Meeting Trends for 2018

By
Infinix
January 10, 2018

A few meeting trends to watch for this year

Surprisingly, 2017 flew by at warp-speed and now it is time to explore meeting trends for 2018. Being a meeting planner is no easy feat. You must stay abreast of new technologies while balancing budgets, forecasting economic landscapes, negotiating contracts, and providing prompt and meaningful service. As if that weren’t enough, you juggle more than one event at a time while planning for future events; and you do it all over and over again with [usually] a smile on your face. To assist a little with your event planning, here are a few important meeting trends for 2018…

Tighter security and safety is expected

After devastating environmental disasters, like Hurricane Harvey and the California wildfires, and increased global incidents, like Las Vegas shooting and terrorist attacks, meeting planners will take extra measures this year to keep their guests safe and to mitigate possible venue contract issues regarding safety. Venues will be expected to offer closed-circuit monitoring and to possibly provide onsite security. In addition, meeting planners should review contracts to ensure that they are sufficiently covered for natural disasters and/or acts of terrorism and active shooters.

Event space navigating will advance with the help technology

Global positioning systems (GPS), using signals from satellites, do not work indoors. Over the years, there have been many attempts at indoor positioning systems (IPS) to help attendees navigate through meeting spaces and exhibit halls. Google Indoor Maps, for instance, uses wifi triangulation with a position accuracy of about 15-45 feet (5-15 meters). While this accuracy is sufficient for general directions inside a large facility, it is not accurate enough for booth-to-booth navigation in an exhibit hall. Very significant meeting trends for 2018 will include indoor mapping technology through advances in augmented reality (AR) via phone and tablet apps. Google and Apple have been working on the science for years!

Event and venue management software usage becomes more prevalent

Hotels and other meeting venues are quickly embracing technology to manage events. Direct online booking for small groups (under 50) is gaining in popularity. In addition, hotels and large venues are utilizing onsite mobile apps which allow meeting planners to request and track support requests (tech support, climate control, food/beverage orders, etc.) during their events.

Survey Says…

Successful Meetings recently held a survey of its members to gage the top meeting trends for 2018. According to respondents, the top concerns of meetings and events professionals in 2018 are:

  1. provide quality meetings on limited budgets
  2. managing safety and security risks
  3. creating compelling meeting content
  4. providing ROI for meetings

The obvious overall concern is value. That is not unique to 2018. Planners have always strived to provide memorable yet productive and beneficial experiences for their guests and sponsors while keeping costs down and increasing net revenue. The meeting trends for 2018 discussed above will hopefully help in those respects.With Infinix Global as your meeting/event partner, you’re sure to experience an industrious new year!

Stay In The Know

Get exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox!
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.