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Key findings from the Encore 2022 Winter Planner Pulse
With the world of events ever-changing, staying up-to-date on the latest industry trends is an essential tool for crafting successful experiences. To help ensure your event design, programming and format resonates with today’s audiences, Encore surveys meeting and event professionals quarterly to capture a closer look into today’s event landscape and to maintain a pulse on where meeting event needs are heading.
Read on to learn key insights from our latest survey.
Human connection and engagement are the most impactful values for in-person events
When it comes to the most valuable components of this type of event, networking and relationship-building topped the list.
In-person events will continue to increase with each new quarter
Meanwhile, interest in hybrid and virtual gatherings is expected to plateau, with hybrid events forecasted to make up just 15 percent of all events held from the First Quarter of this year to the Third. Similarly, only 14 percent of all events held in the First and Second Quarters are anticipated to be virtual. This number is expected to drop to 11 percent in the Third Quarter.
Most planners expect their audience numbers to grow this year
This data brings a welcome implication — people are actively interested in physically attending conferences, meetings and other events, making now the perfect time for you to invest more resources into their event design. Get ahead of the curve by ensuring you have the best solutions to deliver successful outcomes.
Six of 10 planners will see budget increases — driven by food and beverage, room rates and transportation costs
DE&I is an important ESG area of focus
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives remain an opportunity in 2023. We asked planners about four major ESG issues to collect feedback on the role they play in event planning. Those issues were: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and local legislation that aligns with organizational values.
Our findings? Approximately half of event professionals (55 percent) view DE&I as the most important ESG area to consider while selecting venues. This research speaks volumes about how event professionals now prioritize DE&I when making critical event planning decisions.
When it comes to selecting a venue, event professionals regard the other ESG attributes in the following order of importance:
- Local legislation that is aligned with organization values (45 percent)
- Environmental sustainability (45 percent)
- Social responsibility (42 percent)
In terms of choosing an AV/event technology partner, event professionals prioritize the following attributes behind DE&I:
- Environmental sustainability (40 percent)
- Local legislation that is aligned with organization values (39 percent)
- Social responsibility (35 percent)
Insights-led meeting planning for more engaging experiences
Interested in personalized solutions that can help optimize your next event? Request a free consultation with our event experts! We’d love to discuss your specific needs and help you develop a transformative experience that achieves your event goals.
As many as one out of every five meetings you plan in 2023 might be hybrid, according to the Encore Fall 2022 Planner Pulse Report. Understanding how to plan for multiple event formats can make them painless to create. Learn how to prepare for multiple formats at a single event in the ’The Dual Event Mindset,’ the fourth section of the Encore Break Free From Conventional Thinking Guidebook. Download your free copy below and discover how to take your dual-audience events to the next level.
Download 'The Dual Event Mindset'
What's Inside:
Learn how to enhance your hybrid events by conquering top challenges
Planning a meeting? Strengthen the power of your programming by incorporating adult learning strategies!
Whereas German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus found people typically retain just 10 percent of new information after one week, adult learning techniques can help combat this ‘forgetting curve.’
Explore how to use these strategies to aid memory retention in ‘Help Participants Learn,’ the third section from the Encore Break Free from Conventional Thinking Guidebook. Download your free copy, and ensure your message leaves its mark long after your next meeting comes to a close.
Download 'Help Participants Learn'
What's Inside:
Use adult learning strategies to help your message leave a lasting influence
Have you heard events referred to as ‘culture keepers’? The events you plan create space for connection and collaboration to spark ideas and change people’s perspectives. In doing so, they can also help strengthen an organization’s culture, which plays a big factor in employee engagement.
Learn how in-person events and elements like immersive technology can create or reinforce an organization’s culture in ‘Events as Culture Keepers,’ the second section in the Encore Break Free from Conventional Thinking Guidebook. Get your free copy below and discover easy ways to incorporate elements that reflect a company’s values, personality, mission and vision into their events.
Download 'Events as Culture Keepers'
What's Inside:
Gain insights into reflecting a company’s values, mission and vision with events
Environmental sustainability is one of the Top 3 attributes most meeting and event professionals look for when selecting venues, vendors and suppliers, according to the Encore Fall 2022 Planner Pulse Report. But are you missing opportunities to ‘go green’? If you’re interested in incorporating more eco-friendly initiatives in your event planning, learn the micro-moments that hold opportunities to be environmentally conscious with ‘Next Steps in Sustainability,’ the first section from Encore’s Break Free from Conventional Thinking Guidebook.
Find smart and simple ways to reduce the carbon footprint of your next in-person, hybrid and virtual events, with a guidebook developed with your priorities in mind.
Download 'Next Steps in Sustainability'
What's Inside:
Key ways to make your events more
environmentally conscious
Learn how to design educational experiences
What attendees hope to learn—your—content remains one of the TOP TWO reasons to attend events. Participants were tuning out of lectures even before 2019. After working remotely for years, attention spans are even shorter. How will you keep learners engaged with your conference content?
We’ve created a guide that walks you through engaging your audience before, during and after your event to help them retain your valuable conference content. Download our free guide, Designing Educational Experiences, for three pages with three core content concepts to captivate today’s adult learners.
More meeting and event professionals are actively booking or sourcing new events now than any time since 2020. According to the Encore Summer Planner Pulse 2022 report, that number represents 71 percent of 461 survey respondents, who represent a diverse swath of corporate, association, administrative, marketing, third-party, independent and special event producers and organizers.
More than half of the meeting and event professionals surveyed say they are booking new events. And only five percent are currently rescheduling or re-booking events — the lowest number since the pandemic began.
Despite rising costs, in-person events are expected to increase in the second half of 2022.
Key survey findings:
- 80 percent of events will have an in-person audience
- 20 percent of events will be hybrid, with both in-person and remote audiences
The demands of keeping these dual hybrid event audiences engaged and planning two parallel events are a major stressor, the report finds. Perhaps that’s why the participant experience is becoming a greater factor in event design, with professionals layering technology over the in-person experience to create events that feel like they are in-person+ — with or without hybrid participants.
When asked how future in-person events will compare to pre-pandemic in-person events:
- 45 percent of respondents said better attendee engagement
- 38 percent of respondents said more networking
- 37 percent of respondents said more attendee personalization
This trend drove Encore to create a free guide to help meeting and event professionals meet shifting audience expectations: Boundless Possibilities for Engagement. The Encore team also offers free consultations on how to enhance the in-person and remote attendee experience.
Other challenges meeting and event professionals say they face include lead times, specifically for large events. Event professionals report that a third of their events for more than 250 people (34 percent) must be organized within a three-to-six month window. Only half of these sized events are planned more than six months out. Most small meetings with one to 50 participants (43 percent) are being organized within one to two months out. Most mid-sized events with 51 to 250 participants (43 percent) are being organized three to six months out.
Want to read the full report? Download it here.
Learn how to practice
radical inclusion
Attendees’ feelings of belonging and inclusion at events are critical for positive recommendations and repeat attendance. When was the last time you evaluated your event ecosystem to recognize and remove barriers to enjoyment? Do your events connect with people in ways they are comfortable being involved in?
This guide will help teach you to be radically inclusive. By mindfully evaluating your event ecosystem you can ensure your attendees feel engaged, wanted and included in your event experience.
Download our free guide, Practicing Radical Inclusion, and learn the strategy and benefits of bringing your attendees together in a positive way.
Learn how to create healthy
event ecosystems
Events comprise multiple components or ecosystems, where different people come together to interact in-person or on digital platforms. How do you know if you have a healthy ecosystem? Do your events promote interaction in a positive way?
This guide will help identify whether your event ecosystem is unhealthy, audit your events, and build ecosystems that are healthy.
Download our free guide, Creating Healthy Event Ecosystems, and learn the strategy and benefits of bringing your attendees together in a positive way.
Learn how to map the attendee journey
Do you know the 5 key steps in mapping your attendee journey?
Learn how to map the customer journey for your event participants and key stakeholders so your event design achieves your desired outcomes. Download our free guide, Mapping the Attendee Journey, and learn the strategy and benefits of attendee journey mapping.