Collaboration is essential to implementing a Strategic Meetings Management Plan (SMMP), so “don’t try to do it yourself,” warned Carolyn Pund of Cisco Systems in a Tuesday morning session at MPI’s 2010 World Education Congress.
“Change occurs when people believe change is necessary,” Pund said. “If you can make a value proposition that’s strong enough, they will come on board with you.”
Betsy Bondurant of Bondurant Consulting agreed that “you need to reach out to stakeholders who could easily stop your progress with a phone call.”
The 2008 economic downturn was “the megaphone for cost savings,” Pund said, and “SMM was given a platform.” She provided participants with lessons learned from her work integrating an SMMP at Cisco.
Internal collaboration is critical: “You’re always more powerful together than apart,” Pund said. To launch her plan, she targeted in-house departments responsible for travel, procurement, legal affairs and sales with SMMP education, and created “evangelism campaigns” that brought the message to regional offices.
“Change management is what you’re all about in SMMP,” Pund said. Aligning the global meetings and events and event marketing teams in a new collaborative group, titled the Global Meetings and Events Network, allowed for data sharing, while helping to build essential executive support. “You need to have executive air cover,” Pund said.
Changing general ledger (GL) codes is like moving the Rock of Gibraltar, she noted, but the new categories allow for the generation of specific reports on the spend in any one area. Pund also created an event approval tool for senior vice presidents which specifies event details, budget, and any areas where a program is non-compliant with policy.
“SMMP is not for wimps,” Pund said, but Bondurant encouraged participants to “be the one to raise your hand.”