PCMA Reports Record Attendance at Virtual Annual Meeting

A record-breaking 683 people attended the virtual component of its 2013 "Convening Leaders" annual meeting, the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) reported last week. What’s more, PCMA says, 70 percent of those who registered attended, well above the average benchmark of 40 percent.

“Attendees across all industries are dealing with increased travel costs and increased responsibilities at work,” says PCMA President and CEO Deborah Sexton. “Our hybrid meeting gives us the opportunity to engage with members who are unable to attend and create connections with non-members who want to learn more about PCMA.”

Although 683 people attended the virtual component as it was happening, attendance totals 843 when it includes those who watched a rebroadcast of the event. Of those 843, 33 percent were association meeting professionals, 15 percent independent meeting professionals, 9 percent corporate meeting professionals, 9 percent government/SMERF/PCO/AMC meeting professionals and 34 percent suppliers.

Among the 683 people who attended in real time, engagement was high, according to PCMA: 52 percent of them spent more than six hours actively participating in the 22 hours of hybrid broadcasting that took place over the course of three days. In addition, they exchanged more than 7,000 live chats using the virtual meeting’s online chat component.

Contrary to belief, the virtual meeting isn’t poaching attendance from PCMA’s live meeting; instead, it’s promoting it. In fact, 112 Convening Leaders attendees who had either never attended the meeting or had not been in six years said their face-to-face participation was influenced by a PCMA hybrid or virtual meeting.

“While many in the meeting industry have voiced concerns that hybrid technology poses a risk to the face-to-face model, PCMA continues to prove that adding a hybrid element to a meeting provides support for increasing face-to-face meeting registration,” reads a press release from the organization, which surveyed virtual attendees after the meeting and found that 63 percent said they were more likely to attend a future PCMA face-to-face event because of the hybrid experience.

Says PCMA Director of Online Marketing Mary Reynolds Kane, “We’re using our hybrid meeting as an extension of our brand and an introduction for meeting professionals who may not be as familiar with PCMA. It’s a driver to discover more products and services that will help planners and suppliers in today’s meetings industry.”