How do you think 2010 will shape up for the meetings industry?
- I think 2010 will be flat. I think the worst is over, but I do not see improvement coming for a couple of years. Personally, I have not seen costs (other than room rates) coming down. Food and Beverage keeps going up and is becoming a larger percentage of our budget every year. We feel as people become more comfortable with this "new normal" that attendance will start to slowly increase.
—Dale W. Shuter, CMP, meetings & expositions manager, Electrical Apparatus Service Association, St. Louis
- I think the meetings in 2010 will taper off at the beginning of the year and slowly pick up. I feel hotel costs, venue prices, etc., will continue to be discounted in order to foster the working relationships they have with their clientele. My budget has already been decreased by 30 percent for 2010; however, we will be attending the same number of conventions. Due to the budget cuts, the booth size will be smaller.
—Donna M McGovern, senior convention/congress manager, CMP, The CementWorks Advertising Agency, New York
- I think the industry is bouncing back some and I believe by the third quarter we will be back on par with a few years ago, prior to the recession.
—Lana Bian, China Telecom Americas, Herndon, Va.
- I think the meetings industry will be flat through 2010. I expect to see travel to rise in 2011 but I don’t expect the hotel rates to rise until the end of 2011. I think there are an overabundance of hotels in certain cites and they will still be clamoring for business until there is a major increase in travel. Businesses are going to continue to cut back on travel and the slight increase I expect in 2011 may not even be enough. I think my budgets will continue to decrease for 2010 and will remain flat in 2011. Attendance will also remain flat through 2011. We need to meet but we will probably keep it at the bare minimums.
—Kelli Patton, CPS, administrative assistant, Sara Lee Corporation, Sacramento, Calif.
- I think that the meeting industry in 2010 will start seeing a slight turn upwards. I expect the costs to gradually start increasing again. I don’t expect it to be by much at the start of the year. I think it will increase over the year. My clients have gotten into the mindset that the costs are lower and they expect costs to stay low, so it is likely that their budgets will reflect that. We will be expected to get the same rates we did in 2009 even as the economy starts to gradually recover.
—Jennifer Winn, owner/national event planner, Winn Events, Dallas
- I do not see our budget increasing for the next several years because the income of our churches has been declining. As for 2010 and the meetings industry overall, I think things will continue to be a buyer’s market.
—Rev. Randy Bryant, CMP, executive director, Florida State Association of Free Will Baptists, Vero Beach, Fla.
- Hotel prices are definitely down, but have not seen much change in food and beverage. Attendance is the question mark. We can only proceed conservatively, but leave room to expand.
—Ronald Goldman, Ph.D., executive director, Infectious Disease Association of California, Los Angeles
- 2010 is going to be a slow year in my opinion. I think that many companies are not sure where they fall in the financial scheme for the next two years, so they may scale back on programs or sponsorships. The upside is that many hotels are being mindful of that and are willing to negotiate more to obtain the business. In New York, especially, I have seen more hotels reach out to smaller businesses or smaller groups to get their rooms filled up. That is always wonderful, but especially if you are a nonprofit company it allows you more negotiating power. My budgets are staying pretty much the same for the next year. We try to calculate inflation when planning but know that it is not always a possibility to get all the money we plan for.
—Viviana Matasaru, conference coordinator, Learning and Leadership Development, United States Tennis Association, White Plains, N.Y.
- I think 2010 will be much like 2009. Clients are apprehensive and will book conservatively. For those who canceled many programs in 2009, I believe in 2010 they’ll hold half of the ones they canceled in 2009. I also think they’ll continue to provide more webcasts and webinars in 2010 as they did in 2009, but I don’t believe they work as well as face-to-face meetings, especially for those who depend on networking to do business.
—Heide Kraus, CMP, global account executive, ConferenceDirect, Brookfield, Wis.
- I think that 2010 will be the beginning of a slow re-emergence for the industry. I think that planners will continue to hold the power in negotiations and that costs for venues and restaurants will continue to be highly discounted for a time. As long as the unemployment numbers remain high, companies and individuals will feel constrained by tightened budgets and perceptions, but as soon as those numbers begin to drop, the freedom to travel and resume high-cost, high-benefit business practices will bring the industry back to its feet.
—Molly Marsh, director of events and programs, Omicron Delta Kappa Society, Lexington, Ky.
- I think rates will flatten overall, but for groups that are flexible with dates and location, there will still be wonderful opportunities to enjoy hotels and resorts that may have been out of reach in the past. I believe hotels, restaurants and venues will continue to battle for business as the market slowly and cautiously begins to return. There will be a new "normal" with more scrutiny given to program costs. I think budgets and attendance will both be flat, with only essential personnel in attendance to help keep costs minimized.
—Scott Shellman, partner, Framework Meetings & Destinations, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
- As an eternal optimist, I think the meetings industry will be on the rebound during 2010. It may be a slow climb, but toward the end of the year I believe hotel, restaurant and venue prices will begin increasing slightly. As the negative focus on meetings in the media is surpassed by other news, the economy levels out or begins to improve, and businesses are able to replace fear and uncertainty with actual numbers enabling them to plan and adjust for the future, I think budgets and attendance will also begin to rise, although it may be some time before we are back to pre-2009 numbers.
—Brenda C. Park, owner, Park-Way Meetings, Greenville, S.C.
- I think 2010 will be fine. Food prices seem to be on the rise in hotels.
—Kathy Duse, convention and programs coordinator, National Art Education Association, Reston, Va.
- I think the trend is to cut costs for meetings off-site. Our clients, at least, have indicated a tendency to be involved with fewer outside meetings and choosing to partake in online educational webinars [and other] digital means instead.
—Brenda Tomlinson, director of public relations, McDaniels Marketing Communications, Pekin, IL
- I think it will be 2011 before hotels see any change, which means buyers should book as far out as they can to take advantage of the special rate structure.
—David J. Sampson, CTC, CMP, meeting & travel planner, American Board of Internal Medicine, Philadelphia
- I think one of the biggest trends in the meeting industry is virtual—Web-based meetings—that will augment, or in some cases replace face-to-face meetings as they are more cost-effective. Additionally, technology, such as webcasting live, will allow greater audiences to participate without having to pay travel or hotel costs.
—Debra Kulik, program manager, MasiMax Resources (a wholly owned subsidiary of RTI International), Rockville, Md.
- As the economy begins to stabilize, I think to increase sales meeting vendors will continue to offer specials and promotional things to planners so that it encourages travel in meetings. I am not sure about the budget increases, but the attendance could potentially increase due to the deals that are given all over the U.S.
—Carla Thorpe, program development specialist, National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies, Alexandria, Va.
- I think that 2010 will be a bit better for the meetings industry. As for costs, I think they will continue to rise. I believe that my budget and attendance will remain the same in 2010.
—Karen Back, manager, meetings and travel, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Buffalo Grove, Ill
- I sure hope it gets better. People just don’t realize how when an industry like this gets caught, the entire economy can change based on it. I think attendance will be about the same—not sure about budgets. I don’t anticipate any major difference, except that our trips can begin to happen again.
—Suzan Patrick, CMP, Allstate Insurance, Englewood, Colo.
- I’m optimistic that the meetings industry will begin to see a stabilization of earnings. I expect all costs to level out. As demand increases, I expect hotel rates and airfare to inch up in an effort to capitalize on increased demand. I’m confident that with careful planning and conservative budget expectations my attendance will increase this year.
—Amanda Bigley, associate director of events & education, National Association of Federal Credit Unions, Arlington, Va.
- I believe that people feel as though they can see the light at the end of the tunnel at this point and that will have a positive impact on meetings. I think that the most important thing is to make sure that we are meeting for the right reasons, with the right people, and at the right time and place. As a coordinator of our educational offerings, social events, dates and locations, this can be a challenge at times, but it is what we have to do to show that the business of meetings is valuable and important. Over the next year I am working off a very similar budget, and while I will take advantage of any cost savings I can, I believe that prices will begin to increase slowly across the board. I am looking forward to a great new year with my association and the new opportunities that we are bringing to the table for our members. My outlook is positive yet realistic. I am going to aim to increase attendance and sponsorships across all of my programming in order to continue to offer the outstanding professional development and networking that we have a history of providing.
— Katie Voorhest, marketing & education coordinator, Raybourn Group International (client: Indiana Society of Association Executives), Indianapolis
- Costs will certainly remain highly competitive as hoteliers try to land heads in beds. Restaurants and caterers too are being flexible on a variety of opportunities. I think attendance will level off for 12 months and then will steadily increase as the economy rebounds. If, however, commercial real estate markets take a dive the way that the residential market did, then I believe that our industry will stay stagnant for at least two years.
—Lee Linderman, CMP, vice president, senior event manager, Union Bank Events, Los Angeles