The Strategic Meetings Management Certification (SMMC), featured in Corporate Meetings & Incentives, Meeting Focus, Business Travel News, and Travel Pulse, is a new professional development certification program from the Global Business Travel Association. SMMC is the only industry certificate focused on the theory and practice of Strategic Meetings Management.
Online Electives
MarCom Live | August 10, 11, 12 | 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM Eastern Time
This is a 3-part series on understanding the value of creating and maintaning a comprehensive MarCom plan to support your SMM over time and invuse your plan with continuous improvements to maximize the impact of your marking and communications efforts.
Register for each session separately ($75 per session)
Wednesday, August 10 - Part 1
Thursday, August 11 - Part 2
Friday, August 12 - Part 3
Coaching Your Organization to Peak Adoption of an SMMP
August 16 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM Eastern Time
August 17 | 12:00-3:00 PM Eastern Time
These two sessions will focus on the ways in which an SMMP practitioner can apply the three tenets of change management to create an optimal environment to reach levels of adoption that are deemed successful. Register for each session separately ($110 per session)
Tuesday, August 16 - Part 1
Wednesday, August 17 - Part 2
Join the SMMC Faculty!
GBTA is seeking dynamic, creative, subject matter experts in the areas of strategic meetings management and a variety of supporting disciplines. Apply Today!
SMMC - Background
In 2001, GBTA pioneered the theory and practice of Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) in direct response to member demand. SMM has ended up taking its place as one of the most important frontiers in the travel and meetings management industries and has earned a place in virtually all of the top educational conferences and conventions.
As the practice of Strategic Meetings Management has matured and the number of programs has grown exponentially, the need for standardized industry certification became evident. Given the current corporate environment of increasing regulation and requisite management of indirect spend, the benefits of a fully deployed SMM Program cannot be ignored. The potential for cost-savings, value creation, and minimization of risk are undeniable. The SMMC will be the only industry certificate focused on the theory and practice of Strategic Meetings Management. In July 2008, GBTA convened a group of industry leaders representing different disciplines to form the SMMC Task Force. Working with an instructional designer at the University level, the Task Force has developed the full SMMC curriculum. Read press release >>
SMMC - Goals
The SMMC program was launched in November 2009. The program consists of 2 Core Weeks and 3 elective classes. The SMMC will:
- Drive further development of accepted best practices
- Lead to creative new “next-practices” thinking
- Create a designation to indicate that graduates are leaders in SMM, prepared to deliver value to their companies, customers, and supply chain partners.
Through the standard certification process, every interested individual/entity will not only be able to develop and deploy an SMMP but will also be capable of the longitudinal management and continuous improvement of the program. Each graduate will be well versed in creating and maintaining SMMP’s to drive the greatest value for meetings with an enterprise-wide approach to evaluating meetings expenditures and needs across various divisions in order to develop and implement policies, workflows, and technologies designed to:
- Capture meetings data
- Create efficiencies for meeting planners and other stakeholders
- Enhance the company’s position in negotiations with suppliers
- Minimize risk
- Standardize processes
- Enable meeting planners to be even more effective .
SMMC - Curriculum
The following is an overview of the primary components of the SMMC curriculum.
Core Week I
I. SMMP Overview
II. Stakeholder Management
III. Communication & Leadership
IV. SMMP Models
V. Building a Business Case
VI. Policy Development and Compliance
Core Week II
I. Procurement
II. Risk Mitigation
III. Using Data for Decision Making
IV. Technology Strategy
V. Models for Success
Program Information
Minimum requirements for the SMMC Program are:
- 7 years professional experience (non-clerical/non-administrative) OR college degree and a minimum of 4 years experience (non-clerical/non-administrative)
- Professional job history form
- Acknowledgement of intermediate knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite (particularly Excel, Word, and PPT)
- Submission of two essay questions (250 word maximum each)