GBTA Releases Report on SMM Programs

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has issued a report evaluating the state of strategic meetings management (SMM) programs across North America.

The State of Strategic Meetings Management 2013, sponsored by CWT Meetings & Events, is based on a survey of 335 meeting professionals in the U.S. and Canada during March-April 2013. These meeting professionals were asked to evaluate the growing use of SMM programs and the benefits and challenges corporations are dealing with as they put these programs into place.

Key findings include:

• 52% of respondents work for companies with an SMM program in place or in development
• the majority of respondents working for companies an SMM program felt in benefited their organizations, enabling them to: increase their control over cost savings (76%); streamline meetings and event processes (76%); and help better allocate resources and savings (67%).
• 41% of respondents working for companies without an SMM program believe one will be implemented by their company in the next three years
• 37% of respondents indicated that their programs were being used to manage events globally
• 58% of respondents notes that would executive buy-in, SMM programs would not succeed
• 59% of respondents from companies currently operating without SMM programs said they would need initiatives led by senior leadership to establish them
• 70% of companies with SMM programs in place use technology to gather data in order to manage their programs. Top uses of data collection are: registering meetings (79%); registering attendees (75%); provided detailed reporting (72%); budgeting purposes (69%); and sourcing venues (60%)

“Meetings require a large investment for many companies, which is why SMM programs have been deployed. Technology enables the capture of important data and analytics, but it’s up to the meetings professionals to make informed, actionable decisions based on the story that the data is telling, and to communicate the value of the overall program to the C-level to ensure support,” said Kari Wendel, SMMC, senior director, SMM Strategy + Solutions, CWT Meetings & Events.