The Future of Meetings in Hospitality

The hotel meetings and events industry

is going through a radical evolution due to

new communication technologies, Millen-

nial psychographics, and a rethinking of the

overall purpose and value of meetings. Pop

culture phenomenons like TED and SXSW

are also changing the perspective of what’s

possible at conferences, but are meeting

planners and hospitality executives jump-

ing on these trends fast enough?

SKIFT REPORT #13

2014

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By Greg Oates and Skift Staff

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Wildly popular events such as the annual TED Conference, South by Southwest in Austin, Oracle’s OpenWorld in San Francisco, C2MTL in Montreal and others are beginning to influence the traditional meetings industry. Integrating new technology platforms, myriad programming themes and alternative education delivery systems, the meeting of the future is focused on improving engagement among continually fracturing and distracted attendee audiences.

This report examines the evolution of the meetings industry, specifi-cally through the lense of hospitality. According to the latest Con-vention Industry Council report, which tracks trends and collects data across all segments of the meetings market, 85% of meetings in the U.S. are conducted at venues with lodging, generating more than 275 million room nights annually.

The traditional breakout room lecture and theater-style ballroom seating configuration are not going anywhere. However, there is a drive to supplant that with crowdsourced, co-created, hybrid events

Executive summary

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with mobility and technology driving the change. While this shift is still in its nascent stage, innovative meeting planners, hotel groups and hotel conference services staff are developing programs to add new dimensions into the overall meeting scheme.

As is the case in leisure travel, Millennials/Generation Y are driving these systemic changes in the meetings industry with their crav-ing for speedy career progression and connected digital communi-ties crossing personal and professional boundaries. They expect to cultivate as much professional development opportunities for them-selves at business events as they do for their employers, and they’re much more focused on physical/mental wellness and work/life bal-ance than previous generations.

The advancement of technology in meetings is helping to cut costs, improve efficiencies and open new communication channels. Hotels are desperately trying to keep up with broadband demand and fully integrate their front- and back-of-house departments. At many hotels, meeting planners and hotel staff can now manage every aspect of large meetings in real time through cloud-based apps and web platforms.

Social media is another major topic of discussion about how to enhance the productivity and level of engagement in meetings. However, it’s hampered by the reluctance of older generations steadfastly unwilling to embrace it. The rise of multi-generational meetings with three age demographics in attendance at any given event, each with different ideas of the role of meetings today, is becoming a significant challenge for the meetings industry.

With the rise in demand across all age groups for more experiential, authentic and local travel experiences, no longer solely the purview of the leisure traveler, hotels are becoming more integrated with their local communities. This is one of the most wide open spaces for evolution in the hospitality industry, with more immersive edu-cational opportunities and networking experiences offering a strong return on time and investment for companies and attendees.

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Following the freefall of the financial markets beginning with the col-lapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, many corporations in the United States curtailed meetings, conferences and other events re-quiring travel in order to cut expenses. The debacle surrounding the in-famous AIG insurance company retreat in California in the same month had even more detrimental consequences, forever known as “The AIG Effect.” It was based on the mistaken public perception of impropriety on the part of an AIG Insurance department due to gross media incom-petence, exacerbated by the TARP hearings when the government was bailing out financial companies like AIG at 100 cents on the dollar.

The retreat cast a negative public perception on not just “incentive re-ward” travel programs such as the AIG event, but potentially any type of business meeting in any in-demand travel destination.

To defend its practices, the meeting industry started fighting back in early 2009. The U.S. Travel Association, meeting industry organiza-tions and corporate hotel chains banded together to create the Meet-ings Mean Business Coalition (MMBC).

Pushing a branded initiative called “Keep America Meeting,” funded by the hospitality and tourism industry, the Coalition repeatedly met with congress members in an attempt to tone down the rhetoric against corporate travel. Their primary argument stressed the meeting industry’s impact on economic development and job creation.

“By demonizing or sensationalizing travel, all you’re doing is, you’re not hurting the businessman, you’re hurting the bellman, the maid, the town that counts on that travel,” said Roger Dow, President/CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, in 2009.

The industry began to recover in late 2012 in line with the global eco-nomic recovery. According to the 2014 Meetings Forecast by American Express Meetings & Events, hotel group rates are expected to continue to rise in 2014 between 3-5%, as they did in 2013, across all world-wide regions except Europe, which remains flat.

Introduction

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The report also states, “Meeting experts have noticed that the major hotel brands are becoming more focused on their meeting sales,” with overall corporate, association and government meeting spend holding steady. In North America, 90% of respondents polled expect meeting budgets to fluctuate no more than 5% in either direction.

During the last five years, the meetings industry was forced to reeval-uate how it conducts business and rethink how it drives results during a period of drastic economic volatility and unprecedented changes in technology. Above all else, leaders in the industry never want to be placed in a position again to have to defend the purpose of their in-dustry. That is what’s driving the diligence paid to measuring meeting spend and empirically proving ROI, while redefining the very mean-ing of ROI as it applies to overall meeting objectives.

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Table of contents

About Skift

Skift is a travel intel-ligence company that offers news, data, and services to professionals in travel and professional travelers, to help them make smart decisions about travel.

Skift is the business of travel.

Visit skift.com for more.

Executive Summary 3

Introduction 5

Legitimizing meetings (again) 8

Q&A with SVP of group sales/industry relations at Hilton Worldwide 9

The evolution of event technology 10

Technology driving the planning 11

Tech vendors 12

The rise of web-based meeting platforms 13

The rise of the hotel meeting website 14

The Pinterest planner 15

Getting serious about Wi-Fi 16

REN Meetings 17

A network of networks 17

Tech trends from Dave Nostrand, VP of sales, the Americas for Marriott International 18

Deconstructed meetings 18

Family meetings 19

Next generation strategy planning 20

Economic impact of meetings 21

The rise of outdoor events 21

Unique and small spaces 22

9 takeaways for smarter meetings 23

Further Reading 26

About Skift 27

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