Surveys Say Industry Is Stabilizing

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 10/16/2006

Last month, two annual reports, EventView and Communications Industry Forecast, indicated the events industry is relatively healthy.

The fifth annual EventView survey, co-sponsored by the Meeting Professionals Intl. Foundation and event marketing firm George P. Johnson Co., stated the event marketing industry was "stabilizing and showing signs of maturation." At the same time, almost one in four survey respondents (23 percent) said event marketing provided the greatest return on investment of all forms of marketing.

MPI Chairman Mark S. Andrew, president of Andrew Hospitality in Vancouver, British Columbia, said the finding that face-to-face marketing is stable is a relief, especially in light of the multitude of new communication means now available.

"There are so many options for people these days," he said. "If you're stabilizing, that's not to be seen as a bad sign. It's actually a good sign."

Veronis Suhler Stevenson's Communications Industry Forecast 2006–2010 indicates that overall communications spending is on pace to grow at an accelerated rate this year. More specifically, the VSS report showed that spending on branded entertainment, including event marketing, event sponsorships and product placement, is expected to increase 15.3 percent to about $51.4 billion in 2006.

The VSS report also projected that business-to-business media spending would increase 6.3 percent to nearly $23.7 billion in 2006, and that spending would reach more than $30.1 billion by 2010. Additionally, the forecast predicted that tradeshow spending would grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.8 percent from 2005 to 2010, reaching nearly $12.9 billion.