Investment in the MICE segment will continue to grow in 2016

In recent years, the meetings and events industry has gone through stages of recovery, cautious optimism to entrenched growth. The latter is the scenario expected for 2016, according to the 2016 Global Meetings Forecast from American Express Meetings & Events, which predicts that the number of meetings and events to be held next year will increase worldwide.

 

These forecasts are framed in the context of the improving economic situation, as well as the trend of business expansion. More than 85% of respondents to this survey say they will maintain or increase their events in 2016. Training and internal team meetings will be one of the types of events that will increase the most next year.

And, according to the experts participating in this edition of the survey, the strategic value of events aimed at boosting employee engagement internally, such as work meetings or incentive trips, will gain more prominence this year compared to other types of events.

Increase in attendees and company budgets

The study also highlights that not only the number of events will grow, but also the number of attendees. In recent years, budget constraints have forced meeting promoters to cut back on the size of their meetings. Now, it appears that this trend is turning around, and on average, only 10% of respondents worldwide say they will reduce the size of events.

The rest say they will either stay the same or increase. As for the duration of the events, this will remain the same as this year, on average, at 2.3 days. Regarding the budget allocated by companies to meetings, it seems that they are going to increase in general, the first time this trend has happened since the American Express Meetings & Events study began in 2012. While not amounting to large percentages, this change in trend is seen as an endorsement by company managements toward the value of events.

Good prospects for Spain

In Spain, following this global upward trend, investment in events will continue to grow, acquiring an increasingly prominent role in companies' marketing plans. In our country, sports and entertainment events are expected to increase by more than 12% next year.

The Millennials, protagonists of optimism

The event organizers and experts participating in the study agree in highlighting the growing power of the influence of the so-called Millennial generation (young people born between 1981 and 2000) in the design and planning of events.

This segment especially values the destinations and locations, those aspects related to corporate social responsibility or the customization of elements as an added value.

In addition, technology continues to gain strength and, among all its forms, mobile apps are emerging as the main tool in the design and execution of events.

The experts consulted underline the importance of this type of technology as a way of extending communication and connecting attendees, in order to maximize the time dedicated to the meeting and create opportunities to increase the involvement of participants.