A decade ago, it was only trailblazers who were even thinking about global meetings consolidation. Today, it's right up there with return on investment and compliance as a hot-button issue for pharmaceutical meeting planners. As with U.S. meetings consolidation programs, the payoffs can be big: data aggregation and cost savings across multiple countries, consolidation of suppliers as well as meeting planning staff, and multiple platforms for sharing best practices. But it's no easy task and no surprise that pharmaceutical companies are still feeling their way.

Uncharted Territory

As former leader of global travel and meeting services for the Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co., George Odom spearheaded the pharmaceutical company's move toward global meetings consolidation beginning in late 1999. “Back in 1999, there were not many companies trying to consolidate meetings globally. It was uncharted territory and we were feeling our way through it early on,” he says.

Even today, the Indianapolis-based Odom, who is newly appointed senior director of business development for Advito, the independent global consulting division of BCD Travel headquartered in Dallas, says he's not aware of “anyone who has this whole thing under control. But some are definitely farther along than others.”

Odom had a leg up on some meeting planners because he had already been involved in the consolidation of travel at Lilly prior to the meetings consolidation. “I was probably not the norm,” he admits, “since I had a meeting planning background first and then I moved into travel at the time that we were just starting travel consolidation. Then we looked at strategic sourcing in other areas — where were those dollars going? We had close to a $40 million spend in meetings in 1999, so that was an obvious area to look at. We were confident consolidation could work because we'd already done it in travel.”

Still, it's a long process. When Odom left Lilly earlier this year, he says, global meetings were still not entirely consolidated. “But we were moving in that direction,” he says. To date, the globalization includes a range of internal meetings, as well as external meetings for healthcare professionals in the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain, along with other European, Middle Eastern, and African countries. “And they're still on the path,” he says.

Zen-like Approach

Odom has learned a few things along the way, not only about what works, but also what doesn't. “Most of those who fail do so because they try to apply a U.S. model to other countries,” he says, “and that just doesn't work. There are different cultural nuances as well as different regulations and laws.” Instead, he advises taking an almost Zen-like approach to the process: “Sometimes you move faster by moving slower,” he laughs. In other words: Take your time, do your research, find out management's expectations, poll your stakeholders. “You have to get all your information together before you can even begin to move,” says Odom. “Global meetings consolidation is the ultimate in change management. You need to know what the need is, what the barriers are, what your spin is on the whole process — in a nutshell, why are you doing this?”

But if the thought of going through all that is scary, here's an even scarier proposition: If you, as the meeting planner, don't jump in and take control of the process, someone else will, whether it's the travel department, procurement, or upper management. Consolidation is here. It's been a focus of international travel departments for nearly two decades now and global meetings are a natural extension of that consolidation. It's time to jump on board or the ship might just take off without you.

Start Small

So where do you start? Rather than tackling everything at once, Odom recommends a steppingstone approach, one that many companies have instinctively already started. “Start with consolidation in each country,” he says, “then move onto regional consolidation and finally global. We did an initial analysis in each country of its spend and procedures and then moved to central meeting planning in each individual country, created standardized practices, captured data, sourced vendors, and so on. From there, you can start sharing best practices.”

One way that Odom did that was with conference calls among all the groups to talk about best practices and make sure all the groups were in alignment. That's also a good way to address potential resistance among different groups. “Sometimes resistance is legitimate,” he notes. “If a country already has processes that are working well, they might reasonably not want to change. Some countries already have wonderful suppliers and don't want to change just for consistency. But it could also be that they don't realize the benefits of change, and then it's an educational process. We have to remind them that we're trying to get the best and most appropriate service at the best price, but that it's not all just about cost-cutting. Meetings are a service and sometimes we get so deep into cost-cutting that we forget that — so we have to pull back and remember we're not just looking for the cheapest price, but for the best service that meets the organization's business objectives at the best possible price.”

From there, Odom phased in different requirements as part of the globalization process. “First you might say all meetings have to be registered,” he says, “and then move on to logistical things like who can sign a contract, who can determine if there's the budget for the meeting, and who has the authority to commit funds. Farther down the line, we added in preferred suppliers. It's a progression. Early on, we had no mandate and were just trying to get people to understand the value and how to work better in each country; then we were able to formalize more processes as we moved along.”

Even with global consolidation, though, it's important to remember that one size doesn't always fit all. For example, Odom says that in the United States, most of the Lilly planning functions were outsourced, but while some affiliates in Europe outsourced, others had internal planners, and others were a hybrid, although each had an internal meeting manager.“It's all a very fluid process,” he says. “You have to have a plan, but you also have to be able to improvise and modify that plan if something doesn't work out as anticipated.”