Even in a digital age of hyper-connectivity, the importance of face-to-face meetings and events has not been overlooked. As companies expand, merge and otherwise change, meetings and events can provide an important forum for companies to align on strategic business objectives and communicate with employees, customers and partners across the globe.
Bringing people together is more important than ever. It’s a fascinating time to be in the business.
Steadying State
Over the past two years, we have seen growth in meetings across many regions. Modest budget and activity increases have been the trend, with caution in some areas driven by economic challenges and uncertainty that continue to trouble some countries, particularly in the European Union.
Looking forward to 2014, The American Express Meetings & Events 2014 Global Meetings Forecast revealed that meetings activity is likely going to undergo very minor adjustments across regions, indicating that demand may be stabilizing globally. In addition, it is expected that meeting organizers will likely continue to face challenges as they strive to achieve more with the flat or decreasing budgets expected in 2014, compared to previous years.
New World, New Challenges
Optimizing meetings spend is expected to be priority No. 1 for meeting organizers in 2014. As such, the mandate to develop higher-quality programs with even more measurable ROI will create an opportunity for meeting organizers to not only be more strategic, but also more creative in order to do more (or the same) with less. Meeting professionals can also expect to be challenged with more rigorous approval processes and policies, which are becoming more prevalent.
Technology has created a business world in which connectivity is not only more accessible, but also much more streamlined and efficient. With greater access to technology, the need for companies to ensure consistency in their messages across borders and growing employee populations is only increasing. Meeting organizers will need to utilize their inherent resourcefulness and innovative approaches to technology advances in order to evolve their company’s meetings and events activity.PageBreak
Embracing Social & Mobile
The corporate meetings and events function is starting to wrap its arms around social and mobile. As decision-makers in the category begin to adopt technology that increases engagement, it increases the opportunity for meeting organizers to drive more value.
Applications that go hand-in-hand with mobile devices are more visible than ever at industry conferences, trade shows and company-sponsored events. When embraced by meetings organizers they can create higher-quality and more engaging programs that not only enable a better experience for attendees but also, more importantly, create greater ROI for organizers.
As further investments are made in technology and companies develop a deeper understanding of the power of social interactions and mobile applications, it’s likely that we will come out of this period of stabilization with an expanded value proposition. That value proposition will include a greater ability to connect both physical and virtual attendees as well as a stronger grasp on how to capture, distribute and repurpose interactive content prior to, during and after events.
When in Rome…
As budget challenges persist, meeting organizers are likely to keep meetings closer to home, holding more meetings within their region to help reduce costs. However, a localized approach is only one half of the equation. In order to optimize meetings spend without sacrificing engagement both for in-person and virtual attendees, meeting organizers will be expected to create better meeting experiences through the use of non-traditional facilities with greater local flavor, such as outdoor venues, universities and aquariums, adding further experiential value.
As we continue to look down the road, I expect these developments to continue to take shape and expect that they will leave our industry in an even better position to demonstrate its value and expand its role within corporations in the future.
Issa Jouaneh is the vice president and general manager of American Express Meetings & Events. To learn more about the services offered by AmEX Meetings & Events, click here.
