TRAVEL AND MEETINGS CONVERGENCE - MYTH OR REALITY? PART 2

My colleague Katy Phelps wrote the prequel to this blog - Travel and Meetings Convergence, Myth or Reality? Part 1 – you can find it here. In her blog, she spoke about the convergence between the worlds of the corporate travel buyer and the corporate meetings buyer and how, on the whole, this crossover was a myth. And it’s true, the cross over is small, especially when it comes to trade shows, but crossover there is.

There are two areas where I believe it is most apparent. The first is at the strategic procurement level (ie where large multinational organisations are spending a lot of money and big savings are to be had). The second is the booking of spaces for regular small meetings (where only the tiniest of margins exist and minimum savings can be made).

Strategic procurement in the meetings industry – also known as strategic meetings management – is mostly the domain of large multinational organisations that have the buying power to procure meetings services in the way they procure business travel. These organisations often have procurement managers that deal with meetings and travel whereas in other, smaller companies, it’s not necessarily seen as a procurement function.    

These category specialists are responsible for agreeing the terms of contract with two or three suppliers in every category – from AV, production and creative, to venues, delegates and, of course, travel. They also look after their organisation’s large meetings. Their purpose is not to coordinate the creative elements of travel and meetings (which is best left to the event managers) but rather to consolidate the procurement of these functions and their suppliers. Do this well and considerable costs can be cut.

The other area where there is crossover between travel and meetings is in the procurement of high volumes of small meeting spaces by an organisation for, for example, sales meetings, training sessions, board meetings. In recent years, this function has increasingly become the responsibility of business travel managers who are able to draw on their experience and knowledge of consolidating large volumes of travel to transfer these procurement skills to the meetings category. Procurement managers are driving this consolidation of meetings spend because it gives them increased buying power, which leads to cost savings.

And so, in my opinion, the convergence between travel and meetings is very definitely a reality; it’s just that it’s a reality that is limited to certain job functions and it’s the business travel managers who are taking on meetings management but not vice versa. This is why at Centaur we have unique exhibitions for each industry and why, at TheMeetings Show UK, you’ll find no business travel content, but at the BusinessTravel Show you will find meetings management suppliers and educations sessions dedicated to meetings management and procurement in the conference programme.

David Chapple is event director of the Business Travel Show. Contact him on Twitter @btshowlondon or on 020 7970 4072.

THERE'S HOSTED, AND THEN THERE'S HOSTED

I was interested in the opinions recently expressed in the June edition of C&IT in the Big Debate article: Can trade shows deliver ROI in the current climate? The majority of views, albeit for different reasons, were in favour of trade shows, but the real argument centred on the difference between shows that offer a hosted programme and those that don’t.

It’s just a simple fact that a trade show that initiates and maintains a creative and ambitious hosted programme will always deliver more ROI for both visitors and exhibitors than those that don’t. The question I’d add to the debate however is what is a genuine hosted programme?

We've learnt at the Business Travel Show that you can only really drive ROI for visitors if the hosted programme is a year round commitment with a highly focused business networking and education programme. There also needs to be meaningful ways for both groups to interact and meet over the two days of the show. Having a deeper understanding of the market helps too, BTS 2013 will be our 19th year, enabling us to quickly identify the trends and unique requirements of this complex market.

So embrace successful events, they genuinely do offer a strong return,  but in these challenging times it’s not unreasonable to look harder at the criteria that you use to determine what is and isn't a successful event.

David Chapple is event director of the Business Travel Show - he’d love to hear what you think about this topic - contact him on Twitter @btshowlondon

HOSTED WITH THE MOSTED

Exhibition News ran a Food For Thought column in this month’s issue with three event organisers explaining why and how they run hosted programmes. As the Hosted Buyer Manager on the Business Travel Show it was particularly interesting for me to read and, I have to admit, hard to disagree with anything they said.

Hosted programmes are not the answer for every exhibition. But for the Business Travel Show, they work. Like the other commentators’ shows, we introduced our programme to guarantee the highest quality buyers in Europe attend our event each February and that they also attend a set number of appointments with our exhibitors over the two days. The result is exposure to more business opportunities for our exhibitors and a much, much higher ROI for them, which is increasingly important given the economic environment we are all operating in.

We believe so strongly that hosted buyer programmes are the way forward for the Business Travel Show that last year we invested heavily in bringing nearly 800 to our event from the likes of Nike, Sony, Jaguar Land Rover, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, 02, British Gas, Aviva and Bridgestone. For 2013, we are investing heavily again. In fact, work’s already started on refining the programme and working with our European partners to expand our database. I’m already looking forward to it.

Posted by Graham Angus - graham.angus@centaur.co.uk 

All Hail the Serviced Apartment Revolution

An accommodation revolution has been taking place across London for thousands of business and leisure travellers. Gone are the days when traditional hotels reigned supreme, to make way for a powerful new adversary within the corporate accommodation market. Serviced apartments provide business travellers with the opportunity to relax at leisure, prepare for meetings, and feel at home whilst staying in one of the world’s busiest cities. It is this feeling of freedom that has been fundamental to the success of the serviced apartment industry.

London has experienced the biggest change in recent years thanks to the swift growth of the serviced apartment sector. From an initially slow start London is now the dominant European leader in terms of both volume and revenue. The UK accounted for 11.3% of the total revenue produced within this sector by all 27 EU countries in 2009. This figure comes as no surprise when you realise that the combined serviced apartment stock within London pre Olympics is estimated at one hundred thousand units. Even with this high figure average occupancy growth has increased year on year by 6% since 2008 demonstrating increasing demand from both leisure and business travellers.

A number of London’s leading providers, including us - Think Apartments, have also further adapted the serviced apartment model into apart-hotels. Apart–hotels feature additional services such as professional 24 hour reception, lounge/ coffee area, additional housekeeping and, as being trialled at the Thinks Earls Court, an innovative blue key concierge service. By running an apart- hotel model providers are breaching the services gap between hotels and apartments and encouraging new thinking and new business from the market.

The Olympics will be a trying time for all accommodation providers within central London. The city will be absorbing one million extra visitors during the three weeks of the games. This will be an exceptional opportunity to demonstrate the attributes that are growing the serviced apartment industry and engaging travellers and agents alike.

Posted by James Sykes-Hagen, Business Development Manager, Think Apartments.

Think Apartments is exhibiting at the Business Travel Show, 7-8 February 2012. To register for a buyer pass, please visit www.businesstravelshow.com

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE LONG GAME

This is my fourth week as Hosted Buyer Manager for the Business Travel Show. The show’s new hosted buyer programme was only announced recently and already we’re getting our teeth stuck in and working hard behind the scenes to bring it all together.

Our target is to host 1,200 buyers from all over Europe to the show in February; a massive increase on the numbers we looked after in 2011. The programme will create an additional 6,000 pre-arranged meetings between buyers and exhibitors. The Business Travel Show is the biggest corporate travel event in Europe, which means our hosted buyer programme will introduce big budget buyers to the most comprehensive range of suppliers under one roof, and introduce our suppliers to a whole raft of buyers who are visiting the show for the first time.

It’s a massive investment in the show; not only for 2012 but more importantly for the long term and this long term view is what makes it so exciting to work on. With a project of this magnitude, no one’s saying it won’t be a challenge, but I’ll be bringing all my experience from working on the programme at EIBTM for Reed to the table, so I’m ready to take it head on.

Hosted buyers accepted on the programme will receive complimentary travel and accommodation during the show, networking opportunities, access to the best quality free-to-attend conference in the market place, with a choice of workshops, master classes and seminars and, importantly, the opportunity to use the hosted buyer diary to book pre-arranged meetings with exhibitors of their choice. These pre-arranged meetings increase the return on investment for the buyers but also for the exhibitors, who will know in advance of the show that they have a diary of meetings with great quality buyers.

The online diary facility will allow buyers to easily view their itineraries for the Business Travel Show, including their pre-booked meetings and also their travel arrangements, networking and social functions and all the education and conference sessions they’re planning to attend.

The Business Travel Show is on 7^th and 8^th February in Earls Court, London. If you’re exhibiting at the Business Travel Show then expect to hear from me any day now. If you’re reading this and you’d like to apply for the Hosted Buyer Programme, I’d be delighted to answer any questions or queries you might have. Simply drop me an email at graham.angus@centaur.co.uk. 

Posted by Graham Angus, Hosted Buyer Manager of the Business Travel Show 

1,200 HOSTED BUYERS TO ATTEND BT 2012

Forgive the gratuitous self-plugging, but today is a very exciting day for the Business Travel Show team. We announced that, for the 2012 show next February, we will be hosting the world’s largest fully hosted buyer programme for the corporate travel market.

1,200 of Europe’s highest quality corporate travel buyers will visit the show in 2012. All of them with annual budgets in excess of £3m and many of them first time visitors. With the prospect of these buyers committing to at least 6,000 pre-booked meetings, this news is even more exciting for our 180 exhibitors. 

Over the last two or three years, we have invested time and money into refining the Business Travel Show to make sure that only the highest quality audience attends and that our exhibitors enjoy an increasing ROI each year. Two years ago we launched the Executive Buyer Programme and it was a big success, attracting over 500 buyers. This year, the launch of the Hosted Buyer Programme will build significantly on this success.

In return for committing to – and attending – pre-booked meetings on each of the show’s two days, the Business Travel Show will provide the 1,200 strictly pre-qualified buyers with:

•             Free flights and accommodation
•             Fast track entry
•             Access to the First Class Lounge with complimentary refreshments and               lunch
•             Support from the Hosted Buyer Team before, during and after the show
•             Specialist, cutting edge technology, which allows buyers to book                           meetings with exhibitors that are best matched to their needs and                       create a personalised diary

Buyers who choose to extend their trip and land in town early will also be invited to the prestigious European Travel Buyer Awards, which take place on Monday 6 February.

Centaur Travel Group, which organises the Business Travel Show, has invested heavily in the corporate travel market for the last 17 years, and the introduction of the Hosted Buyer Programme just shows how committed we are to both the market and to the show in the long term. We plan to be around for at least another 17 years to come, and we plan to make sure the Business Travel Show remains the leading event in this market in Europe.

The Business Travel Show takes place on 7-8 February at Earls Court in London. Visitor registration is open now at www.businesstravelshow.com

Posted by event director David Chapple.

BTMS Bucks the Trend

With some shows losing visitors, others being cancelled and organisers closing, the exhibitions industry is a tricky market for many of those currently operating within it. This is no truer than in the travel sector. Luckily, at Centaur Travel Group, we are bucking this trend and have two successful events under our belts in the last four months alone.

The most recent was the Business Travel & Meetings Show, which took place last month in Dusseldorf, Germany, attracting 76 exhibitors and 2019 visitors. A brand new hosted buyer programme delivered 150 key purse-holders to suppliers and we curated 30 top class conference sessions. The event was such a success that more than eight out of every 10 (84 per cent) exhibitors rebooked their stand in situ.

At the Business Travel & Meetings Show in London this February, there was an equally excitable buzz of business in the air. More than 5,000 business travel industry professionals from all over Europe poured into the halls to meet around 200 world-leading suppliers, enjoy unrivalled networking opportunities and access to the best free to attend educational programme for the business travel and meetings markets in Europe.

So what did we do right to allow us to buck the trend? Well, I mentioned luck in my opening paragraph, but actually in this industry luck has a very small part to play. The Business Travel & Meetings Shows have been a success in 2011 thanks to experience and significant investment over a number of years, which have allowed us to keep track of who our customers are, who our customers’ customers are, the state of the market they are operating in, and what they need from us to help them to do business better.

This means we’ve been able to evolve the show over the years – and that means every year - to ensure we continue delivering the buyers who mean business to our suppliers. It also means we can continue to provide market-leading content to help buyers improve their programmes and policies in a way that actually translates into increased efficiency and reduced costs.

What you’ll never find us doing, though, is sitting on our laurels. We’re already working hard to ensure we continue to deliver strong products in 2011 and beyond. Over the summer we’ll be conducting in-depth buyer research, strengthening our partnerships, building our databases, hosting the BT Club in June and launching the 2012 European Travel Buyer Awards in July. And – time to take a deep breath here – I’m excited to say that’s just for starters.

If you think we’re missing something, though, then please tell us – all feedback is gratefully received, whether as a comment on this blog, by email (david.chapple@centaur.co.uk) or over a glass of wine at the BT Club on June 14th. I shall look forward to hearing from you.

by David Chapple, BTMS event director