Cvent, a meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider, looks at the top meeting and event trends venues need to know for 2023.
What the next year is going to look like is a question that many across the industry are asking themselves at this time of year. Knowing next year’s trends is vital to preparing your business and building sales. Cvent, a market-leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider, has published an eBook, and here we pick our highlights.
Venue selection influenced by social activism
Now valuegraphics – a more holistic way of looking at a person – matters just as much to planners as demographics. David Allison, a Consumer Behaviour Expert, and his team surveyed 750,000 people around the world and identified 56 shared core human values. Planners can use this information to better understand what motivates their attendees, how to better market to them, and how to provide more engaging content.
In learning more about their attendees’ core values, planners will want venues to help them create activities and opportunities that reflect those priorities. Sustainability is one such priority. A PromoLeaf survey of event attendees conducted by Censuswide found that 85% of respondents prefer or strongly prefer attending conferences with sustainable practices. Also, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, travel accounts for approximately eight to 11% of global emissions. To prioritise green, eco-friendly initiatives planners should look to digital transformation, especially the ability to produce a hybrid (virtual and in-person) event. This approach to meetings can help planners reduce the environmental impact of their events. Experts say that hybrid events enable an ideal mix of positive interactions between attendees at a lower impact to the environment.
Focus on health and wellness activities
The Global Wellness Institute (GWI) projects a 21% annual growth rate for wellness tourism through 2025 – this means an increased interest in spas, thermal/mineral springs, sustainability, and mental wellness.
Katherine Johnston, GWI Senior Research Fellow notes that: “The pandemic has brought new shifts and a global values reset. Wellness now means far more than a facial or spin class, with a growing focus on mental wellbeing and the importance of work-life balance, social justice, environmental sustainability, the built environment and public health.”
For event venues, highlighting local wellness amenities like a bathhouse, farmer’s market, or spa can attract more planners who are looking to treat their attendees to a few days of mindfulness. Wellness can be in the smallest of details from the lighting to the temperature of meeting rooms and swapping out high sugar snacks for healthier alternatives.
Virtual reality no longer just for video games
Some would say that the metaverse has already begun for event planners as many hotels now provide 3D tours of their property. Melinda Burdette, Senior Director of Events at Meeting Professionals International said: “The opportunity to give someone a virtual tour or do more than just a video has become the standard if you want to sell a planner on a property they aren’t able to visit. From the planner perspective, VR is going to enhance the ability to see what a property has to offer.”
However, this doesn’t spell the end for in-person site visits. Burdette explains: “You’ll never get away from an onsite visit, especially for larger events; VR allows for real-time brainstorming and visualising and seeing what you can do with the space from a remote location.” As new technologies such as VR/ AR roll out, event professionals will want to integrate these powerful tools into their programmes to build their events and reshape the experience. When VR technology becomes available at the sourcing stage, planners will have access to world-class venues across the globe, right from the comforts of their offices or homes.
AR can help onsite to toggle between room layouts, add stages, and switch up the floor plans more quickly so that venues don’t have to set up and tear down equipment each time. VR/ AR has the potential to change the way event professionals source venues, plan events, collaborate with onsite staff and engage participants all over the world.