Experiential Activities in Meetings — There’s Much More to Come

The Walking Piano in the Live Zone at IMEX in Frankfurt.

From meetings hanging in the air or in the dark to crowdsourcing agenda topics from the audience — the trend for engaging experiential interactive activities within business events is growing fast. Moreover, this growth pattern is set to continue and soon they will feature in most programs.

That is the key finding of new research carried out by MPI Outlook for the IMEX Group.

Looking back over the last three years, 87 percent of the meeting professionals who responded had seen an increased demand from clients or colleagues to include more experiential activities into their programs, with 29 percent noticing a significant increase.

Looking ahead, more than two thirds (69 percent) expect to include experiential elements within meetings and conventions from now on, while a further 16 percent will start adding them in a year or two. Five percent expect to introduce them in three years or more. Only nine percent have no plans to include them.

Respondents were also asked to define ‘experiential activities’ in meetings, conventions and events. Summarizing the consensus of responses, the overall view and definition is that they are ‘activities that create an opportunity for attendees to use many senses and engage in an event while actively participating in a ‘hands-on’ way.’ From meetings hanging in the air or in the dark to crowdsourcing agenda topics from the audience — the trend for engaging experiential interactive activities within business events is growing fast. Moreover, this growth pattern is set to continue and soon they will feature in most programs.