MPI Publishes Winter 2020 Meetings Outlook Report

Meeting Professionals International (MPI), the world’s largest meeting and event industry association, published its Winter 2020 Meetings Outlook, a future-focused quarterly report that identifies new trends and innovations. The report allows planners to budget and plan accordingly and ensures a strong foundation for building sound strategies that keep businesses on paths to success.

Overall, the report shows a healthy, stable landscape with favorable business conditions and an increasingly balanced market that is permitting a greater focus on sustainability and diversity.

Other key findings from the report include:

• 52% of respondents predict favorable business conditions—up 7% in the last quarter.
• For the third consecutive quarter, results indicate a slight shift to a more balanced market. “Seller’s market” is down 6%; “buyer’s market” is up 4%.
• Industry action to combat human trafficking is growing. 27% of respondents say that hoteliers and venues are doing enough to fight this—an increase of 14%, year over year. Moreover, the percentage of organizations with no plans to combat human trafficking is down significantly (10% versus 22% last year).
• Discussions about race and gender in the meeting industry have become easier over the past five years. 43% of respondents say racial discussions are easier; 56% say gender discussions are easier. Only 15% and 17% of respondents cite discussions related to race and gender, respectively, as more difficult now than five years ago.

Meetings Outlook presents future industry trends and predictions from MPI members, including meeting professionals on MPI’s Business Research Panel. Quarterly research is conducted in house using the Qualtrics survey platform to provide current business conditions and future outlooks.

Meetings Outlook is supported in partnership with IMEX Group. The winter report can be found at mpi.org/MeetingsOutlook.

www.mpi.org