FICP Releases Q3 Pulse Survey Report

December 7, 2017

Financial & Insurance Conference Professionals (FICP) has released its second Pulse Survey Report, for Q3 2017. Featuring timely data on trends impacting both meetings professionals and hospitality partners within the FICP community, this survey initiative is intended to provide timely and relevant information to those across the meetings and events industry.

With its second Pulse Survey release, FICP also offers a look at how these trends have evolved in the second half of 2017.

Q3 Pulse Survey Highlights – Meetings Professionals:

  • 74 percent indicated the size of meetings being planned has remained the same, as compared to 53 percent in Q2. An increasing number of respondents also saw greater stability in the number of meetings being planned and lead time for meetings being planned as compared to earlier this year.
  • Overall, 94 percent of respondents indicated that meetings professionals have influence on decision-making with executives. While those with more than six years of professional experience and those at insurance companies indicated this in higher numbers, the majority of professionals at all experience levels and company types noted this influence at their companies.
  • In spite of their general influence on executive decision-making, only 43 percent of respondents noted they contributed to dialogue about the U.S. Department of Labor Ruling or recent changes to the Canadian regulatory environment. This is an indication of the opportunity for meetings professionals to participate in discussions on topics with cross-functional impacts at their companies.

Q3 Pulse Survey Highlights – Hospitality Partners:

  • In terms of frequency and pace of RFPs over the next six months, 89 percent expected business to increase or remain the same. This is similar to 92 percent who anticipated business to remain the same or increase in Q2.
  • Seventy-five percent indicated having been either positively impacted or not impacted by merger and acquisition activity in both the financial services and hospitality industries. A common theme in open-ended comments to explain this impact was an expectation that mergers result in the need for more meetings.
  • Meetings professionals at financial services or insurance companies are directly responsible for a significant volume of FICP hospitality partners’ business, with 32 percent indicating that 26–50 percent is from this source and 22 percent noting up to 75 percent of their business coming from these professionals. Those at chain hotels experienced the greatest volume of business from meetings professionals in the financial services and insurance industry. As a result of increasing food, labor and related costs, 49 percent of those hotel chain representatives also indicated that their F&B minimums were also increasing.

For a copy of the Q3 Pulse Survey Report, visit TheBlog on FICP’s new website.

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