The last week of November saw nearly 4,000 meeting, convention, and exhibition planners gather in Barcelona, Spain, to meet with each other and 2,500 destination and hotel reps, technology providers, and other industry suppliers, at the IBTM World show.
In addition to the educational sessions and exhibit-hall experiences, the show delivered a 30-page report that highlights trends found within the working environments of various global industries. The report connects those trends to the critical role that meetings play in building internal cultures that support the goals of organizations in those industries.
Titled “IBTM World 2024 Trends Report,” the package also features a section devoted to the results from a planner survey conducted by In-House Corporate Events (ICE), an association of internal planners who work at mid-sized and large companies. Among the more interesting findings from that survey are these:
• 52 percent of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with their present salary, citing increased workloads in the post-pandemic environment and the need to rely more on freelancers to assist with programs. Respondents cited freelance rates most commonly between $450 and $850 per day.
• 50 percent of respondents say that their internal stakeholders “struggle to grasp the full scope and impact of event teams,” with many saying that differing job titles for planners across the corporate landscape contributes to this. ICE notes that stakeholders’ struggle to fully understand planners’ scope of work and their value “is a large cause of anxiety for event professionals looking to progress their skills and careers.”
• On the flip side, 71 percent of respondents say that their job resides within the marketing function of their companies, a notable rise from the 55 percent who said that was the case before the Covid pandemic. The report’s authors say that this shift “should be seen as a positive outcome for the long-term future of the [events] industry.”
The full version of the IBTM World 2024 Trends Report can be found here.
