Our top 5 meeting trends for 2017

1. Content is no longer king. It’s all about context.

Naturally content is critical but without providing your attendees the understanding of what your content means to them in their environment it is likely to be tossed aside.

Michael Dominguez, Chief Sales Officer, MGM Resorts International says “Content is not king today—it’s all about context. I don’t need the meeting to learn what I need to find out. I need the meeting today to tell me what it means to me and how I’m going to implement it. Attendees need more white space so people can have conversations about what they’re learning.”

2. Creating certainty in uncertain times.

Holly Duckworth, CEO of Leadership Solutions International says “Meetings must create certainty in these uncertain times.” She advises a shift away from meetings being a deluge of information to a two-way idea exchange and allowing time to process that information exchange.

This two-way exchange of information can be facilitated in various ways, Audience Response Systems remain one of the most engaging and reliable options. With constant innovation in this technology providing different response options and more comprehensive reporting it is at the forefront of meeting technologies.

3. Understanding the Attendee Journey

Only when we truly understand how our attendees journey through and experience our events, are we able to create meaningful meetings with a lasting impact.

“Leveraging technology to improve attendee engagement and drive strategy through data capture will be key for 2017,” says Cate Banfield, director of event solution design, BCD Meetings & Events

Mobile Event Aps continue to gain traction in SA and are proving to be an invaluable tool to attendees, organisers and sponsors who use them.

4. Experiential meetings

Attendees need to be captivated by our events. They’ve all been there, done that and got the T-shirt. They’re looking for something new, something fresh. There’s a real need to look beyond the lecture theatre style meeting room to more innovative meeting spaces which allow people the freedom to decide how they engage with your content.

Providing hands on experiential sessions gives attendees the knowledge, context and experience to take your content into their environments and use it to make a difference. We would never question the effectiveness of learning to drive in a car with a qualified driving instructor vs. a theoretical presentation about driving and yet this is our go to option for most meetings. We need to immerse people in our content and engage with them meaningfully.

5. Social media trends that you can’t ignore

The communications role that social media plays in events continues to grow. The introduction of live streaming opens new ways to be creative with our use of social media. Facebook Live, Instagram Stories and even Snapchat are increasing the reach of our events more than ever before.

Here’s to a year of engaging and innovative meetings. We look forward to sharing the journey with you.