Meeting professionals predict growth. (Meeting & Event Guide Fall 2002).

According to members of Meeting Professionals International (MPI), the $96.4 billion meeting industry continues to recover as predicted earlier this year. This and other industry insights were captured in an MPI Cyber Cafe poll of 820 attendees during MPI's 2002 World Education Congress (WEC) recently. The largest annual gathering of meeting professionals in the world, WEC brought nearly 3,000 attendees from more than 30 countries to Toronto.

The poll confirmed that 90 percent of the 820 respondents believe that meeting industry business is moving forward. Seventy-eight percent said the industry will continue to grow at a slow pace back to normal (pre-9/11 levels), while another 12 percent took an even more positive outlook, saying the growth will be faster than what is currently predicted.

While MPI members believe in the growth of the meeting industry, the majority (72 percent) felt that the financial reporting scandals rocking some major U.S. corporations have impacted their confidence levels in executive-level leadership, investing in the stock market and the overall economy. However, only three percent said they are less confident in their own company or job. Twenty-five percent said they now are less confident in executive-level leadership than they were a year ago, with an equal amount citing lower confidence levels in the recovery of the economy. Another 22 percent are less confident in investing in the stock market, while 25 percent said the incidents have not negatively impacted their confidence levels.

MPI also polled its supplier and planner members separately in an effort to generate educational content to meet the business and professional needs of its membership, and to ensure industry forward momentum.

Kelly Schulz is Manager of Communications for Meeting Professionals International (MPI). For more information, e-mail her directly a [e-mail] or visit MPI's website at www.mpiweb.org.