First european pulse survey on events white paper 2016

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This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance

White Paper

October 2016

Produced by

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What you will find in this white paper This is the background to the study that Concomitance Consulting carried out among more than 300 meeting planners in the top three European markets: France, Germany and the United Kingdom. This study laid the foundations for the white paper that we are offering to share with you. You will find a summary of the study's main findings, the salient points of the French, German and UK markets, and a benchmark of MICE practices among hotel groups. This document represents an executive summary of the information collected. A broader summary is actually available. We will do our utmost to address any remarks and comments, as well as respond to any enquiries.

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SALIENT FACTS

This inaugural intelligence report on the practices and trends in the European MICE market begins with the following observation: the European market is fairly stable, with forecasts indicating that the market will be balanced in 2017, insofar as the vast majority of organisations are planning to develop their business in both their domestic and European markets. Companies therefore seem to be adopting a rigorous approach, despite certain disparities between Europe's top three MICE markets.

Companies choose their events in a bid to achieve three objectives:

• manage day-to-day activities,

• drive business development,

• generate awareness and image.

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This suggests that MICE is not exclusively confined to organising conventions and incentives, but also includes internal meetings, training, management seminars and executive committee meetings. 68% of events are attended by fewer than 30 participants, and companies hold an average of 200 events a year (varying significantly between a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 400).

19% of companies organise virtual events, meaning that they use such solutions as web meetings, video conferences and conference calls. In this respect, 91% of companies claim to have one or more rooms specifically set aside for virtual events. Finally, expenses are tipped heavily in favour of accommodation, food and beverage and room hire, which represent 42% of costs, with transport accounting for 23%, agency fees for 10% and 25% for other types of expenditure. Note that the MICE market represents between 35 and 40% of the business travel market in value terms.

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FOUR KEY TRENDS

1. Above all, MICE continues to be an in-house affair in the organisation's home country Practices mainly focus on in-house events and the use of company-owned facilities

The overwhelming majority of companies prioritise events in their home country (73%), and 82% of companies manage their own events. The favourite venues are in-house meeting rooms or company-owned sites (52%), hotels (23%) and conference centres (12%).

2. Outsourcing offers true growth prospects

The use of outsourcing is restricted to highly specific types of event, which primarily concern companies looking to generate awareness and image. Events that are outsourced include conferences (25%), incentives (23%) and special events (21%) Note that 10% of organisations outsource internal team meetings, while 20% outsource training. Companies outsource the management of their events on grounds of practicality and the need for professionalism.

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The main reasons include the time saved (65%), greater familiarisation with the venue, top management's decision (58%), professionalism (56%) and the large number of participants (54%). Note that the price comes in sixth place in the rankings. Companies entrust their events to a wide range of providers in the market, with TMCs (travel management companies) and events agencies level-pegging at 60% and 59% respectively, while hotel groups are at 34%. Companies enlist the services of specialised providers depending on the type of event, such as PCOs and venue finders.

3. Companies take a quality-based approach towards the management of their event and how they measure their employees' satisfaction

Companies use a learning curve when selecting the venue as well as criteria for assessing the event (price, accessibility, employee satisfaction and means of transport).

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Participant’s satisfaction is systematically measured: this practice is shared by 77% of companies and is highly focused on the quality of the event and participants' impressions. The key satisfaction indicators are the value of the content in 93% of cases, the professionalism of the event providers (88%), the density of the event timetable (82%), networking (for meeting colleagues and customers) (73%) and activities for improving team building (69%). 57% believe that the conditions at the venue are essential and highly important for raising the bar on professional efficiency. Finally, note that companies have very few quantitative indicators for measuring the actual productivity (11%) of their events.

4. Overall, companies have only achieved a low level of maturity in terms managing the MICE value chain

On the whole, the maturity indicators are low, especially when compared against the business travel sector. 53% have a documented MICE policy, while 41% do not monitor or measure implementation of their events.

In most cases, management of the event mix continues to be decentralised (44% of events are managed independently by each entity). Only a third of companies have a department that is specifically responsible for purchasing and managing events. When it comes to management solutions, there are very few automated management processes (from RFPs through to reporting). The value chain continues to be managed manually or using tools for part of the process (39% of organisations have not implemented a MICE management solution).

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THREE PRIORITIES FOR 2017 The 3 priorities are: enhance participants' satisfaction, achieve a clear insight into expenditure and incorporate digital technologies.

1. Enhancing participants' satisfaction is a top priority for 85% of the companies polled… and safety is becoming an increasingly important issue Above all, companies are shifting the focus on achieving excellence in terms of participants' satisfaction, which involves two aspects: � Provide employees with the best professional conditions possible (60%) � Address participants' safety (48%) 2. Keep a tight rein on expenditure As is the case with business travel, organisations are looking for an overview of their expenditure.

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• 54% of companies want an overview of all their expenditure by cost item, 22% wish to incorporate their expenses into their accounting system, and 15% want the option of assigning expenses based on analytical references. Their expectations are especially high, since the vast majority of companies depend on internal functions (internal finance 79%) for reporting. Furthermore, over 19% of MICE expenses are paid through expense notes, which makes it harder to reconcile data and gain an exhaustive insight into their expenditure. In the absence of a consolidated view of their expenditure, a key concern among companies is measuring the contribution of their MICE policy and calculating the ROI. 45% of organisations wish to increase the extent to which their events contribute to the added value generated by the company, whereas 41% do not measure the return on investment from their events. Only 8% of companies claim to measure MICE's contribution to the company's revenue, and 32% measure the impact of each event.

3. A planned move towards greater use of digital technologies 81% of organisations have already held mixed events with a preference for virtualised internal meetings (69%), training (49%), seminars / executive committee meetings (42%) and customer conferences (33%). 65% of companies train their employees on the use and practices of digital technologies (video conferences and web meetings are a close runner-up to conference calls).45% wish to develop their virtual events in 2017.

Mobile platforms are not yet perceived as an extension or substitute for the current method of organising or managing MICE, unlike the business travel sector. They are seen more as a way of facilitating event management (especially for determining satisfaction and networking).

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OUTLOOK FOR THE MICE MARKET

The structure of the MICE market will crystallise in three key areas over the next few years:

• greater complexity in the value chain,

• superior expertise in analysing and bringing solutions to the market,

• greater focus on managing MICE policies. 1. New decision-support tools

Replicating the example of the business travel sector, new decision-support tools will enable companies to weigh up the pros and cons of carrying out a given event and measure the return on investment. The aim is to determine the extent to which events play a contributory role in the company's development (business profits and participants' satisfaction and safety). To do so, companies will need to be capable of integrating the economic benefits generated by the different methods of interaction (physical vs. virtual) and proposing the most appropriate combinations for making the right budgetary decisions supported by an exhaustive view of their expenditure.

2. Customization with specific components New expertise will also be developed for controlling the event mix and delivering personalised solutions. For example, core competencies will include knowledge of the customer environment and the ability to anticipate the events that will be affected by technology and/or the macro-economic environment. Expertise will be required to determine the effectiveness of all methods of interaction for each type of event (motivation, sales, recruitment, etc.) reinforced by benchmarking tools and best practices by type of event.

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3. Cost streamlining Just like business travel, the MICE market will be affected as companies pursue their policy of streamlining direct and indirect costs. These demands will prompt the MICE industry to forge new positioning strategies. In this respect, events firms will need to reinvent or upgrade their business models to reflect physical and virtual forms of interaction as well as take account of companies' purchasing practices. This situation should spawn the development of end-to-end solutions and hybrid pricing models (cross between TMC and events agency models).

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ABOUT THE 2016 INTELLIGENCE REPORT ON PRACTICES AND TRENDS IN THE MICE MARKET This intelligence report, sponsored by BVA and Airplus International can be credited to the collaborative effort between Concomitance, B3tsi and TendanceNomad.

For additional information or inquiry on this pulse survey, please feel free to get in touch at [email protected].

Methodology

It is based on telephone interviews with 600 people in charge of managing MICE (5% meeting planners, 28% executive or departmental assistants, 47% executives / directors / managers, 20% other) in December 2015 and July 2016. The companies polled include SMEs (25%), mid-cap companies (25%), large organisations (25%) and associations (25%) in the three main European markets (France, Great Britain and Germany) with a MICE budget in excess of €180 million.

Credits: the icons used in this white paper are taken from The Noun Project collaborative icon

sharing platform and were created by Ema Dimitrova, Olivier, Creative Stall, Frederick Allen and

Gerard Wildmoser.

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About Concomitance Concomitance, a brand of B3tsi, is specialised in marketing and sales consulting. Concomitance is an independent consulting firm specialised in management and strategy. We focus on two levers of value creation built on customer experience: marketing and sales. Since its establishment in 2002, Concomitance has stood out in terms of its capacity to transpose commercial and marketing issues into action plans which are immediately effective and comprehensible to all players. This capacity is a direct result of Concomitance's DNA: the prior business experience of our consultants allows us to formulate recommendations and share them with our clients in line with the maturity of their organization.

Concomitance Consulting 3 rue de la Grange Ory – 94230 Cachan – France Follow us on Concomitance.com or SlideShare

Contact for this white paper: [email protected]

First european pulse survey on events white paper 2016

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