Tech meetings are down, but not out. That's the word from a new survey just out from CMI's sister magazine Technology Meetings.
Almost a third of respondents (28 percent) say they plan to hold fewer meetings in 2001, and for the meetings that will go on, 40 percent expect a decline in attendance. An equal number expect a decline in exhibitors.
Technology event planners will wrestle with cancellation and attrition clauses this year, but most are taking the long-term view. Asked to characterize the effect of the economic slowdown on meetings, only 7.2 percent called the situation “very significant,” with another 20 percent labeling it “significant.” More than a third (36 percent) say the economy's impact on meetings is “not significant,” with about an equal number considering the impact to be “somewhat significant.”
Speculating on meetings and events for 2002, two out of three respondents don't expect the number of meetings they plan to be cut any more. Only 8 percent see further meeting cancellations; a third say they aren't sure what will happen.
The attendance slump is predicted to be a bit more intense. A quarter of the survey respondents have downsized their projections for 2002 meeting attendance, while another 18.5 percent aren't sure if they will or not.
The e-mail survey, conducted this May, received 125 responses from a random sampling of the readership of Technology Meetings.