Fusion Productions - Integrating Meetings, Learning & Technology

Stakeholders

The first step in the ROI process is the identification of stakeholders. Stakeholders are any individuals with a direct interest in the outcome of meetings. Stakeholders can include the sponsoring organization, suppliers, and the participants. The meeting planner and planning team are also stakeholders.

Identifying Stakeholders

Identifying the stakeholders usually occurs in the beginning stages of the meeting planning process.

To identify all the stakeholders, it is critical that you immerse yourself in the communication loop as early as possible. Attend management planning meetings and create ongoing communication with your key contacts. Use your formal and informal networks to gain as much information as possible. The formal process might include committee meetings or management updates. Informally, you might want to talk to key individuals who might be "tuned in" to information not typically discussed during the formal process meetings.

Stakeholders' Needs

Now that you have a sense of who your stakeholders are and why they are stakeholders, you need to determine their needs. Stakeholders' needs are often based on their role in implementing the organization's goals and strategies. It is your responsibility to know, "How can I support them to meet that goal?"

To answer this question, you will need to investigate their likes, dislikes, any major challenges they may be facing, and their understanding of the organizational goals and strategies. For stakeholders who are not directly involved in sponsoring the meeting, such as participants, you will need to gain knowledge of their desired results through interviews, research, feedback, focus groups, questionnaires, environmental scanning and networking.

It is possible that one stakeholder will have a conflicting desired result with another. In this case, it is helpful to establish each stakeholder’s rank or influence over the meeting, then give the stakeholder(s) with the most influence an opportunity to approve or modify the desired results. In most cases, the sponsoring organization is the highest priority stakeholder. .