Meetings landscape changing with the times. (An Advertising Supplement).

With the first quarter of 2003 almost at an end, the meeting industry faces old and new issues. Critical to an organization's success, meetings are still being planned and held. But with possible war on the horizon, organizations are thrust into a whole new realm of contingency planning and cancellation and attrition issues. Additionally, companies continue to find cost-cutting tactics to maximize return on investment for all meeting stakeholders.

Meeting professionals also continue to monitor global trends such as the economy, declining investor confidence in corporations/organizations and changes t6 the global airline industry. The continued progress and growth of the meeting industry will be contingent upon the stabilization of these global issues in 2003.

Meetings and War

In a recent informal MPIWeb poll, nearly 70 percent of respondents said their organization does not have a contingency plan for meetings and events in case of war. Red flags like this are sure to keep the topic of more lenient cancellation and attrition clauses hot.

Based on 236 votes in a 1/27/03 MPIWeb Poll: My company has a contingency plan for scheduled meeting and events in the event of a war:

Undecided   8%
Yes        22%
No         68%

Note: Table made from pie chart

Cancellation and Attrition Controversy

Despite a looming war, an industry-leading survey by MPI and American Express shows that meeting planners and suppliers disagree about relaxing attrition and cancellation clauses. FutureWatch 2003 reveals that nearly one-third of planner respondents ranked relaxation of cancellation and attrition clauses as the most significant operational trend for 2003, while 15 percent of suppliers placed low priority (fourth out of four options) on less stringent cancellation and attrition clauses. Obviously the two sides must come together on this issue. Future Watch 2003 also revealed a major shift in the way the business of meetings is conducted.

Budgets Still Tight in 2003

Although meetings are continuing, organizations continue to seek out methods of decreasing expenses. MPI found that 47 percent of respondents will maintain strict cost-cutting policies for the first quarter 2003. On the flip side, 20 percent said they will increase meeting expenditure budgets by one - 10 percent and 19 percent will make no changes.

Based on 106 votes in a 1/20/03 MPIWeb Poll: For the first quarter 2003, my organization is:

Planning lower costs
with workforce
reductions                        11%
No changes                        19%
Increasing expenditure
budgets                   1-10% - 17%
Increasing expenditure
budgets more than            10% - 3%
Maintaining strict cost-
cutting policies                  47%

Note: Table made from pie chart

This information was provided by Meeting Professionals International (MPI), the world's largest professional society for the $102.3 billion meeting industry. For more information, visit www.mpiweb.org