HeadBox urges tighter control of corporate events spend

HeadBox has published a whitepaper arguing that corporate meetings and events remain poorly controlled compared with managed travel, leaving many organisations with gaps in spend visibility, compliance oversight and performance measurement.

The report, titled Global Perspectives: How Travel Managers Are Tackling Meetings & Events, draws on interviews with eight travel managers across multinational organisations. It outlines a "12-month Strategic Roadmap" to bring meetings and events under a more consistent operating model, with clearer governance and reporting.

Business travel management has developed standard tools and policy frameworks over many years, and many companies run travel programmes with real-time reporting and established controls. By contrast, meetings and events often sit outside these structures, dispersed across procurement, marketing, HR and finance teams, as well as regional offices and executive assistants.

The whitepaper highlights a lack of unified ownership for meetings and events, which it says leads to uneven decision-making and limits the ability to apply consistent policies on suppliers, approvals and reporting.

Rising accountability

The paper frames the issue as an expanding responsibility for travel managers. It cites a 2025 Cvent report finding that 91% of travel managers now hold responsibility for meetings and events, while organisational structures have not kept pace with that shift.

In Australia, HeadBox links the issue to cost pressure and reporting expectations, citing high travel costs and mandatory compliance reporting. It argues that unmanaged meetings and events can create cost and compliance risk when data and key performance indicators are limited.

HeadBox is best known as a meetings and events booking platform. It operates in multiple markets and launched in Australia in 2020. Its platform connects corporate event planners with more than 30,000 venues across major cities.

The report also notes that meetings and events budgets can sit outside central travel and procurement systems. In practice, some spending becomes visible only after an event has taken place. That lag reduces managers' ability to challenge purchasing decisions or prevent repeat issues.

Five obstacles

The whitepaper identifies five structural obstacles it says prevent organisations from bringing meetings and events under tighter strategic control.

The first is "the visibility problem". Spend data is distributed across teams, tools and regions, and can surface months after an event, limiting corrective action.

The second is fragmented ownership. Marketing, HR, executive assistants, procurement and regional offices often book venues and suppliers independently. The report says this can drive inconsistent supplier contracts, erode buying power, create governance gaps and increase risk.

The third is a compliance gap. The report contrasts data-driven compliance frameworks used in corporate travel with what it describes as looser controls around meetings and events, creating a blind spot for leadership and leaving risk unmanaged.

The fourth is cultural resistance to change. Established ways of running events can feel personal for senior stakeholders and experienced executive assistants. The whitepaper says change management requires empathy and champions, with demonstrated value rather than enforcement.

The fifth is undefined success. Meetings and events responsibilities are often added to travel manager roles without agreed KPIs or benchmarks. The report argues that unclear metrics make it difficult to demonstrate value, secure resources or align activity with wider organisational goals.

The research draws on conversations with travel managers at organisations including Microsoft, EY and Fidelity, who shared first-hand perspectives on the operational challenges of managing meetings and events within global businesses.

Roadmap and toolkit

Beyond diagnosis, the report includes a 12-month KPI roadmap and a set of practitioner tips. HeadBox positions these as practical guidance for travel managers seeking more consistent processes and clearer reporting lines.

Organisations have been tightening governance across travel and expense for several years, particularly in response to cost scrutiny and sustainability reporting. Meetings and events programmes add complexity because of the range of stakeholders and the variety of spend categories involved, from venue hire to catering and audio-visual services.

HeadBox founder and chief executive Andrew Needham described the report as a prompt for organisations to treat meetings and events with the same discipline applied to travel.

"This whitepaper is a call to action. The technology, the expertise, and the frameworks exist right now to bring meetings and events into the same strategic conversation as business travel. At HeadBox, that is exactly what we are here to help organisations do," said Andrew Needham, CEO and Founder, HeadBox.

Ali Lord, chief executive of HeadBox Australia, said the Australian market faces a combination of rising costs and reporting demands.

"For too long meetings and events have been in the shadows of corporate spend-a fragmented space where visibility often disappears the moment you leave the boardroom. Specifically for travel managers in Australia, rising domestic costs, ESG reporting requirements and decentralised booking culture mean a well-thought-out, data-driven platform is the only way to make spend and compliance manageable," said Ali Lord, CEO, HeadBox Australia.