DALLAS (February 3, 2022) - Meeting Professionals International (MPI), the world’s largest meeting and event industry association, has published its Winter Meetings Outlook a future-focused quarterly report that identifies new trends and innovations. The publication allows planners to budget and plan accordingly and ensures a strong foundation for building sound strategies that keep businesses on paths to success.

A balancing market reveals signs of positive things to come—such as growing budgets and anticipated live attendance—however, complications such as the shifting desires of humans emerging from various degrees of societal lockdown as well as a lack of qualified staff/applicants in many meeting and hospitality roles continues to challenge industry professionals.

• The “great resignation” continues to impact the meeting and event industry, with 60% of respondents indicating difficulty finding suitable staff—that’s more than double the percentage of respondents who said the same last summer.

• 82% of respondents project favorable business conditions over the next year, back up to the level seen in the spring 2021 survey.

• More than 50% of respondents currently or soon plan on requiring proof of vaccination for staff, contractors and in-person event participants.

• The percentage of respondents anticipating favorable live attendance over the next 12 months is at 75%, almost matching the all-time high seen in the summer 2021 survey.

“Following an omicron-fueled dip in positive projections last quarter, our most recent Meetings Outlook demonstrates positive indicators in a number of areas including increasing optimism in projected in-person attendance and budget," said Jessie States, Vice President of MPI Academy. “Fewer meeting professionals are expecting increases in digital or virtual attendance (down 41% since this time last year). Unpredictability continues to impact the buyer-seller balance in the marketplace. The biggest challenge continues to be employment, with 37.5% of organizations reporting that they are hiring full-time staff and 60% saying they are having problems filling roles. The implications of this are steep for an industry anticipating recovery—and an MPI focus this year will be helping organizations create and cultivate workplace cultures that attract and retain critical staff.”

Meetings Outlook presents future industry trends and predictions from MPI members. Research is conducted in house using the Qualtrics survey platform. The research is conducted quarterly and provides current business conditions and future outlooks.

Meetings Outlook is developed in partnership with IMEX Group. The full report can be found here: https://www.mpi.org/docs/default-source/meetings-outlook/meetings-outlook-winter-2022.pdf