Meeting Consolidation — Old Hat or New Wave? Recently, meeting consolidation has become one of the hot new trends in the meetings industry. The motivating force is the realization that capturing total meeting related expenditures can have a dramatic impact on an organization's bottom line, much as the consolidation of business travel had several years ago. Driven primarily by financial officers, consolidation has become the charge of many corporate travel executives. One of the key challenges that most organizations face is the need to capture data into one central source and to do so from the many different entities involved in meeting planning . While this trend is relatively new, Conferon actually began consolidating data for its customer base over ten years ago. Conferon realized the value of capturing meeting related data and in fact, developed an internal database (Quality First) that allowed us to capture and report data in the three key stages in the life of a meeting — initiation, booking and actualization. By acting as a central distribution source for our 400+ customers, we have leveraged this buying power, clout and data capture to effectively negotiate on behalf of our customers and to create contracts and relationships that are truly unique in the industry. In order to take our consolidation efforts to the next level, Conferon has worked with PlanSoft to develop an effective multi-tiered consolidation solution for the future. The core foundation to this unique solution is “Ajenis OnLine”, the first event-planning tool that provides electronic information exchange between meeting professionals and suppliers and is the most comprehensive event-planning tool on the web. This robust, scalable, web-based infrastructure allows multiple entities (including unlimited customer contacts, hotels, and Conferon staff) to share and capture total meeting related data and information. The Conferon-PlanSoft consolidation solution allows an organization to track everything from top city destinations and hotel chain utilization to average room rates and food and beverage expenditures. Most importantly, it also allows Conferon to leverage that information to achieve significant savings and increase accountability on behalf of our customers. Here is an example of how this works: ABC Company hosts 205 meetings per year. 150 meetings involve less than 50 people (small meetings) and either may or may not involve sleeping rooms. 50 Meetings are for between 100 - 500 people (medium sized meetings), require sleeping rooms and are multiple day events. Five meetings are for more than 500 people (large meetings) and require a full range of support and services. Via their own customized private labeled website (powered by PlanSoft), ABC Company has access to electronic RFPs and site and supplier search engines to internally handle the needs of their small meetings (this is the “Self-Service” Module). For their medium meetings, ABC utilizes their private labeled intranet, e-mail, fax or phone to request site selection, site recommendation and hotel contract assistance from Conferon’s staff of meeting professionals (this is our “Express” Module) and ABC handles all of the logistical and on-site requirements for those meetings. Finally, for their large meetings, ABC works with Conferon’s dedicated planning team who supports their meetings by providing a full range of services from site recommendations and hotel contracting to on-site support and post-convention reporting. The critical component to everyone involved is that all meeting related data is captured in Ajenis OnLine from the initial research stages through actualization. And of course for all meetings, ABC Company has access to the full menu of meeting support services from Conferon and the numerous electronic commerce tools of PlanSoft. This multi-tiered, highly customized consolidation option allows our clients to design the tools and support services best suited for their organization whether a dedicated meeting department exists or a total outsourcing solution is required. This “best of breed” solution offers the industry leading technology tools of PlanSoft with the site selection and contract expertise, professional planning assistance and extensive on-site support available from Conferon. For more information, please contact your Conferon Account Executive, National Sales Manager or National Account Manager. By David Peckinpaugh Vice President of Sales