Latest / PCMA Convene Podcast / Convene Talk: Meetings Market Survey 2025: Insights on AI, DEI, Sustainability, and Industry Shifts
Transcript
- Convene Talk, ep. 92/January 16, 2025 *Note: the transcript is AI generated, excuse typos and inaccuracies Magdalina Atanassova: This is the Convene Podcast. Welcome to another Convene Talk. Today we're diving into one of our most anticipated pieces of annual research, the Meetings Market survey and unpacking what planners told us about navigating 2025. This year's report paints a picture of industry balancing excitement and anxiety shaped by geopolitical uncertainty, budget pressures, shifting attendance patterns and new expectations around DEI and sustainability. From rising costs and AI adoption to the emotional toll of decision making in an unpredictable environment, planners shared insights from what's working, what's, what's worrying them, and what they expect 2026 to bring. So when I first reviewed the data, what stood out to me was that while heavy on challenges, there is also a surprising threat that the results revealed a core group of respondents remain optimistic, adaptive and even energized. They're not in denial, but they're choosing progress over panic. And that was quite the revelation really. So I wonder, when you first reviewed this year's survey results, what stood out to you as the biggest state of the industry signal? Jennifer N. Dienst: I'll hop on or I'll hop in. This is Jen Dean, senior editor. So what stood out to me was something that we noticed was a huge jump from our 2024 survey, and that's that more than three quarters of respondents indicated that organization's business model has changed over the last year. So this 50 percentage point spread, which is huge, we think reflects the organization's agility in navigating all of the current US Administration's changes. So I thought that was quite interesting and something that we showed as one of the top drivers for organizations is this shift towards data and, or ROI driven decision making, which was cited by more than half of respondents. I also thought that was maybe could point to why planners are feeling so uncertain, which was another takeaway from the survey. We found that more than half of respondents feel optimistic or confident about the work. More than one third say their outlook really depends on the day. And actually a few planners that I spoke with directly told me about, you know, anecdotally that they are, they are feeling that and depending on, you know, where they are, they're all across, you know, they're across different sectors. But I got that sense from the individual planners that I spoke to as well. So that's what stood out to me the most. This, this kind of continuing sense of uncertainty somewhat owed to political instability that's still continuing to really weigh heavily on event planners. And it's affecting how they make decisions. And they're, and they're Changing business models. So, yeah, that was my, my biggest takeaway. Kate Mulcrone: I was really interested to see that the biggest group of respondents have more than 20 years in the industry. I wasn't necessarily expecting that. And I wonder, I wonder if it colors the other results in ways that, that we aren't really able to break down. As if, like for example, when we asked about using AI, we only saw a small jump between 2024 and 2025. But perhaps that's because fully 40% of our respondents have. Let me go back to the data in front of me. I'm not going to try to do this off the top of my head. Barbara Palmer: The data thing is super fascinating and I think it's really pointing to a widening divide between planners, that there are planners that I think it said like 65% of planners use AI. And I think 57% of the people that said they changed their business models, that was 57% said that was one way is data and ROI. And I reached out to Timothy Simpson. He's a creative consultant. He's worked at Merits for a long time. And he just really, I think, put his finger on what is different for people that have the capacity and the skills to use AI. He said that they are really getting these robust pictures that go far beyond just basic demographics. He didn't use this language, but I paraphrase it as how different segments have acted and how they've changed. And so just a really complex, nuanced, I would say, rather than complex and nuanced view of how participants respond to different things. And he also talked about the fact that it slows decision making down. And I feel like the divide is maybe between people who have the resources and the know how, as I said, to gather that data and analyze it. And if it is slowing down, you know, these bigger firms, if that's a problem, just think how much it would be for a smaller firm organization to kind of wade through that all on their own. So like, when you talk about opportunities, I feel like there's such an opportunity for organizations to gain knowledge and skills about how to use that most efficiently and what to look for. So I thought that was super interesting. Here's something that I thought was really interesting is that, is that about half of the respondents had a formal policy about AI. And I feel like that further points to this kind of divide. You know, that some people are really getting on board and some aren't. Kate Mulcrone: Kate, I'm glad that you mentioned the AI policy. I've really feel like that's a higher number than in, like, the general business world. And I almost would love to follow up on that with people because you have to think that something might have happened to make them have a formal AI policy so quickly. And I have found the data that I was referring to before, trying to remember. So 41% of our respondents have more than 20 years of experience, but then 40% have 11 to 20 years. So 81% of our survey respondents have at least 11 years in meeting planning. What's interesting about that is. So that's more senior, right? There was this new study. I saw this in News Junkie yesterday, and it just worked well for a story I'm already working on. So I looked into it. They surveyed around 1400 business leaders and individual contributors. And this was conducted by Boston Consulting Group and Columbia University's Like AI initiative. And they found that the more senior a person was, the more they thought that their employees were really excited and on board about using AI tools. Whereas the employees themselves, even though most of them are using AI, they're like, we need more clarity about this. Like, what is this? So it's interesting to me that our data doesn't necessarily fit with that study data in that our respondents were pretty specific about what they're using AI for. And, I mean, of the people using it, they're using it for a lot of different things, which would lead me to think that they're pretty comfortable. So this is just interesting. Even though, to be fair, I don't think that we asked enough questions about AI for me to, like, make this such a sweeping analysis. I just thought it was interesting. Barbara Palmer: Barbara, I totally agree with you that it would be interesting to find out more about how people are using it. And I'm expecting some data soon about how event professionals are using AI. Whenever there's a new technology, I think it's always the use case that is meaningful to you. And I stumbled across one the other day when I was kind of fooling around just experimenting with labs in Spark. And years ago, we did a story. It was when walk score and walkability was just coming forward, and we thought, oh, wouldn't this be a great story idea to look at convention centers? Which ones have the. The best walk scores, which are the most walkable? And we based it in the United States, and we just really, like, looked at addresses and plugged addresses in to the walk score, and we just did it all manually. And so in this lab, I just asked it to show me a list of convention centers in North America with a walk score above 93 and it was like there was the list. So I feel like, okay, that is a task that I understand how AI can make that faster. It doesn't really make thinking faster. And I'm sorry if I'm getting a little off track, but I feel like this evolution towards using AI for tasks and not thinking so much about it, taking over your thinking is really a key. Kate. Kate Mulcrone: My only caveat with that use case is are you tracking the time that you spent fact checking it to make sure it was accurate? Because I thought about that at least I do that. And I realize I actually can like fact check faster. I mean, no, I can research faster than I can fact check. So that sometimes when I use AI, it slows me down even as I think it's helping me. Barbara Palmer: Right. But I feel like that's kind of, that's kind of a new skill to fact check AI. So we're going to be slower at it, like to learn what needs to be fact checked. And I was thinking about that. Even in the convention center, when we did it manually, we made mistakes, like we made mistakes on the addresses. So you have to fact check humans as well. To get back to the survey, one of the things that I thought was really, it wasn't like a majority of planners, but I thought it was significant that 27% of respondents said that their organization was doing some kind of restructuring. I thought that that was something that was a significant number and it didn't really delve in too deeply about what that restructuring was. But it certainly did catch my eye. Kate Mulcrone: That's a really interesting point. And I wondered if that's part of this trend. I don't know if other people have heard of this called forever layoffs. Maggie knows what I'm talking about, but. So it's basically just this idea that since the tech layoffs started in like 2022, some companies are just constantly restructuring and like it's not even announced anymore. But I don't know that that is affecting the events world in the same way. Maybe it is. I was relieved to see though, that in the AI section, very few people reported lower headcount because of AI. So that was something. But yeah, I think that part of the overall environment of precarity that's like a recurring theme in the results is like restructuring, lack of clarity around policy. And then of course, what Jen said first at the top of the hour, the business model thing. So, yeah, I think it's really important to point that out. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, I had to laugh when you said forever layoffs just because I think there may be something like that in the events industry. I don't think it's official. I don't think it will ever be official, but I think there is something there. And I was surprised to see you surprised of only 50% having an AI policy, an official AI policy. And the reason why is that when I recorded the AI season on the podcast, which started at the beginning of 25, every one of my guests was saying the same thing over and over. You need to have an official policy in your company to guide every employee on how to use AI and to protect all the data that's being held by the company. Because if there's no official policy, and I don't think it should come from an issue, but it has to be proactive just because we all deal with a lot of sensitive information. And without these guidance, many employees can very simply input it into ChatGPT or other tools, and they can use it with a free version where there's no protection. So that's why all my guests were really sounding the horn and they were like, please, please, please have official guidelines. Buy the company PAC that protect your data. They don't leak it out into the world, into the Internet. And they don't, you know, oftentimes if you upgrade your package as a company, actually you're not training the AI in general. So that's an important point to, to be made. And I'm. I was surprised, actually. I was surprised in a bad way to only 50% having artificial policy. I was like, oh, shoot, I hope more event planners actually go the other direct direction next year. We see, I don't know, sixty, seventy, hundred. Barbara Palmer: Yes. And I think this is like a great place for me to remind myself that correlation does not equal causation. But I feel like it does further point to that maybe a divide that's emerging between organizations that are using it for things more than tweaking copy or writing copy. And to do some of those analysis, like finding segmentations and really using it to dig into the history of their event, My attention was drawn to the fact that 40% of respondents said that they were having smaller or more localized segmented events. And I thought that was a pretty significant number. And I wondered if that was because AI is showing them that there are segments of their audiences and participants that are particularly interested in topics or, you know, if they're. I don't know. I thought. I thought that's another thing that looks like it would be interesting to see what's driving that. You know, like one of Those things. Like you'd say everyone always knows that networking is so valuable, but it keeps being rediscovered again and again about what it means and how it should be and can be a part of events to get the most engagement. So I think that was a really interesting, kind of an unexpected thing to me that 40% of respondents were having a change to their business model was to have smaller or more precise events. I thought was super interesting. Magdalina Atanassova: I would think that that's because most of our respondents were associations based out of the US or North America. I would attribute this change to who organizes those kinds of meetings rather than something else. I don't know. Maybe there is also another point to be considered that we're missing. And just because we ask so many questions, I think sometimes we can't really dig into specifics. But I would actually attribute it more to that rather than what AI is telling them to do. Barbara Palmer: But they're saying like it's a change in their business model. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, yeah. Again, it's like it's a little bit of a guesswork. Barbara Palmer: Yeah, it is. Total guesswork. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, yeah. And I wanted to point your attention to one more thing that I found interesting. So the results show that DEI efforts actually have been dramatically impacted by the political climate for some events, for others a bit less. But then on the other hand, sustainability seems to be a bit more stable and proactive in organizations. So do you think sustainability has held its ground? Why actually sustainability has held its ground so well while DEI became more volatile? Barbara Palmer: I haven't thought about that. My thought is that DEI was really rocked by the financial implications of that. Like it was declared illegal in the United States. So I feel like whatever that actually means, definitely people are very cautious about it. So I actually felt like, given the extremity of the political feeling around DEI in the United States at the moment, that the US was holding pretty strong on DEI, that they changed, but it wasn't like a total retreat. And I think on sustainability it's a more, I think, broader term than DEI and I think that the numbers are there for organizations. They understand that the people that come to their events care about it. There's just too much investment in it and there's too much at stake and there isn't the same kind of prohibition against it. I know that the administration is not pro sustainability, but there's not punitive actions that can be taken on its behalf. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, that's true. It's a difficult topic. And even though we had some open ended responses and someone said that they're not doing anything related to sustainability anymore. And one of their reasons was just because their attendees don't care. And I wonder. I was really surprised to see that you may be not practically asking for it, but I feel that we as humans now care much more about it than ever before. So I was really surprised to read that. Yeah. Barbara Palmer: And one thing that I'm really interested in in terms of, like, sustainability, like, I know you can dilute terms that they're too broad, but I also feel like sustainability is also a place where the benefits of inclusion come under the heading of sustainability as well. Like, if you understand that the more people you can engage, the more that you can put yourself in the shoes of attendees and understand how it helps them to feel belonging and what the benefits in terms of innovation and markets come from including more people. I mean, I wonder if that could be kind of like an evolution of the term DEI, Because a lot of people that we talk to who are very committed to the values of inclusion and belonging say DEI. Like, that's a term. That's not what we're talking about, even though that's how we describe it. Yeah. And I felt like that was maybe just an outlier for somebody that said we don't care. The comment that I thought was really interesting that said it's not our job, which I thought that was a very interesting comment, because I feel like there is a. There's definitely truth to that. Like, it's not the job of an event planner coming in to try and invent a sustainable event on their own from scratch. So I think the responsibility that venues are taking to be more sustainable and make sure event planners know about that, I think is a really great trend. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah. I hope that it really. It will become everyone's job. No matter in which seat you're sitting. If we want real progress and we are at the brink, we need real progress yesterday. So I do hope of that mind shift in 26. One last question and final thought from all of you. What should planners take away from these shifts, all these shifts that you mentioned? Barbara Palmer: I hope that they take away that they're not alone, that a lot of people share this, both optimism and uncertainty, and that's it. Just that there are other people that are facing the same situation and they're finding ways out of it. And I think that this community, as we've seen, just how many. The people that we reached out to, how generous they were in talking about what they're doing, I feel like this is a community that really shares information. So I would say you're not alone. And there's people are facing these situations and they've found things that are working for them and but they're eager to share them. Jennifer N. Dienst: That's what I was thinking, too. Barbara. Yeah. It seems like a lot of people, even regardless of industry, are in the same boat and dealing with uncertainty and rapidly changing business models. And you know what we see coming down? The political hype and yeah, yep, stay flexible. Magdalina Atanassova: You're not alone, Kate. Kate Mulcrone: The only thing I would add to that is I'm seeing that, but I'm also seeing in the anecdotal quotes that we published, people are confident in their ability to keep pace with the change. I do think that event planner as a career choice, that's like something that you intrinsically have in you're good at rolling with the punches, so you become a meeting planner. So I do think maybe the event space, in addition to being like the physical place where the conversation happens, event planners themselves can be thought leaders in how we adapt to a crazy pace of change. Magdalina Atanassova: That's a great and right. And it brings us full circle back to what I was saying about this group of very optimistic people. They're not delusional. They're just choosing how to look at the world and choosing to see an opportunity ahead and not something insurmountable. Thank you all for this conversation. So the Meetings Market Survey continues to be a mirror of our industry's realities and the pressures and the progress, the emotional complexity of planning events today. The and as always, it's our job not only to reflect these insights, but to help the industry move forward with clarity and purpose. Until next time, this has been another Convene Talk. Remember to subscribe to the Convene Podcast on your favorite listening platform to stay updated with our latest episodes. For further industry insights from the Convene team, head over to PCMA.org/convene. My name is Maggie. Stay inspired. Keep inspiring. And until next time.