New appointments signal CWT M&E shift to total meetings management

CWT Meetings & Events, the global M&E division of travel management platform CWT, has set up a specialist team focused on strategic customers within its new global operating model. Kari Wendel (pictured), Global Vice-President, Strategic Customers, CWT M&E, will lead the group, which will provide all services, including Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) and end-to-end meetings and events, under one roof to M&E’s top global strategic clients. These clients were selected based on criteria that include size and opportunity for growth and programme expansion. CWT M&E says the new strategy will enable its global strategic customers to optimise their visibility to all of their meetings spend. “Total meetings management is where the industry is heading, based on recent competitive bids, and we are leading the way. This is the next step in our evolution as experts in both SMM and all things meetings and events,” says Wendel, who is stepping away from a purely SMM leadership role to embrace both SMM and meetings and events for strategic customers. Monica Dickenson, will take on Wendel’s previous tasks and become Senior Director of the newly-created Global SMM Center of Excellence (COE). “As part of our new strategy, we are formalising for the first time a Global Center of Excellence specifically for SMM. We are thrilled that Monica is leading the Center and our overall SMM strategy,” Wendel adds. The SMM COE will support the entire global M&E organisation to ensure advancement by county/region, continued wins with clients that are striving for SMM success, and providing thought leadership in the industry through public speaking engagements, authoring best practices pieces, and sharing information on advanced SMM principles. Before joining CWT, Dickenson served as Head of Global Meetings and Events at Shire. She also previously worked with Amex GBT and at BCD, where she worked with global clients on their strategic meetings management strategy.