Travel Megatrends 2020: Data’s Breakthrough for Events


Skift Take

All-in-one software doesn’t just simplify the event planning process. It transforms the way planners track and learn from events. How these all-in-one tools evolve is starting to shape the future of the meetings industry.

Series: Megatrends 2020

Skift Megatrends 2020

We recently released our annual travel industry trends forecast, Skift Megatrends 2020. Download a copy of our magazine here and read on for highlights online.
On a fundamental level, the main role of event planners is to simply throw fantastic events. For decades, this has attracted people with strong management skills, often with experience in hospitality or entertainment. An affinity for tech and data, however, was never a key part of the job. Things are starting to change — and planners know this. Digital technology has grown rapidly in the past few years, and along with it, the ability to collect important data. Over 75 percent of job postings for high-profile roles in meeting planning now require skills in performance and data analysis, according to a recent EventMB study. It’s no wonder, then, that all-in-one event management software is rapidly becoming more common. Rather than juggling several tools for planning events, meeting professionals increasingly favor the use of one single tool that can handle the entire process of event planning — from beginning to end. Not only does this simplify the process, it also allows for a much more sophisticated way of collecting and analyzing data. With an all-in-one tool, data is funneled in from a multitude of