Back to the full list of 20 changemakers

Louann Cashill, CMP, CMM

PAST After working for Amgen, whose meeting and trade shows department helped to pioneer the practice of strategic meetings management, Cashill spent a year as director of production for motivational speaker Tony Robbins, where she gained experience planning seminars internationally. She joined Toyota more than three years ago, and was quickly tapped to head the meeting services group, in order to focus more on SMMP systems and processes.

CRED In the span of 18 months, during 2007 and 2008, the number of meetings for which Cashill’s department did the sourcing and contracting increased by more than 300 percent.

SUCCESS STORY Effectively getting the word out about SMMP has been half the battle for Cashill. To do so, she presented a series of nine one-hour forums to deliver the message to meeting sponsors throughout the company about the benefits of sourcing and contracting through the meeting services department. One key to her success: allowing meeting sponsors to keep their meeting logistics responsibilities but still tap into Cashill’s department for hotel sourcing.

FORWARD THINKING After an internal study showed that fees on canceled meetings were twice as likely to be applied to future meetings if the contract was negotiated through the meetings department, Cashill’s department expanded its key indicator reports sent to senior management to highlight those statistics. In addition to tracking cost savings and cost avoidance on things like hotel rooms and food-and-beverage minimums, reports include cost avoidance on cancellation, attrition, and rebooking clauses.

ADVICE For companies getting an SMMP off the ground, persistence is key. “First of all, don’t give up. You have to have drive.” Understand your company culture and anticipate the roadblocks. “Get out from behind your desk and get buy-in.”

Next Page: Patricia Kerr
Back to the full list of 20 changemakers