The Next Big Thing in the Meetings Industry: Strategic Meetings Management Program (SMMP)

The MPI Toronto Chapter March Education session was not one to be missed. Both supplier and planner members were able to walk away with a greater understanding of Strategic Meetings Management Programs (SMMP) and their impact in today’s meeting planning industry. As the education session progressed, what became more and more obvious is the fact that Strategic Meetings Management is not just a buzz word anymore; SMMP is here to stay as it enables professionals in the industry to execute events at a lower cost, while mitigating risk and achieving better results.

The morning got off to a great start as an incredible breakfast and Hilton Toronto’s warm hospitality greeted attendees upon their arrival. Following breakfast, Brenda Carter, MPI Toronto Chapter President Elect, introduced the first guest, Lynda Garvey, the SMMP subject matter expert. Lynda laid the foundation for this session by sharing her extensive knowledge about Strategic Meetings Management and providing the audience with a deeper understanding of SMMP. In this $158 billion dollar industry the importance of bridging the gap between the travel procurement and meeting departments becomes imperative in order to achieve meeting efficiency, decrease meeting spend, reduce redundancy, and finally, mitigate risk. Lynda then went on to demonstrate how meeting professionals can build a business case to c-level executives within a company and implement a successful Strategic Meetings Management Program.

After a short break, the second half of the meeting commenced with an introduction by Kelly Shannon, MPI Toronto Chapter President, of the esteemed panel. Facilitated by Jennifer Glynn, MPI member and Regional Director at Meeting Encore, the highly regarded Phil Cavanagh, CMM, Vice President, Global Events and Trade Shows at Monster Worldwide and Peggie Milane, CMP, SMMC, Manager of CMMP at MetLife shared their experience and understanding of SMMP with the captivated audience. Both experts walked the listeners through their journey of implementing a successful Strategic Meetings Management Program into their company, sharing both their challenges and successes, and gearing the audience up with ways to begin the process and implement an SMMP of their own.

Although this stimulating topic could have kept attendees enthralled for some time more, the meeting appropriately closed by opening the floor up to the audience for questions. With each question, the panel revealed more information about their SMMP, aiding listeners in acquiring a better understanding of what makes an SMMP work successfully.

For more information about Strategic Meetings Managements and steps to implement your own program please click here to review speaker Linda Garvey's presentation.

Thank you to all the speakers and sponsors who made this event possible.

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