Managing Meetings: The Budget Line for Meetings Is Rife with Opportunities and Risks

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * Every good meeting has three elements: an agenda, a site that's conducive to the meeting objectives and a contract that guarantees you get what you need on the budget you expect. * If you are planning many meetings in the same city or have a large transient travel budget, it may pay to negotiate with a national hotel chain for one flat rate for all your meetings. But otherwise it's more economical to negotiate a price for each individually. * Conference centers may seem expensive because of their all-inclusive pricing, but they often end up costing the same as a meeting in a hotel. And they're more comfortable and conducive to sitting for long periods. * Watch out for cancellation and attrition clauses. Even if you are positive your meeting will not be canceled, bad things can happen. * Make sure employees understand what they may accept from suppliers. Have a clear written policy about accepting gifts from outside vendors, and make sure your meeting planners understand whether it applies to frequent-traveler points. ********** Have you heard the one about the Wall Street meeting planner who bought tens of thousands of dollars worth of silver at Tiffany and charged it all to her boss's meetings budget? How about the planner who paid himself $3.5 million for choosing a site? Or, more likely, the secretary who accepted a free week in Vegas in return for bringing her firm's business to one national hotel chain? Ask the people who plan your off-site meetings and you're likely to find they accept frequent-traveler points from hotels--even though they would never consider accepting an expensive gift from any other supplier. Meetings are purchased for and by every executive under every department and budget line, from marketing to sales to travel--and they add up to a huge budget item that's exceptionally difficult to control and track. In keeping with the "what you can't count, you can't manage" theory, meetings also are exceptionally vulnerable to waste, mismanagement and out-and-out fraud. With travel and entertainment making up the third-largest budget item at most businesses, meetings are an arena where CPAs who institute processes and oversight can boost the bottom line in a big way. In this article we'll begin by outlining the steps for planning a great meeting and getting the best return on your budget. Then we'll offer best practices for dealing with the ethical issues that can get a planner and a business into trouble. CPAs can use the ideas to plan meetings and institute meetings policies for their own firms, or share them with clients to keep budgets and processes in line with the changing times. KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE Whether the point is to gather partners or prospects, customers or trainees, every good meeting is made up of three basic elements: an agenda to serve as a framework for useful discussion and sharing of information, a site that's conducive to the business at hand and a contract that guarantees you get what you need on the budget you expect. The best way to start is by thinking about what you or the meeting sponsor wants to achieve and working your way backward. End every meeting with an action plan of measurable steps for which someone is accountable. Often people start planning a meeting with one objective in mind and then add more and more as the date gets closer. "As long as we're getting together," five different people say, "let's also do this and this and this"--until the agenda gets so overcrowded that the original goal is buried in trivial issues. Put your goals in priority order, set your agenda and don't let clutter get in the way. PICK THE RIGHT PLACE The locale of a meeting sets the tone, so choosing a site is the biggest and most complex decision you'll have to make. As with every good business decision, start by considering the needs of your customer. …