Recently, Successful Meetings sent a survey out to our readership asking them about which business trends they think will have the greatest effect on meetings in 2016. Of the respondents, 41 percent were corporate planners, 38 percent worked for associations, and 21 percent were independent or third party planners. Of that number, 75 percent reported the biggest challenge would be getting enough Wi-Fi bandwidth to meet the needs of their attendees. Here's what else they had to say.
1. The most important issues affecting meetings in 2016
• Getting enough Wi-Fi bandwidth to meet attendee needs: 75%
• Providing quality meetings on limited budgets: 74%
• Negotiating with hoteliers in a sellers market: 66%
• Need to create compelling meeting experiences: 63%
• Proving ROI for meetings: 50%
• Getting enough Wi-Fi bandwidth to deliver meeting content: 49%
• Finding affordable airfares for attendees: 41%
• Developing effective social media strategies for meetings: 40%
• Incorporating sustainable practices into meetings: 24%
• Providing healthy life style options at meetings: 21%
• Developing virtual meeting offerings: 18%
• Dealing with room block disrupters such as Airbnb: 15%
2. How will 2016 meetings budget compare to 2015?
• Decrease significantly: 3%
• Decrease slightly: 17%
• No change: 41%
• Increase slightly: 37%
• Increase significantly: 2%
3. The most common cost-cutting measures being implemented for 2016
• Reducing the food & beverage budget: 49%
• Offering fewer optional activities: 40%
• Avoiding resort/beach destinations: 32%
• Eliminating all optional activities: 16%
• Booking lower tier hotels: 15%
4. How the number of meetings planned for 2016 compare with 2015
(more / less / unchanged / not applicable)
• Virtual meetings: 33% / 2% / 26% / 39%
• Training meetings: 18% / 16% / 46% / 20%
• Hybrid meetings: 17% / 2% / 23% / 58%
• Association meetings: 11% / 14% / 50% / 25%
• Trade shows: 10% / 17% / 49% / 24%
• Consumer/marketing events: 9% / 11% / 32% / 48%
• Sales meetings: 9% / 8% / 45% / 38%
• Incentives: 3% / 14% / 33% / 50%
5. How organizations will deal with the cancelation of meetings in 2016
• Take no action:36%
• Replace the meeting with a virtual event: 28%
• Combine the meeting with another live event: 28%
• Increasing the level of internal communication (through emails, company intranet, etc.): 27%
• Replace the meeting with an on-site meeting: 23%