Posts Tagged ‘budgets’
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
What I like best about Meeting Professionals International’s (MPI’s) bi-monthly economic report: the findings are based on the latest data. And so far, no surprises: 39% say attendance is bigger than last year. That’s significant — only 10% saw an uptick last April. The interesting news: that increased attendance will not result in higher budgets. Buyers are only going to pay for what they gotta have.
What else to watch out for: short lead times for more meetings. Negotiations will continue to run rampant in 2011 and possibly beyond. My recommendation: get your fee strategy that you can live with in place now.
Tags: budgets, events, experts, Marketing, meetings, positioning, speakers, Speaking, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
Posted in Marketing, Speaking, branding, strategy | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Want to know what’s going on with corporate meeting spending? Ask the financial execs at the top. That’s exactly what AmEx did with CFO Research Services. Their recent survey of nearly 500 senior financial executives of global companies doesn’t look good for us experts. The stats: 26 percent project an increase in travel spending; 31 percent expect “no change”; while 44 percent plan further cuts. Maybe I’m just a half-empty sorta girl, but that last number isn’t good for corporate meetings.
The silver lining: the trend line for outside meetings is more positive. In 2009, 79 percent of respondents to the survey said their companies were likely to restrict travel to conferences and events; only 35 percent plan to do so this year. That sounds great until we remember that many associations are going the free speaker route to save money.
Bottom line: the paid speaking gigs are not in the usual places. They are in the nooks and crannies. Get out your flashlight and go find them.
Tags: budgets, economy, Marketing, meetings, positioning, speakers, Speaking, strategy, trends, Vickie Sullivan
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Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
Had a fabulous conversation with Bryan Caplovitz of SpeakerMatch right before the holidays. We were comparing notes and his observation really hit home: “There are many buyers out there fresh out of college and they are spending a lot of time online looking for the right speaker. They’ve got their marching orders — find a cool speaker for no more than (enter super low fee here) — and they are working hard to stay in that range.”
He’s right — many speakers deal with these buyers. If you want higher speaker fees you’ve got to deal with the folks who set the budget in the first place. Bryan and I are drilling down on speaking trends for 2010 this Thursday, Noon CST. It’s free, so there’s no reason not to join us. And if you can’t make it, download the MP3. It’ll be lively, I promise you that. Here’s the link: http://www.speakermatch.com/radio/
Tags: Bryan Caplovitz, budgets, Marketing, Speaking, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
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Thursday, December 31st, 2009
For the meetings industry, we’ve got an interesting mix of good/interesting news for next year. According to Meetings Trends 2010 survey, planners are optimistic about the return of meetings. Yep, the era of canceled meetings is over. The newest threat on the horizon for speakers: meetings are back, but the budgets are flat. About 45% of corporate planners report no increased budgets for their meetings. This matches a lot of antidotal information out there — every expense will be scrutinized. Be prepared to negotiate everything: speaker fees, travel, even for books.
Tags: budgets, Marketing, meetings, planning, Speaking, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
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Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
Meetings industry is fighting back on the recent U.S. Treasury’s announcement calling for strict business travel policies for executives. Seven industry groups have produced guidelines that increase accountability but also protect the $740 billion travel industry as a whole. Proposal includes a 15 precent cap of sales/marketing budgets go to meetings, events and incentive travel and limiting executive attendance to less than 10 percent. Why speakers care? Any conference costing more than $750,000 requires a written report on the purpose and plan for a positive return-on-investment.
This self-policing is a pre-emptive strike to Congress’s tinkering with travel. A great example of how the perception problem is bigger than the budget cuts. Moral of the story: help with the ROI and you’re golden…
My question to you: what pre-emptive strike are you taking? How are the buyers responding?
Tags: budgets, meetings, strategy, travel, Vickie Sullivan
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