Data gathering is the first step toward developing a strategic meetings management program (See my June article “Information Is Power” at meetingsnet.com). The next step is creating your business case.

So what exactly does this look like? To start, determine the way your executive team likes to review information; is it a slide deck or an executive summary? Establish the key messages, organize the data to support the points, and stay away from minutia.

It's important that you structure it in “executive speak”: brief, compelling, data-driven, and results-oriented. It should identify consequences if no action is taken. For this audience, less is more.

Identify a couple of compelling headlines, such as “Our company spent $22 million on meetings last year,” or “Our company uses 82 different meeting suppliers.” A little shock treatment can go a long way to get the attention and support of your executives.

As you work through the process of discovery, data collection, and development of your SMMP, it's critical to include an array of stakeholders from many disciplines. (See chart.) Let people know what's in it for them, and why they need to support the changes.

Back It Up With a Policy

In addition to gaining buy-in throughout the organization, you need to develop a clearly defined and mandated policy. Best practice indicates that the policy requires support from the C-level and that it must be enforceable. Your executives have to understand that a lack of policy puts your company at risk.

Ideally, the meetings policy should stand on its own and not be embedded in travel policy. Depending on the various meeting types at your company, you may need distinct meetings policies for company employees, customers, and suppliers.

As you develop the policy, review the draft with various internal organizations, including but not limited to accounting, procurement, human resources, and legal. This will avoid any major rework once you have a final version to submit for executive approval.

Your meetings policy should include specifics such as the approval process, how contracting is done and by whom, and the use of preferred suppliers. It's important to define who can plan meetings, locations that can and cannot be used for meetings, as well as who can attend meetings. Include a green-meetings policy if there is one. This would address alternatives to in-person meetings in addition to conservation measures, carbon offsets, and recycling requirements. Finally, you must determine if your policy will be rolled out on a global or regional basis.

By proactively getting buy-in for your strategic meetings management program and by driving meeting policy, you will be viewed as an essential and indispensable leader in your organization.

SMMP Stakeholders: Why Include Them?

Betsy Bondurant, CMP, CMM, is president of Bondurant Consulting, Coronado, Calif. Contact her by e-mail at betsy@bondurantconsulting.com.