From Travel to Meetings

It's no coincidence that consolidating global meetings is often an outgrowth of travel consolidation. Once there's a program for hotels, air, and cards, meetings are often the next step. And it's all part of what is often called “strategic meetings management programs.”

The National Business Travel Association has been a champion of SMMPs, publishing a number of white papers on the topic. “SMMP is never done,” says Lee Ann Adams Mikeman, co-chairman of NBTA's Groups and Meetings Committee. “Those who have more mature programs should be able to apply the same principles, processes, and approaches to their international programs that they use for their domestic programs.”

She notes that while a key part of any SMMP is developing the policy and building stakeholder buy-in, global consolidation has special challenges. “Just as a start, you have culture and language differences, currency changes, technology compatibility issues, and different contracts laws and business regulations,” she says. “Sometimes people fail to use the resources that are available to them when dealing with these challenges. Departments from procurement to travel to risk management can help, and we have white papers on various aspects of SMMP. There's no reason to reinvent the wheel.”

She also advises starting the process early. “Do your homework and research so that you're ready. When the window of opportunity opens, it might only be open for a short time. You've got to be ready to go when the opportunity presents itself.”

• MeetingsNet.com

  For more tips and case studies on meetings consolidation, visit MeetingsNet.com and search for “meetings consolidation.”

Xerox

HEADQUARTERS: Stamford, Conn.

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 53,000 worldwide, 28,000 in the U.S.

STARTED GLOBAL CONSOLIDATION PROCESS: 2004

TECHNOLOGY: StarCite

IS THE PROGRAM MANDATED? Yes

MEETING SIZE REQUIRED TO REGISTER: 15+ attendees, of which 10 require air and/or hotel

OUTCOME TO DATE: Average cost per attendee has dropped because of use of preferred vendors

UNEXPECTED BENEFIT: A master calendar listing all meetings and their specifics. It allows planners to tell someone in one country that a particular meeting date won't work, for example, because the key players will be at another meeting. It also includes the whereabouts of everyone in the company who is traveling, in case of an emergency.

ICI

HEADQUARTERS: Slough, U.K.

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 26,000 in 55 countries. The bulk of the company's meetings are in the U.S., U.K., and China.

STARTED GLOBAL CONSOLIDATION PROCESS: April 2007

TECHNOLOGY: GetThere

IS THE PROGRAM MANDATED? No

MEETING SIZE REQUIRED TO REGISTER: 10+

OUTCOME TO DATE: Within nine months, the company expects to see the first useful data on its meeting activity.

Eli Lilly and Company

HEADQUARTERS: Indianapolis

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 41,350 worldwide, with research facilities in 50 countries, R&D facilities in 9 countries, and manufacturing plants in 13 countries

STARTED GLOBAL CONSOLIDATION PROCESS: 1999

TECHNOLOGY: StarCite

IS THE PROGRAM MANDATED? In some countries

Who Knew?

Xerox Corp. and Eli Lilly and Company faced unexpected hurdles working toward global consolidation. Here are some of the big ones.

Air Fulfillment

At Xerox, Pamela Ferranti, manager of meeting management solutions, is looking at the benefits of in-country air fulfillment versus a central fulfillment center. “I can't access some of the best Canadian airfares from the United States,” she explains, “so in that case, in-country air fulfillment makes the most sense. We're exploring right now to see if the situation is the same in Europe.”

Currency Conversion

In any global program, dealing with multiple currencies can be a challenge. At Xerox, when Ferranti needed to define which currency to convert to, “we decided on U.S. dollars because we're operationally managing this from the U.S. Our metrics and measures remain the same across the board, but we have to do conversions to do them.”

Resistance

One of the biggest challenges is getting cooperation from managers who think that their country's meeting-planning operation is under control, or from employees who feel that meeting planning is part of their jobs. Ferranti faced that. “You need the buy-in from the countries you're working with,” she says. “You can't just walk in and cram it down their throats.”

Government Regulations

At Eli Lilly and Company, planners learned from the consolidation process how the U.S. PhRMA code or CME requirements are different from regulations in other countries. “It's different in Germany vs. the U.K. vs. Canada and so on, so you might need a different infrastructure,” says George Odom, former leader of global travel and meeting services. Differences can range from the simple — limits on meal expenses — to the complex, such as constraints on the kinds of information that be discussed at a meeting. Logistics, too, come into play, such as whether a government has to approve the list of attendees. “Each country is responsible for supplying information about their regulations and sharing that with everyone else so we can make the most appropriate choices,” says Odom.