MEETINGS
MEETINGS
Meeting and event industry projections remain solidly
positive but stabilizing at a slightly cooler rate than in 2015.
2016 SPRING EDITION
11
%
MEETINGS
UNSURE IF THEY
WILL USE VR
MEETINGS
MEETINGS
THE
GEE
WHIZ
FACTOR
EXPECTATION
Apps, beacons, data collection, attendee
tracking and other tech advances are being
experimented with to bring greater value to
meetings and events. Where do meeting
professionals stand on the much-hyped
virtual reality (VR)?
38
%
By Elaine Pofeldt
I
nstead of using printed signs to announce meeting
rooms, Bob Walker has been turning to digital versions when possible. It’s not because of the “Gee whiz”
factor; it’s practicality—digital signs save on both
printing and the labor to post and retrieve paper signs.
“The digital network gives you the opportunity to do that
seamlessly,” says Walker (MPI Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter),
a vice president at Freeman, the Dallas-based integrator of
solutions for live events.
With conditions in the meeting and event industry humming, many meeting professionals now have the luxury of
focusing their attention on best practices such as this—particularly in the use of technology—as well as growth.
“Technology is so important in our industry,” says Marie
Botvinick, CMP, CMM (MPI Orange County Chapter), founder
of D’or Solutions in Solana Beach, Calif. “A lot of times we are
ahead of the curve. We are learning it in our industry before it
is presented to the world on a daily basis.”
What is giving meeting professionals the breathing room
to search for best practices is the ongoing seller’s market,
TREND FORECAST
MPI MEETINGS OUTLOOK: 2016 Spring Edition
HAVE NO PLANS
FOR USING VR
says Bill Voegeli (MPI Georgia Chapter), president of Association Insights, the Atlanta-area research firm that conducts
the Meetings Outlook survey. The survey found that 32 percent cited the seller’s market as a top issue.
“The market continues to be in a position of steady
growth,” Voegeli says. “As long as you have this seller’s
market, you have this steady slow growth. We are seeing a
healthy industry for a prolonged period of time. None of this
can happen when budgets are shrinking and people are hiding and getting fired. It can only happen in the market we
have right now, which is a safe growth market.”
respondents cited the seller’s
32% ofmarket
as a top issue
31
%
ENERGIZING
MEETINGS
NOT PLANNING ON USING VR,
BUT CAN’T RULE IT OUT
8
%
WILL USE VR
13
%
At some firms, the hunt for best practices extends beyond technology to
low-tech methods to help clients get
more value out of meetings.
CultureShoc, a culture development firm in Cleveland, has recently
been focusing on the best ways to
keep attendee energy high during
meetings, according to Pete Honsberger (MPI Ohio Chapter), director
of team-building facilitation and
services.
Many clients want to be as productive as possible in their meeting time,
he says. To that end, CultureShoc
has been experimenting with short,
creative ice breakers and contests that
give attendees a second wind.
At one recent 400-person meeting
for a software company in Ohio, CultureShoc organized a single-elimination rock-paper-scissors tournament
after a big lunch.
“If you lose, you follow around the
person you lost to and are their cheering section,” Honsberger says. “Within
five minutes you have a winner.”
WILL LIKELY
USE VR
JEFF RASCO, CMP
MPI Texas Hill Country Chapter
CEO of Attendee Management Inc.
“The meeting professional in the field
is getting pressure from their powersthat-be to bring more pizzazz.”
Even better, he says, “We had their
attention for the next hour.” That’s
something that every meeting professional hopes to be able to say.
MPIWEB.ORG
POSITIVE OUTLOOK
Among Meetings Outlook respondents, 70 percent projected
that business conditions over the coming year will be favorable. The largest group (48 percent) expects a 1 percent to
5 percent uptick.
Most expect the action to take place close to home. Forty-three percent expect domestic corporate meetings to see
the biggest growth, while 24 percent believe domestic association meetings will lead the pack.
Certainly, not all sectors are expected to see high growth.
Government meetings look like they will experience the
biggest decline, with 31 percent of respondents forecasting
this.
But by and large, many in the industry are in a good place.
The budget squeeze caused by rising prices still exists, but it
should lessen in 2017,
improving the bottom
line for many meeting
BOB WALKER
MPI Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter
professionals.
Vice president at Freeman
“Many of the suppli-
ers will have recaptured a lot of their lost revenues over the last
several years,” Voegeli says.
Though Walker’s firm serves some petroleum industry clients that are getting pinched by lower oil prices, he remains
optimistic.
“A lot of the corporations are realizing more and more that
meetings can help shape the direction of their business,” Walker
says. “I’m seeing more participation and more interest in using
events as a way to further a brand or to maybe take more entrenched employees or members into a direction the organization wants to go.”
TECH GOES BEYOND
THE WOW FACTOR
With meeting professionals seeing growth on the horizon, many
are experimenting with technology to bring more productivity,
value, cost savings, accuracy and revenue to their meetings and
events, the survey found. Sixteen percent of respondents named
“more valuable technology” a top issue.
“A lot of the corporations are realizing more and more that meetings
can help shape the direction of their business. I’m seeing more participation
and more interest in using events as a way to further a brand or to maybe take more
entrenched employees or members into a direction the organization wants to go.”
Projected Live
Attendance
ATTENDANCE
FORECASTS
IN KEEPING WITH PRIOR DATA, VIRTUAL
ATTENDANCE TRENDS CONTINUE TO BE
STRONG AT THE SAME TIME THAT LIVE
ATTENDANCE CONTINUES TO GROW.
58
%
POSITIVE
31
%
FLAT
%
12
NEGATIVE
MPI MEETINGS OUTLOOK: 2016 Spring Edition
TREND FORECAST
16
%
of respondents named “more valuable
technology” a top issue
The survey found that they are identifying efficiencies
most easily in the effective use of communications (outbound,
inbound and across platforms), reduction of printing and
shipping costs, consistency of information among disparate
users and the ability to keep information (such as schedules,
pricing, space availability and alerts) up-to-date.
Many are taking an attitude similar to swimmers who
have mastered the basic strokes, as once-novel technologies
become mainstream, according to Voegeli: “Now they can
have fun.”
With 19 percent of respondents saying they use social media at all of their meetings and 20 percent reporting that they
use it at most meetings, what they really want to do is use it
more efficiently and effectively, he says.
Apps are also capturing meeting professionals’ attention.
Botvinick will be experimenting with one at a client’s upcoming association convention. Attendees will be able to submit
questions to the speakers during the live event via the convention app. Members who can’t attend will also be able to
use the app to submit questions. The idea is to deliver more
valuable, customized content during the 1,000-person, threeand-a-half-day meeting in San Diego.
“I am a big proponent of it,” Botvinick says. “Finally, I have
Business Conditions
throughout 2016
OVERALL FIGURES INDICATE THAT
BUSINESS CONDITIONS CONTINUE TO
REMAIN POSITIVE, WITH A GRADUAL
SLOWING OF THE GROWTH RATE
FROM 2015 TO 2016.
70
%
of respondents predict
FAVORABLE
business conditions
12%
of respondents predict
NEUTRAL
business conditions
17
%
of respondents predict
NEGATIVE
business conditions
Projected Budget/
Spend Over the
Next Year
59
%
of respondents predict
FAVORABLE
budget/spend
28
%
of respondents predict
FLAT
budget/spend
14%
of respondents predict
NEGATIVE
budget/spend
MPIWEB.ORG
TREND FORECAST
use social media
39% ofat allrespondents
or most of their meetings
a client who will say, ‘Hey let’s try it.’”
Botvinick has another goal for the app: Helping attendees build relationships before the event. “They see the agenda and start talking,” she says. “These
are people who are committed and coming to the event. You
know you are going to see them there.”
Still, Botvinick recognizes that using such an app is a big
change for an association where only a tiny percentage of
the members had email addresses 10 years ago. To make
sure all of the speakers are comfortable with the option, the
association is giving them the chance to say yea or nay to
allowing it. Several have said yes; one said it would be too
distracting.
Walker’s company still uses printed brochures but is
gravitating toward using mobile apps. “You look at them for
information on all of the exhibitors, instead of printing long
brochures with pages and pages of information,” he says.
Registration technology is also a high priority for
many meeting professionals and organizers. To make sure
registrations are speedy at its upcoming 75th-anniversary
conference at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment
Center in October, the American Society for Nondestructive
Testing Inc. is looking at name badges using magnetic technology, says Alicia LeMasters, CMP (MPI Ohio Chapter), a
meeting planner at the group. The society’s name refers to
the fact that it includes professionals such as engineers who
inspect the integrity of a bridge, without destroying the
bridge, or elevator inspectors who do annual reviews.
“We can track the movement of our attendees,” LeMasters
says. “That helps us.”
Not all of the new technologies are being used during the
actual meetings. To supplement its meetings, Texas Mutual
Insurance, a provider of worker’s compensation coverage,
has been creating webinars on health- and safety-related
topics as a resource for policyholders.
“We’ve had them live and have saved them to our website
so employers can go back and show them to their employees,” says Cindy Smith (MPI Texas Hill Country Chapter), an
GLIMPSE AT CURRENT
EMPLOYMENT TRENDS
FULL-TIME
31
%
INCREASE
FLAT
55
DECREASE
MPI MEETINGS OUTLOOK: 2016 Spring Edition
%
14%
PART-TIME
CONTRACT
34
%
45
%
60 46
%
%
7%
9%
TREND FORECAST
respondents won’t use sharing economy services
48% ofother
than Uber or Lyft due to safety concerns
“It doesn’t help the meeting if it breaks the bank.
On the other hand if you really need technology, whether
it is attendance tracking, lead retrieval or onsite badge
printing, there are sometimes ways to accomplish the
same thing for less. Sometimes there is a price range
that is thousands of dollars apart.”
event planner at the insurance company.
In 2015, Texas Mutual created 23 webinars that
reached 1,008 policyholders, Smith says. In 2016 so far,
the company has created three that have reached 1,130
policyholders.
“There will probably be 16 or 17 this year,” Smith
says. “It’s something that’s been very successful so I
don’t see us stopping any time soon.”
The next frontier seems to be data gathering. In
anecdotal evidence, meeting professionals suspect
newer technologies may provide valuable data about
attendees, sponsors and event ROI, but there was little
evidence that these meeting professionals know what
data to collect, what to use and how to get the most
from it within their organizations.
TEACHABLE MOMENTS
To be sure, technology hasn’t lost its ability to wow—
and many meeting professionals are still using it to jazz
up their meetings. That is providing an opportunity for
vendors to educate them on how to get more practical
benefits from it.
“The meeting professional in the field is getting pressure from their powers-that-be to bring more pizzazz,”
says Jeff Rasco, CMP (MPI Texas Hill Country Chapter),
CEO of Attendee Management Inc., a provider of attendee registration software based in Wimberly, Texas.
“Maybe it is because of better information sharing, but a
lot of times, frankly, somebody went to a conference and
they had this cool thing. Now they want that cool thing
at their meeting. There is no concept of budget, of what
it takes to implement it.”
In such scenarios, Rasco’s firm will start asking
questions: What are you trying to accomplish with the
meeting? What are your goals—and how can technology
help?
“It doesn’t help the meeting if it breaks the bank,”
Rasco says. “On the other hand if you really need technology, whether it is attendance tracking, lead retrieval
or onsite badge printing, there are sometimes ways to
accomplish the same thing for less. Sometimes there is a
price range that is thousands of dollars apart.”
Rasco had one opportunity to educate a longtime
client when it wanted a mobile app to do attendee trackMPI MEETINGS OUTLOOK: 2016 Spring Edition
JEFF RASCO, CMP
MPI Texas Hill Country Chapter
CEO of Attendee Management Inc.
ing and its marketing department threw in some requirements,
too.
“Some of the most obvious and cheapest solutions were
taken off the table,” Rasco says. “We started with a list of about
10 companies that would be able to provide all of the things
required. The pricing per application ranged from a little less
than US$5,000 to $15,000. The final decision wasn’t the cheapest or the most expensive. We were able to find a very good
solution that was in the middle and accomplished everyone’s
goals.”
In the seller’s market, one issue that is affecting the use
of technology is charges for bandwidth. Some respondents
complained of venues charging high prices for internet access,
which they think should be free, and are pushing hotels and
convention centers to offer that.
“We’re making sure it’s part of our concessions when it
wasn’t before,” LeMasters says.
For an upcoming conference at a hotel in New Orleans, LeMasters’ company was able to negotiate 200 connections for
$3,000. That’s better than a quote she got in Reno three years
ago for 700 connections at $100,000, but she still believes it
is high—to the extent she has even looked into building a network for her company.
Unfortunately, she has found there are obstacles there, too.
“That’s extremely pricey,” she says. “You’ve got to get the
equipment. Then you have to set it up. And you have to see if
the meeting space will even allow that.”
Because of the steep barriers, LeMasters is continuing to
rely on the Internet services that the venue’s clients use.
“You have to have the internet,” she says. “You can’t just
say, well, it’s too expensive. The hotels and convention centers
know that.” n
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Meetings Outlook is supported in partnership
with IMEX Group.
Research conducted by Association Insights.
© 2016 Meeting Professionals International