What is in this article?:
9 Trends From Planners
1. We’re ready to get rid of the six-inch binder in favor of the iPad.
2. We need to spend time focusing on the younger generation of qualifiers and potential qualifiers out there. What do they want?
3. Availability is becoming a concern, particularly among five-star properties.
4. Hotel bandwidth is already an issue, and is going to become more challenging as attendees and presenters bring more than one device with them, and use those devices for heavy-data downloads such as video and PowerPoint decks.
5. Executives are asking more questions about meetings and meeting spending, getting more involved, wanting more details.
6. Increasing airfare has had a huge impact on budgets.
7. The words “luxury” and “resort” are no longer seen as negatives in site selection. (At some companies, in fact, they never were.)
8. Easy access (airlift and ground transportation from the airport) to the meeting destination is becoming more important for some.
9. What can really “sell” an incentive property is access to something exclusive, such as golf on a private course or dinner with a celebrity chef. One planner’s chief executive puts it this way: If they can do it on their own, it’s not good enough.
