I am hopeful that you do not need this information and these tools. Instead, I am optimistic and hopeful that you use an automated meeting management technology. If you are in the latter group and capture all of your meeting and event data, produce metrics and continuously improve your meetings program, please stop reading this post and enjoy your day.
If you are in the first group of not capturing your meetings data, please keep reading.
If you do not capture your baseline meetings data, it may be difficult for you to sell strategic meetings management to your leadership. No one wants to manually enter data into Excel or any other database, but you have to start somewhere. If you capture your data for one month, one quarter or one year, the information will provide you with baseline data to begin process improvement.
For example, if you do not know the average cost per person per day, by meeting type, how will you improve it? If you do not know the percentage of your food and beverage expenses compared to your sleeping room charges, how will you compare your data to industry benchmarks?
A "current state analysis" is easy to obtain so don't let any company tell you that it is not. You CAN capture your current meeting spend without a meeting management technology in place.
In addition to using meeting management tools, I use two automated solutions to produce meeting analytics:
1. Spend Radar©
2. SCG Procurement and Operations Analyzer©
The Big 4 Professional Services firms (PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, and E&Y) use Spend Radar or similar tools to extract data from systems so that all meeting spend can be captured and reported. Unlike tools used only for meeting spend and analytics, Spend Radar is a comprehensive SAAS tool that provides for data collection from any purchasing and financial data (AP, PO, Vendor, PCard, Expense, Contract, Budget, etc.) to identify spend and suppliers.
SCG Procurement and Operations Analyzer© is also used to collect, normalize and report the spend and operations data. The difference between using Spend Radar and the SCG Procurement and Operations Analyzer© is that Spend Radar takes extracted data from expense management and AP systems and imports the data directly into their tool whereas SCG Procurement and Operations Analyzer© inputs information provided from client/supplier data and then the tool is used to analyze the data. Spend Radar will always provide a more accurate accounting of spend and suppliers because it does not rely on user- or supplier- provided data but rather a direct export of system-provided data.
Scholar Consulting Group ("SCG") provides the attached Meeting Registration worksheet as a method to obtain a baseline of your meeting spend and behaviors if you do not have a meeting management technology in place. Hopefully, the data collected will help you substantiate the need to GET a meeting management technology.
Note that these forms in this workbook may be used to capture meetings data; however, an automated meeting management solution is recommended. Additional columns and/or formulas may be desirable by your organization and this workbook is meant to be a guideline only. It is designed to be simple so that you can begin collecting your data easily.
When you have some data captured, contact Debi Scholar for a free example of how the SCG Procurement and Operations Analyzer© can provide your organization with sample metrics to improve the management of your meetings and events. All columns in the Meeting Registration are not necessary but the more data you have, the more information SCG can provide to you.
Download Meeting Analysis Baseline Forms to obtain Current State
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, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT
• Author, Strategic Meetings Management: The Strategy Quick Reference Guide (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)
*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 www.hotelexecutive.com for Conferences & Meetings.
Visit me at one of my upcoming speaking engagements; Topics vary per conference. Some sessions include components of SMM Bootcamp© and/or SMM Challenge©.
Sept 7 – HSMAI Affordable Meetings
Sept 20 – NYC for Benchmark Hospitality
December 1 – EMC Venue’s MEET
January - PCMA
The Scholar Consulting Group LLC
Trusted Advisors and Superior Solutions for the Travel and Meetings Market
[email protected]
908-304-4954
Benchmark your Strategic Meetings Management Program: http://www.smmbenchmark.com
Purchase the SMM Quick Reference Guide: http://amzn.to/qoM4dw
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 (SSGB)
• Chauncey Certified Technical Trainer (CTT)