MICE: time to warm up. Lessons from the 2021 Global Meetings and Events Forecast

For those working in a MICE hotel where events represent an important part of your top line, the COVID impact has been huge. Since March 2020, the events business has practically been nonexistent.

A few days ago American Express published its “2021 Global Meetings and Events Forecast”, a 40-page report with useful information for the MICE market in 2021.

Meetings are irreplaceable happenings of our social life, which permit exchanging ideas, fostering creativity and generating innovation. Therefore, this sector is relevant economically and socially.

In this article I will expose the main points from the American Express report.

Virtual meetings

Even if virtual meetings are already possible since many years, the advent of COVID made this technology the only possible way to meet.

Despite the great help to bypass travel restrictions and to reduce costs like accommodation and airfares, meeting planners agree that there are some downsides to take into consideration:

• Technical issues
• Lack of experience
• Distraction in attendee’s environment
• Timing of the meeting due to different time zones
• Technical compatibility of the attendee’s device
• Poor attendance and engagement

This technological solution will survive the end of the pandemic, but most likely in the form of hybrid meetings, which could represent a first step to move back to “in-person meetings”. However, the report invites to consider that “planning a successful hybrid meeting can be equivalent to the work of planning two separate meetings – one in person and one virtual”.

Meeting spaces

Meeting experts are foreseeing a return to real events in 2021 (sooner or later depending on the region). It is therefore important to define the main features they are evaluating in selecting the meeting spaces:

• Health and safety protocols: despite the vaccine, the implementation of procedures to guarantee the safety of clients and employees remains at the top of the list. Suppliers need to focus on a consistent execution of these protocols;
• Know-how of virtual meetings and new technologies: as indicated above, organizing a hybrid meeting could represent the planning of two parallel but complementary meetings. Suppliers who invested in training their staff on the new technologies will represent an invaluable help for the meeting organizers;
• Flexible cancellation policy: COVID taught us how unforeseeable the future can be. Meeting planners need to be reassured that they can make last minute changes without being subjected to heavy penalties;
• Size of the venue: the concept of “social distance” will unfortunately accompany us also in 2021. Even if small meetings will be the first to be reactivated, venues with larger spaces will benefit from the possibility to respect social distance;
• Open air meeting location: the recommendation to use open air spaces to limit the transmission of the virus caused a change of habits. Personally, I was surprised how Mediterranean cultures, like Spanish and Italian, adapted themselves to a more intensive use of terraces also in wintertime. Large brands like Accor, already created “Open Air Meetings” packages to ride this trend.

When and which “in person” meetings will come back?

European meeting planners are forecasting that half of their meetings in 2021 will be “in person”. Obviously, the recovery will mainly depend on the government regulations and the effectiveness of the vaccine.

We can highlight common trends regarding the type of meetings across different continents:

• Small size: first meetings to return will be with reduced number of delegates
• Hybrid: technology will have an increase importance, both in face-to-face meetings to enhance the delegate’s experience, as well as in virtual meetings to mitigate the impact of travel restriction which will still have an impact in 2021
• Regional: once again the travel restrictions as well as the lack of a coordinated interregional travelling approach will push the recovery of regional meetings first

What can we expect in Europe?

The old continent takes position for “in person meetings”, expressing a greater likelihood to return to real meetings than Asia or Central and South America.

Increase of hybrid meetings and decrease of virtual-only meetings will be also a trend confirming the points indicated in the above section in terms of typology of meetings (small, hybrid and regional).

Experts of the sector are expecting a decrease in the total daily cost per attendee and are keen to sacrifice their off-site activities in case of budget cuts. This could be an opportunity for those hotels which offer different gastronomic and entertainment activities inside their property, allowing cost reductions without impacting negatively the attendee’s experience.

Conclusion

I was glad to read that experts are foreseeing a partial comeback of in-person events in 2021 and that all regions agree that potential increases of budget can be used to improve the onsite experience.

Conferences or meetings are opportunities to learn and exchanges ideas. I firmly believe the most important reason to organize a meeting is the desire people have to connect. Virtual meetings can help us to get in contact, but only in person meetings can create a meaningful relationship.