1
3
DEFINE ROLES &
PARTNERS WITHIN
YOUR ORGANIZATION INTERNAL ASSESSMENT
TO CALCULATE
YOUR TOTAL SPEND
Start with your core team of staff
who plan meetings. Check with your
Procurement team as another player to
add to the roster. Look to identify other
stakeholders who plan meetings within
your organization. After you get a solid
list, then you can work towards building
a policy that lets everyone know that you
are working to leverage the spend that
each of these constituents consume within
their meetings budgets. You can start by
adding the meetings policy language
within your travel policy and then work
up from there over time to establish a
broader meetings & events policy. Think
of it as a crawl, walk, run approach. It’s easy to stop at the first number you
find when determining your spending. But
chances are, there is more to the story. If
you already have a Meetings & Events
calendar or database, query that for data
as a first step. Next, ask the hotel vendors
you’ve used in the last year to provide
information from your invoices. Contact
the travel department to collect charges
on business travel spending. Examine
the finance department’s T&E charges
greater than $1,000. Chances are those
receipts represent a simple meeting.
Now that you are armed with this
information, consider how you can start to
manage the process better. How can you
get strategic about your spending?
2
MAKE YOUR
POLICY WISH LIST
State your goals for the Meetings Policy.
Establish what topics you want to cover
in your policy document. These topics
may include:
∙ ∙ Strategy
∙ ∙ Communication
∙ ∙ Preferred Vendor Utilization
∙ ∙ Meeting/Event Service Request
∙ ∙ Group Hotel Sourcing Process
∙ ∙ Payment Process
Once you have the core elements above,
you move into the following points down
the road:
∙ ∙ Data Analysis and Reporting
∙ ∙ ROI
∙ ∙ Continuous Improvement