Articles tagged “meetingsiq”

Mass personalization, artificial intelligence, and ubiquitous connectivity were three of the big megatrends at CES 2017 this month, which offer significant strategies for new innovation in the meetings and events industry.

Meeting planners have a lot of opportunities to grow as professionals by becoming more involved in business strategy, but meetings industry organizations can do more to support that evolution with better event content, versus promotional and generic marketing-speak.

The three primary trends in meetings in 2017 revolve around the growing convergence of different communities collaborating together, the festivalization of business events, and the role of conferences as experiential brand-marketing platforms.

Destinations are determining the need to focus more on the impact and value of meetings on their cities over the long term.

Using event technology and artificial intelligence to build and customize community engagement is the biggest meetings trend heading into 2017.

When convention bureaus develop their own meetings industry research, it positions them as leaders in event tech and meeting design innovation, and it differentiates them from their competitors. It takes a lot of work, resources, and experimentation to do it effectively, though.

While meetings and events are cross-pollinating more sectors in their programming, the industry at large needs to expand how it defines and measures the value of that convergence.

Meetings industry media, organizations, tech providers, and forward-thinking suppliers are all aggressively experimenting with event technology and digital content. But there are questions about how well the majority of meeting planners will be prepared for the upcoming onslaught of digital-native attendees.

The results of the U.S. presidential election showed us unequivocally that we all tend to default into our own professional and personal bubbles in different ways. Meetings and events have always been a platform to bust out of those, and that's something the industry needs to trumpet more.