Meetings Are Back, But Are Budgets?
by Chris Ryall /Are associations and companies still having meetings and conferences? At Incentiveworks, Canada’s national meetings and events show in Toronto, the buzz on the trade show floor and at the conference was a cautious yes.
There are business and selling opportunities for agents and planners who work with the meetings, incentives, and events (MICE) market, but budgets are tight.
This year’s trade show attracted 700 companies in 425 exhibit booths, and more than 1,750 qualified buyers (meeting, association, third-party, and event planners; incentive house representatives and corporate travel agents) from across Canada.
Jeanette Faria, who represents The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel in Canada, said the second day of the trade show “was a bit slow” but overall the show “had a very good quality of attendees.”
Robert Kawamoto, director of sales for the Meetings, Convention and Sport market for Tourism Toronto said, “Canada is doing well, meetings are back, the demand is there and we are very optimistic, especially with the Canadian dollar where it is right now.”
With the Canadian dollar valued at about $0.75 US, Canadian venues and hotels are an attractive option for U.S.-based meeting planners. And the unfavorable exchange rate for Canadian meeting planners has them looking for venues in Canada rather than heading south to the United States.
Jen Traeger, director of information management at Maritz Travel, called 2015 “the most difficult environment in the past 10 years for finding space. Meetings are back but it’s a challenging environment and there is not a lot of availability.”
Finding space for large conventions is particularly challenging, since only a few cities can accommodate them, and no venues have been added, she said.
In this seller’s market, hotels have been able to raise their rates to pricing back to pre-recession rates—and budgets have not kept pace.
“Meetings are back but not the budgets to support them,” Traeger said. Despite all the talk about videoconferencing and virtual trade shows and conferencing, “people still value face to face and feel it gives them the return on their objectives.”
So what’s a planner to do? Traeger advises creativity. Some trends she is seeing include more local and in-house regional meetings to reduce travel costs; compressing meetings into less time; more use of technology; more outsourcing of different aspects of planning the meeting, such as registration, sponsorship, etc.; seeking innovative suppliers; more focus on the business side of meetings and less on ancillary and social events; shorter lead times; and more use of social media and mobile apps.
Many events and conferences are utilizing mobile applications for registration, speaker’s bios, conference schedule, presentation briefs, and more. And many organizations are using mobile apps to ask what attendees are thinking in real time and to gather feedback on the presentations and the trade show.
In the end, Trager said, it’s all about working smarter and more effectively, and embracing technology, to deliver the best content at the lowest cost.