MEETINGS MATURITY MODEL
04
03
02
01
Emergent
Operative
Spend Visibility
Electronic RFP
Infancy Static Budget Standard Budget
No Policy Attendee Registration Meeting Request Attendee
Registration
Manual Meeting
Request
Meetings in
Travel Policy
Meeting Request
Meetings Policy
DEFINE ROLES AND PARTNERS
WITHIN YOUR ORGANIZATION
Start with your core team who plans meetings. Check
with your procurement team for 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 toward building a policy that lets
everyone know that you are working to leverage the spend
that each of these constituents consumes within their
meetings budgets. Add the meetings policy language to
your travel policy and then work up from there over time
to establish a broader meetings and events policy. Think
of it as a crawl-walk-run approach.
MAKE YOUR POLICY WISH LIST
State your goals and establish what topics you want to
cover in your meetings policy document. These topics
may include strategy, communication, preferred vendor
utilization, meeting/event service requests (to help you
know when people are requesting support), group hotel
sourcing process and payment process.
Once you have the core elements above, you can move
into data analysis and reporting, ROI and continuous
improvement down the road.
CALCULATE YOUR TOTAL SPEND
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 and 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
26
Excelling
Business Intelligence
Integrated Programs
Best Practices
Spend Optimization
Electronic RFP
Comprehensive
Budget
Attendee Registration
Meeting Request
Comprehensive
Meetings Policy
05
Mastery
Benchmarking
Business Intelligence
Integrated Programs
Best Practices
Spend Optimization
Electronic RFP
Comprehensive Budget
Reconciliation
Attendee Registration
Meeting Request
Comprehensive Meetings
Policy with Compliance
Measurement
the travel department to collect charges on business
travel spending. Examine the finance department’s T&E
charges greater than $1,000 or $1,500. 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?
CONSIDER VENDOR SUPPORT
A travel management company manages all aspects of
meetings and events on behalf of a company. We get
preferred deals for your hotel spending and track those
dollars in our system. We act as your buying agent to
get better hotel rates and added-value amenities like
waived resort fees, free parking and free Wi-Fi.
Take a look at this Meetings Maturity Model initially
developed by the GBTA Meetings Committee. We’ve
refined this to align with some of the key focus areas
that we help clients manage. We can help you advance
your program into the operative category by managing
the RFP process, your budget and registration, and by
creating a comprehensive meetings policy without a lot
of work on the client side.
ROLL OUT
Align your meeting policy rollout with a communications
plan and a program sponsor. Your sponsor should start
with a beta group of meeting planners and make them
advocates of your new policy. Don’t forget to toot your
own horn. Make sure your co-workers know about — and
use — your new meeting policy by using the company
intranet and other internal PR resources.