The 2013 lia sophia annual Ignite the Dream conference, held at the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium, utilized the latest in technology to make an impact with their attendees, especially the younger participants. Credit: lia sophia

In the last 10 years, the meeting planning industry has undergone significant changes, many of which we could never have seen coming. The recession has both reined in budgets and caused planners to focus increasingly on ROI. Certifications have brought increased professionalism to the field, and planners bring higher and more specialized education backgrounds to their work. Furthermore, the recovering economy has put hotels in a strong bargaining position, giving planners less wiggle room and more work to find appropriate venues within budget.

But what will things look like 10 years from now? Or even five?

We asked planners and people in various functions throughout the meeting planning and incentive industry to break out their crystal ball and tell us what they see as the future of the meeting industry.

Technology Will Continue to Be an Asset to Planners

One of the larger perceived threats to the meeting planning industry in recent years has been the rise of technology enabling attendees to “meet” remotely. While many companies and key industry organizations have clearly announced that virtual meetings will never replace the value created by face-to-face meetings, planners have learned on the ground where technology can be an asset — and even more so as it continues to evolve to suit meeting planners’ needs — and where it detracts from the value of the event.

According to Casey Carignan, meetings and events coordinator for Wood Dale, Illinois-based lia sophia, a jewelry multi-level marketing company, and an inaugural member of the Professional Convention Management Association’s “20 in their twenties,” “Younger planners are definitely bringing tech savvy and weaving it into meetings. With conferences, you often do the same agenda, and you keep going the same way year after year, but now with the different opportunities speakers have, such as using pictures and video, the statements they make are more meaningful. Technology has really enhanced the industry.”

For Megan D. Tate, manager of event, meeting and travel management for San Diego, California-based Petco Animal Supplies Stores Inc. and another inaugural member of PCMA’s “20 in their twenties,” technology in meetings has a clear and growing place. “Obviously technology has completely revolutionized meetings,” she says. “You can’t put on a conference and not have multiple forms of technology going on, and in the future, even more technology we haven’t even seen yet will be incorporated.

“I don’t think it’s going to take away from face-to-face meetings, because, at least for us, we’ve tried them (virtual meetings), and we’re actually stepping away,” Tate explains. “We did a leadership meeting with top leaders and corporate staff in one location and broadcast it out to locations around the country. For people in remote locations, even though they’re seeing what’s going on, they’re not involved in the conversation or asking questions. They’re very passive participants, and it leaves a bitter taste because they’re not being valued as much as the colleagues who are onsite.”

“I don’t think (technology) is going to take away from face-to-face meetings, because, at least for us, we’ve tried them (virtual meetings), and we’re actually stepping away.”  — Megan D. Tate

“I think the use of cloud-based systems will become paramount; the norm and how we do things,” she continues. “I manage anywhere from seven to 10 planners in the department during the year, and they’re going all over the place, and we need one place where everything lives.”

California innkeepers attend roundtable sessions discussing marketing, social media and more during the annual InnSpire Conference & Trade Show. Credit: Wowi Zowi Productions and CABBI

Jenn Wheaton, this year’s winner of the MPI RISE Award for Young Professional Achievement for her strategic use of technology and social media in her role as marketing and program coordinator for Sacramento, California-based California Association of Boutique & Breakfast Inns, agrees that the cloud is key for the future of meetings and not just for staff. “There’s a lot more balls in the air,” she says. “As a planner, I work with the Cvent app for registration. You can get a snapshot of how many attendees have shown up and who’s attending. There’s also an app that does trade show floor planning. Custom apps, though they can be expensive, can be great, and I’ve seen an increase in CVBs helping set up apps and customized websites for events. For the hotel and lodging association, we had an app for our large hotelier conference with all the speaker bios and all the supplier names, and it was great for us because I knew what room everyone was in with one touch all the time.”

While bandwidth availability is increasing, smartphone and mobile device usage will only continue to rise, and Wheaton counsels that in the future, planners will need to be more savvy not only in their event app creation, but also how they approach their website layout for mobile use.

“A huge thing is making sure things are mobile,” she explains. “People are registering and booking from cell phones, and I know a big thing from our event website is to optimize mobile for iPhone, iPad and Android. People are looking at your website on their devices, and that’s a big change. You have to make sure every piece of your marketing can be seen on the phone, and it looks how you want it to. Tiny print or formatting makes it hard (to view) on the phone, unless you can come up with something that really makes it pop. We do a lot of marketing with emails with various topics and images, and you have to make sure that people can see those images on their phones. We’ve started to sort of phase out print marketing, and we don’t supply a registration form. We encourage them to go to our website.”

Carignan agrees that the digital switch is the way to go — and even more welcomed by attendees than expected. “Something that I do in my work for lia sophia, is to use more of an app for the conference information and schedule instead printing a bunch of paper. A conference app can include everything you need, and make it easier to push out changes. Last year was the second year that lia sophia did an app, and we really promoted beforehand so they wouldn’t show up onsite to ask for a paper schedule. We did a ‘know before you go’ email to our attendees, and the feedback was amazing. We saw a 300 percent increase in the download rate. If you approach it correctly, there shouldn’t be much push back.

“It needs to be user-friendly, with the generational gap,” she continues. “That means user-friendly for everyone, no matter his or her level of tech savvy. You’ll have younger people and people who are more experienced that buy in quicker, but we’re working on tutorial videos of a couple of people in our office showing what the app is like, rather than just sending a list of instructions.”

Managing attendee expectations regarding the availability of meeting technology may be an issue meeting planners face now, but as the culture of immediacy created by technology grows more and more ingrained, planners will face new challenges.

“In thinking about how technology impacts our events, the biggest difference that I see now is attendees expecting to have an immediate voice in what they’re experiencing and a forum to share that on,” says Tate. “People don’t wait until two weeks after the event to say what they think, so you must incorporate into the architecture and design of the meetings that you’re planning and provide the tools to do it.”

Some larger events now incorporate a screen showing a live feed of the event’s Twitter hashtag on stage behind speakers so that the conversation becomes a central part of the event. But in a corporate climate, the where and how of attendees’ social media contributions and real-time interactions often needs to be negotiated.

According to Tate, her attendees are all corporate, and “they’re required to attend events, but they don’t have company issued smartphones, so we have to either provide devices or rely on them using personal devices,” she explains. “We haven’t provided devices onsite in the past, but we’re looking into it. We obviously supplement with paper in some cases, but 90 percent have their own devices that they’re using for real-time, immediate access to information about that event.”

Where Are the Hot Destinations and How Will We Get There?

If there’s one place crystal ball predictions could save big bucks, it’s knowing which destinations are hot before everyone else starts booking them. As hotels gain more and more strength in negotiations, planners are having to book further out to secure the destinations they desire.

“With the economy getting better, this is the way it’s going to be,” Wheaton explains. “I don’t see it getting any easier. Our B&B conference is fairly small, and just this last year when we were sending RFPs, it was harder to get space than in the past. We’ve been trying to book a conference in northern California, and we tend to book a little over a year out, but it’s becoming more and more apparent that even though we’re small, we really have to plan ahead to get into the market. But things change so much, it’s hard to book two or three years out. I don’t know what’s going to be going on in the industry, and booking two or three years in advance with a deposit can be hard in case something shifts in the industry.”

As a leader in the incentive field, Kevin M. Hinton, chief staff officer of Chicago-based Site International Foundation, is finding that, “Specifically in incentive travel, business has gotten better, but because of some of the supply and demand factors, prices have gone up in some factors, and the biggest issue we are facing is airline fares,” he says.

“Incentives are sold to a client 18–24 months out, and because that’s when the budget is put together, and you budget for X airfare, but now that they’ve qualified the names it’s Y, they’re spending more than they planned on airfare, which makes it hard to get some other things,” Hinton explains. “You see airlines decide that they no longer want to do group sales, but others, like Emirates, are looking to expand. I envision that some day I might have to fly to Dubai to get to Europe because those airlines are investing immensely in this marketplace and the group space.”

Emirates has already made headway into Europe, with its new New York to Milan offering, though that route is facing appeals in court after The Lazio Regional Administrative Court near Rome ruled the service breaches terms of the Italy-United Arab Emirates bilateral air service agreement. Even if they lose the route, their competitor Etihad Airways is working on a partnership with Alitalia. In the coming years, as Middle Eastern airports are set to become the world’s busiest and Dubai continues to gain ground as a top shopping, resort and dining destination, it may begin to trend as an ideal incentive and meeting location for companies looking to provide a top-notch destination experience with a more reasonable airfare and lodging price tag.

“Otherwise, the Caribbean is always popular, particularly from North America,” Hinton continues. “However you define that region south of the border, it has a lot to offer, with Mexico remaining strong and Panama growing in interest.”

Tate agrees. “The Dominican Republic is actually where we’re doing our incentive trips,” she says. “We looked at Panama last year, and for the right group, I think it’s going to be very interesting and most cost effective. I think Central America is going to continue to be strong, as flight costs to Europe are very prohibitive.”

Looking farther south, Hinton finds that “South America will continue to grow, especially cities of Colombia. With what’s happening in Brazil, they’re not as focused on group travel right now because of the World Cup, but London hotels were looking for business after the Olympics left, and my opinion is they have enough going on right now with these big mega events, but I think the cities in Brazil will be great destinations after that. Also, whether Chile or Argentina, there will be a great recognition in this part of the world of all that South America has to offer.

“As far as the next frontier, we’re looking to take our conference to India, which is on a lot of people’s bucket list, but it’s a crazy combination, it’s a bit too much for some people,” he continues.

“If there’s one thing on the horizon, it’s cities. They’re becoming major incentive places. Not everyone is looking for fun and sun. Some people are looking for adventure, but others are looking for a cultural urban setting where you get great restaurants and nightlife,” says Hinton. “Cities wouldn’t have been looked at for incentive travel before, but I live in Chicago, and I think it’s a phenomenal incentive. Major cities are great if positioned correctly,” adds Hinton.

The Shifting Role of the Planner

While strategic meeting management has quickly become an industry buzzword, it’s only the first step. “Planners by definition must take care of the logistics, but then they also have to think: What does this do for our clients or company and why are we doing it,” says Hinton. “If you have the right people in the room, but it’s cold or the AV doesn’t work or the attendees can’t hear the speaker, it’s not a successful meeting. Logistics are always the foundation, but, at the same time, there’s this realization that meetings are for business. They’re not luxury stuff. They’re a necessity — how we sell things or know what our clients are facing.

“There has been a lot of pullback during the recession, but there has also been a realization of the critical nature of events,” Hinton continues. “If it’s an important deal, you don’t do it on conference call or with some kind of technology. It’s time to get our story straight, we have the Meetings Mean Business campaign, but we need to do more as an industry.”

Amanda Cecil, Ph.D., CMP, professor in the department of tourism, conventions and event management at Indiana University in Indianapolis, has shifted her involvement in the meetings industry from the trenches to teaching, shaping the future of the industry. In the coming years, she foresees “a move to a really business savvy professional. There’s a need to be much more forward thinking, and much more strategic in terms of their thought processes,” says Cecil. “For senior planners, that means there has to be an executive type of training, including more of an event marketing kind of look moving toward a business approach.

“As we watch business structures change post-recession, it changes where meetings are housed,” Cecil explains. “Some are shifting to global operations, and especially with planners who are multinational, that has to happen. As companies look at a more global approach, events and meetings should as well.”

Cecil says the university program, now includes a study abroad component “to give students a more global mindset because some of these positions are reporting through a global reporting structure.

“Reporting through finance and HR I think will make a difference in how planners approach the philosophy of the meeting,” she continues. “They’ll have to be accounting- and finance-savvy and better understand both the procurement process and how to measure the intangibles, like attendee satisfaction,” she adds.

“I think the role of the planner has become more and difficult in terms of both qualitative and quantitative measurement. To prepare for this, we have added a business focus, and we’ve partnered with business schools. That’s been very well received. Students are looking for ROI on their degrees,” Cecil says.

Stand Up for Yourself and Take Ownership of Your Future

Most of all, Hinton is convinced that planners are in a unique place to show the value of their profession and reap greater — particularly in financial terms — rewards for their work. “I know people in this industry work hard. It’s not a traditional profession, but you get to see the world, and you attract the best and brightest. While the rewards aren’t necessarily financial…you don’t need to be underpaid; you can make a lot of money, but you need to plan for that.

“When you have a meeting or incentive, tell people why they’re there and say, ‘Yes, you might be enjoying that dinner and that bottle of wine and this amazing place, but ultimately you made a big impact on our organizations or you sold a lot of stuff, and we’re here to build a stronger community and a shared vision.’ Tell the story of why we are doing this. You have to advocate for yourself, stand up and take ownership for your own future.” C&IT