In a recent survey of 989 full-time and ad-hoc event coordinators by AV and production firm Encore, 52 percent say that their meetings in the second half of 2022 will be exclusively in person, while 25 percent say they will be hybrid and 23 percent say they will be fully virtual.
However, only 32 percent of those in-person and hybrid events will require on-site participants to show proof of Covid vaccination, a notable drop from the survey three months prior that found 48 percent of 2022 events were slated to require vaccination proof. Another 39 percent of events will come with a recommendation that participants be vaccinated, while 31 percent will have no reference at all to vaccination.
Further, only 41 percent of respondents say that their total meeting spend will most likely return to 2019 levels by the end of 2022, versus 46 percent who said so three months before.
As for the environment of in-person meetings happening later this year and beyond, respondents noted several changes compared to pre-pandemic business gatherings. For instance, 36 percent say that their in-person audiences will be smaller, while 28 percent say that their remote audiences will be larger. What’s more, 29 percent say their events will aim for better attendee engagement and 25 percent say there will be more opportunities for attendee networking.
The full survey results can be found here.
