Business Travel Executive, March 2020

32 Business Travel Executive askBTE com March 2020 SR SPECIAL REPORT even know how much spend is occurring That said the historical tug of war between admins and travel managers over exactly who actually controls meeting planning and thus meeting spend remains a prickly issue A Tug of War Veteran travel buyer Jennifer Steinke knows all about this on average her team handles some 400 small meetings a year including sourcing contracting and booking so she is familiar with the interpersonal dynamics of managing meetings If we can put easy to use tools in the hands of our admins and still allow the travel manager to get visibility and oversee the process then the admin doesnt feel their power or prestige being threatened Travel buyers should be the allies of our admins and not the enemy in this way we build trust and then work together to tackle the bigger meetings One of the areas that has posed difficulty for admins within sourcing is contracts and the requirement to send eRFPs Admins are not trained in legal matters and these SSS agreements are not a priority for corporate legal review explains Bizlys Iwamoto In addition sending eRFPs to source and select a venue like a procurement or sourcing professional would do is unrealistic Asking the admin to go through and fill out a long profile and budget form source the best venue from multiple options and choose the best deal within a budget its asking them to change their normal work process and takes more time which they usually dont have The reality is they can just pick up a phone and book a venue The expectation is not realistic thats why adoption and compliance around SSS meetings is so abysmal he continues The travel manager can simplify contracts for admins by putting together a standard contract that doesnt have to go through legal every time with a way for them to request meetings with an established form of payment and set up a system for budget approval in the beginning when the meeting is requested not later The idea is to corral activities that used to be in silos adds Steinke However even if you create your own contract the chain still has to approve it and go through lawyers warns Groupizes De Gaspe Beaubien The best path is to pre negotiate a contract at the beginning of the year so every time the admin has a meeting to handle they can use the template The world of contracts too is evolving Locally most meetings have been at hotels 91 percent But now small non hotel venues such as restaurants bowling alleys etc are increasingly popular alternatives and easier to plan and create contracts for Going to the Travel Manager The era of ignoring simple meetings is over its morphed into its own discipline now Travel and meetings have been siloed departments with different areas of ownership and goals says Groupizes De Gaspe Beaubien The meetings manager would not take it on because it was too small whereas travel managers didnt want it because they were too busy Now its back in the travel managers hands largely because of duty of care Moreover Iwamoto suggests that travel managers are naturally inclined to handle the small simple self service meetings space since theyre already good at program spend consolidation and reporting negotiation strategies with preferred suppliers Meeting planners are focused on big complex meetings They possess a different skill set and work with a different set of suppliers In addition to duty of care concerns another reason for the return of the meetings space to travel is because they are often also responsible for the quality of the attendee experience Even a 20 person meeting at a property where the experience is less than stellar will affect the whole travel program so how do we best leverage spend and make it a better experience Steinke asks The enterprise is changing dynamics agrees Ron Shah founder and CEO of Bizly While travel managers need to harvest data to improve success for the company a boring meeting is not acceptable anymore The experience is important its not just about event management now but productivity too Granted the meetings space isnt a new thing for travel buyers but better technology and tools mean they may have an easier time managing it The meetings space adds a whole new level of complexity to the travel space that travel managers are used to working in not only with an added mix of supply base but also with a new level of business stakeholders with a heightened element of emotion and ownership BCDs Whitehead notes That said there are also many areas of crossover that make this an area of opportunity for alignment for a travel manager she continues including data privacy security and screening legal and risk mitigation to name a few Common sense dictates that we need simple functionality for simple meetings and complex functionality for complex ones the flexibility is what is important Many companies who conduct a smaller number of simple meetings arent well suited for bigger technology platforms We need to educate and reach out to meetings planners and let them know that other simple solutions exist says Steinke And while automation may eventually solve the problem its certain that the area of simple meetings can no longer be neglected n What is a Simple Meeting A Simple Meeting is not defined by size but complexity Simple meetings are done by occasional planners often last minute in nature Simple meetings can include a combination of sleeping rooms meetings space air travel and some attendee management component Simple meetings can also be referred to as a small meeting or a self service meeting Simple meetings represent 60 to 80 percent of the meetings in a corporation and may cover internal meetings trainings recruiting projects and more Source Groupize Travel buyers should be the allies of our admins and not the enemy in this way we build trust