Asian corporate meetings and events (M&E) programmes are playing catch-up with global standards, evidenced by the growing, cross-industry interest in implementing Strategic Meetings Management Programs (SMMP).
Unlike the US and Europe, not many companies integrate M&E with their travel programme, according to a lead member of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) APAC M&E Committee, but the practice is gathering pace.
“It is getting apparent more corporates see it is smarter to leverage both programmes to achieve synergy.”
Sanjay Seth, managing director-Asia Pacific, BCD M&E, said planners are having to do more with less and budget constraints are driving them to seek efficiencies and consolidate spend.
“Events and strategic meetings management are now seen as strategic investments aligned with business goals and greater involvement from procurement, marketing and finance teams.”
Seth advocates for integrating Meetings & Events (M&E) and travel programmes to consolidate spend visibility. This integration enables deeper savings, better supplier leverage, and more strategic decision-making. He also advises aligning travel policies with M&E strategies, using shared data to optimise budgets and logistics, and working with suppliers who offer sustainability credentials, contingency planning, and flexible cancellation policies.
Finally, he recommends using AI for personalisation and automation while maintaining the human touch for immersive experiences, and focusing on tools that streamline planning and reduce friction.
A global travel and meetings manager in the pharmaceutical sector told TTGmice that leveraging programme integration depends on the size of the business and allocation of resources.
“It makes sense to teams working on both programmes as there is so much overlapping. But ultimately it depends on spend, scale of the programmes, what you want out of it and stakeholder buy-in.”
Meanwhile, a Singapore-based regional corporate travel manager (CTM) of a European heavy machinery provider, said the company’s SMMP, launched in November, may appoint a regional lead.
He is now providing cultural and regional knowledge on how things are done to support the global M&E lead in the company’s headquarters.
Describing the company’s “global but decentralised” policy, the CTM said every business unit has its own requirement, budget and design autonomy, so the programme has to be “user-centric”.
Meanwhile, the CTM of a regional bank is launching its SMMP in 2026, to achieve a “more meaningful relationship” with stakeholders and partners.
“Meeting planners may not necessarily be speaking the corporate travel lingo and we are now on that part of our journey where we want to find synergies, track spend and manage both programmes better.
“We may look at the value of engaging the M&E team of our TMC to be recognised as a serious client and premier partner, or adopt a tool like planned.com for potential cost and time savings,” he shared.
