Innovation occurs when a need or a problem surfaces and there is no obvious resolution. Creative solutions can come incrementally, building on existing ways and means, or they can take the form of dramatic advances that occur as the result of the introduction of disruptive technologies.
Periodically these technological tidal waves find their way to ubiquity and change the entire landscape, thus creating an epic cultural shift. When the steam engine came about, it caused the industrial revolution, which touched
every aspect of modern civilization.
More recently, the advent of the personal computer followed by the introduction of the Internet has brought an upheaval in the way we manage information, creating a paradigm shift that we are still trying to understand. Each of these technological intrusions has had the effect of making legacy systems obsolete and building bridges over which civilizations make their way to the future.
Throughout the 1990s, as the Internet developed, innovators collaborated with customers to create software solutions that addressed many key aspects of the meeting planning process. E-mail invitations gave way to online registration, which evolved into full-scale meeting management systems.
The trend for developers has been to create comprehensive software solutions to be acquired by customers and operated in DIY (do-it-yourself) mode. This arrangement has thrived because it spoke to the need of businesses who had the financial and staff resources. During this period, customers have collaborated with inventive developers to bring about highly specific, complexly featured and increasingly indispensible tools to support multifaceted needs and workflow, which are the normal part of the modern meeting planning process.
This is where the paradigm begins to shift. Keeping up with the flood of new (and improved) meetings industry-specific technologies has become impossible for most people, particularly when they are supposed to be working on planning and operating meetings.
At the very least, companies must hire a well-informed (and highly paid) consultant to come in and figure out what software should be purchased, licensed, acquired, customized, supported, built-in and so on. And once all of that has occurred, you are stuck with what amounts to a legacy system, for better or for worse. The initial purpose of pulling together all of this technology was because it addressed identified needs. But as needs change over time, how do you keep up? This is a problem.
On the other hand, until now it has made sense for many businesses to operate with in-house resources, acquiring enabling technologies to fulfill multiple particular needs. With the sudden onslaught of the recession, a major disruptive force, much of this established meeting planning infrastructure has been abandoned or come undone as companies have reacted by quickly cutting costs by paring down.
Even with smaller staffs and diminished resources, meetings go on. The work is still there to be done, but there are fewer people to do it. The tools are still there to be used, but the resources are not there to operate the machinery. This set of circumstances is creating a growing need.
Businesses need help…enter the innovators.
“We are definitely seeing cutbacks in many organizations in IT, marketing and meeting planning departments,” says Mike Graves, senior vice president of conference services at metroConnections in Bloomington, Minn.
Jeff Rasco, president of Attendee Management, in Wimberly, Texas, is leveraging the availability of SaaS (software-as-a-service) offerings for the meetings industry. He agrees that a clear focus on customer needs defines the best mix of technology and support.
“When staffs are short, and getting shorter,” Rasco says, “those senior planners who are hanging in there are being asked to do more.”
James Montague, president of Durham, N.C.-based PMPN, a network of independent meeting planners, sees a spike in demand for online conferencing to supplement on-site meetings. He also notes an increase in requests for expanded services.
“Customers are asking us to add and bundle new services and custom solutions to compensate for gaps created by layoffs and budget cutbacks,” he says.
These examples illustrate how increased needs are creating new opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs within the meetings industry.
As a result of technological oversaturation and a tanking economy, planners need help.
Companies specializing in delivering full-service solutions, using whatever technologies are needed to get the job done, have a huge opportunity to add value. In fact, as this trend continues to play out, we will likely see new growth in the meetings support services business. We may also finally see meeting planners moving to their rightful place as overseers and strategists.
