Three years ago, only 49% of planners and 56% of meeting owners surveyed told American Express Meeting & Events that their organizations are properly mitigating risk to their meetings. A follow-up study found a substantial change to the better, with 89% of planners and 80% of meeting owners agreeing that their organizations are properly mitigating risk. But gaps are evident:
• 17% of planners and 12% of meeting owners say there is no formal meeting policy in place within their organizations.
• Almost one-third of planners and meeting owners do not have standard operating procedures in place to manage a crisis. Action plan: A crisis management plan should assess the location of attendees and prioritize troubleshooting efforts.
• 9% of planners and 6% of meeting owners don’t think a contract needs to be executed with meeting services suppliers. The good news: 86% of planners (31% more than in 2013) say their legal and procurement departments review hotel contracts. Action Plan: Work to develop standard addendum or contracts for each meeting supplier type.
• While gaining transparency into meetings and events data is a top priority for meeting owners, 50% of them still report that their organizations don’t require planners to track savings/cost avoidance.
• 7.6% of planners surveyed would follow through on an unethical request, while 15.5% of meeting owners expect this is happening (compared to 3% and 2% respectively in 2013). The personal use of familiarization trips was up 15% from 2013. These trips “can potentially create a conflict of interest if the organization’s policy does not clearly define what is acceptable or not,” the study stated. — Maxine Golding