Cameron Roberts chats to Karla Pearce about Cvent’s industry report, which maps the pain points for planners across Europe.
The events landscape is in a constant state of flux, with new formats, technologies, businesses and trends impacting what’s hot among organisers. Seeing how you stack up against the competition is imperative to continuous development of an events strategy.
Cvent’s 2022 Q1 Planner Sourcing Report: Europe Edition picked the brains of several hundred events organisers and venues from across Europe, finding out the biggest challenges and opportunities from across the industry.
I spoke with Karla Pearce, director of marketing for Europe, Cvent Hospitality Cloud, to find out more about the report, as well as what’s next for organisers and venues.
Challenge accepted
It’s been a rough two years for many events folks. The challenges presented to organisers have evolved, with the rise of the virtual event space and the impact of Covid-19 being key catalysts for technology adoption by organisers. The report by Cvent reflected this, with the top two concerns for organisers being travel restrictions and new Covid-19 variants, closely followed by lack of staff and attendee confidence. Pearce highlighted the staffing challenge as one which resonated with both organisers and venues – with both parties talking about “how difficult it is to have the right amount of people in place. This is due to the demand that venues are seeing for meetings and events.”
One thing that’s not a concern for many is budget, with only 13% of planners having seen a reduction in available funds. For many, budgets have in fact increased, with 57% of UK buyers having more budget. With more available, venues must up the standards to attract the buying power many organisers now possess, according to Cvent.
Chris McAndrews, vice president of marketing for Cvent, said: “The hotels and venues that can successfully showcase their properties and hybrid-ready meeting space in the digital environment, will bolster their appeal and attract more MICE business in 2022.”
Tech progress
The need for venues to leverage emerging technologies is a theme throughout the report, with organisers stating a desire for more integration of technologies throughout the planning process for events.
Technologies like interactive event space diagrams and virtual site tours scored highly on the needs for organisers when initially sourcing venues for events. On site itself, technical expertise scored highly, showing the need for end-to-end technical support for today’s event organisers.
“Collaboration between the planner and the supplier from the very beginning is vital. The report highlights ways to visit the venue with virtual site visits, as well as diagramming while you’re planning the event together. The technology that helps to get to that event is equally as important as the planning itself,” says Pearce.
While venues are now on board with tech adoption, Pearce claims this was not always the case, saying: “I think there was a lot of fear and lack of adoption from the hospitality industry for technology to help the planner. Now, we’re seeing that they’re much more willing to have that conversation, which is great news for the planner as well.”
Brass tacks
Pearce spoke about why planners would use this report, not just to benchmark themselves, but also as a guide for what to ask venues about when in the early stages of the events cycle.
She said: “The report is something that will give the planner the ability to know that venues will be there to also facilitate their lives and their challenges, because this is a call to action to venues to say, this is what planner wants, you should adopt it quicker in order to serve better the planners.
“I think the biggest takeaway for planners is what are the things that they could expect now for venues and what they should ask for when they’re sourcing this.”
To finish, I asked Pearce how the results of the survey would change what was on the horizon for planners. She said: “I think the planners’ challenge for the future is how can they keep up with the attendees’ demands. On top of this, they will also have to be mindful of how much they embrace all event formats. Planners must select with care how they will engage with the different ways of utilising technology during an event.”