Administrative Staff Signing Contracts At most tables, participants indicated that they are still having issues with administrative staff—who lack expertise and concern for the risk clauses—signing contracts. Several shared their stories: One administrative staff person recently signed a contract for the wrong year, and it was not discovered until a month before the actual meeting dates that the hotel was holding space for one year later. The hotel did not have the short-term meeting space available. While having to pay a major contractual obligation—such as attrition or cancellation fees—is unfortunate, it can be the catalyst for getting executive-level buy-in for an SMMP. One participant reported not being able to get executive- level support for amandated policy because mandates are not part of the company’s corporate culture. Administrative staff said they enjoyed handling these meetings—and the per- ceived perks from hotels—and are resistant to centralization. To offset this practice, she established a model that encour- aged administrative staff to use the meeting experts as a resource for guidance. There was a lot of outreach to this audience by the meetings team, and optional educational ses- sions were conducted to increase knowledge. One person said that sometimes this issue creates a turf war, and everyone needs to remember that who does the work is less important than achieving the goal of risk mitigation.
“Meeting professionals need to be more adept in change manage- ment and focus on delivering value. That value definition is likely to be changing as business conditions change.”
Outsourcing of Meetings One participant has experienced cost savings by hiring Experi- ent to handle the hotel research and contracting portions, because its compensation comes from hotel commission. Another attendee said that having a third party helped when her department experienced a wave of turnover. Instead of hir- ing and training new staff, their meetings-management com- pany was able to add staffing the following week.
Changing Skill Sets for Meetings Professionals The group discussed changes in the corporate planner’s role: Meeting planners need to shift froma logistics focus to core business-leadershipskills in order to be more valuable to their companies. Business-unit leaders expect that you can help them attain their results through meetings consultation, not just be an expert on themenu and décor. Leadershipdoesn’t care what you do as much as they care about the result. Meeting professionals need to measure their impact tangibly, not subjectively. One of the struggles with SMMP compliance can be job- security fears. “Meeting professionals need to be more adept in change management and focus on delivering value,” Tamer said. “That value definition is likely to be changing as busi- ness conditions change.” Many long-termemployees feel job security is a product of tenure rather than output or innovation. Everyone needs to keep learning, push beyond their comfort zone, and look for opportunities to improve. As companies becomemore risk-averse, risk-management strategies are increasingly important. The corporate legal staff may know little about hotel contracts—they rely on themeet- ing planner to knowwhat’s important andwhat’s negotiable. It is not enough that you can plan a meeting; you have to be able tomake a presentation on the business results and to articulate and sell recommendations on how to make improvements. Making a business presentation in front of senior leaders is a skill that many lack, but it ismore neces- sary now than ever before. It is how you gain respect and establish yourself as ready for advancement.
William F. Reed,CMP, is senior vice president, strategic sales, Experient. 66 pcma convene January 2011 www.pcma.org