Another year of steady growth awaits the meetings & events industry in 2020 despite speculative reports of economic and political instability across global markets but planners have to overcome challenges, such as personalising the experience for delegates.
This scenario is presented by the newly-released 2020 Global Meetings and Events Forecast by American Express Meetings & Events, a division of American Express Global Business Travel. The report predicted the growth momentum across all meeting types will be maintained for the fifth consecutive year.
“The challenge for planners now lies in making more out of what they have – creating a seamless experience for meeting attendees, using technology for an authentic purpose, and meeting the demand for personalised experiences,” said Gerardo Tejado, general manager at American Express Meetings & Events
He added that it was “inspiring to see an optimistic outlook about the meetings and events industry as we look to 2020. Meetings and events have cemented their place as a critical driver of communications, growth, and engagement for organisations of all shapes and sizes.”
The Forecast is based on a survey of more than 550 meetings and events professionals and interviews with industry experts from 33 countries. It also contains sections on small meetings, delivering a personalised incentive travel programme, and trends plus challenges in the reconciliation and payment space for events and meetings.
Among the report’s findings:
- Meetings planners are approaching attendee experience with heightened enthusiasm, with respondents indicating they would prioritise experiential elements over logistics to drive better engagement.
- Planners are integrating technology in ways that mirror how attendees interact with technology in their daily lives to create authentic event experiences. Other event aspects may be compromised to help fund these impactful moments.
- There are currently more meetings taking place than there is space available, which will create challenges for organisers and planners.
- Meetings management policies will become increasingly robust in 2020, with compliance levels predicted to reach 85% across regions.
- In the era of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), planners are addressing growing compliance and data privacy demands in their policy updates.
This is how each region stands:
Asia Pacific: While total meeting spend for 2020 is predicted to rise across all regions APAC will see the most modest increase at 1.3%. Planners continue to do more with less in the region, while always keeping the attendee experience in central focus. Although meeting professionals indicate more varied preferences for how they would address changing budgets such as reducing number of nights (16%), onsite travel staff (13%) and room drops (13%), 35% of respondents said they would improve the onsite experience if budgets were increased by 10%.
North America: As meeting professionals in North America look ahead to a year of stable growth they are seeing their meetings management efforts pay off. After years of promoting policy compliance, three out of four organisations have implemented formal approval processes. A modest 1.6% increase in overall spend is forecast. There will still be more internal meetings than any other type of meeting, though the overall number is expected to fall from 30% to 25% partly due to more incentive trips that could rise to 15% from 11%.
Europe: Meeting professionals in the continent will face specific challenges relating to GDPR and the political instability caused by Brexit. Planners must be mindful of “how” they deliver an event experience while remaining GDPR compliant. Overall meeting spend is predicted to increase by 2.1%, and cost per attendee per day is expected to increase by 1.9% for incentives and special events. If budgets were to increase, 30% of those surveyed would focus on improving the onsite experience, up 5% from last year.
Central and South America: Respondents are predicting a stable year, and this is the only region where projected budget increases could match the expected rate increases – group hotel rates are expected to increase by 2.3% along with group air rates at 1.7%. Overall meeting spend will see a healthy increase of 2.6% along with the number of conferences and trade shows increasing by 6%. Meetings programmes are also becoming more formalised in with more than 81% of respondents indicating they have a formal policy, centralised staff and approval process. This region is also the most optimistic about planners’ abilities to incorporate technology to enhance the meeting experience.
• Click here to download the full report.
• Featured image credit: Tzido/Getty Images
