IACC releases 2022 Meeting Room of the Future report

IACC, the global association representing mid-size meetings and conference venues, has released its 2022 Meeting Room of the Future Barometer report. The report collates industry insights and data on the recovery of the global business events sector with IACC members’ experiences, opinions and concerns related to the industry. The report shows the meetings and events industry’s recovery continues on a positive trajectory, with venues reporting continued growth in event volume levels. Two-thirds of respondents reported recovery to above half of 2019 volume and one-third reported having surpassed a recovery to 80% of 2019 volume. The research also shows that residential meeting venues are recovering faster than non-residential venues, especially in Europe, where one quarter of residential venues have surpassed pre-pandemic volume levels, compared with 9% in the Americas. Since the last survey in April 2022, the percentage of venues planning to invest in conference and meeting room spaces has increased to 70%, from 65%, with public spaces the next highest priority. When asked about changes they had seen in the adoption of hybrid meetings in the last six months, the most noticeable shift reported by respondents was hybrid elements being added to events at short notice, to accommodate remote speakers. This was more common in the Americas (73%) than in Europe (48%). Similarly, the need for hybrid to be added at the last moment because of travel issues for attendees was almost twice as common for North American venues (60%) than for European venues (31%). Sustainability continues to increase in importance. The report shows that ESG policies are a higher priority for event planners in Europe than in the Americas, with European venues almost three times more likely to receive requests for their social responsibility credentials and twice as likely to receive requests for their environmental policies. The same is true for requests for carbon measurements, with 21% of European respondents receiving noticeable requests from clients to provide the carbon footprint to run meetings at their venues, compared with 6% in the Americas. The survey was conducted in October 2022 and includes responses from 98 global venue operators.