IACC Publishes ‘Meeting Room of The Future’ Results

The results of an IACC survey concerning the “Meeting Room of the Future” were unveiled in April at IACC-America’s Connect annual conference in New York City. The IACC Meeting Room of the Future project aims to transform the meeting experience through a global collaboration of leaders in conference-room design, audio-visual technology, hospitality, academia and conference management.

As the meetings industry landscape continues to evolve and expand, meeting planners must continually evaluate all elements of the meeting experience in order to ensure they are providing the most relevant environments to foster collaboration, ideas exchange and relationship-building among attendees.

Mark Cooper, IACC CEO, commented, “While the overall objectives and goals of meetings have generally remained constant, there are clear indicators that the adoption and use of technology, the physical design of meeting space and the emphasis on experience creation will be increasingly important. Compounding the pressure on meeting planners to adopt and incorporate these tangible meeting elements is the increased requirement to demonstrate the value of meetings to their leadership, peers or clients while simultaneously operating in an environment of shrinking budgets. It is critical for meeting venues to respond accordingly and provide those elements that are increasingly sought after and important to the overall meeting objectives.”

Meetings Now and in the Future
Meeting planners are cognizant of the impact of meeting venues on delegates’ productivity, creativity and ability to respond to new ideas and thinking. As meeting planners look to the future, it’s clear that their decision-making process is largely based on their observations on changes within the industry over the past several years.

• Seventy-five percent of responding meeting planners report that their current role involves more “experience creation” versus two to five years ago.
• More than 77 percent of respondents report that access to interactive technologies, such as tools to encourage audience participation, collaborative communication platforms and others, are more important now versus the last several years.
• 47 percent report the importance of flexible meeting space now versus in the past.

Using these indicators as a roadmap for future trends, meeting planners predict an increased emphasis on, and need for, select venue elements.

Currently, the flexibility of meeting space is the most important venue element when evaluating meeting space, followed by access to interactive technology as well as networking spaces adjacent to the meeting/event space. Access to interactive technology, however, is projected to surpass flexible space in the upcoming years.

Physical Meeting Spaces and Design
The report states that fundamentally, there are elements of meeting venues that are critical for successful meetings, and these have largely remained constant over the past several years and are projected to remain important in the years to come, including high-quality broadband, strong acoustics and good lighting.

However, meeting planners do cite a continued trend towards more unique and flexible meeting spaces. When asked how strongly they agree with the statement, “Access to collaborative meeting space will become more important in the next two to five years” (on a scale of 1— strongly disagree to 10 — strongly agree), meeting planners provided an average rating of 8 indicating the need for more creative, less traditional options.

Communications & Connections
While meeting planners have numerous wish list items for their ideal meeting venue, there is no mistaking the critical importance and dominance of technology when selecting a venue. Responding meeting planners report that an increasing percentage of budgets are devoted to securing and implementing new technologies, such as event apps, beacon technology to track traffic, and attendance and videoconferencing capabilities, the reliance on technology is only expected to increase in the next several years. Now and well into the future, meeting planners will expect venues to have enough bandwidth to accommodate all of the technological needs.

The program’s ambitious long-term goal is to predict and showcase a clear vision of what is currently new as well as what solutions are needed for future meeting rooms, to deliver what clients want and need for maximum productivity. Collaboration, productivity and inspiration will be at the heart of the 2016 concept, with the plan to build on this annually.

The initiative brings together the brightest minds and companies in the industry, to create both a physical and virtual meeting environment. “As the only global association representing smaller meeting and conference venues, IACC is singularly positioned to spearhead this initiative,” affirms IACC’s CEO Mark Cooper.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded from the IACC website here.

Current contributors and research partners include Meeting Professionals International, Microsoft, Development Councilors International, Showgizmo, Corbin Ball Associates, Sli-do, Warwick Conferences, MGSM Executive Hotel & Conference Centre and PSAV.

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