AS PROCUREMENT POLICY continues to be dictated on a global scale, major changes to the meetings industry have been forecast by a leading hotel booking agency.
Des Mclaughlin, managing director of HBI, made the prediction after the first Meetings Management Forum, organised in July by the agency and attended by more than 100 key procurement officers and senior representatives from the major hotel groups.
Following a presentation by global head of meetings at Deutsche Bank, Shawn Radek, who outlined the company's global procurement initiative, Mclaughlin said: "Business is increasingly being managed globally and so it is not surprising to see this methodology now being adopted. Procurement policy will continue to impact on where this industry goes; and this shift in thinking represents a real threat to independent venues."