Meetings Business Gains Solid Footing
by Harvey Chipkin /The meetings industry continues its delayed but now steady recovery from the recession, according to the latest Meetings Market Survey conducted by Convene, the magazine of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA).
Of the 500-plus association, independent and corporate planners who completed the survey, nearly half reported an increase in attendance at their 2014 flagship event.
Deborah Sexton, PCMA’s CEO, said the results of the last couple of years, “show continuing improvement year over year and that is very positive.”
“This is a survey that we have been doing for over a quarter of a century so it has very valuable data,” Sexton said. “That’s why even though some of these results might not be dramatic, not huge jumps, they show a solid performance.
“The lowest growth is in the number of exhibitors at trade shows and that is more a result of the consolidation of the exhibitor base,” she added. “Companies that would do 20 shows a year now do fewer because they have to show a return on investment.”
Trade show results
The survey registered mixed results on the trade show front with 30% of respondents expecting continued exhibitor growth this year despite the fact that the average exhibition footprint has decreased.
Planners reported a 4.7% overall average gain in attendance at events in 2014 with 85% reporting that attendance was the same or more than in 2013. Looking ahead, 38% of planners expected attendance to increase in 2015, 56% expected it to remain the same, and 6% anticipated a decrease.
The challenge of short booking windows continued despite the improvement in the economy with a full 40% of small meetings and 17% of large meetings being planned within a year of the event.
Budgets: flat or increasing slightly
Despite the improvements in attendance, Sexton said that planner budgets are flat or increasing slightly.
“It has become the norm for planners to be expected to come up with events that are more interesting, educational and engaging with the same money,” she said.
“The medical field, for one, has lost a lot of ‘pharma’ dollars and planners have to create new revenue streams. Everyone is being challenged to look at how they are doing business – how they can find sponsorships, partnerships, digital advertising and other forms of revenue.”
Planners reported spending 33% of their budgets on food and beverage and 15% on audio visual with the rest fairly evenly divided among space rental, staff travel and accommodations, marketing, and housing and décor/labor.
Taking advantage of social media
In line with the changing times, planners used social media extensively. Facebook was most popular with a presence in 87% of meetings, followed by Twitter, 84%, and LinkedIn, 44%.
Continuing initiatives to diversify revenue streams showed results as planners reported that 50% of revenues were derived from registration fees, 23% from exhibit sales, 19% from sponsorships/grants, 4% from ad sales, and 4% from “other”.
Pushing change
Sexton said the survey is valuable for meeting professionals.
“They can look at what their peers are saying about the numbers. If they are in an industry that is not still being hit by the economy and their numbers are lower, that should make them sit up and take notice,” she said.
“Our job as an industry organization is to constantly push the changes that are necessary to stay ahead of the situation,” she added.
“Those who aren’t paying attention and think they can keep on with the ‘same old same old’ will not be able to succeed for long. They need to take advantage of the education available from us and others.”