A good grasp of data insights can help event planners know precisely how much they spend on meetings.
As they start the journey towards implementing a Strategic Meetings Management programme a good starting point is getting an idea of where meeting spend is going. If you don’t have a consolidated data view through your current supplier, consider these different sources and how they can help you fill some of the gaps.
General Ledger
Engagement with your finance team to understand what is being processed through the general ledger is a good starting point – they should be able to provide some level of data based on supplier coding that incorporates things like hotel, leisure suppliers, restaurants and venues. It will give you a top-level view of the potential spend as well as which suppliers are being used and also identify the internal cost centres or departments spending the money.
Data insights relationship analysis.Expenses data
This is another good source. As long as you consider that the average cost of a meeting is likely £200+ by focusing on expense claims above that level you can quickly get an overview of the potential spend levels, which suppliers are being used and which cost centres or departments are generating the spend.
Lone Konradsen.Third party suppliers
Engaging with suppliers is a further option – you are likely going to have an element of your meeting spend being booked at the same hotels that staff stay in when they are travelling. Therefore, speaking to these suppliers either direct or via your TMC can help you identify the size of the pot.
Booker community
Last but possibly most informative is your booker community – you will already have a good idea of where these key stakeholders are in your business either through prior engagement or identified through your review of general ledger and expenses data.
Engagement with this community can help you to understand if the identified spend is related to meetings and if so how, where and why you spend on external meetings. Engaging these stakeholders early in the journey will also support you in developing a SMM that is more likely to be adopted quickly and widely across your business
Lone Konradsen is head of customer programme optimisation at Capita Travel and Events.
