What Keeps Us Up at Night

According to over 600 planners who completed the Meetings Focus Trends Survey, it's the "not so little" things worrying them, such as:

• Low budgets
• The economy
• Increasing costs of venues and suppliers
• Increased workload due to reduced staffing
• More complicated contract negotiations
• Decreasing attendance

Each and every one of these is cause for concern and the burden on meeting managers is heavier than ever.

Hybrid meetings, which should ease some of these concerns, may be one strategy for the future.  The survey finds hybrid meetings are neither increasing or decreasing attendance although over 53% of the respondents have not planned one yet.  Nine percent still feel they are a threat to the meetings industry.

Green meeting strategies should also help with the budget issues although not included in this survey.  Corporate social responsibility elements are up slightly with nearly 30% reporting they are now, or will be, part of their meeting.

Not a lot of good news for 2013, but even more reason we need to continue to push the envelope and find new ways to connect people.

Read the full survey at http://www.meetingsfocus.com/ArticleDetails/tabid/162/ArticleID/20068/Default.aspx