FAQ
Most c-level executives greatly underestimate the value of meetings and events. When strategically aligned with the corporate vision, mission and goals, an organization’s event portfolio has the ability to stimulate and enhance business growth. The Peregrine Agency offers a highly unique approach to this end; therefore, we have composed a list of FAQs we have answered over the years while in business through interviews, presentations and casual conversations.
General
Event Portfolio Alignment
Strategic Event Alignment©
Event Alignment Strategists
General
What does The Peregrine Agency do?
We believe an aligned event portfolio can help corporate leaders unleash people potential, improve organizational performance and drive profit. We believe an aligned event portfolio is a business builder and leadership intervention tool.
Our Agency’s Framework, Strategic Event Alignment©, analyzes the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization’s portfolio of events to determine appropriate investment allocation. To that end, we provide counsel, assessment and strategy on Event Portfolio Alignment to c-level executives.
Now we can hear you saying…`oh you are professional meeting and event planners.’ We are not. We do not plan meetings and events or manage travel and hospitality logistics.
We are Event Alignment Strategists. back to top
What is an 'Event Portfolio' and why do you use this term interchangeably with 'Meetings & Events'?
This is an excellent question. We use the term 'Meetings and Events' because it is most readily recognized by the general population. However, since what we do here at The Peregrine Agency applies to every meeting and event within an organization as a whole, we group them together under the umbrella term, 'Event Portfolio'. back to top
What do you consider an 'Event'?
We define events as face-to-face, virtual and hybrid gatherings that an organization invests in to drive business performance. This definition includes: meetings and events (both internal and external); conferences; conventions; symposiums; forums; training sessions; workshops; educational meetings; recognition or incentive programmes; customer or client functions; and corporate sponsorships. back to top
What is Whole-Systems Thinking?
Whole-Systems Thinking is the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish.
The most forward-thinking leaders consider their organization as an ecosystem with interrelated parts: people, structures and processes. Alter one of these parts and it affects the other parts as well as the whole.
In the context of Event Portfolio Alignment meetings and events are a system onto their own (within the greater organizational system). Each meeting and event consists of parts: setting objectives (to support overall business goals), design, return on value/goals/investment, planning logistics (collaborative methods/technologies and travel & hospitality components) and delivery. If we consider each part influencing one another within the whole, we create more effective and efficient outcomes. back to top
We love your quote, “We are in the business of meetings and events.” Could you elaborate?
Sure. The short answer is we (The Peregrine Agency) are on a journey to reinvent enterprise-wide meetings and events (the event portfolio) so c-level executives can leverage them more effectively and efficiently and achieve their vision and overall goals. To accomplish this we lead with event effectiveness (outputs). Event Efficiency (travel and hospitality logistics inputs) is a by-product of our Agency’s Framework.
We use, Strategic Event Alignment©, our Agency’s Framework to assess an organization’s Event Portfolio investment and position it to drive business value for that organization. We look at meetings and events as a leadership intervention tool to help corporate leaders unleash people potential, drive organizational performance and profit. We are in the business of meetings and events. back to top
At Meeting Professionals International World Education Congress 2009 in Salt Lake City, one of the topics was the trend of events highlighting social responsibility for corporations and associations. What are your thoughts on how an organization can change their “public relations events” into relevant investments in their future?
That’s a very interesting question. Strictly speaking from the observation deck, I think there are a number of CSR opportunities and the issue is complex.
Presently, organizations tend to practice being politically correct with their CSR initiatives. I think organizations first need to address what is their fiduciary responsibility when it comes to CSR before they can answer the question of how can we change our approach to investing in ‘public relations events’. For instance, is the organization’s responsibility to apply its assets for social purposes rather than for the profit of its shareholders?
I think investment in CSR should be viewed more as a blend to benefit both – social purposes and shareholders’ profits. And in order to make it so, organizations will need to add CSR to its list of stakeholders. An approach like this will require organizations to transform their legacy business models, not to mention new legal practices will need to be established.
Some European organizations have started to view their employees as stakeholders along side its shareholders. I think this practice will continue because in the era of social media, the key to communication is dialogue rather than directive. CSR can’t be that far behind because the number of employees who practice social responsibility and teach their kids about it is growing. It won’t be long before we see this practice in North America. This is what I mean when I say this is a complex issue. back to top
Are you suggesting that meetings and events should be considered as part of an overall marketing and communications strategy?
Ah, our favourite debate! Right now the common perception, held by c-level executives, is that meetings and events are a cost centre and fall simply within the realm of travel and hospitality reporting up to procurement. In many cases, a meeting or event is a marketing or communication initiative, much like an advertising campaign, and travel and hospitality inputs is the enabler used to attend a meeting or event.
When we think about it, most c-level executives wouldn’t arbitrarily assign the management of producing an advertising campaign to an inexperienced individual. There are corporate goals and campaign objectives to consider and measurements to establish and track. The same can be said for an Event Portfolio investment. Strategic events are marketing and communication-driven and every meeting and event, regardless of audience, includes all the essential marketing and communication ingredients: messaging, branding and visibility. This is why meetings and events need to be aligned with marketing or communications and not with procurement.
Just to be clear here, we believe procurement does have a part to play specific to contractual needs and issues. However, objectives created for meetings and events which consider corporate brand or how to penetrate new markets should not be based on what’s the most cost efficient approach. Rather, these decisions should focus on the most effective solution that will improve organizational performance and ultimately drive profit. back to top
Event Portfolio Alignment
What is Event Portfolio Alignment?
When meetings and events are aligned, designed and proficiently measured, they become a corporate investment. Similar to a financial investment portfolio, Event Portfolio Alignment continually analyzes the effectiveness of an organization’s event portfolio to determine appropriate investment allocation. Ultimately, it is the application of a strategy created to capitalize on an organization’s enterprise-wide meetings and events (or event portfolio) to achieve corporate vision, mission and goals. back to top
How do the terms align, measure and design apply to an Event Portfolio Alignment?
That’s a great question. We believe the highest strategic value of enterprise-wide meetings and events result when they are practiced together in a cohesive strategy.
An analogy we like to use is: building an organization using strategic events is like building a house. Design, measurement and travel and hospitality logistics answer the what, how, who, where and when of the construction project. Event Portfolio Alignment is the blueprint, the CEO’s vision made tangible. It encapsulates all of the building plans as a finished product from a bird’s eye view.
Just as blueprints are created with multiple factors in mind, every detail included has a reason or purpose and therefore answers, ‘why’ the house is being built in the first place. Although an experienced construction company could theoretically build a house without a blueprint, the finished product would most likely lack structural integrity and functionality.
Similarly, while we acknowledge these terms can be performed separately, the greatest value is when an organization creates a blueprint for success. back to top
So Event Portfolio Alignment is a CEO’s blueprint for success. How can c-level executives use Event Portfolio Alignment for business growth?
Pick up any newspaper or business magazine and there are stories that describe how provocative-thinking corporate leaders are investing more in areas like R&D. Our digital age is driving an entirely new innovative economy and placing demands on CEOs to produce faster and more frequent ideas, innovation and stronger relationships.
Human capital is the greatest asset (and the biggest investment) for most organizations and the key to success is effective communication. Strategic events can achieve their greatest potential when they are used to tap into an organization’s stores of social, human and intellectual capital. At the same time, they double in power with the ability to inspire and motivate all stakeholders on an individual level to take personal responsibility in contributing to organizational success. back to top
How big does a company need to be before Event Portfolio Alignment would be worth the time and financial investment?
Event Portfolio Alignment is what financial advisors would call a ‘front-end load.’ Financial funding is applied at the start and the return on investment is realized over time. In order for an organization to benefit from Event Portfolio Alignment, its annual gross revenue would need to start at $100 million with a minimum average annual event investment of $3 million. The term 'events' refers to: meetings and events (both internal and external); conferences; conventions; symposiums; forums; training sessions; workshops; educational meetings; recognition or incentive programmes; customer/client functions; corporate sponsorships. In other words, anytime an organization pays for or sponsors a gathering of people. back to top
How does Event Portfolio Alignment differ from Strategic Meetings Management? Is this just semantics?
There is a difference. Event Portfolio Alignment’s core value proposition is beyond cost reduction. It incorporates event effectiveness (outputs) – how enterprise-wide meetings and events fit in with an organization’s business strategies and goals; and event efficiency – which addresses travel and hospitality components like: planning best practices, vendor data centralization and cost consolidation. This is important to note because it’s the difference between investing in events that unleash people potential, drive productivity and profit, versus just having cheaper events.
The only function of Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) and most meeting consolidation and management approaches is to standardize and consolidate travel and hospitality inputs relating to meetings and events within an organization. Its sole aim is cost reduction.
In the end, programmes like SMM miss the bigger picture: weaving enterprise-wide events, defined objectives (meeting & event design) and measurements into the overall business plan to deliver business goals. Event Portfolio Alignment leads with the ‘why’ for meetings and events in context to overall organizational goals, thereby providing meeting and event effectiveness (outputs). back to top
At what stage of the Event Portfolio Alignment is technology introduced?
Today there are two kinds of technology available to manage meeting and event activity:
- The logistics kind that supports the corporate logistics planning (registration, name badges, floor plans, etc.).
- The strategic kind that supports business goals by measuring return on value and return on investment, and enabling the tracking and evaluation of the meeting and event travel and hospitality spend.
Therefore, the selection of technology is an important element in the Event Alignment process, however, we must remember that technology is nothing more than an enabler. It is unrealistic to expect that technology can do everything for us. Technology is a tool and should support Event Alignment based on business requirements, the goals and objectives of Event Alignment and its compatibility with existing applications.
Choosing the technology first and building the Event Alignment Framework around it is like the tail wagging the dog. Worse, implementing technology alone without developing an integrated strategy (which is still the practice in many cases) is an extremely expensive route to take that will only serve to frustrate stakeholders. In the end, this approach will result in a misunderstanding of the core business value of the event portfolio. back to top
For Event Portfolio Alignment to be successful, how much change do organizations need to make in the way they manage their meeting and event initiatives?
It is important to remember that events are fluid; they can expand and contract depending on what’s going on in the organization and the marketplace. The same is true of Event Portfolio Alignment. Each Portfolio Alignment is unique and it does not fit into standard project management models. A highly engaging change-management plan is paramount because all stakeholders need to make the emotional transition from the ‘old way of doing’ things before they can openly embrace the new approach.
One of our clients used this quote to explain their change in approach to managing their Event Portfolio, ‘You can drive the train; you can get on the train as a passenger; you can get off and wave goodbye from the platform or you can stand on the tracks and take your chances. But that train is leaving the station.’
While some may consider this statement ‘old school leadership’ style, we think it offers ample merit when implementing Event Portfolio Alignment. You can implement the best strategy but if people resist accepting the new approach, all stakeholders will find themselves standing on the train tracks wondering what happened. back to top
Taking all this into consideration, why is Event Portfolio Alignment important?
I believe c-level executives are looking for innovative solutions to help them navigate in a new innovative economy and complex enivornment. They realize in order to find solutions they need to tap into the collective mindset of their organization’s people, customers, clients and vendors. And I can’t think of any other business tool that can help c-level executives become more successful than enterprise-wide meetings and events.
To help c-level executives understand the true business value of enterprise-wide meetings and events, two things have to happen.
First, an organization’s Event Portfolio needs to be seen and positioned as a top-down driven business and leadership intervention tool. In other words, c-level executives need to be made aware of why Event Portfolio Alignment is relevant to them and their organization.
Next, an organization’s Event Portfolio investment needs to be delivered using a whole-systems thinking approach. There has to be a cohesive framework that leverages the elements to align, measure and design the Event Portfolio investment with an organization’s overall business goals. Unless a comprehensive strategy is adopted and integrated, enterprise-wide meetings and events are irrelevant to c-level executives. And if they are not relevant, are viewed as offering no strategic value. back to top
Strategic Event Alignment©
What is Strategic Event Alignment©?
Strategic Event Alignment© is our Agency’s Framework of Event Portfolio Alignment.
The goals for Strategic Event Alignment© can be summarized under two areas:
- Event Effectiveness (outputs): how enterprise-wide meetings and events fit in with an organization’s business goals.
- Event Efficiency (inputs): addresses best practices, travel and hospitality cost consolidation and data centralization of an organization’s meeting and event activity.
Some of the benefits of Strategic Event Alignment© are: it creates interactive cultures, develops new ways of communicating and thinking, manages ongoing change, improves organizational performance and ultimately increases the bottom line. And as a by-product of the Framework, it realizes significant travel and hospitality cost savings related to meeting and event activity. back to top
What are the value propositions of Strategic Event Alignment©?
When Strategic Event Alignment© is properly implemented and maintained, it:
- Creates new behaviour, new ways of communicating and new ways of thinking.
- Increases business intelligence within organizations.
- Lessens fears and anxieties, creates interactive cultures, develops new practices, helps stakeholders navigate through conflict and confusion in a productive way, manages ongoing change and improves organizational outcomes.
- Helps to facilitate workflow optimization to increase employee productivity.
- Enables the formation of cross-functional teams to overcome strategic barriers.
- Aligns the marketing strategy throughout the organization.
- Strengthens communication throughout the organization.
- Ensures the event portfolio (enterprise-wide meetings & events) are aligned with business goals to increase business effectiveness (like brand integrity and messaging consistency).
- Provides analysis of assessment to ensure continuing benefits of event alignment with business goals and generation of return on investment.
- Increases investment accountability.
- Emphasizes customer/client needs and meets those needs with solutions in a collaborative interaction.
- Builds awareness of projects and ensures positive and productive buy-in.
- Realizes significant travel and hospitality cost savings.
- Leverages purchasing power through preferred vendor selection.
- Applies effective negotiation skills to external spend activities.
- Streamlines support infrastructure, processes, vendor transparency and local practice resources.
- Helps mitigate risks and manages activity of uncertainty and threats.
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You state that Strategic Event Alignment© Framework is a top-down driven business builder and leadership intervention tool. What is leadership intervention?
In a nutshell, we define leadership intervention as a term used to describe an approach that empowers leaders to bring about a lasting and positive change in behaviour and attitude in people. Success is achieved through education, developing organizational leadership and building integrated strategies. back to top
Event Alignment Strategists
What is an Event Alignment Strategist?
An Event Alignment Strategist has a unique blend of business acumen, strategic planning and an in-depth knowledge of meetings and events, including effective design and measurement. For more information, I invite you to read our blog posts on Event Alignments Strategists: Wanted: Strong Willed, Determined, Focused, Attentive Individual and Who is this New Breed of Professional Planner (a.k.a. Event Alignment Strategist)? back to top
All of this information is vital to an organization. How can a traditional professional planner initiate Event Portfolio Alignment with c-level executives?
That’s an excellent question and one I’ve struggled with since our Agency embarked on the Event Portfolio Alignment journey in 1998. I think that the new professional planner is a different breed, not necessarily the same one with new stripes.
I think there are three reasons for this. First, most of the education within the Meeting and Event Community remains focused on travel and hospitality logistics, attendee engagement tools and technology, and unfortunately, ignores event strategy. Next, traditional professional planners are experts at planning meeting and event logistics and their immediate boss may not want them to do anything else. And finally, they don’t have access to c-level executives. They can’t just knock on the door and say ‘Hey Ms. CEO, I have something you need to hear’.
Event Portfolio Alignment is a top-down driven collaborative approach. Leaders for this initiative need to be a director from marketing, communications, or continuous improvement and an external subject matter expert on Event Portfolio Alignment. Joining forces directly with c-level executives, they collaborate with stakeholders and assemble a project team (comprised of personnel from key departments like Finance, Legal, IT, HR and Event Management).
The event manager does play an active role in the Event Portfolio Alignment initiative, as a member of the project team and in the ongoing sustainability plan. Sometimes there are exceptions and a senior event manager can be found at the helm of Event Portfolio Alignment. In this instance, it is important to note performing Event Portfolio Alignment is a full time role for a period of 3-6 months (and longer) depending on the pre-determined scope of integration. back to top
What resources are available for traditional professional planners to learn more?
You can find information on our website (http://www.theperegirneagency.ca). I’m unaware of other sites or organizations that take a whole-systems thinking approach to enterprise-wide meetings and events using Event Portfolio Alignment. Meeting Professionals International (MPI) (www.mpiweb.org) has created content portals – The Future of Meetings and the Business of Meetings. My only comment is navigating their site can be a bit confusing, especially if you’re uncertain of what you’re looking for.
If traditional professional planners want to learn more on how to become Event Alignment Strategists, I would encourage them to start by reading their organization’s Annual Reports and business magazines, like Harvard Business Review and Strategy + Business. This will help them increase their business acumen. And then take what they learn and apply it to their role. back to top