Meetnomics

By Steve Dempsey

meet-nom-iks [noun.] Marrying the strategy of meetings with their economics.

Steve Dempsey.

Meeting planning is probably the second-oldest profession in the world, next to prostitution, and is equally unregulated and unappreciated. The Bible is littered with stories of events…and we know somebody had to organize them. Fast-forward 2,000 years.

For the past decade, meeting planners have been clamouring to be recognized for their contributions, get a seat at the table, and get their organizations to understand the importance of meetings and events.

Enter Meetnomics. The conclusion was made that if the economic impact of all the dollars spent by the meetings industry could be measured, we will finally get our profession recognized.

To the credit of the Meeting Professionals International Foundation Canada, we now have a credible economic impact study that proves our industry generates over $70-billion per year in direct and indirect spending.

The problem is, we still can’t answer the question, “Why?” Why do we need that meeting? Why are face-to-face events important? For those of us that have been planning meetings for many years, we inherently know how to answer that question.

But for thousands of planners, they love to get lost in the details of planning the event — making sure the correct slide is displayed and soup drops exactly at 12:10 p.m. These are important details, but they are not the measuring stick of a successful event. If we don’t know why we are holding the event, then how can we claim its success after it’s over?

For 2010, there is a lot of optimism in the industry that we are getting ‘back on track.’ It would be a shame to come out of this recession and not have learned how to marry the strategy of meetings with their economics.

And until we can accomplish this, to borrow a line from Bruce Springsteen, “We are in the middle of a long conversation with ourselves.”

The good news is, you don’t have to figure it out by yourself. Not only will I help you understand how and what ‘strategic meetings’ are, but also how to measure it, too.

Every issue of M&IT, including this one, will give you the tools you need to plan better events…and that’s a promise.

Steve Dempsey is editor and publisher of Meetings & Incentive Travel magazine.