Convene CEO Ryan Simonetti Unveils Annual Predictions on Business Travel News Webinar

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Convene CEO Ryan Simonetti Unveils Annual Predictions on Business Travel News Webinar

10/28/2024
Every year, Convene CEO and Co-founder Ryan Simonetti makes industry predictions for the year ahead. Looking to 2025, he unveiled his thoughts on what’s to come for the meeting and event industry on a global webinar with Business Travel News.

In 2024, meetings and events bounced back in a big way, driven largely by an experience-driven economy. In fact, Convene witnessed a 22% increase in demand for events year-over-year. The industry stabilization is expected to remain, with a few key elements impacting the event planning and execution process. Here are Ryan’s top five 2025 predictions for the meeting and event industry:

1. Experience over everything.

The “flight-to-experience” trend will continue well into 2025, with attendees seeking ROI - “return on interaction” - through the exceptional. No matter the event type or size, cultivating a more experiential program will lead to the need for greater production as well as the creation of immersive brand experiences like activations or enhanced F&B.

When ranking the most important event elements, 64% of attendees cite immersive experiences while 43% say immersive design. To address this, 83% of planners utilize experience and entertainment service providers to enhance events and there will be an increase in outsourcing to production companies and creative agencies to bring ideas to life in bigger and bolder ways.

Earlier this year, Convene introduced its own Enhancement Program allowing planners to seamlessly incorporate impactful branding elements, memorable live experiences, and sophisticated A/V and technology for a high-production affair. More than 130 Convene-hosted events have since taken advantage of these enhancements, resulting in a 15% increase in post-contract growth year-over-year. Looking ahead to 2025, the average contract value at Convene is trending approximately 20% higher due to the continued utilization of experiential additions.

2. Meeting planners become experience designers.

42% of event organizers cite elevating the attendee experience as a top priority. The rapid adoption of software and A.I. will automate and streamline manual workflows, allowing planners to focus more of their time on experience creation.

Association Meetings International Magazine reported that 63% of association meeting planners are already using A.I. to help organize events, and that number is only expected to grow. Some of the ways we envision A.I. can help streamline the planning process is by providing a starting point for speaker recommendations or venue selection, development of communications, and general project management. The reallocation of time and resources afforded by this technology empowers planners to dedicate more attention to the creation of interesting, dynamic content and immersive experiences. Not to mention, there is an opportunity for A.I. to foster the personalization of an event experience with something as simple as attendees receiving a custom “choose-your-own-adventure” agenda.

3. The rise of non-hotel venues.

The aforementioned “flight-to-experience” will also affect venue selection. Meeting and event planners will seek innovative venues outside of traditional full-service hotels to create bespoke, high-impact events.

Cultivating an immersive and experiential environment requires a flexible venue partner that is fully dedicated to the events business. In addition to balancing multiple business lines - sleeping rooms, restaurants, events - hotels typically have rigid guidelines around what can and cannot be brought into event space, as well as other restrictions that may prohibit creativity. Venues like Convene, on the other hand, are well adept at bringing a client’s vision to life - for example, we recently hosted “Spotlight Africa” for the Segal Family Foundation where we were able to transform our space at Convene 810 Seventh Avenue in New York City to be designed completely on-theme for the event.

And while 49% of planners are currently sourcing non-hotel venues, 17% expect service levels at hotels to decrease, which will further feed into the growing demand for non-hotel venues. For 2025, Convene is already pacing 123% ahead of what we had booked for 2024 at this time last year.

4. Bringing “local” back.

Local and regional events will account for the majority of programming in 2025. Though destination events witnessed a strong recovery post-pandemic, looming economic uncertainty, rising travel costs, and evolving corporate social responsibility (CSR) targets will see functions return to attendees’ backyards.

While 66% of planners say offsite meetings and events will increase next year, 50% of in-person event attendees report a decreased travel budget in 2024, and there is no sign that this line item will rebound. Coupled with the rise of non-hotel venues, the result is set to be the return of localized events. Keeping events within commuting distance from your core audience - be it via public transportation or by car - also helps maintain a more sustainable carbon footprint.

For large enterprise clients looking to implement a regional event strategy, Convene offers a Master Service Agreement (MSA) program; the program has seen 73% growth year-over-year with clients across the financial services, professional associations, and tech industries all hosting events at multiple Convene locations and in multiple cities.

5. Event strategy becomes a core driver of workplace strategy.

In 2023, Convene predicted the workplace of the future would be a meeting space. With return-to-office more firmly at play, what we now see is that workplace strategy and event strategy are inextricably linked. Hybrid work continues to be the dominant model, which means organizations have to figure out how to maintain company culture; when, where, and how you bring your teams together is a critical part of that strategy.

Internal team meetings are expected to account for 43% of all meetings in 2025, but will not be held internally. At Convene, we’ve seen demand for internal meetings and trainings increase 12.5% over the past two years. This is also driven largely by “flight-to-experience” - progressive organizations are outsourcing more, leveraging expert providers in creating a hospitality-driven meeting, event, or workplace environment as a means of fostering connection, collaboration, and engagement amongst team members.

Cultivating personalized and memorable attendee experiences is the catalyst for change across the events industry in 2025. It will drive the need for more production services, immersive brand experiences, and creative activations - which in turn will have an impact on venue selection, including the rise of independent venues and shift towards local and regional events. We will see outsourced, experience-driven internal events become intertwined with organizational workplace and cultural strategies. And across it all, the adoption of new technologies including A.I. will transform the role of an event planner to experience designer.

Learn more at https://youtu.be/DGXzwBcoiqk.

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