Planning and Convention Industries Benefits

¶ … Planning and Convention Industries

BENEFITS AND LIMITS

Trends in Event Planning and Convention Industries

Event management is a professional field, which involves the strategic planning, analysis, risk assessment, marketing, budgeting, cash flow planning, event development and other aspects (Van Der Wagen, 2011). Planned events include celebrations, education, promotions, and commemorations (The Entrepreneur, 2011). Examples of celebrations are fairs, parades, weddings, reunions, birthdays, anniversaries, passing bar examinations and first Holy Communions. Education events can be conferences, conventions, meetings or graduations. Promotion events include product launches, political rallies, and fashion shows. And commemorations include memorial and civic events. There are be many more examples of these events, whether business-related, social or any other type. Event planners handle a number of tasks. These include research; design of the event; search for a site or location; arranging for food, decor and entertainment; transportation to and from the location; preparation and sending of invitations; accommodations for attendees; coordination of the activities of the events personnel; hiring employees for the event; supervision of the site; and evaluation of the event (The Entrepreneur).

Trends

Economy is the main driver of trends. Event planners in the U.S. And in Europe highly consider the cost of meetings and incentive travel (Hard, 2011). Increased travel and hotel costs are the major contributing factors in this cautious stance, according to the 2007 Industry Trends and Market Share Report by the Exhibition for the Incentive Business Travel and Meetings or EIBTM. The report studied the supply and demand situation in business events and provided perspectives on current and probable trends in the industry. The report also described the industry as maturing and saw international destinations as potential new locations and facilities for event planners to watch. The report listed the current event industry trends in North America and Europe from the most recent industry data. The top 5 in North America are a supplier's market, hotels, convention centers, tougher budget challenges, and incentive travel. The top 5 in Europe are a supplier's market, convention services, local or regional government subsidies for convention business, top 10 European cities and 8 countries for international events (Hard).

Persistent and increasing demand for air travel, hotel accommodation and transportation in the U.S. raises the level of competition for a limited number of properties (Hard, 2011). This, in turn, increases challenges for event and meeting planning in managing budgets. The American Express Business Travel explained that hotel occupancy growth was slow in 2006, but hotels and resorts have been raising their rates since 2005. Thus, the trend is expected to continue and rate increases moderately. U.S. planners will tend to prefer convention centers in order to control expenses. Every major municipality in the country has built, expanded or improved convention facilities during the last decade. As a consequence, suppliers have also multiplied and competition among them is something for event planners to consider in deciding meeting destinations. U.S. event planners also confront more serious budget challenges. MPI data for 2006 said that 46% of meeting planners expected meetings to increase the following yet 52% of them did not expect a budget increase And the Incentive Federation reported in 2006 an expenditure of $46.1 billion on merchandise and travel. The average budget then was $164,000 and there were 3.6 trips annually with 157 attendees (Hard).

The European situation is similarly a supplier's market with higher occupancy rate but with limited supply growth, leading to hotel increases from 3 to 6% (Hard, 2011). Air fare would increase from 1 to 3%, according to destination and fare class. Europe is slated to be a buyer's market for convention services. Similar to the American situation, local and regional government subsidies for convention business are also increasing (Hard).

Impact

The price of everything is driven by the cost of fuel at some point in the supply chain in the industry (Dosh, 2008). Airline tickets, food and beverage and related items are going up faster than planners can adjust. Hotels, destination management companies, transportation providers and suppliers in general are all affected by oil price increases. Industry leaders say that fares may increase by another 20%. Every penny of increase in oil price exacts an extra $1 billion a year from consumers. Smith Travel Research, however, reported a leveling off of increased hotel rates because of reduced leisure demand and weakening of corporate travel (Dos).

High fuel costs indirectly affect food and beverage costs (Dosh, 2008). Transportation expenses also go up for shipping food items. Farmers who divert land for planting crops intended for ethanol production are likewise raising their prices. Planners try to address the prince increase in food by paring down menus, pre-determining the number of servers per meal and choosing a complete meeting package or CMP, or getting a discount by opting for the day's menu. To reduce on transportation expense, some event planners schedule fewer pick-up locations, negotiate a fuel surcharge formula as oil price go up. They also negotiate for ancillary charges or free value adds, flexible attrition fees and later cut-off dates with suppliers and room upgrades in hotels (Dosh).

Ethical Issues and Implications

Ethical situations, which often develop, include gifts or kickbacks in connection with commission procedures, bookings at venues and subcontracting (Van Der Wagen, 2011). Confidentiality of information, such as client databases and those of celebrities, overbooking and overprices are other ethical issues (Van Der Wagen).

Ethics has become a sensitive matter in the event and convention industries. Ethics may be intentionally or unintentionally violated. Present-day event planners cannot avoid such situations for which they need a personal, professional and corporate code of ethics in drawing the acceptable line of behavior (Allen, 2004). Employers with a high moral sense want to be sure that their employees are beyond reproach. For their part, employees do not want to be thought of as negotiable for a lunch, a gift or a getaway weekend enticement. They would not want clients to perceive the selection of a particular destination on a personal basis but because it is the right choice for the client. The same philosophy goes for selecting a given venue, hotel, airline and industry suppliers, such as caterers, decor companies, entertainers, photographers and rental agencies (Allen).