If you’re a business-events professional battling rising costs and staffing challenges, but feeling generally optimistic about the future of the industry, Amex GBT Meetings & Events sees you. The company’s 2025 Global Meetings and Events Forecast is out, with findings that reveal a demanding but generally positive outlook.
Amex GBT’s Jennifer Nelson, CMP, SMMC, head of strategic meetings, and her colleague Julie Flynn, director of sales, North America, took the stage at IMEX America on October 8 to discuss the results of the 14th annual report. The industry snapshot, Nelson said, is designed to help business-event professionals “make strategic decisions for the year ahead.
To get a picture of the meetings and events industry, Amex GBT Meetings & Events worked with market research agency Team Lewis to survey 519 meeting professionals across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The findings are also based on interviews with seasoned industry leaders about their views and priorities.Here are some highlights from the report, including predictions around for spending, meeting formats, and technology use in the year ahead. The full report is available here.
Seventy percent of respondents from North America, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific expect growth for meeting spend. Only Europe lags, where just 65 percent expect an increase.
Breakdown: 2025 North American Meeting Spend
7% Significantly increasing
63% Increasing
20% Staying the same
8% Decreasing
1% Significantly decreasing
Top Challenges
While many planners expect to have higher budgets to work with in 2025, that doesn’t mean the increase is sufficient or that it ensures availability at venues of choice. As with the 2024 forecast, sourcing and rising costs are the most common planning challenges cited in the 2025 forecast:
43% Location availability
40% Cost
36% Budget cuts
28% Hotel staffing levels
28% Flight availability
26% Attendee registration
Meeting Formats 2025
In-person, virtual, and hybrid meetings all have strong adoption across the globe, but in-person meetings continue as the dominant format. When asked about changes made in response to inflation and budget cuts, many survey respondents report a change in format. Their two top reactions: “more virtual meetings” and “change destination or lodging.”
In North America, a greater percentage of meetings will be exclusively in-person than any other region of the world.
Formats: North America
68% In-person only
17% Virtual only
15% Hybrid
Formats: All Global Regions
59% In-person only
21% Virtual only
20% Hybrid
Technology Tools 2025
Across the globe, meeting professionals ranked artificial intelligence and mobile apps among the top technology tools they expect to use for executing meetings and events in 2025. As the report notes, “The first waves of technology adoption helped meeting professionals boost efficiency and productivity. The arrival of A.I. offers new opportunities to automate and work smarter.”
How Planners Use A.I. for Meetings: All Global Regions
42% AI-powered matchmaking for attendees and sponsors
41% Content creation
40% Generate creative event themes
39% Track attendee engagement
37% Optimize event logistics
36% Event communications
35% Chatbots
35% Translation
30% Post event evaluation
28% Registration
