GBTA to Offer Online Strategic Meetings Management Courses Beginning This Month

GBTA prides itself on being the leader in delivering high-quality education designed to power the careers of business travel professionals at every level. Given that over half of our convention attendees and so many of our members engage with meetings as part of their job responsibilities, we wanted to design a new program focused on strategic meetings management and creating enterprise-wide smart business solutions.

Corporate Meetings Program and Design: It’s about TIME does just that. The course focuses on both the key competencies and advanced principles required to start a corporate meetings program or advance your existing program. We know how difficult it can be to attend educational workshops due to limited financial resources, time, and family commitments, so this online course beginning on April 26, 2017 and spread out over five weeks is the perfect solution to meet your needs.

Designed specifically for mid-level meetings management and procurement professionals, this course will be led by Cindy Heston, the Director of Travel and Events for Anthem. Cindy oversees a team responsible for the travel and event needs of more than 50,000 Anthem associates. Her focus on the strategic management of innovative supplier partners has elevated Anthem’s corporate travel program to one of the industry’s best-in-class.

The five, 90-minute modules that make up the course will cover the following key learnings:

• Stakeholder Identification (April 26): This module will help you learn how to identify the benefits and attributes of successful meetings management programs, discover the importance of knowing all the stakeholders and customers in an enterprise, and learn to understand the importance of aligning strategic business goals and objectives to the meetings management program.
• Building a Business Case (May 3): In this module you will learn the key components of building a business case, learn how to build an effective business case for any part of the meetings management methodology and uncover the resources that are available to you.
• Architect Your Meeting Program (May 10): The third module will help you identify the key elements, benefits and outcomes of meeting policy creation. You will also learn how to craft and communicate effective corporate policies and procedures by demonstrating subject matter expertise in legal and risk management terms.
• Procurement and Travel Synergies (May 17): You will learn to track the evolution of procurement in relation to strategic meetings management. Find out how to differentiate between RFI, RFQ and RFP while demonstrating the value and application of each approach. In addition, you will understand how to evaluate the common measures of success for procurement while developing a specific strategy to manage contracting work for meetings.
• Technology and Data Visualization (May 24): In this final session, discover the latest technology available for meetings management and procurement professionals. Find out how to maximize the efficacy of your program by obtaining and analyzing data from various sources and learn how to organize your stakeholders into groups and evaluate them with specific SMMP metrics. Finally, you will review best practices in the implementation, training, launch and post-launch of technology products and services.

Participants who complete all 5 modules and pass a 10 question quiz following each module will earn a Certificate of Achievement. More importantly, you will be equipped to implement or improve your strategic meetings management program driving company success and elevating your position within your organization. Learn more and register today.