The Global Business Travel Association’s Corporate and Meetings Committee launched the first formal strategic meetings management program structure in 2003. It includes strategies companies can use to maximize meeting ROI, from centralizing or consolidating meeting planning, to working with procurement to leverage spend and negotiate deals with preferred vendors, to tracking meeting spend data.
Why is this approach still used by a handful of companies, mostly larger ones, more than 20 years later?
The biggest obstacle may be resistance to change, says Amy Harris, vice president of Your Event Solutions (YES) and former head of the CWT Meetings & Events SMM Center of Excellence. “Planners are accustomed to working independently and may view the SMM process and oversight as constraints on their creativity.”
In smaller organizations, this is often a matter of resources—budget, time, and people. “Many planners still view SMMPs as overwhelming,” said Brenda Davis, executive assistant at International SOS and chair of the GBTA Committee (now known as the Meetings and Events Committee). “They view the measures as complex and difficult to implement. , especially if they don’t have the dedicated resources or expertise to manage the process.”
Another big challenge, she said, is leadership buy-in. “Without support from senior leadership, planners may not have the momentum they need.”
Small meetings, big money
Since the pandemic, many companies have opted to go virtual or hybrid, creating an even greater need to bring employees together as a team. Companies can save a lot of money when they leverage the total expense of smaller meetings.
In the 14th annual Global Meetings and Events Forecast released by Amex GBT Meetings & Events, 42% of respondents expect their small, in-house meetings to grow in 2025, with 52% of those meetings taking place outside of hotels.
Consultant Donna Patrick believes it’s “low-hanging fruit” for planners to capitalize on spending on these smaller meetings, since most organizations have many of them in their conferences. For example, one of her clients holds 2,500 meetings a year, 1,900 of which involve between 10 and 50 people.
“My advice is to focus on small meetings first,” she said.
No matter the size of the meeting, controlling expenses is a win. “It’s not just about saving money, it’s about being more efficient and making sure every meeting is tied to the organization’s business goals,” Davis said.
A reimagined strategy meeting management framework
Some experts say that for careful planners, the best way to implement an SMM is to break it down into actionable parts. GBTA’s reimagined SMM framework, known as “The Wheel”, was released last October and includes new elements that can be managed individually, such as duty of care, meeting security and resilience.
“If I had to pick the most important new element of the framework, I would say digitization – it revolutionizes the way planners approach SMM,” Davis said.
“First, digital tools give planners access to better data. You can collect and analyze meeting data more efficiently and streamline tasks such as scheduling, registration and communications. This means less time spent on manual processes, errors and Also less.
Harris believes that sustainability is evolving from a nice-to-have to a core business priority. “It’s time to embed this as standard practice in our meetings and SMMs.”
