| By Kelly Foy, December 2009
If the recent economic crisis has taught us anything, it�s that companies in the hospitality industry need to look hard at the way they operate. Steamlining expenditures has become the order of the day. Today�s savviest companies are incorporating operating efficiencies and turning to technology to boost productivity and bottom-line results. In the meetings industry, this trend has been under way for some time: A survey of planners a year ago** confirmed that for close to a third of those surveyed, more and better technology were seen as keys to doing their jobs better in the year ahead. Additional data going back several years suggests that for a new generation of meeting planner, technology is not seen as aspirational but is an integral element of productivity. How many of the planners surveyed a year ago have made good on their
new year�s resolution and utilized technology to its fullest?
In the area of online RFPs, for example, it�s clear that each year thousands of meeting professionals spend tens of thousands of hours visiting hotel website after hotel website, keying and rekeying details of their events, because every hotel website has a different RFP form. Few, if any of these sites, allow planners to attach their own documents; some ask only for the bare-bones information while others require too much for a first-time inquiry. A few years back, the Convention Industry Council (CIC) and their Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) initiative took up the cause and set out to develop a standardized online RFP for the industry. The task has proved daunting, although everyone agrees that the ultimate objective is a critical one. For time-pressured planners, the hours spent navigating the wildly varying terrain of online RFPs can be better spent planning, managing and executing bigger events, better events, and more of them. Today there are alternatives for managing RFPs online, including a product my own company recently introduced specifically to alleviate the problem of rekeying data, and more. But the problem goes deeper than merely the use of this or that technology�or of no technology at all. It lies in the zero-sum thinking that seems to underlie much of the decision making when it comes to how hotels and meeting planners interact and do business together. For example, I have heard numerous times from meeting professionals that sourcing and booking hotels is a �relationship business,� one in which the human element is important. And I agree. But to leave it at that misunderstands the proper role of technology in the industry: It is not to replace human interaction . . . but to help people do their jobs better, faster and more efficiently. Using the latest and best technology does not replace the efforts of meeting professionals, hotel sales professionals, or even of third-party planners or hotel representation companies � it merely helps them interact better and more efficiently. Returning to the example of online RFPs, it�s clear from the hotel management point of view that RFPs received in different forms means many hours spent keying and rekeying RFP information into sales management systems. Oftentimes, the RFPs have critical information missing. The result is that hotel sales personnel are forced to chase down missing information � or risk losing substantial group business for lack of follow up. The result of such inefficiencies prevents the meetings, events, and incentives industries, and the hotel industry alongside it, from fully realizing the Internet�s potential for bottom-line profits. A first step toward achieving that profitability is becoming aware of the many emerging technologies that are being created to support the meeting professional and the hotels sales professional in doing their jobs better, and the communities that are quickly growing up to support those technologies. A second step is opening oneself to the idea that technology is not the enemy of successful sales and relationship-building � it is their enabler. Here�s hoping that 2010 brings a more successful year for the industry overall, with more revenues and more growth opportunities for everyone � and that those opportunities are magnified and leveraged, through the smart use of technology. ** �Planners Share Their Goals and Dreams for the New Year,� MeetingNews,
December 15, 2008.
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