T&E Plus

41 Meeting Complexity Factors

With more organizations moving toward outsourced service providers for meeting management, the request for proposal venture is complex yet often provides a significant return on investment if done properly.  Yet, many suppliers are provided with minimal meeting data, which leads to higher bid prices.  For example, how many complex meetings vs. simple meetings are held each year in your organization?  What criteria is used to categorize a complex meeting?

Although there are few industry standards, I have found commonalities in meeting complexities.  If your organization can itemize your meeting spend and staffing estimates, the meeting management companies can provide you with more accurate pricing which saves all those involved from the “unknown” after the contract is signed.

Use the attached form as a guideline to calculate your meeting spend, volume, resource cost and quantity. Provide this data as part of your request for proposal package so that the bids returned reflect accurate pricing models.

Download Meeting Complexity Level and Time Study Index

If you have any questions or need assistance with anything mentioned above, please contact me.

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, T&E policy, plus more...

 

Debi Scholar, GLP, CMM, CMP, CTE, CTT, Six Sigma Green Belt

• 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)

The Scholar Consulting Group LLC
[email protected]

http://www.smmbenchmark.com
908-304-4954

 

Debi has the following designations:

• Wharton Aresty Executive Education/National Business Travel Association (NBTA) Global Leadership Professional (GLP)
• Meeting Professionals International Certificate in Meetings Management (CMM)
• Convention Industry Council Certified Meeting Professional (CMP)
• NBTA Corporate Travel Expert (CTE)
• Six Sigma Green Belt
• Chauncey Certified Technical Trainer (CTT)

 

Follow me on Twitter ...http://www.twitter.com/debischolar  and on LinkedIN at http://www.linkedin.com/in/dscholar

 

Benchmark your Strategic Meetings Management Program

Strategic Meetings Management is a notable force in our hospitality industry and the term means different things to different people.  Concisely, Strategic Meetings Management (“SMM”) provides direction to guide the strategy, operations and tactical activities of meetings and events in order to improve business processes, quality, and return on investment, and reduce costs, risks and inefficiencies. 

An industry first, you have the ability to benchmark your SMM business processes against other SMM programs.  When you compare your business processes to other leading organizations, the resulting information offers a foundation to develop improvement plans that will guide you towards best in class, or mature programs.  The www.smmbenchmark.com website asks a series of questions that will result in qualitative benchmarking for your strategic meetings management program against other organizations’ programs.

With budgets cut and leaders clamoring for recognition of their efforts, the free benchmarking site provides for validation of their SMM endeavors and offers an opportunity map to continuous improvement.  The self-assessment benchmarking site uses a 6-level process maturity continuum starting with “unaware,” those organizations that are at the beginning of the SMM journey through “mature,” those organizations that may have a mature program in place. 

A completed confidential survey will return a benchmark report that provides the self-assessed level of program maturity, an action plan, best in class practices, savings opportunities and the risks of your program remaining status quo.  An executive summary of the benchmarking results will be provided quarterly for those who participate in the free self-assessment.

An added benefit for SMM leaders, the benchmarking report will motivate teams to think and work collaboratively using the benchmark data as a roadmap, and educates how to move a program forward to maturity.

For those who do not want to complete the benchmark assessment, there is an SMM Benchmark LIVE to peer into the aggregated results.   The website also offers the SMM Strategy Articulation Map, the industry’s first SMM Maturity Model, the 10 pillars of savings opportunities, the 7 risk categories, the change management matrix, and the 80 components that make up a meeting policy.

If you have any questions or need assistance with anything mentioned above, please contact me.

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, T&E policy, plus more...

Debi Scholar, GLP, CMM, CMP, CTE, CTT, Six Sigma Green Belt

• 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)

The Scholar Consulting Group LLC
[email protected]
908-304-4954

Debi has the following designations:

• Wharton Aresty Executive Education/National Business Travel Association (NBTA) Global Leadership Professional (GLP)
• Meeting Professionals International Certificate in Meetings Management (CMM)
• Convention Industry Council Certified Meeting Professional (CMP)
• NBTA Corporate Travel Expert (CTE)
• Six Sigma Green Belt
• Chauncey Certified Technical Trainer (CTT)

Follow me on Twitter ...http://www.twitter.com/debischolar  and on LinkedIN at http://www.linkedin.com/in/dscholar