In 2009, a two-headed monster — a recession and the AIG Effect — slashed meeting planners’ budgets, hacked their attendance, and sliced revenues. But it turns out to have been a double-edged sword, also serving to strengthen meeting professionals’ resolve to get their events back on track this year — and to demonstrate the value of face-to-face.
Youwon’tfindmanysurprises in the results of this year’s MeetingsMarket Survey.The past year will go down inmeet- ing history as an especially weak one:decreased attendance, fewer exhibitors, budget cuts, canceled and downscaled events. But take heart: The majority of meeting planner respondents said their meetings were coming back, albeit slowly. And many found a silver lining in the downturn. “I expect the industry will improve,” said one association plan- ner respondent,“simply because this economy has made us all evaluate the way we produce meetings and what expenses were wants or needs, what is excessive or nec- essary. It made us find creative ways to still produce quality meetings without the expense.We’ve also become more environmentally friendly.” Echoed another: “I think the industry will change in 2010
—but it won’t necessarily be a bad thing. It will make us look at what we do differently.” One corporate planner was cautiously optimistic, seeing
“incremental improvements towards stabilization of the meetings industry…baby steps throughout 2010 with an upward swing in the beginning of 2011.The economy needs to stabilize before associations and corporations will feel comfortable enough to start planning large events on a reg- ular basis while under public scrutiny.”
Another corporate plannerwasmore decisive:“The indus-
try will improve in 2010.Face-to-face meetings are critical to getting business done.” We’ll give you the good news first—although it’s impor-
tant to keep in mind that the pool of respondents for each year’s survey is not a control group that remains the same year to year. Some results (including larger budgets and higher average number of attendees) may therefore be attrib- uted to a different set of respondents rather than market con- ditions. Budget—with exhibition:Respondents indicate that the average total budget for their largest 2009 event with an exhi- bition was $1.6 million—up from $1.4 million last year. Budget—without exhibition: The average total budget for respondents’ largest 2009 event without an exhibition was $934,330, up significantly from $778,000 last year. Budget — total convention/meeting: One-quarter of respondents said this budget exceeded $2.5 million in 2009 (up from the 22 percent who reported budgets of this size last year), and almost one-half said that it was $1 million or more, up from 39 percent who reported budgets of this size in 2008. Twenty-one percent expected their convention/meeting continued on page 39