Benchmark Resorts & Hotels announced its "Top Meeting Trends for 2016" as observed by its properties. Ted Davis, chief sales & marketing officer for Benchmark made the announcement.
"We thought last year was terrific,” Davis said. “It was the best year in the history of the industry and for our company. Yet 2016 is well positioned for even stronger business growth.”
The following meeting trends were identified by Davis as being ones to watch in 2016.
Trend #1: Meeting Pop Ups
One of the more interesting trends for 2016 is planner requests for pop-up meeting rooms that can be assembled or moved at a moment's notice. Often used for spontaneous conference calls, small last-minute gatherings, or just to briefly hang out in between sessions, these are increasingly requested.
Trend #2: WOW Me With Flavor!
A request heard most often from planners for 2016 is, "Wow me with your culinary talents!" Meeting properties are highly skilled in the kitchen today, and that makes "topping the last meeting’s F&B experience" an on-going and sometimes extraordinary challenge. Consequently, gifted executive chefs and their culinary teams are now a vital part of winning business over the competition.
Trend #3: Creative Teambuilding Roars Back
It's been on the assent, but for 2016, teambuilding is strongly rebounding. Suddenly there is room in meeting budgets for creative and effective teambuilding, which can include a focus on the physical, intellectual and spiritual aspects of attendees. Many properties are partnering with professional teambuilding companies to help planners gel their participants into effective work units.
Trend #4: Halcyon Days, for Now
We've already alluded to budgets being on the uptick for 2016. So are rates. So is meeting demand! The booking pace for 2016 is positive across the country, and happily so, and the pace for 2017 is even stronger. But that's a year away and a lot could happen between now and then, like a presidential election! Meeting group size in 2016 is steadily increasing as well. So are the privacy and competitive concerns of select meeting groups who buy out entire properties to avoid competitive compromise.
Trend #5: The Evolution of the CMP!
Change is inevitable. The CMP where one size fits all has, for all practical purposes, evolved well beyond the sacrosanct meeting product of the past. Most meeting packages sold today are individually created to meet the specific needs and desires of each meeting planner and their meeting attendees.
The wild card with crafting customized packages is often F&B, with properties creatively enabling client preferences by harnessing the skills of the executive chef, as well as experiencing the culinary highlights of the destination by partnering with local restaurants and culinary attractions, such as craft breweries.
The package of the future will provide for the meeting needs of the conference group and offer something unique to each individual participant by focusing on the whole person—the mind, body and spirit. It will include greater immersion into the hotel's destination, and may provide mind-clearing moments of Zen with the aid of spa & wellness professionals, or a focus on mindfulness.
Trend #6: Pharma Leads
The more things change, the more they stay the same ... leading the demand cycle for meetings in 2016 is major pharma, followed by the financial and insurance industries. Toss in tech for the northwestern U.S. and northern California. Yes, this could have been written 20 years ago too, but the current message here is that these industry segments just keep getting stronger for group properties across the country as demand for their respective products increases nationally and globally year after year.
Trend #7: Social Media Is More Than Just Social!
It’s de rigueur in the business world today, and so providers need to be strategically aware of their social presence. Planners use TripAdvisor to evaluate prospective facilities, Twitter to post updates to meeting schedules, Facebook to reach out to speakers and attendees and to communicate with meeting venues for information and room requests. Specialized meeting & event apps deliver an advance glance at the conference schedule for attendees, provide updates during the meeting, enable immediate in-session feedback, as well as a concluding evaluation. Social media is no longer just about socializing.
One More Trend: Gluten-free, Please
Planners in 2016 are absolutely obsessed with special dietary needs, requirements and menus ... and the No. 1 request is for gluten-free options. This is followed by vegan meals and low calorie diets. Conferees hitting the fitness center every day are interested in healthful living at home and on the road, and are counting calories and mindful of what they put in their bodies like never before.
