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 Explore and compare the latest and all archived editions of Meetings Outlook at www.mpiweb.org/MeetingsOutlook. Meetings Outlook is supported in partnership with IMEX Group. Research conducted by Association Insights. © 2016 Meeting Professionals International