A RECENT study by CWT Meetings & Events has suggested that compliance and end-to-end meetings management will remain top of the agenda for companies in 2015.
Released earlier this month, the 2015 Meetings & Events Forecast has found that meeting planners are taking note of strong success in end-to-end meetings management, with time and financial savings as well as an accurate overview of total event costs being benefits of such practices.
Meeting planners in Germany have realised savings of up to 23 per cent, while in Australia, average savings of 10-20 per cent have been achieved. Interest in end-to-end meetings management is increasing across the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions. However, the study noted that meeting planners in China will be unique in going against the end-to-end trend and are expected to continue to separate business into group air, hotel room, meeting space, and land operations bookings – using a specialist vendor for each one.
Compliance will also remain top-of-mind among meeting planners, especially for pharmaceutical organisations that have to abide by meeting and events regulations imposed by the Sunshine Act.
Floyd Widener, senior vice president, CWT Meetings & Events Worldwide, said in a press release: “This is the third edition of our forecast, and it’s interesting to see the renewed focus on compliance in our industry. With 2015 on the horizon, the forecast provides valuable insight for our clients to refer to in upcoming budgeting and negotiations, whether they’re focused on meetings, events or strategic meetings management.”
The report, which is available at this link, offers several recommendations to help meeting planners achieve success in the next 12 months. They include trying hybrid events to save costs and involve remote employees unable to participate in person, basing events in-country or in-region to minimise costs, carbon footprint and delegate travel times, and working with an agency with strong industry relationships to get the best deals and supplier terms.
