T&E Plus

Getting Serious about Food and Beverage Practices

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
[email protected]
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.

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)

*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 2,000 worldwide members combined.

Globalizing your Strategic Meetings Management Program

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

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
[email protected]

 

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)

*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 2,000 worldwide members combined.

Crisis Management Guide for Meetings and Events

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

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.

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)
• PwC Florham Park All-Star Coach Award (2006)

*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 2,000 worldwide members combined.

An overdue update ...

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
[email protected]
908-304-4954
www.smmbenchmark.com

 

Upcoming education 2012 and 2013

Numerous education sessions coming up such as plenty of webinars, face-to-face speaking engagements this year and next.  (Meetings Tech Expo, MPI, PCMA, Pharma, etc.)

This week...join me LIVE with EMCVenues to discuss "Choosing the Right Resource Model for meetings management."  Link below to register.

EMCVenues webinar

Remember...."The Truly Educated Never Graduate!"

More on all of the upcoming sessions soon. Keep following my blog and LinkedIn group, T&E Plus.

Debi

Triage your eRFPs

Pick up your phone, chat with your buyer buddy, strike a deal and plan a meeting. If these are the steps you use to bring group business into your property, then you've been hiding under your tainted bedspread for too long. Today, many hotel sales organizations rarely have the opportunity to speak to meeting planners because of the planner workload, travel schedules, procurement guidelines, and technology advancements. And, who can blame the planners for not wanting to talk to ten different hotel properties per day?

Continue reading here: Triage your eRFPs

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, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT

• 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)

*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 2,000 worldwide members combined.

Visit me at one of my upcoming speaking engagements; Topics vary per conference

Some sessions include components of SMM Bootcamp© and/or SMM Challenge© 

August 15 - M&C Webinar
August 23- EMC Venues Webinar
September 14 – PCMA
September 20 – BTN Webinar
October 25 - EMC Venues Webinar
December 2 - EMC Venues Webinar

SMM: Use MOS to Reduce Costs and Improve Quality

Attendee names, duplicate names, flights, arrivals, departures, VIPs, costs, vehicle type, terminals…. all fragments of meeting planners' ground transportation headaches.  Bring on the Excedrin headache reliever and the Calgon Take Me Away spa products.  Planning ground transportation with unruly manifests is one of the top five meeting planners' frustrating tasks.

Wizardry – not usually a term used in meeting planning but the brilliance of a new, simple meeting planner tool has just exceeded my expectations (not easy to do!) and allows meeting planners to be ground transportation geniuses.   Moreover, when a President of a company provides his testimonial on the benefits of his organization's use of this technology tool, we need to take notice.

Manifest Optimization Solutions (MOS) by Event Ground Global saves meeting planners 60%-80% of their manifest time and up to 30% of ground transportation costs by automating and validating the data so that meeting planners can make quick, intelligent decisions.

When I saw how MOS works, I immediately thought of how this tool can turn the meeting planner into the meeting consultant by providing immediate intelligence to their meeting requesters/clients.  MOS makes the meeting planner look like the meeting hero.  How much is it?  For a limited time, MOS is complimentary for companies that sign up.

MOS, a web-based solution for meeting planners, works simply as it:

• Provides city ground transportation cost comparisons;
• Imports attendee data information;
• Identifies data discrepancies (e.g. highlights flight discrepancies and duplicate names) and validates flight data;
• Provides vehicle options and costs, automatically, within seconds based on your data and using your preferred suppliers and pricing (e.g. 200 attendees are grouped into the most cost efficient vehicles within seconds – and may be modified individual by individual or however you deem necessary); and
• Allows for custom reporting and various fields.

A partnership with Reardan integrates MOS with GGA and sends/integrates your data directly into your ground transportation provider's reservation system.

Just like my iPad streamlines my technology usage, MOS simplifies and automates ground transportation – it just works and I don't see any reason not to use it.

Paul Mears, President of Hello USA, said:

“The MOS platform has saved us a tremendous amount of time and money with manifest management.
 
Our program managers no longer have to spend hours cleaning excel spreadsheets, double checking flights and assigning vehicles.
 
The ground transportation process is now much faster and simpler and, manual mistakes have now been minimized.”
 
- Paul Mears, President, Hello USA

 

Ground transportation is a 4.5B business based on estimates by the US Travel Association. It may represent 3-5% of your meeting expenses, but often takes 20% or more of your time to manage.  Why not use an automated, time-saving, cost-reducing tool to mastermind your ground transportation?

Event Ground Global will be hosting a free webinar on their tool on Thursday, June 28 at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

Register to join at: http://tinyurl.com/6smdfse

 Learn more about Event Ground Global at their website: http://www.eventgroundglobal.com/ 

(Note that Debi is vendor agnostic and has no financial interest in MOS)

 

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, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT

• 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)

*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 2,000 worldwide members combined.

Visit me at one of my upcoming speaking engagements; Topics vary per conference

Some sessions include components of SMM Bootcamp© and/or SMM Challenge© 

July 21 – GBTA Boston
July 23 – GBTA Boston
August 23- EMC Webinar
September 14 – PCMA
September 20 – BTN Webinar
October 25 - EMC Webinar
December 2 - EMC Webinar

The Frugal Leader’s Travel and Meeting Policy

The Frugal Leader’s Travel and Meeting Policy

An updated T&E Plus rerun and some fun as we move into Memorial Day and the summer travel season ....  enjoy the long weekend!

 

New Travel, Entertainment and Meeting Policy

1. All travel must be approved by your manager, the manager’s director, the managing director, the operations leader, the shared services vice president, the chief financial officer and the chief executive officer.  Please submit all travel requests four months in advance.  Requested travel will route through the pre-approval database which is in the cloud server on cloud 9.
   
   
   
2. All large and small meetings, events, conferences or other gatherings of 2 or more people must be registered on the portal which is located at the home page.  Click on the link called meetings/events, then click on “register meeting,” then click on “why I want to have this meeting,” then click on “the return on investment” link to ensure your meeting returns value to the company, then click on “provide business case” as to why your meeting is important, then click on the link called, “why Las Vegas cannot be your destination for your meeting,” then click on the link called “how to save money on your meeting,” then fill out the registration page.  If you have any more questions on meetings, please read numbers 10 and 11 below.
   
   
   
3. All travel must be booked by finding the lowest fare such as using the online booking tool, the airline webfares, the travel agency, your sister’s travel agency, the newspapers ads, or the online travel aggregator sites.  We recognize that this may take you three or more hours, but if you can find a fare that is cheaper, you must take the time to search in order to save money.  It is expected that you will take flights that have lengthy layovers if the price is less. 
   
   
4. Ancillary fees will not be reimbursed for baggage, special seats, advance boarding or onboard Internet connectivity.  Because we expect you to work 24/7, there is no reason why you need 3 pair of shoes, 4 suits, gym clothes, large containers of fluids or other items that would cause you to need luggage that needs to be checked. You will be in the office or meeting the entire time.
   
   
   
5. Please stay with relatives or friends to reduce your expenses.  While you’re there, please raid their refrigerator to eliminate meal expenses.  If you are traveling to a location without relatives or friends, please make new friends online using Twitter.   If that fails, please retrieve the reusable tentage from the local office.
   
   
   
6. Laundry expenses are not reimbursable. Please use your relative’s or friend’s washer and dryer.
   
   
   
7. Ground transportation must be provided by your favorite shoe manufacturer and your feet.  If your journey is more than five miles, please be sure to carry maps of the local bus or subway route with you.  You will not be reimbursed for these expenses because you should be willing to walk as our Health Benefit costs are increasing and you need to lose weight.
   
   
   
8. Allowable client entertainment includes volunteering, going to the park or taking advantage of free events. 
   
   
   
9. The T&E corporate card must be used for all reimbursable expenses.  Our company has no reimbursable expenses.   Any accrued points must be turned over to your manager, the manager’s director, the managing director or the chief financial officer so that they may use to buy valuable products, such as soap and toilet paper for our company bathrooms because we have cut all janitorial supplies from our budget.
   
   
   
10. Internal meetings and events can only be conducted by virtual mediums. The approved virtual mediums include your personal cell phones, your personal computer and webcams.
    
    
    
11. External business development meetings and events can be held at the local park.  In the case of inclement weather, please use parks with gazebos, canopies or buildings.  If you require client entertainment, please bring a deck of cards.  No gambling is allowed. If you require bug spray, please purchase at your own expense.
    
    
    
12. All audiovisual and production requirements must be supplied by using flashlights, hand shadows and drawings on the back of the napkin.
    
    
    
13. All travelers and meeting attendees must bring travel sleep sacks, pillows, blankets and energy bars on all trips because you never know when a volcano will erupt, a storm will ensue, or a crisis will occur.  Dealing with the unexpected increases your tolerance for adverse situations so that you can adapt to our working environment.All travelers should go to the local grocery store and eat from their "sample platters" to reduce food expenses.  Meeting planners should plan to have meetings in hotels that host weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs so that meeting attendees can snitch food from other guests in order to reduce food and beverage expenses.
14. All travelers should go to the local grocery store and eat from their "sample platters" to reduce food expenses.  Meeting planners should plan to have meetings in hotels that host weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs so that meeting attendees can snitch food from other guests in order to reduce food and beverage expenses.
    
    
15. IMHO, establish KPIs and SLAs to measure the success of your SMMP and your T&E program that may be managed by your TMC, MMC and DMCs. For travel, it is best to conduct audits and review prices, such as the ATP, ADR, and don't forget to look at prices in your GDS. Find out how much you are spending on your PNR pulls from your OBT.  If you are unsure if your spend is in compliance, check your GL codes through your AP and don't forget SIC and MCC spend data in your Spend Radar reports.  For meetings, be sure to always check your BEOs and F&B, and be sure to use CMPs and CMMs to plan and manage your meetings and events. If you are unsure, learn more about T&E and SMM, join GBTA, ACTE, MPI and PCMA to earn CPEs and obtain your GLP and GTP.
    
    
16. Any violations or noncompliance to this policy will be reported by our data metrics, from the ERP, the OBT, the TMC, the EMS, and the SMM technology, that we build, analyze, preview, revise, reproduce, report and validate a few times each day.
    
    

IF YOU and your organization need a "real" travel and meeting policy, contact me as I have many templates and examples for you.

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, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT

• 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)

*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 2,000 worldwide members combined.

Visit me at one of my upcoming speaking engagements; Topics vary per conference

Some sessions include components of SMM Bootcamp© and/or SMM Challenge© 

June 21 - EMC Webinar
July – GBTA Convention
August 23- EMC Webinar
September – Albany
October 25 - EMC Webinar
December 2 - EMC Webinar