airlines or other suppliers, it is usually necessary to become a Corporate Travel Department (CTD), which can be done through the Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC) at their website.

55.

Reduce or eliminate penalties

Penalties are incurred by unfulfillment of the meeting whether it be by a cancelled meeting or a meeting that failed to meet the attendance requirements set forth in the contract (attrition). Many organizations incur these penalties yet if the contract is written correctly, it is possible to reuse the money paid (credits) for future meetings. Too often, budget holders hoard these credits for their own use and the credits expire.

It is also possible to Collaborate with external partners to share and use penalty credits.

An example of a clause that may be listed in a policy to share credits is:

"For penalties under $100,000, any meeting sponsor within the organization may request use of the credit. Full credit will be given to the meeting sponsor who uses the credit.

For penalties over $100,000, the original meeting sponsor who incurred the penalty has a “right of first offer.” The meeting sponsor will have one week to reschedule a meeting/event before the credit is made available to the rest of the organization. The credit will be split between the original meeting sponsor and the new meeting sponsor dependent on negotiations with the supplier."

56.

Deposits

Deposits should be avoided at all costs but many suppliers require them. At a minimum, do not pay deposits to preferred hotels and make that clause part of the contract. Debi has saved thousands of dollars for organizations by maintaining their money in the bank and collecting interest when not paying deposits.

57.

Billing dispute recovery

Studies show that a significant number of invoices (from hotels and other suppliers) are inaccurate. Yet, many invoices are undisputed and overpayments occur.

58.

Recover Value Added Taxes paid

Meeting professionals and Finance are responsible for obtaining the required documentation to reclaim Value Added Taxes (“VAT”) when meetings/events are held in countries with VAT. This activity will reclaim monies spent.

59.

Use of Meeting Planner Points

While many organizations are not allowed to collect any meeting planner points from hotels or other supplier due to perception and ethics, some organization are allowed to collect these points.

A clause such as the following in the policy will drive some site visit travel savings and maintain ethical responsibilities. "Meeting planner points may be accepted and accumulated for site visits or other business related travel. Meeting planner points may never be used for personal travel or services. Should meeting planner points be used for personal travel or services, the staff member is expected to reimburse the organization for the value of the points. "

Supplier Relationship Management

Oversight and two-way mutually beneficial supply chain relationships to maximize value and competitive advantage

60.

Supplier risk-based SLA recovery

When an organization uses risk-based Service Level Agreements (SLA) and if the supplier does not perform as defined by the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the SLA, then the organization is entitled to credits.

61.

Suppliers managing suppliers; transparency in pricing

When one supplier oversees another supplier's service, the organization may learn from the one of the suppliers that the other is over-charging for services. This model may encourage more transparency in pricing and the suppliers may keep each other honest in oversight and billing for services.

Forensics and Fraud

Use forensic practices to uncover fraud

62.

Audit records and encourage staff/suppliers to be aware of, and uncover

fraudulent activities

Fraud is prevalent in meetings and events with cases such as fraudulent expense reports (whereby meeting attendees may be expensing items that were paid for by meeting budgets), and billing fraud (whereby an employee creates a shell company and bills employer for services not actually rendered).

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and as reported in their 2012 Report, fraudulent billing and expense reimbursements cause significant financial loss. Based on 1,388 cases of occupational fraud that were reported by Certified Fraud Examiners who investigated them, fraudulent billing resulted in 346 cases or 24.9% of all cases with a median loss of $100,000 and expense reimbursements resulted in 201 cases or 14.5% of all cases with a median loss of $26,000.

Debi has uncovered thousands of dollars of savings from the findings of numerous fraud cases through forensic research into supplier billings and expense report review.

An example of a policy clause to reduce the double expensing fraud would be: "Shuttle services are commonly used for meetings/events. When shuttle services are used, car services, taxis or other transportation modes are not reimbursable."

Now, use this information to create a C-Level Leader presentation! Use this PowerPoint as an idea-generator! Good luck, and please reach out to me if you have any questions.

Download Sample C-Level Leader Presentation

Debi Scholar
(908) 304-4954
Debi@DebiScholar.com
www.smmbenchmark.com
www.BankWithDebi.com

Download 62 Meeting and Event Savings Opportunities
Link to Webinar on Mid-Management SMM Strategies
Link to Webinar on Pricing Meeting Services

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Debi Scholar, GLP, GTP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT, CBST

Meeting Management Company Pricing Secrets and Toolkit

2013-03-12T15:21:31-04:00

Does the thought of pricing meeting management services intimidate you? If you are like most meeting or travel leaders, it does. And, why not, because there are multiple ways to price meeting and event services.

I'm holding an educational webinar tomorrow on how to price meeting / event services and Strategic Meetings Management Services at 12:00 p.m. EDT.

Webinar link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3071482782157813248

This incredible session will provide you with facts and subsequent actions that you can take immediately to impact your pricing for meetings management services. After this session, you will be able to:

• Learn the different pricing models used in the meetings market
• Develop scenarios to compare the pricing models used
• Learn the 3-step formula for securing the right Meeting Management Company (MMC) by using the industry's first, comprehensive MMC RFP

NOTE: For Full Screen Video, click HERE.

Here is a teaser...

And, if you decide you want to move forward with the Meeting Management Company Pricing Toolkit, this is what you will get:

We provide you with two documents, which includes almost 60 pages:

a) Meeting Management Company RFP for organization-wide services (41 pages in Word)

b) Excel Workbook with 18 worksheets which include:

1. 20 Questions to Ask to Identify the Right Resource Model

2. Meeting Activities – Worksheet to use when determining to Outsource vs. Insource

3. 10 Pricing Models listed

4. Per Person Worksheet

5. Using Hotel Commissions plus Planning Charges worksheet

6. Hourly fees worksheet

7. Per Person and Per Service (buffet or menu based pricing) worksheet

8. Revenue Share example

9 Full Time Equivalents covered by Commissions

10. Full Time Equivalent example pricing itemized

11. Diagram of Skillsets required

12. Meeting Complexities

13. Meeting Scenario Notes

14. Meeting Scenarios for Pricing

15. SMM Activity 1

16. SMM Activity 2

17. Time Tracking per person

18. Time Tracking per week

I enjoy helping people with their programs and these tools took me numerous hours to create. Hopefully, someone else will get some use from them too! Here is a link: Meeting Management Company Toolkit

Next webinar: Mid-Market Strategic Meetings Management Programs, March 27 at 12:00 pm EDT.

Day 400 - Still cannot get LinkedIn to find a solution so that I may change my LinkedIn profile. Frustrating!

LINK to Newsletter - Click Here

Hope to see you at the Pharma Forum next week where I will be presenting one session and moderating two sessions. Also, look for me at upcoming Jacksonville, Arizona and Georgia BTA.

Debi Scholar
(908) 304-4954
Debi@DebiScholar.com
www.smmbenchmark.com
www.BankWithDebi.com

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Debi Scholar, GLP, GTP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT, CBST

*Debi is proud to be a regular contributor to Business Travel Executive Magazine.
*Debi is proud to be one of only seven 2011 Editorial Board members for Hotel Business Review at http://www.hotelexecutive.com/ for Conferences & Meetings.
*Debi created two LinkedIn groups (GBTA SMM and T&E Plus) that now claim over 3,000 worldwide members combined.

Powerful Meeting Policy Toolkit

2013-03-07T10:32:48-05:00

Do you want to save time, be more productive, and get that darn Meeting Policy written now? What should go into your meeting policy? How much will your Organization SAVE if people follow the policy? What is your project plan timeline? What is your communication plan to ask your stakeholders to review the policy, and then roll it out? How will you track compliance?

Attached is the document titled, "80 Components to a Meetings Policy" that I have delivered to numerous audiences over the years. From this document, I use a Meetings Policy Template to build policies with my Clients. Some Clients want short policies; others want much longer versions.

Download 80 Components that make up a Meeting Policy by SCG

The Powerful Meeting Policy Toolkit, designed to provide you with standard processes and a structure, will give you and your team the opportunity to learn about meeting policies in order to demonstrate your expertise in your organization. From years of developing policies, the toolkit offers you the freedom from sitting at your desk and agonizing over language when instead, you would prefer to be doing something far more exciting! Use my experience and expertise to your advantage.

After a few requests, I have put together a package of 12 of my tools and templates for you if you want to develop your meeting policy. The toolkit, available here, includes:

80 Components of a Meeting Policy – Word and PowerPoint

1 Meeting Policy Development Template – Word

3 Sample Meeting Policies - Word

1 Frugal Travel Leaders Policy (just for fun) - Word

1 Communication Memo when rolling out your policy - Excel

1 Project Plan to Develop Policy - Excel

1 Compliance document - Word

1 Estimated Savings Worksheet – Excel

1 SMM Program Savings Worksheet – Excel

For the Powerful Meeting Policy Toolkit, click here.

NOTE: Day 390 and LinkedIn still has not solved my inability to edit my LinkedIn Summary on my profile page. Frustrating.

Debi Scholar
(908) 304-4954

Debi@DebiScholar.com

www.smmbenchmark.com

www.BankWithDebi.com

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Debi Scholar, GLP, GTP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT, CBST

Incredible Integration of Industries: Virtual Meetings by GetThere

2013-03-02T08:02:05-05:00

If you're a regular reader, you know I love Virtual Meetings and started the PwC Virtual Meetings Department in 2002 – 11 years ago. Considering technology advancements and timelines, 11 years ago is like the era of using horse and buggy to travel. Now, we're combining Virtual Meetings, Travel, and Meetings with our Global Distribution System provider / Online Booking Tool … Sabre / GetThere. Amazing. What a GREAT time to be in this fascinating industry!

To build your business case for Virtual Meetings, please download my whitepaper here:

Download Creating a Virtual and Meeting Event Strategy by Debi Scholar

We know that virtual / hybrid meetings are here to stay, and my previous PwC Virtual Meetings team has increased the quantity in their department to focus on Virtual Meetings, delivering thousands every year. The integration of Travel and Video Conferencing helps manage Travel and Meeting expenses and increase ROI on technology investment. In fact, while consulting at PwC, I helped a major worldwide organization decrease their travel expenses and use the savings to update and increase their virtual meeting technologies. (Fun Project!)

Fast forward, GetThere, the world's leading travel and collaboration management solution, has signed an agreement with one of my clients, Harman International, to make Sabre Virtual meetings technology available to Harman employees worldwide.

Excerpts from the Press release follow:

“Virtual Meetings is a powerful new travel management mechanism,” said Sally Abella, director of Global Corporate Travel for Harman International. “Like most companies, we want to control our travel spend, yet we all know that travel is crucial to growing the business. By using video conferencing for more internal meetings, we can strategically redirect travel spend to trips that are customer-facing and sales focused.”

“Demand for video conferencing is increasing exponentially and more and more IT departments are called upon to support this demand,” said Thomas Blanchet, director of IT Infrastructure Architecture at Harman International. “Sabre Virtual Meetings gives our employees a way to easily reserve and connect video conferencing rooms in a secure and reliable enterprise-wide environment.”

“Sabre Virtual Meetings solves these challenges with an easy-to-use, global scheduling system. Room availability, compatibility, and connectivity are all seamlessly verified, so employees know where to book, what’s available and what to do when they show up to a meeting,” said Suzanne Neufang, president of GetThere and Sabre Virtual Meetings. “Our Virtual Meetings solution also enables public room and partner room access for those companies looking to maximize visual collaboration.”

Sabre Virtual Meetings is the only solution providing enterprise-wide, secure access to private and partner video conferencing rooms as well as a global network of over 4,000 public rooms. Similar to online travel reservations, all options for a given city pair search are provided in a single, secure booking path. Filtered by company policy and room availability that the corporation explicitly authorizes, employees can choose the room options that best meet their business needs.

Congratulations to Jeremy Stubbs, General Manager of Sabre Virtual Meetings, (and a colleague who participated on the GBTA Groups & Meetings Committee with me), all of the GetThere staff, and of course, Sally Abella at Harman International for continuing to be an industry leader and visionary.

Click here more information on Sabre GetThere Virtual Meetings.

Debi Scholar

Note: Day 390 and LinkedIn still has not solved my inability to edit my LinkedIn Summary on my profile page. Frustrating.

LinkedIn Summary of Profile Issues

2013-02-28T19:39:31-05:00

I really try to be patient...but it has been 385 days since I've been able to change my LinkedIn profile due to some glitch in their system that LinkedIn Technical Support can't figure out. My plea..."Please techies, get this fixed for me!"

Granted....I submitted a ticket a year ago, they never fixed it, and I let it go. But, I've reported it a second time, and the new ticket is many days old. If we can put people on the moon, you'd think we'd be able to....

Please, LinkedIn...help me!

Debi

DIY for SLAs and KPIs

2013-02-20T21:09:59-05:00

Goodness sakes, do we love our acronyms or what?

Are you a Do-It-Yourselfer (DIY) or do you hire contracted help? In our business environment, many managers are roll-up-your sleeves, working managers who need to quickly learn how to do things on their own...we're in a DIY environment.

Today I held a very well-attended webinar on Service Level Agreements (SLA) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for Travel and Meetings Leaders. After explaining example after example, and an online exploration of my Excel spreadsheets for webinar attendees, I offered the templates to the attendees HERE at this Website.

The five templates and PowerPoint document include over 75 KPIs, scorecards, Excel graphs, and SLA language, and are valued at almost $2,000 in consulting development hours. When polled, 50% of the webinar attendees stated that they joined the webinar so they could save time and use KPIs that were already developed. Viola, we have a solution!

As many attendees took advantage of the DIY templates, I'm thrilled that I can help buyers and suppliers learn more about the tools and templates that we use. Clarity is Power and Empowering People to succeed is one of my goals in life. We are all consultants—some of us are internal, some of us are external. If I can teach you how to be self-sufficient so that you can consult with your stakeholders, then you are empowered.

To that end, I am developing a new Product Line called "Conquer Consulting" with the tagline: "Simple and Successful Secrets to Becoming a Business Consultant." Soon, the website ConquerConsulting.biz will be ready and it will offer downloadable tools and templates on becoming a better internal or external business consultant.

In the meantime, if you want access to our SLA and KPI tools and templates valued at almost $2K, click here.

Click here for an article on SLAs and KPIs.

Please join me:

1. Developing your Dinova Meeting and Event Strategy - Session 2 - Implementing the Plan
Feb 28, 2013 at 2:00 pm EST

2. Top 10 Strategies for Building your Brand through LinkedIn
March 7, 12:00 pm EST

3. Meeting Management Company Pricing Secrets
March 13, 12:00 pm EST

4. Join me at the Pharma Conference in Orlando

5. Join me in San Diego at the Work at Home Business Expo

6. Join me in New York at the Small Business Expo

7. Join me at the Georgia Business Travel Association meeting

Have a great week, and remember, Make it FUN and WIN!

Debi Scholar

February Newsletter

2013-02-13T06:44:50-05:00

Please find copies of our Newsletter linked here.

Be sure to sign up for our webinar next week. Here are the details:

Next Level in Contracting: Crafting Risk Based Service Level Agreements

February 20 at 12:00 PM EST.

You're in a dangerous dilemma without risk-based service level agreements for travel management companies, meeting planning companies, hotels, ground transportation, audio-visual and other suppliers. If you are new to terms such as an allocation of pool percentage, the at-risk amount, key performance indicators (KPIs), and service level credits, this webinar is for you! In this webinar, we will learn how to write, negotiate, and manage SLAs with your suppliers and when it makes sense not to use SLAs.

After this webinar, you will be able to:

• Identify the suppliers and meetings that require SLAs and KPIs
• Write and manage SLAs and know when your organization is owed credit for supplier non-performance
• Use the supplied templates, examples, and workshop exercises to craft your own SLAs and KPIs

The webinar will not be recorded.

Enjoy your week!

Debi Scholar

Video: 4 Secrets of Card Payments

2013-02-10T10:33:45-05:00

Corporate Credit Cards, Procurement Cards, Meeting Cards and Ghost Cards have become a common payment method in the travel and meeting industry. And, rightly so, because paying for products or services via a Card vs. the traditional Accounts Payable method saves an organization an average of $63* per transaction.

(CLICK on GRAPHIC to go to VIDEO).

Secret #1 – Spend itemization is GREAT when using a Card compared to Accounts Payable traditional methods. When Suppliers populate the various levels of data, a Card will provide you with detailed spend information. Whereas an invoice may be itemized by General Ledger codes, the process may be time consuming vs. obtaining the data through a Card. (See the Video for detailed information)

2. Secret #2 - It is a good practice to use a division of responsibilities to prevent fraud when paying by card or check request. Best practice organizations will divide the responsibilities among the meeting planner, a Card Administrator, and Accounts Payable. When one industry consultant failed to recommend this Division of Responsibilities to a client, the client experienced significant fraud and went back to using purchase orders and checks. Unfortunate for this Organization, because the Card fraud risk could have been mitigated. (See the Video for a Division of Responsibilities)

3. Secret #3 – There are savings / cost avoidance opportunities by using a Meeting Card or P-Card in organizations that allow their employees to collect Membership Rewards. When Corporate Cards accrue Membership Rewards, and those cards are used to pay for meetings, your organization may be losing valuable rebate money. (See the Video for an example calculation).

4. Secret #4 - Learn to Calculate your Surcharge Fees - and Improve your Contract Language. With the new allowable Surcharge in 40 states, it is important to rewrite your contract language and calculate the potential fees. These surcharges have been allowed in other countries, but only became allowable in the U.S. as of January 27, 2013. (See the Video for an example calculation).

And, don't forget to ask your Credit Card company the following questions:

In response to the additional surcharge that establishments may charge, is the Credit Card company prepared to:

a) identify, in advance, which establishments will charge the fee?
b) report fees immediately after they are incurred? And, report fees monthly?
c) begin creating a database of the establishments that are charging the fees? And, communicate this information monthly to your clients?

Using a Meeting or P-Card is the best way to pay for your meetings, events and other products / services. Interesting tidbit for you...The American Express Meeting Card was developed when PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) meetings leaders recognized that hotel payments were often delayed through the onerous accounts payable process. Those leaders meet with their financial card company, American Express, in the hopes of identifying a new payment solution for meetings. It was the PwC payment needs and ideas given to American Express that launched the meeting industry's widely acclaimed Meeting Card. The Meeting Card has evolved over the years and has been a successful meetings payment method for hundreds of organizations.

Be sure to watch the Video to learn more about these 4 Secrets of Card Payments.

Scholar Consulting Group provides with you with the most tools and templates to manage your T&E or Meetings program.

Available for download, three industry firsts!

We hope you have a lovable February, lead with your heart, and live by one of my mottos: Make it FUN and WIN!

Debi Scholar

*National Association of Purchasing Card Professionals

Participate in the Meeting & Event Survey

2013-01-28T07:52:35-05:00

Conducting research to be released in the next few months about meetings and events! Please take about 10 minutes to answer the survey which CLOSES on January 29, 2013.

Thank you!

http://srv5.survey.com/cgi-bin/dsta.pl?part=1&lin=2

Debi

Getting Serious about Food and Beverage Practices

2013-01-08T23:02:46-05:00

Squeak, squeak, the distinct sound of whistling, and the whine of unoiled wheels moving closer and closer and closer - the catering cart is being pushed through the hundreds of attendees in the hotel meeting room, slightly smaller than comfortable. The options: chicken and vegetarian lasagna.

"I'll take the vegetarian option, please. Something with no carbs?" the attendee asks.

"We have vegetarian lasagna. Nothing more." the server responds.

At the end of the meal, hundreds of meals went uneaten as the novice meeting planner had not heard of underguarantees and some attendees secretly skipped out to their favorite restaurants. Moreover, many attendees who elected to join their colleagues in the hotel couldn't wait until they could voice their opinion about the uncreative food choices. Common, the meeting planner gets reprimanded for the lousy food.

Let's face it, sometimes hotel food is less than desirable, food is wasted, and money is lost. It is time to get serious about Food and Beverage practices. Can you answer these questions?

Do you know how much you spend on food and beverage each year?
What percentage is your food and beverage spend of your total meeting spend? Do you know what the industry averages are?
Do you know, by SIC, MCC or UNSPSC, how much is spent on food and beverage?
What employees spend the most on food and beverage?
Per meal, how much should you underguarantee?
Per meal, how many attendees actually attended?
Do you track food and beverage spend on-site vs. offsite per meeting?
Who is responsible for managing and selecting the food and beverage choices? Is there an escalation process for the high food and beverage spend requests?
What is the cost and quality difference of food in the hotel vs. various restaurants?
How do you identify your food choices on a buffet?
What sources do you use to select healthy meal options?
How much of a rebate can you expect on all of your food and beverage spend?
What is your food and beverage strategy and how does it fit into your Strategic Meetings Management Program? What does a food and beverage strategy contain?
Who can help you move toward a new food and beverage strategy? What are the drivers for moving toward a comprehensive food and beverage strategy?

For those of you who know me….boy oh boy…do I have some GREAT templates for you to use in your quest to manage this meeting / event category.

In two webinars, we will be answering some of the questions above. And, those questions that we don't answer in the webinars, we'll answer one-on-one or through this blog! I'm pleased to partner with Dinova to bring these webinars to you. Join us!

Here is a link to the first webinar, the second webinar link will be forthcoming.

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/301175274024857344

If you cannot join the webinars but would like assistance answering these questions for your organization, contact me, I'm here to help you!

Debi Scholar
(908) 304-4954
Debi@DebiScholar.com
www.smmbenchmark.com
www.BankWithDebi.com

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Debi Scholar, GLP, GTP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT, CBST

Globalizing your Strategic Meetings Management Program

2012-11-12T13:43:39-05:00

As more and more companies, especially those with fairly mature strategic meetings management (SMM) programs in the US, aim to leverage the benefits of SMM worldwide, they quickly learn that the process comes down to just a two basic questions: How much of the domestic program will be globalized? And what are the related best practices and key challenges that will impact the chances of success?

The first consideration is whether an existing US policy should be exported. “Organizations that are globalizing their SMM programs tend to improve their policy,” Scholar says, “For many organizations, I have seen that there is one standard policy that pertains to every employee. Then, at the country or local regional level, policy addendums may be put in place that add more controls. But they rarely reduce the requirements of the global policy.”

KEEP READING HERE

Gearing Up Globally

Debi Scholar

Strategic Meetings Management: An RFP for Services

2012-11-08T13:51:03-05:00

Would you like to save time? How about save money? Do you agree that no other consulting firm provides you with as many valuable tools and templates as we do, all available at no cost? Then stand back…here we go again!

Once again, Scholar Consulting Group is providing you with more free information than any other consultant in the industry. Why? Because we are confident that when you need help, you will come to us because we have the experience you need in a vendor neutral environment. You already know that we are experts, detailed, easy to work with, reasonably priced, and fun too! Don't settle for less; go with the BEST!

Substantiating our customer service and deliverables…Debi has over 40 recommendations on LinkedIn, and one of her favorites was recently provided by Ken Edwards:

“Debi Scholar SUPERSTAR is the best way to describe her. I've had the pleasure of working with Debi for over twenty years and have found that every engagement that we've worked on yielded near perfect results (on time and within budget!). Her knowledge, understanding and utilization of a "best practices" helped us construct a deliverable that hit the mark and then some. I will continue to hire Debi and would recommend her for just about any engagement.” October 17, 2012

In the last few weeks, we have had so many people reach out to us and ask for a Request for Proposal for Strategic Meetings Management services. Some were buyers; some were suppliers who wanted to forward it to their potential clients. Save your money – no need to pay to have someone write one for you….we gotcha covered.

There are primarily 3 services that a buyer may want from a supplier:

1. Oversight of the Strategic Meetings Management Program;
2. Sourcing / contracting venues from a supplier; and / or
3. Planning logistics supplier

One or more suppliers may provide these services. As such, the RFP is itemized into 3 categories of services. Although, one company could provide all three services.

You may not want all of the language included, but we have provided the document in a Word format so that you can edit as needed.

Things to keep in mind…

Identify the suppliers that should receive the RFP (Debi can help you with this task)
Send Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) first. (Debi can help you with this task).
You should provide known volume, spend, types of meetings and current environment info (Debi can help you with this task)
Should provide a list of countries where services are needed
Include pricing templates for different pricing models based on services provided (Debi can help you with this task)
Provide about 5 or 6 sample scenarios for meetings sourcing and planning companies to price out. (Debi can help you with this task)
Provide draft contract upfront. Contract should include savings, implementation, and risk reduction guarantees. In addition, contracts should also include Service Level Agreements with measurable Key Performance Indicators that include credits / refunds for service degradation. (Debi can help you with these tasks).
It is imperative that you KNOW how to negotiate all costs (Debi can help you with this task)
Create a scoring template to be able to weight and score each answer fairly (Debi can help you with this task)
Suppliers: Ask Debi for help in answering your RFPs; Debi knows the types of responses that buyers appreciate. In addition to meetings / events intelligence, Debi uses her Certified B.A.N.K. Sales Training experience to craft responses that are well-received by all four personality types.

Drum roll… Download Generic RFP for SMM Services by Debi Scholar

If we have saved you time, money or provided you with valuable information, please drop us a line! We love to hear from you. Thanks for your continuous support and we look forward to working with you on YOUR RFP for SMM Services.

Debi Scholar
(908) 304-4954
Debi@DebiScholar.com

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Debi Scholar, GLP, GTP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT, CBST

Crisis Management Guide for Meetings and Events

2012-11-03T10:40:11-04:00

I've been working in my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan now for about a week as my home in New Jersey is still without power. Thankfully, our house is safe is Scotch Plains, New Jersey ... but my husband and dogs are living by candles and flashlights.

Kevin Iwamoto's blog post this week is extremely ON target and I encourage all to read it. Lessons from Hurricane Sandy is exactly what I help my clients with by creating and customizing a Crisis Management Guide that works for incidents like Hurricane Sandy as well as threatening suicide attempts, terriorist attacks, and other events. Meeting professionals should have a hard copy, and an electronic copy, of the Scholar Consulting Group guide, (almost 40 pages) in their briefcases at all times so that they can refer to it as necessary. Susan Losurdo and I created the guide and you should not be without it.

Below is just a part of the Table of Contents from the guide.

If you would like help with your Crisis Management Planning, contact me. Prayers to all those people and animals that are affected. I'm grateful that all I have to worry about is our loss of power.

Debi Scholar

Meaningful Meeting Metrics, Pricing Services, and Reality Check

2012-10-23T07:55:47-04:00

Do you know that you can automatically consolidate meeting data from your meeting management technology, Global Distribution System, expense management, social media tools, Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, contracts, and PDFs to produce live dashboards and reports? Learn how to consolidate data from anywhere to produce M³…Meaningful Meeting Metrics with the new Meetings Suite. This is a hot topic and yes, ladies and gentlemen, it can be done!

Do you know that you can save 5 hours or more per meeting on automating attendee management? And another 4 hours or more per meeting on preparing and comparing RFPs? What would this do for your efficiency?

Do you know that there are at least 10 ways to price meeting management services from suppliers?

Do you know the 6 key risk exposure areas of travel management? And, how to mitigate those risks?

What about meeting / events risk exposure? Want a roadmap on how to mitigate the 7 key risk areas?

Do you know that more money can be squeezed from your travel and meetings budget by managing your food and beverage / restaurant spend? How about getting some money rebated to your organization for … eating?

These are some of the topics that we will discuss this week, next week and into December in several sessions. And, I'd love to hear your perspective on these topics! Please feel free to share your best practices or questions.

This week, I hope to see you at the ISM / GBTA Conference in Los Angeles at the Omni Hotel on October 23 and 24. Also, register for the EMC Venues webinar on October 25.

Next week, I hope to see you at the Meetings Technology Expo in Rosemont, Illinois on October 30. Meetings Technology Expo is one of my favorite conferences and I have looked forward to it for years. Paul Paone always does a great job of bringing new technology to meeting professionals and he arranges for great education.

Thanks to Maxvantage .... San Jose, here we come! Join us on November 14 for Reality Check: The [real] truth about meetings management! Can't wait for this exciting day for all of us to network and share industry best practices with meeting professionals. Get ahold of me if you want an invitation to this great event!

More webinars in November from Scholar Consulting Group and through GBTA SMM Webinar series. Our November webinar is timely as Travel Leaders are in the midst of the Hotel RFP season. It is on Leveraging your Transient and Meeting Spend. Join us for this buyers-only webinar. This is also the topic in the November issue of Business Travel Executive magazine.

And, suppliers, look for a special webinar for you on "Speak their Language: Learn how to sell more SMM Services" coming up on December 13. Do you want to win more bids, contribute more to your clients, offer the expertise that you know you have, and gain more stability in your approach? This webinar is for you!

Next year, I'm proud to be leading a closed door session at the PhRMA Forum conference…so much going on in this complex environment. If you are in this industry, join us for quite a few exciting sessions!

Thank you to Susan Losurdo, Vice President of Scholar Consulting Group, who is a tenured meeting professional leader that provides meeting sourcing, planning and consulting services with our clients. To learn more about Susan, visit her LinkedIn page. She has worked with me for years and I'm so humbled by her extensive knowledge in the industry and proud to be working with her on our client engagements.

Broadening our Scholar Consulting Group scope … we are working with Partnership Travel Consulting (PTC) so that we can help more clients manage travel and meetings. We are your trusted advisors for the Travel and Meetings market.

Goodness...where did 2012 go? Are we seriously almost to 2013? This year has been challenging for me with the loss of mom, and exciting for me with new business and partnerships. Learning to live with the peaks and valleys is part of the "puzzle pieces of life" as my son tells me. Hoping that your puzzle pieces are aligned.

Debi Scholar

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Debi Scholar, GLP, GTP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT, CBST

An overdue update ...

2012-10-12T12:12:22-04:00

Goodness, it has been almost 6 weeks since my last post and I've been meaning to write my latest blog topics on leveraging transient and group hotel spend, and commissionable rates. But, the days keep slipping away from me.

The good news is that I have been busier than ever with clients, learning, speaking and webinars. While I should be keeping everyone updated as to my whereabouts for speaking and webinars, I've been hardly able to keep my own calendar straight lately. I owe a huge THANKS to Susan Losurdo who keeps me sane and helps me with the business.

I have a series of upcoming webinars on Strategic Meetings Management with GBTA. Here is a link to join the first webinar of the series: The 70 SMM Services

Next week I'll be traveling to Amelia Island to speak at a Customer Advisory Board and then off to San Diego to meet with a client and then on to ISM/GBTA to speak on two panels. The ISM/GBTA meeting is a really great event so I hope to see you there. Then, I'll be speaking at a Meetings Technology Expo in Chicago and two upcoming events for EMC Venues. If you want any additional information on these topics or want to join us, please send me an email or call me and I'd be happy to help you. Soon, you'll also be hearing about a couple more partnerships too! The good news is.... Strategic Meetings Management is a hot topic!

I've started delivering my own webinars in addition to webinars for other organizations. If you want to be included in these invitations, please drop me a line.

The past couple of months I've also taken the opportunity to learn more. My favorite saying is "The Truly Educated Never Graduate." I'm proud that I've earned two more designations, the Global Travel Professional (GTP) and a Certified B.A.N.K. Sales Trainer (CBST). Goodness sakes...do I really NEED any more designations, you're asking?? No, but I love learning and teaching...the designations are just the sidebar.

Yet, I need to remember to slow down and smell the roses. This past week after spending 4 days in Las Vegas going through my B.A.N.K. Sales Trainer class, I ended up in the hospital with food poisoning for a couple of days. Guess it was my body's way of saying "take some time in bed and watch TV" for a change. Ha ha.

So, my goal is to get my blog moving again. Thanks for sticking with me and helping me learn from you! I always appreciate your feedback.

Debi Scholar
Debi@DebiScholar.com
908-304-4954
www.smmbenchmark.com

Creating a Virtual Meeting and Event Strategy

2012-09-05T21:10:52-04:00

Virtual meetings and events, a critical component to a strategic meetings management (SMM) strategy, expand organizations’ options to communicate, and they broaden a meeting planner’s toolbox of planning solutions. There is no doubt, virtual meetings are on the rise and will continue to be used more by planners.

But not all perceive the same definition or expect the same services when hearing the term, “virtual meeting” or “virtual event.” By definition, a virtual meeting or event provides for live or archived communications among small to large and local to global attendees. Yet, the three tiers of virtual meetings and events offer different experiences for attendees and require various levels of support to be successful. Various types of virtual meetings and events exist.

There are three primary tiers to virtual meetings/events as illustrated below.

See the benefits of virtual meetings/events, the metrics that you should capture, and the responsibilities of a virtual meeting/event planner.

Use the attached whitepaper to build your program. Recogize significant savings, reduce emissions, and expand your message to more people quickly. If you need any help, please ask me!

Download Creating a Virtual and Meeting Event Strategy by Debi Scholar

Debi Scholar