Following two years of a global pandemic, the world continues to experience lingering aftereffects, and although 2022 has seen a lot of progress when it comes to the recovery of the events industry, it hasn’t quite turned out to be the unencumbered comeback that many expected.
MPI recently released its Summer 2022 Meetings Outlook Report, which reflects many of the challenges facing eventprofs, including rising costs and the threat of an upcoming recession. Costs are rising across the board, for everything from food & beverage to staffing and transportation.
According to MPI’s survey, 41 percent of meeting professionals expect a more than 10 percent increase in F&B costs over the next year. 38 percent and 33 percent expect a similar increase in the cost of transportation and hotel accommodations, respectively. Other services expected to rise in cost include staffing and audiovisual.
Notably, a large portion of eventprofs expect either no change or a decrease in the cost of swag (34 percent) and meeting space (30 percent), likely owing to an increased focus on sustainability and virtual meeting alternatives.
“The higher costs to run a meeting are painful,” one respondent, Darrieux Harvey, director of meetings and events at North American Network Operators’ Group (NANOG), said in the survey. “We have had to raise meeting registration fees and cut services.”
Labor shortages and hiring talent remain major obstacles as well. 69 percent of respondents in Summer 2022 indicated that they are finding it difficult to fill job vacancies at their organization, which is the highest number over the past year — up from 54 percent last quarter and from 37 percent last fall.
In order to content with the current state of affairs, many event profs (34 percent) are getting creative and seeking new revenue opportunities, while a smaller number are limiting business travel (19 percent), hiring contractors instead of full-time staff (12 percent), and stockpiling cash reserves (10 percent). On a positive note, barely any are responding by reducing business or laying off employees.
Despite these challenges, future outlook and projected business conditions remain very positive overall. 81 percent of respondents indicated that they expect favorable business conditions over the next year, which is down from 90 percent last quarter but is still high relative to previous surveys. In addition, 33 percent of respondents expect business conditions to be more than 10 percent better in the coming year.