5 Things to Consider for Your Meetings Program

As we look ahead to 2025, the meetings and events landscape continues to evolve rapidly. The insights and strategies that were relevant in a post-pandemic world have moved on, and new areas of focus are now critical to shaping your program.

From integrating internal and external meeting strategies to navigating the business transformation era, new initiatives in areas like data science are enhancing customer satisfaction and driving cost savings.

We navigate some of the key areas that will ensure your meetings program is ready to deliver now and in 2025.

1. Combining Internal and External Meetings Strategies

There’s an increasing trend to combine internal and external meeting strategies. Companies previously managed their onsite meeting spaces separately from offsite meeting programs. But we’re now seeing a shift, with 54% of managed meetings accounts including internal space management within their meetings and events policy. This change is driven by:

• Maximizing the use of internal space, leading to cost savings and reduced wastage
• Improving onsite services with an outsourced team to BCD M&E
• Using technology to register all meetings through a single process

2. The Era of Great Business Transformation and its Impact on Meetings

Post-Covid many organizations are re-evaluating their options to improve performance. This period of change offers an opportunity to rework how meetings are managed. Areas of focus include:

• Reducing costs: Outsourcing services to a third-party provider like BCD M&E can help set up a strong system for managing resources and predicting expenses
• Customer satisfaction: A customer-centric approach supported by Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and event design can drive measurable value
• Revenue growth: investing in intentional event design and a content strategy to drive competitor advantage
• Increased productivity: Using business automation and setting up an easy self-booking system for meetings

3. Consider a New Initiative that Supports Organizational Goals

To align meetings programs with organizational goals, consider starting new initiatives such as:

• Small meetings technology: Review of self-service booking tools as part of the M&E solution
• Sustainability: Help drive sustainable actions within your business
• Vendor verification: Setting up a strong process to manage a list of approved vendors
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I): Ensuring DE&I considerations are integral to meetings and events strategies
• Digital M&E platform: Creating a complete digital system to improve how meetings are managed

4. Using Data Science to Project Maturity Progression

BCD M&E’s Maturity Model, developed over 8 years, assesses how well organizations manage their meetings programs across 16 key components. It assigns a maturity score [unmanaged, developing, performing, or leading] to guide improvement efforts. Over the past year, there’s been a 13% increase in BCD M&E accounts achieving performing and leading maturity levels. This shows the program is becoming more effective.

This model evolves every year to stay current with industry trends and customer needs. Recent updates include integrating virtual meetings, sustainability, DE&I, and compliance components for life sciences. By benchmarking against peers and using data science for predicted maturity progression, clients are empowered to strategically enhance their programs, driving tangible business value and innovation.

Using data science to cluster and compare maturity and program size, program maturity can be categorized into the following:

5. The risk of not having a managed meetings program

While the benefits of a managed meetings program are often highlighted, it’s equally important to consider the risks of not having one. Key risks include:

• Duty of care: Without a managed program, organizations may not be aware of all meetings taking place or where attendees are, compromising their duty of care. This can lead to legal and ethical consequences, with potential litigation costs averaging 0.6% of annual revenue. On the flip side, organizations with strong safety considerations for employees outperform by 3-5%.

• Regulatory compliance: By working with a vetted preferred supplier such as BCD M&E, organizations can have confidence that data privacy considerations and management are in place. The average cost to an organization for non-compliance of data privacy is $14M per violation.
• Competitive advantage: Effective event design and intentional meeting planning contribute significantly to an organization’s competitive edge. Without live meetings 38% of prospects might turn to competitors, resulting in a potential 37% loss in annual sales.

Originally published July 18, 2024 7:00:00 AM