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It's Free Meeting Planning Tool

Destination Services San Diego will soon launch a new Web-based DMC service for meeting and event planners, it announced last week. The free service, called e-DMC, will debut later this quarter and will directly connect planners with suppliers, as well as with tools for automating the meeting planning process. Destination Services San Diego has partnered with E-DestinACCESS (EDA), an Orange County, Calif.-based company that specializes in software for destination management companies

"Planners and suppliers agree that an increase in creativity and innovation will be a necessary and invaluable tool in 2009," reads a statement from DSSD, which in turn quotes a press release from American Express and MPI about results from their forthcoming FutureWatch 2009 study. "Planners and suppliers expect new, (including currently unknown standards and practices) to emerge which will make the industry more efficient and effective for the long term."

According to DSSD spokesperson Kurt Bjorkman, e-DMC is a tool that fulfills MPI's FutureWatch prophecy, as it allows meeting planners to electronically organize events, create and submit RFPs, manage accounting and billing needs, and automate business processes, error-checking procedures and report production.

Because it's free and Web-based, the company suggests that e-DMC will save meeting planners time and money, enabling them to plan meetings from anywhere in the world and to shift more resources from personnel towards meeting-enhancing activities such as entertainment, spa services, and food and beverage.

Hotels and resorts will be able to offer e-DMC to their group clients at no charge. This next-gen approach to securing and managing DMC services will allow hotels and meeting planners to focus resources where they will have the most meaningful impact. “There is no better time to break the paradigm of how DMC services are secured” states Kurt, “connecting customers with resources and tools with a next-gen platform while maintaining high-touch levels of services is simply the future of our industry”.

"In accordance with the economical crisis, EDA sticks to the motto, 'Time is Money" reads a company statement. "To be successful as a meeting professional requires a cost-effective technological solution that provides the convenience, efficiency, structure and consistency within the industry that e-DMC offers."