Vanessa Cotton helps the meetings industry understand its own value

Reed Travel Exhibitions recently announced a joint project with MPI which consists in analising “the value of meetings”. Behind such a general phrasing is something essential for an industry which has always lacked understanding about its own mission, its own accomplishments. What is it about? According to Vanessa, the idea is “to equip meeting professionals with the language and the tools to convince their senior executives about the value of what they do. Surprisingly, as Vanessa reminds us, our industry was not equipped to explain how meetings deliver value and return on objectives. Headless chicken? Something like this. The project will lead to results and conclusions being announced in June 2011.

Crisis in the trade show industry? According to her, People are cutting back on the events they attend, and focus on the events that truly deliver them value. “We make sure if people come to our shows, they get value for their time”, in terms of contacts, education, connexions. Anyway trade shows are evolving, especially from being a one-off event to offering connexions way before and after the physical event, which is done thanks to online tools, but also connecting with local association chapters.