Survey: Most Planners Expect to Equal or Surpass 2019 Mtg. Level Next Year

About 65 percent of meeting planner respondents have events on the books for the fourth quarter of 2021, and 62 percent expect to plan at least the same number of meetings and events of all types in 2022 than they did in 2019, according to a new report from meetings data provider Knowland and global meetings company ConferenceDirect.

The companies between Oct. 1-25 surveyed more than 450 ConferenceDirect meeting planners for the report, titled “The State of the Meetings Industry.”

About 16 percent of respondents said at least three-quarters of registrants to their current hybrid meetings are in-person attendees, while 22 percent said it was between half and three-quarters. About 33 percent reported less than 10 percent of registrants were for the in-person portion of their events. 

Half of respondents said they have a hybrid or virtual technology vendor, while more than one-quarter (26 percent) handle the requirements in-house. 

When it comes to sourcing venues, 32 percent of respondents said they are “very satisfied” or “extremely satisfied” with the responsiveness to their requests. Nearly half (47 percent) said they were “moderately satisfied.” Further, nearly 52 percent said that responding in a timely manner to requests was the most important action hotels and venues could take to increase planner satisfaction. About 43 percent said the most important action from suppliers would be to offer terms that are flexible with pandemic changes.

The top three concerns related to returning to in-person meetings were budget availability (35 percent), hotels and venues staffed to pre-Covid-19 service levels (30 percent) and the method for proof of Covid-19 vaccination (27 percent).

More than half of respondents (54 percent) expect to see higher meeting-space fees, while about 29 percent anticipate amenity-based pricing.