Steve Bova, CAE, is Executive Director, Financial & Insurance Conference Professionals (FICP). Photo by Tori Soper

The world may be constantly changing but the role of the meeting professional is the same: to bring people together in meaningful ways to collaborate, learn and improve business results.

The 2023 FICP Industry and Perception Study provided some interesting insights into what meetings professionals in the financial and insurance industry and hospitality partners are forecasting for 2024.

First, meetings are back and growing. Meetings professionals are forecasting the growth of business meetings and events exceeding that of incentives in terms of quantity of events (51% growth v. 20%, respectively), as well as the average spend per attendee being higher for business events than incentives (45% v. 38%) in 2024.

Meetings professionals are more bullish than hospitality partners in the expected number of in-person meetings and events for 2024. Nearly half of meetings professionals are expected to plan 26 or more in-person meetings and events in 2024, while a third of hospitality partners are expecting that many events. That discrepancy could in part be because meetings professionals are leveraging onsite spaces at their own companies more frequently rather than going offsite — an emerging trend.

Finally, it is no surprise that limited budgets are far and away the top consideration for meetings professionals. At the same time, hospitality partners are seeing all forms of costs increasing — from staffing and room rates to F&B, AV and ancillary charges — with more than a third noting that staffing/labor costs will increase more than 15%.

With higher costs but lower budgets, the industry recognizes it is time to get creative, deepen relationships and communicate more transparently during the RFP process.

Success in the new year will be furthered through relationships, as well as insights and recommendations of fellow meetings professionals and hospitality partners.

Join FICP’s vibrant community to get a leg up on how to tackle your 2024 events and read more research takeaways on FICP’s website (www.ficpnet.com/industry-research).   I&FMM