In early December, both Cvent and American Express Meetings & Events announced an integration with miMeetings, an electronic system that manages attendee ground transportation for event planners.
The miMeetings technology allows planners to send requests for proposal to transportation suppliers, and then group attendees for shared rides. The system minimizes flight manifest errors through connectivity with FAA data. On the back end, it also enables detailed reporting, standardized invoicing, and a simplified payment process. The platform supports meeting organizers’ duty of care and data security responsibilities; all suppliers are vetted, with key financial and security aspects considered.
At American Express M&E, integration will come in the form of a branded service called Meetings Ground Transportation that will manage ground transportation for clients to ensure compliance with internal travel and meeting policies. The service will offer 24/7 support, adding and eliminating rides as necessary, revising ground confirmations, and communicating pick-up locations. American Express M&E estimates that planners can save between 22 percent and 30 percent on total ground costs and cut some attendee travel times noticeably.
“Ground transportation has long been a pain point for all meeting stakeholders” said Linda McNairy, vice president of Americas at American Express M&E. “Planners have struggled to maintain visibility, organization, and cost, while an attendee’s first impression of an event can be tarnished when ground delays or issues occur as a result of mismanagement.” With miMeetings, “it’s possible to make ground transportation a strategic component of any meetings program, which has not been possible to this extent previously.”
At Cvent, planners now have the option to add the miMeetings platform to the dashboard of services they already use, according to a company spokesperson. “Ground transportation is too often a blind spot within the event planning lifecycle, so we’re proud to deliver an integration that offers a streamlined solution for managed, pre-scheduled ground transportation,” said Anil Punyapu, senior vice president of sales at Cvent.
In April 2019, meeting-management platform Aventri launched Marketplace, which includes access to miMeetings as well as Uber for Business and Empire CLS for clients’ ground-transportation needs.
