International Association of Professional Congress Organizers (IAPCO), a non-profit organization representing meeting and event organizers, released key facts highlighting the continual growth of its members and the economic impact of the meetings they organize.
Association meetings continue to increase in numbers, throughout the economic difficulties, from 2,153 meetings in 2010 to its current level of 3,111.
Governmental meetings have also risen consistently from 498 to 656 in the same period although still not quite reaching the peak of 707 achieved in 2011.
The number of corporate meetings are slowly returning to the peak of 2010 [3,454 meetings] as opposed to 3,308 in 2014.
Participants managed follow the Association Meetings trend (having the larger share of the participant numbers) and have risen steadily from 2,245,994 in 2010 to its current level of 2,861,416 – a rise of 27.5 percent over five years vs. a membership increase of 12 percent over the same period.
Exhibitions on the other hand rise and fall in alternate years, with 2014 showing a drop of 9 percent in the number of square meters managed.
Room nights however buck the “book on-line” trend with a rise in the number of nights managed of a staggering 45 percent over the previous year. It would appear that the participant is reverting to seeking a service level that was previously offered when managed by PCOs.
Full-time employees, having fallen sharply over the previous two years, have now turned the corner and are starting to rise again, albeit the levels are not as high as in 2011.
This all adds up to an economic impact to the local economy of meetings organized by IAPCO of 4.63 billion euros!
Full survey details can be found here.
