This year, hotels and meeting planners are likely to see rising group rates, customized meeting packages, and an increased focus on experiential meetings. So says Benchmark Hospitality, which surveyed the leadership at 39 conference centers, hotels, and resorts in the Benchmark family. (Click here for Successful Meetings' own take on the top meeting trends of the year.) Here are the top ten meeting trends for 2015, according to Benchmark:
10. Room to grow. "Conference facilities offering vast meeting space both inside and out-of-doors are in high demand for midlevel and traditional training meetings."
9. Unique venues. "High-end boutique and personal luxury properties -- once shied away from by planners -- are now sought-after venues for important and especially high-level meetings, and these properties everywhere are taking notice."
8. Winning with wellness. "Believe it or not, some of today's chief meeting influencers are a property's chef and F&B director, in addition to the overall service team."
7. Sector success. "Active meeting market segments contributing significant volume in 2015 include education, associations, finance, health care, pharmaceutical, energy-related, insurance, and especially technology."
6. Customized meeting packages. "Today the complete meeting package (CMP) -- sacrosanct over the last four decades in the conference center business -- essentially no longer exists."
5. Mobile technology. "Gone forever are the days when planners asked conferees to leave their cellphone in the guestroom -- today smartphones are a critically important business tool for planners, conferees, and suppliers for use during a meeting."
4. Increased connectivity. "Connectively during the meeting is as important as connectivity later on in the guestroom. A property that stumbles in this area risks losing the business next year, and unhappy commentary on social media."
3. Social media. "Social media and the meetings business are now indelibly partnered, primarily through LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and smartphone apps."
2. Strong group demand. "The focus is on yielding high value customer profiles for high demand dates, and then filling shoulder seasons and long-term demand -- 6-12 months out."
1. An emphasis on experiences. "Meeting professionals today are seeking to deliver unique, creative experiences and more ROE (return on experience) as well as ROI with their planning and programing activities."
Head here for a longer explanation of the above trends.