Default settings when transferring iCal events to Outlook

My workplace uses iCal to link its venue booking system to Outlook Calendar. With iCal set up as a calendar in Outlook, you can then drag events from there into your Outlook calendar and invite people to events. However, the default settings on the event once it gets into Outlook calendar that are not very useful for meeting scheduling. It defaults to no meeting reminder and no requirement for invitees to actually respond to the invitation. I know how to change these settings, but would really rather I didn't have to. The latter seems to have only changed recently. My IT colleagues tell me this is an iCal issue, not created by our venue booking system. Anyone know how I can get iCal to change back to "Responses required" as the default setting and add a default reminder?