The recently released Q2 2024 edition of MPI’s Meetings Outlook revealed a trio of primary components impacting the success of meetings and events in the near future: destination appeal, networking opportunities and spontaneous conversation.
With in-person meetings continuing to thrive, their breakneck, post-pandemic momentum has decelerated to slower-but-steady according to the Q2 edition of Meetings Outlook, a research compilation from Meeting Planners International (MPI). Along with a decreased pace has come a slight dip in expectations for a favorable business environment over the next year, along with reports of a stall in full-time hiring stall and a slight majority believing it’s still a seller’s market.
But is this negative or a normalizing of the market? The report suggests the latter, as the survey results are closer to what was seen immediately before the pandemic.
On the Bright Side
Meanwhile, the bright spots of the report—destination appeal, networking receptions and spontaneous conversation—are the top three components leading to successful meetings, respondents reported.
When it comes to destinations, planners cited the need for creativity in site choice; for example, as one planner did, choosing unique, independently owned hotels vs. the typical hotel conference environment.
The ability to provide curated networking has contributed to more business for planner Adam Sloyer, CEO and co-founder of NYC-based Sequence Events, who notes in the report that completely remote companies are looking for ways to get employees together in person.
“Even when you’re on Zoom, you’re wondering, ‘Are they looking at the Zoom or answering email?'” Sloyer says in the report. “When you get people in a room, you have the best chance of capturing their attention and having them be present. There’s a new lens around the importance of that for brands and organizations, whether the meetings are internal or external.”
When you get people together, conversation is sure to follow, right? Maybe. The report notes that more event organizers are using gamification to make it easier for attendees to strike up conversations (in lieu of the potentially awkward practice of sidling up to someone you don’t know and saying hello).
More planners are using things like card decks with prompts to get people into conversations, and it’s working, says a planner who created her own “connection cards” and calculates that clients who attended her events over the past six years have generated $22 million in new business as a result of the cards.
Of course, there are budgetary realities attached to all these ideas and the report goes into them as well. Check the report out here: mpi.org/media/meetings-outlook.
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