Shaping meetings in 2020

Fast Future Research launched late last week the findings of the Future Meetings Experience global online survey, which ran from November 2009 to January 2010. The research, conducted as part of phase one of the Convention 2020 strategic foresight study on the future of meetings, venues and destinations, saw 1125 respondents from 76 countries completed the survey.

9 Mar 2010

Key findings

Industry Today

Biggest current barriers to event effectiveness - cost of attending, poor organisation and lack of focus in design;
Quality of content, interaction, technology and networking - main drivers of an effective and exciting event.

Events in 2020

Reasons to Attend - quality of networking (76%) was the biggest single factor that would encourage delegates to attend events, less than 50% cited price as an influencing factor and only 1% said they would not attend live events in 2020;
Meeting Demand - 74% felt their organisation would maintain their investment in live events in 2020, while 46% felt time and cost pressure might deter organisations from sending delegates and 59% felt their organisation would be investing far more in alternatives to live events;
Meeting Supply - 49% said there would be fewer but larger events, while 79% expected a growth in smaller more specialised meetings and 48% thought there would be an explosion in the number of free or very low cost evening-only meetings held in low-cost venues;
Business Models - 77% believe events will need to offer strong price based incentives to attract desired delegates, 60% expect to see a rise in pay as you go / pay per session type models and 76% think there will be far more opportunities to conduct transactions at events;
Event Technology - The most commonly expected developments are ‘Live video streaming to remote participants ‘(75%), ‘A social network before, during and after events' (70%) and ‘All event content downloaded to our mobile phones' (64%). Whilst more advanced immersive and experiential technologies were not ranked highly as individual developments, there was strong support for their potential applications when discussed subsequently in scenarios for personalisation;
Personalisation - 79% expect a much personalised technology experience and 70% felt this individual customisation would extend to areas such as food and seating. A total of 93% believe that technology will enable capture and analysis of every activity, presentation and conversation;
Sustainability - 70% say ethical and environmental factors will continue to influence the decision to attend;
Convention Centre Challenges - The greatest competition to convention centres is expected to come from ‘Schools, universities and colleges' (63%), ‘Museums, galleries and libraries' (56%) and ‘Meeting facilities in office buildings' (50%).

Industry comment

Martin Sirk CEO of ICCA said, “The results highlight that demand for live events is expected to hold strong out to 2020, but to attract customers will require significant innovation in meeting formats, business models, organisational capability and the use of technology.”

“With an expected proliferation of smaller and more specialised events, convention owners and venues will need to develop a range of business models and event funding approaches to succeed in a hypercompetitive environment,” commented Carina Bauer CEO of IMEX.

Rohit Talwar the project director and CEO of Fast Future said, “Far greater focus on ‘enabling business' will be expected - ranging from ensuring the right people are there to facilitating on the spot transactions and proving the return on investment.”

He added that, “The next decade promises an uncertain economic climate where optimism and growth will be unevenly distributed across the planet and where technology will offer an ever wider range of alternatives to live events. The challenge for the industry is to recognise the shifts taking place and embrace the need for innovation in event design and business models and to develop the professional capabilities required to survive and thrive in turbulent times.”

Add comments, download report

The full report is on www.convention-2020.com where delegates can also share their views on the future of the industry via the project TrendWiki and sign up to receive regular project updates.