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| Press | |
| Travel Firm Launches Meeting Management Tool | |
Kansas City, MO. Short’s Travel Management today launched a new, web-based meeting and event management service. The service is designed to be configured and administered by a client’s meeting manager or any administrative staff with a working knowledge of how a meeting or event is organized and managed. It provides an end-to-end solution for all phases of a meeting or event from registration through departure for home. Because it is a web-based product, it can be accessed by all authorized individuals who have Internet service. Although configuration and administration of the site are executed by client staff, all server and web connectivity is managed by Short’s Travel technology staff. “We initially created the meeting management portal in response to needs of a client who organizes about 250 meetings a year. We had to come up with a flexible, automated system that was easy to use and administer,” says David LeCompte, president of Short’s Travel. All the steps necessary to set-up a meeting or event are organized into a series of screens with “point and click” buttons, drop down lists or fill-in the blank fields. The user is walked through each phase of set-up with screen prompts and examples. As the user selects options and provides information, the data are converted into html forms that are displayed in the customer’s web browsers. The user can toggle between the administration screens and the registration screens to confirm that the forms are displaying correctly. The meeting planner can test all web registrations prior to inviting their attendees to the site. A very useful feature of the system is an automatic e-mail function that sends a confirmation to registrants upon completion of the registration process. Equally useful are the built-in reporting options. Predefined Reporting is the first option. These are reports that are always available for every event setup within the Meeting Management Portal. These reports include a registration list, event summary of statistics, hotel waitlist report, full housing report, incremental housing report and schedule of events. Another option is Customized Reporting. This report writer allows a meeting planner to create event-specific reports. Examples could include tee time reporting, spa schedule reporting or banquet seating reporting. “Using a very easy-to-follow on-screen form, a meeting manager can build an end-to-end meeting or event including registration, payment, transportation, lodging, entertainment, conference sessions, and feedback components in an amazingly short time,” noted LeCompte. “Once setup, all aspects can be edited and monitored in real-time from day one of registration to last departure for home.” “Although we are just now releasing the fully functional version of the meeting management portal, we already have five customers implemented during the development and testing stages of this project,” said LeCompte. “We’ve also been approached by our GlobalStar partners in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. “There appears to be a huge demand for a product like this as more and more companies are taking the meeting planning function in-house. While there are some desktop applications available, they all suffer from the same connectivity issue. How to make the system accessible to registrants? This web-based system is the perfect solution,” said LeCompte. Meeting Management is one of a suite of web-based services available to Short’s Travel customers via a dedicated web portal created for each client. Other portal services are: traveler profile management; expense reporting; on-line air, car and hotel bookings; on-line reporting; travel data downloads; traveler satisfaction surveys, and on-line feedback of traveler problems which require immediate resolution. Short’s Travel is a $150 million travel management company with offices in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. The company’s vision is to provide travel-related value to groups, businesses, associations, sports organizations and public institutions on a national scale. Short’s Travel is a charter member of Globalstar, a worldwide network of travel management experts proving local access to global consolidation and standardization resources in 32 countries. |
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For immediate release: June 1, 2004 Contact: |
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