IBTM World Trends Watch Report – summary

IBTM World published their Trends Watch Report 2018 last week. Its objective is to look at the state of the industry now and predict what it will look like in 12 months’ time. The report is compiled from various sources, and the part that we’ve summarised here is the section on trends for 2019:

Wellness

Health and wellness was a growing area in 2018, with growing awareness around the issue of mental health and providing support for employees. This will continue to be of interest in 2019 and beyond.

Experience

The experiential sector of the meetings and events industry is moving to evaluating their events’ strategic and creative thinking, above their operational efficacy. It’s thought that industry growth will be driven by the creation of strategic experiences for brands, as much as efficient production.

The Role of the Millennials

The millennial meeting attendee has been found to be more demanding, with a shorter attention span and with increased needs around technology, sustainability and connectivity. MPI’s research shows that event organisers believe that sessions will becoming more specialist and individual session times will go down as the attendees’ attention span drops.

Safety and Security

There will be increasing focus around ‘Duty of Care Initiatives for Delegates’. This is because of high profile incidents in 2017 and 2018, from terror attacks to ecological threats. Whilst other trends, from sustainability to wellness, are often perceived as ‘luxury’, according to MPI this trend will be a ‘necessity’ for at least the forthcoming year. Last year MPI reported that fewer than 50 per cent of meeting planners had security threats in their contingency planning, but they feel this number will rise.

Technology

Technology is changing the way we work, but this will also have an impact on the way business events are planned and the participants experience them. That starts from the moment attendees provide their details at registration. Their data, powered by artificial intelligence, can be used to decide which sessions to attend and which attendees they should connect with to get the best return on their investment.

According to World Finance, the five fastest-growing industries in the world are all technology related: renewable energy, cybersecurity, biotechnology, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. These industry sectors give us opportunity for growth as their exhibitions, meetings and conferences grow.

The Economic Outlook

The theme seems to be ‘Growth out of Uncertainty’ as economists are concerned about the trade dispute between the U.S. and China, Canada, and the European Union. The economic and political situation is uncertain in all parts of the world. However, technology could create a more dynamic business world in the future. The global meetings and events industry, which relies heavily on industrial dynamism, could benefit from these conditions.

The conclusion of the report is that although everything changes, everything stays the same. Two photographs are often used in marketing presentations, one taken in the 1900s, the second one hundred years later. They both show queuing commuters, waiting on a platform. The first shows a predominantly male audience, waiting for a train, everyone looking down at a newspaper. The second shows a more diverse audience, in more contemporary dress, but still waiting for a tube, still with their heads down but in this case towards a phone or tablet. This picture describes the changes in our working environment.

Summary

Despite new technology, there is still high demand for live events and face-to-face meetings. Experiences add value to events and leave lasting impressions.

The meetings and events industry is driven by the success of other industries, investments from cities and regions, the growth of businesses, and also by the organisers’ belief in the investment quality of a meeting or event.

There is evidence of dynamism within business, which is good news for the meetings and events industry, as it drives communication, exchange of knowledge, education, networking, conferences, exhibitions and product launches.

The IBTM World Trends Report is available in full online.