A new solution for payment insecurity in the events industry

Advance deposit protection. The global events industry depends largely on advance deposits, however this is still clearly unregulated in many cases. Nowadays, if a supplier declares bankruptcy, for example, deposits are normally lost, and when an organizer or client becomes insolvent, suppliers suffer from a severe loss. The list of companies in our sector that had to close its doors for this reason grows every day.

What Meeting Escrow offers as a solution to this problem is the option to attach an Escrow Addendum to the supplier contract, signed by all parties. It stipulates that the client must deposit 100% of the estimated contract value in trust with Meeting Escrow at contract signing. Meeting Escrow holds the funds in a separate Escrow Trust Account on behalf of the supplier until program completion or whenever agreed upon by the parties as outlined in the Escrow Addendum.

Foreign currency budget protection. Meeting Professionals organizing events globally must develop a budget in their home currency based on the exchange rates in effect when foreign vendor contracts are signed. What happens if the exchange rate changes dramatically in 2 years when the event is taking place and payments are due? We know of organizations that have been over budget by $300,000 – $500,000 because of this issue.

What is a possible solution to this challenge? Clients working with Meeting Escrow benefit from trust accounts available in 20 different currencies. If a client based in the USA signs a contract today for an event in the Europe in 2 years, they can forward the funds to Meeting Escrow in US dollars. Meeting Escrow immediately converts the funds to Euros at the current rate and holds them securely until payments are due. Downside currency exchange risk is eliminated because the funds are already in the target currency.

Single vendor payment solution. Meeting Professionals, whether managing events directly or on behalf of clients, face the challenge of tracking, funding and executing multiple payments to multiple vendors for every program. This problem normally brings about some forgotten payment, delay or conflict. Meeting Escrow opens a separate trust account for each client as part of their annual fee package and additional trust accounts for each program. Clients can therefore make 1 transfer of funds for a program (or in fact, for multiple programs, if the funds are already accrued by their accounting department), and Meeting Escrow will track and execute all payments to vendors from that point on. Clients can reduce their payment vendors from hundreds down to one and regain significant time.

In the end, it’s a service that can become a simple way to eliminate a potentially dramatic problem in our events. We leave it in your hands…