Travel procurement professionals headline conference
ISM and NBTA address meetings spend topics
By Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 12/17/2008 5:01:00 PM
Gregg Brandyberry, CPO at GlaxoSmithKline and member of Purchasing’s editorial advisory board, is one of several purchasing professionals slated to speak at the ISM and NBTA Summit on Travel & Meetings: Supply Management’s Critical Role conference on January 27-28 at the Westin hotel in Charlotte, N.C.
The Institute for Supply Management and the National Business Travel Association developed the conference for senior travel, meetings, procurement and supply management professionals with responsibility for their companies’ meetings and business travel spend.
The convergence of procurement, travel and meetings management is trend identified by many companies as a new source for cost savings and is one covered by Purchasing. At Microsoft Corp., procurement has long been involved in the meetings and event spend.
Says Therese Jardine, senior procurement manager for events: “My role is to manage the sourcing process so that the people who manage events and marketing meetings have an infrastructure they can use to successfully put on their event.” Involving procurement in the spend has provided Microsoft with double-digit cost savings through increased leverage and more efficient processes.
Brandyberry is speaking with Anthony Santiago, CPO at Wellpoint, on “the view from the top.” Other purchasing professionals on the conference agenda are:
• Susan Lichtenstein, director, global travel, meetings and events at Cisco and Mike Tangney, global travel manager at Google. The two are scheduled to address “consumption management—managing your money before it’s spent.”
• Robert Murphy, vice president, general and business process outsourcing, global procurement at IBM, is set to discuss “BPO trends—anticipating the future.”
Also on the agenda are sessions on contract management, metrics and reporting and travel and meetings expense management. Peter Morici, professor of international business at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland is presenting a 2009 global economic outlook as a keynote address.
See also: Procurement takes on meetings buy
See also: At HP, procurement consolidates the meetings management spend
Now Playing: 
