A survey of business travel buyers has revealed, while 40 per cent are now responsible for managing meetings spend, more than half (59 per cent) still do not have a strategic meetings management policy (SMMP) in place and 13 per cent don’t even know if they have one.
The survey of 252 buyers was carried out by the Business Travel Show (BTMS), Europe’s leading corporate travel event, which takes place 7-8 February 2012 at Earls Court in London.
More than 6,000 travel and meetings buyers and over 200 exhibitors will be at the event, ranging from hotels and meetings venues, to airlines, train operators and travel technology suppliers.
Many of the suppliers exhibiting at the Business Travel Show service the meetings market, including meeting management companies, hotel booking agents and technology suppliers such as Hotelzon UK, Jigsaw Conferences, Lanyon, StarCite, Cvent, Zibrant and CWT Meetings & Events.
This year’s Business Travel Show conference (sponsored by American Express Global Business Travel, Concur, StarCite, Lanyon, Travelport and Egencia) also features four masterclasses and two case studies about SMMP.
Sessions are designed exclusively to inspire and inform travel and procurement managers with presentations from the likes of Tesco, DuPont, Astra Zeneca, Blackrock and Areka Consulting.
Kevin Iwamoto, vice president for enterprise strategy at StarCite, now part of the Active Network, commented: “As more travel managers continue to take on responsibility for meetings, they should be aware of the tremendous risks that meetings present."
"Meetings make up a huge investment of your company’s time, resources and human capital. Plus, your company’s reputation may be at stake. We believe much of this risk can be mitigated with a strategic meetings management program and meetings approval process.”
