The value of meetings

The value of meetings is far greater than delegate spend.

Story by Bryan Holliday

It’s often said that you only value what you can measure, which might explain why both federal and state governments are constantly insisting on lengthy reports being prepared by meetings industry associations in return for public funding. On the one hand this seems to be a very fair and reasonable request as in this day of financial transparency tax payers have a perfect right to know where their money is being spent. On the other hand, the meetings industry is populated by hundreds if not thousands of small, medium and large enterprises and gathering relevant data across this diverse sector is virtually impossible. The challenge for the meetings industry is that there is no acceptable model for the measurement and documentation of even the direct spending arising from such events. Clients are reluctant to supply data; hotels and convention centres are typically too busy to bother surveying delegates and some related industry groups compete rather than collaborate.

The economic benefits of meetings have been well documented, particularly by convention bureaux. However, the related benefits of hosting conferences with attendees from all over the world are much harder to quantify. How do you put a price on professional development, knowledge transfer and technical progress until the outcomes from such activities are realised?

Meetings not only support professional research, technology and academic development but they also help build networks and bridge cultural differences that threaten world order and advancement. The simple fact is that meetings are vehicles for finding solutions to global issues and that is something that we will have no shortage of in the years ahead.