As we come to the end of 2022 and look ahead to next year, it’s clear that the meetings and events industry is in a better place than it has been since the start of the pandemic. In many ways, this year turned out to be the solid return to form that the industry had hoped that last year would be.
However, the recovery has not been easy as eventprofs grapple with new challenges such as inflation, and these obstacles may continue to limit the industry’s recovery in the near term, according to MPI’s latest Meetings Outlook report from Fall 2022.
Rising costs, specifically, are certainly a growing concern for eventprofs — 53 percent of respondents to this latest survey, which includes both planners and suppliers, indicated that they are preparing to deal with inflation and/or a potential recession, compared to 40 percent in the summer report. “Price hikes have hit virtually every area of the industry,” the report reads, “adding pressure for planners in a business landscape that 64 [percent] of all respondents—planners and suppliers—see as a seller’s market.”
The vast majority of respondents, 78 percent, are looking for new revenue opportunities to offset economic difficulties, up from 34 percent over the summer. The percentage of eventprofs utilizing other methods — including stockpiling cash reserves, hiring contractors instead of full-time staff, and limiting business travel — has also increased since last quarter. Only one strategy, eliminating/reducing benefits, is now slightly less popular.
Budgets and staffing will continue to present challenges for planners who are ready to get back to business. Over half of respondents (65 percent) indicated that they expect their budgets to increase next year, but that won’t necessarily lead to more purchasing power if costs remain exceedingly high.
Additionally, a significant portion of eventprofs (62 percent) are still finding it difficult to fill open positions — while this is somewhat encouraging and represents a slight decrease from the summer’s results (69 percent), it is a stark increase from this time last year, when 37 percent were having trouble hiring.
However, there is another year-over-year metric that provides some good news: 32 percent of respondents to MPI’s fall survey said their business is back to pre-pandemic levels, up from only 3 percent in fall 2021. Notably, the percentage of eventprofs who don’t expect to achieve these levels before 2024 or later (37 percent) has also increased compared to last year (22 percent).
In the current environment, the outlook for the industry is neither all good nor all bad. Meetings and events are solidly on the path to recovery, but the path hasn’t been a smooth one, and eventprofs will likely be dealing with these post-pandemic challenges through next year. Thankfully, the pandemic has also changed norms around virtual and hybrid options and has trained eventprofs to be uniquely qualified to handle ongoing challenges.