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With all the unprecedented upheaval in the meetings industry during the past year or so, looking into the future, even just five years ahead, is a daunting task. There are bound to be significant changes that we can hardly imagine today.
Will new virtual technology innovations make some types of face-to-face meetings go the way of typewriters and cassette tapes? Will the lavish sales incentive make a comeback or are perception worries here to stay? How will planners balance the needs of three, perhaps even four, generations sharing the meeting room?
To get some probable answers, Meetings Media spoke with an assortment of industry gurus who have witnessed their share of cycles and changes affecting meetings and events. They are business and marketing consultant Stan Aaronson, CSEP, owner of S M Aaronson Marketing Strategies; demographics expert Maddy Dychtwald, co-founder of Age Wave and author of the new book <>; meetings management consultant Daphne Meyers, CMM, of the Red Barn Group; meetings technology consultant Corbin Ball, CSP. CMP, of Corbin Ball Associates.; and trade show and event marketing consultant Charles Allen of C.W. Allen Group.
As Baby Boomers retire and younger generations move into key positions in the workplace, what impact is this likely to have on the way that organizations hold meetings?
Ball: The Baby Boomers aren’t going anywhere for awhile. Many will not want to or be able to retire. There will be more people working into their 70s, so you will have four generations in the marketplace. This will create a very interesting situation, as the generations process things in different ways.
Cross-mentorship opportunities are being created. Digital immigrants [older people] can help in understanding the bigger picture. Digital natives [younger people] understand new technology and use it in different ways. Millenials are big into it, so these trends with social media will increase.
A new dynamic arises as Millenials come into the workforce and take management positions. They do not respond well to hierarchy. The idea of how you plan and market meetings is changing—instead of everything coming from the top down, it is now bottom up. You will see more participation. The hierarchies are being flattened. Social media tends to flatten things.
Meyers: As the younger generation enters the conference room with us, they don’t want to be programmed all day long. They want more time for networking and interaction. The challenge is that this is a hard thing to sell to your boss–what is this three hours of unscheduled time during the day? People want more time to connect, but the people writing the checks want things to be structured.
Increasingly, attendees want something different. People have a growing expectation of things being customized for them. I can get M&Ms with my son’s name on it, so why can’t my conference content be what I want it to be?
We will see the meeting audience play a bigger role in how the meeting is designed. Generation X doesn’t like to be scheduled and Millenials won’t show up at all—and not even feel guilty about it. When Generation Xers are planning the meetings, the schedules will loosen up. You’ll see more roundtable sessions where the topics are not pre-determined by a committee, but decided by the people in the room. MPI has already tried this, but some people are still freaked out by it.
Will virtual technology have much more of an impact on meetings than it does now, perhaps reducing the size and number of face-to-face meetings?
Aaronson: We will see more hybrid meetings, where there are virtual and face-to-face components. The fact that there are so many people working on a contract basis or remotely from the office is having a big impact on meetings. Increasingly, you will have the in-house people meeting in the conference room, while others are linked into it.
One reason that face-to-face-meetings won’t go away is that you can’t get the same kind of synergy from a virtual event. All five of the senses need to be stimulated for retrievable memories to be created. Virtual meetings can’t do this. That’s why food is an important part of a meeting.
Ball: One of the things that you’re seeing already is the use of video at events, either bringing in speakers or connecting with other meeting rooms, Hybrid meetings, so to speak. You’ll see this more. The look will change. The technology has gotten cheaper to use and is more reliable and accessible.
Virtual technology is not a threat. We’re social animals. People were once concerned that TV would replace the movie industry, and that didn’t happen. Virtual technology and webinars are just other viable distribution methods, not replacements. These tools will be used to help promote additional meetings. The more that you connect with people virtually, it brings out the desire to meet in person.
How will the Internet, particularly social media, continue to have an impact on meeting?
Meyers: The role of technology is changing the expectations people have when they show up at the meeting. Don’t waste my time. Give me something that I can’t read on the Internet or get from a webinar. I flew on an airplane and paid for a hotel, so give me something I can’t get unless I’m physically present.
This ups the ante for the planner. It’s not just about someone talking for hours in a dark room. I see this with my students and with attendees. They want something else. You have to think about things that you can’t do on the Web. You can’t smell, touch or taste on the Web. The opposite side is that the Web and social media open up the whole community aspect. The community begins before you arrive at the meeting and long after you go home.
Dychtwald: Far from replacing face time, I think social media is stimulating the need to meet. I’m finding Twitter to be a great business tool. I use it to promote my books. It’s a great vehicle for communicating with people you wouldn’t have met otherwise, and suddenly you want to get together with them. You can expand your reach and your impact.
Social media is also something that can help take a message and amplify it to the world. For instance, if you’re having a fantastic meeting with a great speaker, you can get an interchange going by putting it up on the Web and getting people tweeting about it. You can reach out far beyond those who are attending the meeting.
Ball: I’ve never seen a faster-rising trend than social media. They are natural tools for associations and meetings to use. Each year is a dog year in terms of Internet time, so things are likely to be very radically different in a short time
Rupert Murdoch said the power has shifted from traditional media empires—the press—and it is now the people who are in charge. Similarly, the power is no longer with the meeting planner; it’s now the audience and the attendees who are in charge. Social media tools will be increasingly used to network and to help build programs. People have the tools to have a bigger say in how events are run. No longer are they just passive recipients.
Allen: With associations no longer controlling information, but rather the Internet, online communications have not damaged face-to-face marketing. This dynamic has only empowered it for those who embrace this integration of unified communications. The days of [trade show] attendees wandering aimlessly through the aisles collecting information are dead and buried. Today’s attendees arrive at shows more informed and with more definitive buying agendas than ever before.
Will perception issues continue to have a big impact on meetings? Is the big splashy sales incentive a thing of the past or might it return with a stronger economy?
Aaronson: Perception issues aren’t about the economy but about competition. The reason that people have cancelled meetings is not about money but out of fear that the competition will spin it against them.
We were going to produce an event in Surinam, but the client cancelled because the competition got wind of it and was gearing up to make them look bad in the press. I don’t see this kind of thing changing. It just becomes more critical to focus on the purpose of the meeting.
Meyers: After 9/11 things returned to normal pretty quickly, but I don’t see this happening now. I think perception will be an ongoing challenge that is not going away anytime soon.
The shift has happened because everything is out there. With 24-hour news coverage and the Internet, you can’t hide anything anymore. Companies are taking a more careful approach because they fear that if they let their guard down, there will be another AIG situation. No responsible company wants that on their watch.
Ball: I’ve been in the industry for 30 years and everything is cyclical. Depending on the economy, things swing back and forth between a buyer’s and a seller’s market. However, there is greater transparency today. It’s not what you say it is; it’s what other people are saying about you.
Some things seem to be permanent changes, particularly the movement toward sustainability and green meetings. The over-the-top nature of meetings should change, too.
Comments (2)
I agree with Stan Aaronson in the fact there will be more hybrid meetings in the future. I produce several weekly teleseminars and video we... Read more
05/27/2010 7:30 AM Mike Ginther
Stan Aaronson is right on about the meetings of the future
Face to face is important. Good topic to keep a very close eye on. Mike
05/26/2010 10:10 AM michaelhartzell
The opinions expressed by users of MeetingsFocus.com are solely the opinions of the contributors, and are not necessarily the opinions of Meetings Media or Stamats Communications Inc. Meetings Media does not verify the accuracy of the information presented by those who provide comments on MeetingsFocus.com.
Original article from May 2010 can be found by clicking here.
Reprinted with permission from Meetings Media. Copyright 2010.
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