Collective agility

The interview insights, together with desk research, a student essay competition and the results of a global survey, which gathered feedback from 765 respondents in 68 countries on six continents, were analysed to produce the final Power of 10 Report. The study was sponsored by IMEX´s partners in Germany – Messe Frankfurt, the Frankfurt Convention Bureau, the German Convention Bureau and CPO Hanser – together with researchers, Fast Future Research.

Three dominant themes The study identifies three main themes that look set to dominate the decade ahead and therefore hold the key to success for the industry and those companies, associations and destinations that serve it. The three themes are:

– An uncertain global economic outlook and the challenges presented by hard to predict macro-economic shifts;

– The rapid availability and penetration of new technologies, whose quality, cost and diversity are touching every aspect of our lives; and,

– The everyday reality of shorter and faster business cycles. Many other industry sectors are currently wrestling with similar challenges. However, for the meetings industry, these challenges raise specific and sometimes fundamental questions which must be faced quickly – and faced collectively – if the sector is to fulfil its highest potential as a universally respected and strategically valued business tool.

In a snapshot from the global survey findings on key factors shaping the industry´s next decade, 71% expect global economic uncertainty and instability to have an impact across the sector worldwide.

A further 49% believe we will start to experience the impact of improvements in the quality and cost of technology alternatives to live meetings.

In addition, shorter and faster business cycles are expected to play a significant role by 47%, while 46% anticipate growing political and economic influence coming from Asia.

The need to rethink the event experience

There is a very clear expectation that the industry will need to undergo both evolutionary change and more radical transformations in a number of areas if it is to keep pace with developments taking place in client sectors.

The report addresses specific findings and recommendations for corporations, associations, venue owners, hotels, convention bureaus, agencies and industry service providers.

In order to both improve its resilience against economic shocks and address competition from the growing range of communication and knowledge sharing alternatives, the research reveals a strongly-held view that the live business events sector has to demonstrate and raise the perception of its value to those involved. 91% of respondents agreed that