At the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Convention in Denver, I had the opportunity to lead a discussion on selling meetings management to executives by securing internal buy-in. During the discussion, I was joined by Cvent clients Kiewit and Estée Lauder, who both won Plannie Awards at Cvent CONNECT 2016 for exemplifying success in their event management programs.
For years, implementing a strategic meetings management (SMM) program has been the solution to reducing costs, gaining visibility, and ensuring compliance around organizations’ events and meetings. However, adoption levels are low outside the Fortune 100, and many point to the difficulty of gaining buy-in from executives as the primary reason for not implementing a program.
With this difficulty in mind, we discussed a seven-step process to keep you on track, develop a successful business case, and implement a meetings management program (or grow your existing program) without the usual hiccups.
- Step 1: Understand the Reason for Strategic Meetings Management
- Step 2: Develop a Formal Meeting Policy
- Step 3: Estimate Your Meetings Cost Savings
- Step 4: Create a Meetings Management Business Case
- Step 5: Communicate Meetings Management Plan Internally
- Step 6: Use Resources to Help in Meetings Management
- Step 7: Implement a Meetings Technology Tool
We had such a wonderful and valuable conversation that I decided to turn my presentation into a weekly series that provides more insight and walks you through the process step-by-step.
If you’re ready to get started now, check out Cvent's SMM Starter Kit, which contains resources to guide you through each step of the process.
Written by Julie Haddix.
