What planners want
According to a recent study by Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown and Russell, things are looking good for meetings. “The meeting market is likely to grow in the next 12 months. Corporate meeting planners are planning to book an additional 4.2 off-site meetings in the next 12 months, while association meeting planners are planning to book an additional 1.2 off-site meetings.”
- The top 10 factors corporate meeting planners say they are extremely or very concerned with are (in descending order):
* Making the meeting agenda relevant
* Convention services staff
* Room rates
* Accessibility of the destination by air
* Cost of food, beverage, entertainment at the destination
* Cost of flying to the destination
* Availability of low cost air carrier service to the destination
* Hotels or resort security services
* Internet access from all meeting rooms
* Meeting attendance projections
* AV company services
* Adequacy of high speed Internet service
The top 10 factors association meeting planners say they are extremely or very concerned with are (in descending order):
* Making the agenda relevant
* Room rates
* Convention services staff
* Meeting attendance projections
* Cost of food, beverage and entertainment at the destination
* Accessibility of the destination by air
* Cost of flying to the destination
* The popularity of the destination
* Availability of low cost air carrier service to the destination
* Availability of new/interesting speakers
* The popularity of the hotel/resort
* Accessibility of the destination by car
The study also found that attendees are still demanding, and planners are still stressed out. Not a shocker. Also, the report found that planners are using hotel Web sites more than ever, and they really like online meeting room floor plans, meeting room capacity charts, and detailed destination maps.
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Related Topics: Industry trends and forecasts
