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vice president, category manager, meetings and events
Deutsche Bank Securities
Baltimore

PAST Radek comes from an information technology background. She has been with Deutsche Bank for 14 years as a member of the global travel team where she leads a project team in the implementation of an online booking tool for travel. In 2006, she was asked to implement technology selected to help track and manage meetings and events globally. She now leads the company’s “DB Meeting Source” program within the global travel/procurement organization.

CRED Radek defied the odds in 2006 when her team rolled out a technology platform to source meetings in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany simultaneously. The global meetings program (which now also includes Asia-Pacific) has been in place for the past three years and Radek’s team will send out its one-millionth event invitation later this year.

FORWARD THINKING Radek and her team are gearing up to get their hands around small meetings spend and to better manage virtual meetings. “It’s hard to say what’s next after that. We have a very successful program, but we still have a lot more to do.”

SUCCESS STORY Radek never listened to the many naysayers who told her rolling out a global program in multiple countries simultaneously would never work. Despite the fact that there is no mandate to use the program to source meetings, she has a lot of buy-in from stakeholders across the globe. As a travel procurement professional, “I don’t know everything there is to know about meetings management, so I have been willing to really listen to the experts in the bank on how to run a top-notch meeting.”

A-HA MOMENT “For me it was once we started getting the data,” says Radek. “It takes a while, but once you get year-over-year data from the system, you can look at patterns in the way that you buy and analyze those. That is when you can sit down and connect the dots.”

ADVICE An SMMP is definitely worth the effort, she says, and you don’t have to conform to how other organizations approach their programs. “SMMPs are different in each organization. Figure out what will work for your company.” —Rachel Eccles