Skift Meetings Forum Uncovers What Stresses Planners Out Most

October 2nd, 2024 at 12:42 PM EDT by Barbara Scofidio

Skift Take

We distilled a day’s worth of sessions from the recent Skift Meetings Forum to identify seven of the biggest tension points among planners.

Skift recently brought hundreds of planners from dozens of industries together at the Skift Meetings Forum in New York. What we heard over and over was that, as different as their jobs might be, they were stressing out about many of the same things.

Here are seven of their most common tension points, from tired meeting formats to geopolitics to incorporating AI, addressed that day.

1. Planners Need to Fight Harder

Why can’t meetings be more like green rooms, a place of spontaneity and creativity? Author Seth Godin, the Forum’s keynote speaker, encouraged the audience to shake things up, scrap their least-engaging speakers, and put their attendees into small groups to work out real-life challenges. If the meeting sponsor doesn’t like the idea, he said, it’s the meeting planner’s responsibility to fight for it.

He also showed attendees that tension can lead to positive change: “If you want to make change happen, there’s no choice but to embrace the fact that you’re going to create tension. You are in the business not of being convenient and inexpensive and reliable – because lots of people can do that. You’re in the business of effectively, usefully, intentionally creating tension.”

2. Why Can’t More Planners Be Strategists?

It’s in every planner’s hands to direct the trajectory of their careers, to shift their thinking from getting things done to growing their careers, said Monique Ruff-Bell, chief program and strategy officer at TED Conferences.

You have to be brave enough to gain access, which she used to do by asking to shadow others going to a CEO to pitch an event idea. Her main question was, “How do I get heard by the people who hold the purse strings?”

3. The Upcoming Election Matters

Michael Dominguez, CEO of Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI), and Senthil Gopinath, CEO of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), encouraged meeting professionals to pay attention to geopolitics and be part of the conversation. Major armed conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine and nationalist and protectionist policies worldwide can hinder the meetings industry.

“There’s a little bit of a danger for us that there’s a nationalist movement going around the world, and we already have an argument around overtourism in certain areas around the world. I don’t think that benefits us long-term,” said Dominguez.

4. DEI Has Become a Dirty Word

Dr. Brandi Baldwin, an organizational and leadership psychologist and CEO of Millennial Ventures and social purpose consultant Bea Boccalandro, highlighted the need for more authentic, values-driven inclusion efforts.
“I’m not beholden to the term DEI because quite frankly, it has turned into a dirty word depending on who hears it, triggering some people,” said Baldwin. “It is the values behind the DEI that are important, all going back to building a positive company.”

5. The More Intelligent the AI, the Better the Match

Reggie Aggarwal, CEO and founder of Cvent, admitted his company has work to do on the AI front. However, having access to data is crucial for the AI to deliver better results, especially regarding matchmaking. And this relies on attendees opting in to share their data. The best matches will occur, he said, “when users realize, ‘If I release this data about myself, it will actually help me.’”

6. The Typical Meetings Playbook is Tired

During a session with Nicola Kastner, CEO of Event Leaders Exchange, and Rob Adams, president of Bishop-McCann, the pair agreed there’s no going back to planners’ old approach to meetings.

Organizers need to pay more attention to data — both success metrics about an event’s outcome and diagnostic metrics that explain why — to give attendees and stakeholders what they want. They also need to better understand business objectives to get the budget they need.

“We used to bring people to corporate events and want to hold them hostage for three days. We’d want to maximize every single minute that they spent with us. We cannot do that anymore,” said Kastner.

7. We’re Not Ready for Gen Z

Ken Holsinger, senior vice president of strategy for Freeman, shared his company’s recent research about what matters to the youngest generation with panelists Carina Bauer, CEO of the IMEX Group, and Sherrif Karamat, CEO of PCMA and CEMA.

Gen Z has “trust issues with brands because they make promises they don’t live through with,” he said. He also made it clear that Gen Z will never trust brands that are not perceived as authentic.

But many types of meetings can only change so much. IMEX is creating micro events and opportunities for people to connect, but Bauer admitted that the organizers can’t control exhibitor events.

Holsinger referred to Seth Godin’s comment about green rooms: “But is it scalable? Can you afford to do that?”

Karamat discussed designing more participatory sessions, saying, “They don’t want to see people like us talking to you. They actually want to be involved in the conversation.”

But will they make these changes?

Source: Meetings.skift.com