Are you Competing Against Yourself for Meeting Space?

“We gotta act fast – another high-tech client wants the space!”

That was the conversation I had with two Event Marketers back in 2006. I was the Event Procurement Manager at Microsoft and had just gotten two nearly identical URGENT supplier setup requests; the same hotel in Las Vegas, and the same sense of panic from two different teams.

As it turned out, the hotel was pitting my stakeholders against each other. Instead of collaborating and leveraging Microsoft’s buying power, they were unwittingly competing for space. And, because neither of the Event Marketers was an expert in hotel negotiations, the draft contract was definitely in the hotel’s favor. Making matters worse, getting a hotel setup for payment took 2-weeks minimum, so getting the deposit paid on time was going to be a challenge.

Right then I knew we needed a better way to find, contract and pay venues in a decentralized environment.

As I did my analysis on event spend in the US, I found countless other cases where different business units had been vying for the same meeting space at various hotels, simply because each didn’t know what the other was doing. When I talked with the stakeholders, they all were frustrated with the process. They knew they weren’t contracting experts; it was taking too long to find the right venues and the payment process was driving them nuts.

We needed a program that would give visibility to all the events taking place in the company. We also needed professionals experienced with the hotel industry to manage the contracting process. And finally, we needed a more streamlined way to make payments. We needed a Strategic Meetings Management Program.

I put together a business case that showed an immediate ROI and pitched my idea to our Chief Procurement Officer. Less than a year later, my team and I launched Microsoft’s SMMP known as VenueSource. The program included sourcing services for hotels and venues and a Meeting Card to manage payment. It was simple and effective. Program adoption was good because it solved one of my stakeholders’ biggest problems. And, we stopped competing against ourselves.

We started in the US and Canada, expanded to Europe, then Asia and finally Japan. At the seven-year mark, we had ROI of 900% and I was honored with 2 industry awards! The program is still in place today and continues to be a model of excellence in the industry.

A successful SMMP is achievable without a central meetings department. In fact, if you don’t have a central meetings department, it is even more important to have a program, for all of the reasons outlined above.

Have you been wondering how to get started with a program for your company? Download my SMMP Getting Started Checklist for  tips on how to begin.