Since starting with SignUp4, I’ve delved into the depths of the events and meetings industry in an attempt to become more knowledgeable in the space. During my quest for knowledge and more so lately, I’ve come across articles, blogs and press releases about emerging technology and how it is dramatically improving the event planning industry. I’ve noticed an abundance of planner friendly mobile apps, which are appropriate for the mobile workforce and planners on-the-go. Among the latest and greatest innovations, strategic meetings management software remains a driving force.

In a recent poll conducted during our Strategic Hotel Sourcing webinar, approximately 40 percent of the attendees were either currently using or considering the use of meetings management technology. This is fantastic news because it tells me that organizations are acknowledging the importance of meetings intelligence and the need for control, compliance and cost savings. And the organizations that are “considering it” are realizing the need and benefits, which is probably contributed partially to the ever growing buzz surrounding meetings technology.

So what are some of those benefits?

• Unprecedented visibility and tracking at enterprise-level into all meetings
• Ability to measure the ROI of meetings and events to maximize efficiency
• Tools to simplify the creation, promotion and spend of events
• Integration into GDS provides the most current travel info (not applicable to all providers)
• Creation of policies and workflows to streamline internal processes
• Flexibility to quickly send and monitor RFPs
• Significant savings of both time and money
• No more spreadsheets! (Or at least, fewer spreadsheets)

It’s like the song that never ends — yes it goes on and on my friends. There are no limitations on how organized and savvy your team can become. Meetings management solutions are game changers for areas of event planning, registration, success and spend.

See what others are saying!

By Michael Sabani, Client Services

There are a number of important things to keep in mind when creating an event. Sometimes things slip between the cracks! These are four tips to help make setting up customized, dynamic event sites easier for event planners.

1. Customize!

Use the recently updated Color Picker to customize you site. You can match your company’s logo colors, and even upload a banner image to your event. This allows you to personalize your event site to match your corporate identity.

You can even add pictures using the Text Changer. Are there activities like tours or day trips that your attendees can sign up for? Add pictures to your pages to show them the fun that awaits them!

2. Downloadable Files!

Do you have a PDF of your agenda? A spreadsheet for your attendees to view? Don’t forget that you can upload files for your attendees to download. Word documents, PDFs, Spreadsheets, these can all be made downloadable on your event site for your attendees to save to their computer.

3. Breakout!

Is your event going to include breakout sessions or scheduled activities? Use the new Breakout Sessions tool to create your sessions. The Breakout Sessions tool will automatically create rules that will not allow attendees to register for more than one activity at the same time. Help your attendees stay on schedule.

4. TEST!

Test, test, test! You can test your event as many times as you need. Keep in mind that there are many combinations of registrations, especially when using advanced features such as Attendee Types and Event Payment. You should run as many test registrations as you can. Send your event link to your fellow employees and have them test your event as well. You can never test too much. Also, don’t forget that Client Services is happy to test your event for you as well. Send in an email request with your Event ID and we can test your event for you!

There are hundreds of ways to customize your event site, it can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be. Always remember that Client Services is here to assist you with any questions that may arise.

By Will Tucker, Sales Executive

In most cases, having some type of Strategic Meetings Management Solution (SMM) is essential in today’s world of planning and managing events and conferences.  However, there are several different pieces that make up a complete SMM Solution – Event, Travel and Spend Management.  Everyone seems to know the importance of the Event and Spend Management Solutions.  The Event Management gathers the registration information from attendees, the Spend Management allows for a company to track how much money they are spending on all these events – but what are a few benefits to having a Travel Management Solution?

1. Save Time:  A Travel Management Solutions can be a huge time saver to an Event Planner.  Without a Travel Management Solution, event planner may spend hours and hours in Excel manually entering travel information.  That process is now able to be automated.
2. Organization:  If a planner is organizing flights for attendees to an event, chances are, they are also organizing transportation to and from the airport.  A Travel Management Solution can help you organize this by keeping reports for arrival and departure times of attendees in a centralized location.
3. Eliminating Mistakes:  With an automated Travel Management Solution comes piece of mind by eliminating the possibility for human error.  Manual matching of flight information to registered attendees has its flaws.  Ex.  Are the reports you are receiving from your travel department up to date? Duplicates – Are there attendees that have the same first and last name?  Do the hotel check-in and check-out dates match the flight arrival and departure dates? A Travel Management Software solution can help you eliminate problem like this which are often made when organizing an event manually.

By Mark Hubrich, Founder & VP Client and Industry Relations
With the start of the new year, things seem to have gotten busy again and the year looks to be off to a great start. I attended a Georgia Business Travel luncheon yesterday with Jay Campbell from BTN as the speaker who spoke about 2011 in review and expectations for 2012. From some of the conversations around the room, there seemed to be an optimistic viewpoint for business in 2012. One of the colleagues at my table mentioned to me that last Wednesday they had a record number of transactions for their travel agency. Volumes with her existing clients are picking up and they had added some new clients to start the year. Another great piece of news this week was the quarterly survey from Global Business Travel Association (Press Release Here) which is predicting an increase in 2012 and an estimate of 4.6% growth in travel spend. The term I keep hearing is “cautiously optimistic”.

SignUp4 is launching several new initiatives in 2012, which will be exciting. We are focusing more energy on helping to educate the event and meeting management industry and expanding our offerings of webinars and white papers. Next week we will be hosting our first webinar of the year with Shirley Kuhloie presenting strategic sourcing for corporations. Shirley has a background in both the agency and corporate worlds and has worked with Strategic Meetings Management with such global corporations as Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Hewlett Packard.  This webinar will focus on Strategic Hotel Procurement: Increasing control and savings. Check out our webinar page to register for a live session of this webinar or watch a recorded version after January 18^th.  SignUp4 is planning many more webinars throughout the year bringing in industry experts to lead the education with current relevant topics on Strategic Meetings Management. In addition to the webinars, we will be launching follow up white papers to provide takeaways for guidance to apply to your company and career. Be sure to check back to the www.signup4.com website often for fresh and resourceful content throughout the year. We look forward to helping our clients and the industry in adapting and changing with the technology and industry for the upcoming year.

It’s going to be an exciting year!

By Wade Tucker, Sales Director

I have been with SignUp4 in the sales department for 4 years.  I have been in contact with many different companies in many different verticals.  The organizations range from the Fortune 100 to the smaller meeting planning companies here in Atlanta, GA.  In the ever changing world of Strategic Meetings Management, there is one constant….The Event Planner.  There are few things that I have learned about The Planner that have stood the test of time:

If you can make a planners life easier, they are the most gracious people on earth…

In my personal experience, helping implement a Strategic Meetings Management tool helps the planners get better organized and saves them time and the company money.  Everyone is winning!

Planners are the hardest working group I have ever met…

I have spoken with planners that have managed 100’s of events per year, countless hours, and brutal travel schedules.  They need a technology to keep this all together.

Planners do not always have the best tools at their disposal to get the job done

I have personally worked with planners that have had only Excel, Word, and an email engine to collect registrations and manage the entire event.  There are better tools out there.

By Mark Hubrich, Founder & VP Client and Industry Relations

The year is winding to a close and it seems like this is a very hectic and stressful time for many people with the holidays fast approaching and last minute meetings and planning to do before the end of the year. I think it is important to reflect on the year and start thinking about goals to set for 2012. I think it is also a time to reflect on what I am grateful.

Top ten things I am grateful about in 2011.
1. Being able to serve on the Groups and Meetings Committee for GBTA. This was an opportunity to learn from a great peer group as well as be a thought leader for the industry. I made many friends on the committee who I would never have had the chance to get to know well otherwise.
2. Being healthy.
3. Continue growing a successful company in this tough economy. SignUp4 is doing well and will likely finish up the year around 30% growth. In this economy I am very grateful for that. We continue to serve our clients as best we can and they have rewarded us with renewing the relationship and referring others to our service.
4. Friends and family.
5. New relationships.
6. Learning new skills. This year I have had the opportunity to have additional speaking opportunities as well as take advanced training on public speaking. I would never have seen myself as a public speaker years ago. It is something that I have stretched myself personally and feel proud of.
7. Traveling. I was able to visit new places this past year which is always fun for work and pleasure. I was able to go on a Polaris Razor desert tour in Arizona and as well as fly fishing in the mountains of Colorado.
8. Being able to give back. With the Georgia Business Travel Association, I’m bringing toys to for the children of the Air Force base here in Atlanta. It always feels good to help others especially to help our troops serving our country. With the Georgia Chapter of MPI, SignUp4 is donating toys for Quality Care for Children.
9. Fantastic employees. I am truly grateful to work with a group of people who each have their own unique skill sets and values that they bring to our team.
10. Angry birds. What can I say.. It’s addictive.
I wish everyone a happy holidays and strong finish to the year.