GBTA has updated its handy SMM Wheel to better encompass how strategic meetings management programs are evolving to meet today’s needs.
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has updated its Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) Wheel to better reflect how companies are managing enterprise-wide meetings processes, spend, volume, standards, suppliers and data to ensure they are achieving measurable business objectives that align with the organization’s overall strategic goals. GBTA’s SMM Wheel has undergone several iterations since it was first launched in 2003, with the last update being launched about eight years ago.
“As the SMM category itself, and the content that drives the Wheel, has matured and evolved — especially post-COVID — the GBTA Meetings & Events Committee wanted to update it to better reflect the different ways that strategic meeting management programs should be managed today,” said Henrietta Balint, a member of the GBTA European Committee. “We also wanted to give it a new aesthetic, a new look and feel.”
Like in the last version, the 2024 SMM Wheel keeps stakeholder engagement at its core, and much of the inner circle of key categories within the Wheel remains mainly the same: Registration of Meeting or Event; Event Objectives; Sourcing & Procurement — which was updated to include Supply Chain; Planning & Execution; Participant Experience; Payment & Reconciliation; and Data Analysis & Reporting. However, the next layer of the Wheel now revolves around Value, Policy and Strategy, where in the 2016 version that layer consisted of Policy and Technology.
But the biggest update is in the outermost layer of the Wheel, which used to consist of a circle of just Strategy. For 2024, that has been replaced by rotary blades that support those key categories. These additions are Duty of Care, Inclusion & Culture, Sustainability, Governance & Security, and Technology & Digital. The additions, says Balint, are a direct result of changes in how SMMPs are themselves changing. For example, while sustainability may be a consideration on the corporate travel side, it’s much more integral to the meetings and events (M&E) side, including factors such as whether the company is holding buffets or individual meals, if they’re using local resources to support the local economy, or even if the corporate social responsibility activity is one that gives back to the local community.
For the last version of the SMM Wheel, the European Committee published the Meetings Management Toolkit, which consisted of summaries for each category that included what would be needed to achieve basic goals in that category, a mid-range, and a best-in-class implementation plan. The idea was to break down each aspect of the Wheel to make it a little less daunting to and operationalize, and for those who already have an SMMP, to use the Wheel to take their SMMP to the next level, says Balint.
The next step for the 2024 SMM Wheel is for the European and U.S. Committees to update and refresh that toolkit as well.
The new SMM Wheel was introduced at the GBTA Convention held in July in Atlanta. It also will be on the agenda at the GBTA + VDR 2024, to be held in Copenhagen in November.
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