Three Planners, Three RFPs Online RFP platforms make it easy to assume that the process is monolithic — completely standardized, homogenously formatted, and more or less the same for everyone. But planners have their own individual methods for putting their meetings out to bid. Here are three:
Sharon Collins, CMP, SMMC, strategic meeting partner, American Cancer Society (ACS): Collins estimates that ACS uses an online RFP platform for “98 percent of our meetings” — pretty much
everything except for “a very, very, very small percentage … typically for smaller international hotels.”
She finds the system convenient and valuable. “It is very useful to, first of all, find out availability, so if a hotel has available space or sleeping rooms, or both or neither or whatever,” Collins said. “And then it helps us
get a gauge of where the rate is coming out on the property. So it’s a vetting mechanism — it’s a good way to see what’s out there and see what responses come back, and then to go to the next level of the process.”
Marian Long, CMP, meeting services director, American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE): Long almost completely eschews online RFPs, choosing to send out AADE’s meetings “the old-fashioned way — you know, it’s like a Word document, and here’s the marketing and here’s the deadline, and let us know if you have any questions.”
Distributing her own RFP, her own way, is “not that big a deal,” Long said. “Half the stuff that I have is already in a Word document somewhere, so I can probably cut-and-paste. I get it. I could do it online, or maybe I could do my own jerry-rigged version of it via email, saying, ‘Hey, send me a spreadsheet with all this information in it.’ I just haven’t had a need for [eRFPs] myself.”
Larissa Schultz, CMP, CHA, owner, LJS Meeting Strategies: During her career first as a corporate planner and now as an independent, Schultz has done a little bit of everything — using an in-
house RFP process, working with third-party RFP vendors, and preparing her own RFPs from scratch, which is what she mostly does these days. “I think we need to utilize the technological systems that allow more fine- tuning that you can do within the system,” Schultz said. “A lot of the RFP systems are very standardized. It is very hard on the planner’s side to really input exactly what it is you need.
“One of the main things the RFP system needs to be able to have included is the objective of the program.... From the planner’s side to the supplier’s side, they should be discussing, what are you trying to do with this program? I don’t think we can address the objective aspect when we’re doing the eRFP.”
PCMA.ORG
APRIL 2013 PCMA CONVENE
53
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164