John Buchanan has a great feature article in the March 2009 issue of Corporate & Incentive Travel magazine titled “The Meetings Industry Fights Back.” Subtitle: “What Planners Must Do Now to Save Their Meetings… and Their Jobs.” The bottom-line answer: Define meeting objectives, measure results, demonstrate ROI.

[That is exactly what we are helping planners do here with ROI Speakers. Watch this video to learn more.]

Buchanan’s article cites Sharon Marsh, meetings group manager at Medtronic Cardiovascular, as acknowledging a weak spot in many meeting planning strategies: the inability to objectively demonstrate a tangible return on investment (ROI) for meeting expenditures. As a result, planners and meeting management teams are now feeling the heat. “I’ve been in this industry a long time and I’ve seen how little thought is put into the decisions that are made,” Marsh said.

Also quoted in the article is Rhonda Marko, president and CEO of Destination Nashville, who agrees with Marsh’s conclusion. “So the job of a meeting planner right now is that if they haven’t been doing it already, they have to start measuring ROI now,” Marko said. “They have to be very clear about the measurable objectives and the results of their meetings.”

Click here to read the full article, which not only spotlights the very obvious challenges with meetings today, but also the solutions that, if implemented, will allow planners and their organizations to thrive for a long time to come.