Future of the meetings market
The impact of the recession on the meeting and incentive market: “You may hear that the recession is over, but you won’t feel it anytime soon.”
So says Corporate Meetings Incentive News.
“The impact of the Great Recession on meetings and incentives will continue into the year ahead, though how hard you’ve been hit depends on what industry you’re in,” the site says.
Some highlights of a survey of meeting manager members of the site’s Corporate Meetings & Incentives Advisory Board:
• Bad press has made the industry “so shell shocked that we may not snap out of the doldrums anytime soon,” believes Todd Zint, vice president of National Financial Partners.
• Privately held companies have been “totally unaffected by the AIG effect,” reports Bill Boyd president, and CEO of Sunbelt Motivation & Travel Inc., and are proceeding with business as usual, “though their numbers are somewhat reduced.”
• The direct-selling industry is booming as the unemployed and underemployed population turns to these companies as a way to supplement or replace income.
• The green industry is also doing well. “Our public events are booming with record-high enrollments and waiting lists. Some of this growth is being fueled by ARRA [American Recovery and Reinvestment Act] funding for green jobs and clean energy in the US,” says Marge Anderson, associate director of the Energy Center.
• Where years ago meeting planners thought shorter lead times were a temporary condition, they’re now the standard way of doing business for most of the respondents, according to the report.
By David Wilkening
David
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