Meetings Intelligence Exchange Offers Free Service for Meeting Planners

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. October 14, 2008

FEBRUARY 20, 2008. Before Meetings Intelligence Exchange, professional meeting planners encountered many obstacles when determining whether or not a facility would be useful for their meetings. They had to go on their own instinct when it came to making a final decision. Yet, now figuring out whether a facility is a good meeting site is as simple as logging into one's account and taking a look at the reviews that have been posted.

The reviews are written by other meeting planning professions who use a special five-point Expectation Scale to determine the worthiness of a facility they visited. Through the Expectation Scale, meeting planners must note how the facility fared according to thirteen criteria set forth by Meetings Intelligence Exchange. "Our review standards are well defined and designed to maximize the consistency of our members' reviews." Notes founder Tim Ryan.

The company also ensures that fake reviews aren't being entered into the system. To do this they have initiated their own system of checks and balances. The process starts off by only allowing approved members to post a review. After that the review gets evaluated to ensure that it doesn't contain profanity, threats and other undesirable elements. Lastly, the company tries to gather other opinions to see if what has been expressed in the review is honest.

Suppliers can also find use in Meetings Intelligence Exchange. After paying an annual subscription fee, suppliers can see how planners are evaluating their services. They can also see how they compare to other facilities that get higher ratings. Additionally, suppliers are given an opportunity to advertise and promote themselves to the meeting planner professionals in the network.

As far as fees for meeting planners, nothing needs to be paid to join the network. One will have to contribute by writing reviews, but this should be understandable. What makes Meetings Intelligence Exchange so powerful is that all of the reviews are submitted by fellow meeting planners, not advertisers. When the reviewing power is in the hands of the meeting planner, there's a greater chance the reviews submitted will be more objective.

Many meeting planners have already realized such things, since Meetings Intelligence Exchange has acquired hundreds of new members since it's debut in December 2007.