The changing values of attendees

Leading meetings and events specialists recently shared how the post pandemic world is changing the values of attendees and what must be done to help them.

The session, Meetings & Events in a Post Pandemic World: Status Quo or A New Game?, took place on June 8, 2023 at the recent MICE & Luxury Forum hosted by Sands China at Sands Expo & Convention Centre. Panel speakers for this session were Dan Rivlin, executive chair and chief vision officer, The Kenes Group; Maureen Rogers, director, Global Meetings and Events, Baker & McKenzie; and Sherrif Karamat, president and CEO, PCMA and CEMA. Moderating the talk was Northstar Travel Group’s executive VP and group publisher, David Blansfield.

M&C Asia condenses the highlights:

Understanding the changing values of buyers

The Kenes Group’s Dan Rivlin said that last year, 80% of participants came back. His company organises mainly medical and scientific events. Japan and China were out of the game, but this year the company is seeing “incoherence of results” – whilst most meetings are back to 100% or even more than pre-covid, some of the giant European and US brands have dropped 50%. Some meetings are hovering at 50-60% of pre-Covid level.

The challenge is having to understand if clients have changed during the pandemic and re-evaluated their preferences, or whether this is just a temporary pattern. The demand for the virtual part of hybrid meetings has dropped and people are simply voting with their feet. Virtual meetings are considered an extra expense that will be reduced more and more as people prefer in-person meetings, he said.

PCMA and CEMA’s Sherrif Karamat further affirmed Ravlin’s point about the need to understand how values have changed. He said: “We are only starting to realise that, and as we see the euphoria of going back to face-to-face, it is going to be interesting to see how this materialises in the future.

“What I’m seeing is that we are not prepared to change. We are not changing our events, we are not changing based on how people’s values are changing and I think we have a problem.” He stressed that by understanding values, it would make all the difference as to how an event is delivered since delivery channels are completely different from each other.

From the buyer side, Baker & McKenzie’s Maureen Rogers said that when in-person events returned, the uptick started with North America, India and this year, in the Asia Pacific, with executives looking at sustainability as a priority. Decisions consider carbon offsetting. She added that getting the right mix was crucial. “We need to change for sustainability, for wellness and for financials.” One of the goals of in-person meetings is collaboration and strengthening the culture of the firm.

Sustainability in the whole value chain

Rivlin pointed out that whilst clients are happy to go to a venue where there is recycling and sustainability, “nobody is going to pay an extra US$50,000 because this venue has a better recycling or social responsibility that is done here more than in another venue. It is nice to have, but it needs to have a common action and created as a standard so it’s not a matter that it costs extra, but that everybody is doing it, and that’s the cost.”

Karamat shared that in a survey done by his company, almost 92% of European event organisers had sustainability elements in their contract. In North America, especially in America, there was 52% awareness, but only 7% of such elements were included in their contracts.

“What we are finding though, is that the younger consumers of events are very purposeful and purpose-driven, and they are demanding much more sustainable practices. Our industry is focused on things that are not sustainable. We are talking about 10% that has very limited impact on the environment. What we are doing, while it may make you feel good but the impact on purpose is really not good at all, so we have a lot of work to do. I do think there’s opportunity here. The fact is, maybe it is not registering, but morally and ethically, it’s something we all have to come to terms with.”

As for Asia, sustainability is lagging behind, but there are CVBs such as the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) that have taken on a major initiative. “This cannot be handled by just the STB. It needs all the supply chain, the entire value chain to get involved in this. Any step is a step forward…we have to start somewhere,” he said.