Meetings & Events
Market, Supplier, Risk and
Competitive Intelligence

Industry Outlook & Drivers

Global Outlook on Meetings & Events Market

• In 2019, the global MICE market was valued at approx. $1.2 Tn and is expected to grow at 4–6% to reach approx. $1.5 Tn in 2023(E).

• The European meetings and events market is expected to witness the highest growth post-COVID-19 of about 6-7%, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Latin America (LATAM) will witness a decreased rate of growth of 4-5%. North America is expected to witness 5-6$ growth post the COVID-19 crisis.

Global Meetings & Events: Market Maturity

North America and Europe are highly mature markets, contributing to 75% of M&E revenue. Supplier capabilities to serve complex client requirements in these regions are high. The APAC M&E market has a relatively smaller event industry market size, but is growing at a Compound Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of 8–9percent

Meetings & Events Industry Trends

With the intensifying competition in the worldwide market, industry leaders are constantly looking to gather data for receiving actionable information. The meetings and event management software allows marketers to benefit from real-time data to pull out useful business information from events needed to fuel organizational progress. 

To leverage business insights and data, organizations need to integrate the event management software into their various systems, including marketing automation software, customer relationship management (CRM), and collaboration platforms, among others. It allows companies to keep the overall lifecycle of their events in line with their business objectives thus offering chief marketing officers (CMO) critical business information from the data harnessed via different business events. Further, it helps businesses grab and analyze attendees’ behavior patterns, helping them make efficient business decisions.

Global Meetings & Events: Drivers and Constraints

Event market research indicates that Economic development, government investment and technology are the key drivers of the M&E industry. Regulations and sustainability are the major challenges hampering the industry

• Economy: M&E growth is largely dependent on the economy. Meeting spends are the first to be cut during a downturn.
• Government investment: Government initiatives to develop infrastructure and promote new venues for corporate events are providing more choice/attractive prices for M&E organizers.
• Competition within the Industry: The emergence of large numbers of small to mid-size event management companies with superior service capabilities are challenging existing players to be more innovative and productive. Buyers are gaining more power to leverage negotiations.
• Impact of digitization: The use of technology in every phase of an event production or as a substitute to physical meetings is gaining importance as it increases efficiency and is cost-effective as well as aids in creating an impact with the participants.
• Global companies chasing M&A: The need to register growth in a slow-growing economy is driving companies to consider M&As instead of organic growth. The faster results achieved through M&A activity, coupled with the availability of money at low interest rates, are resulting in a rise in M&E activities.
• Political instability: Recent major political developments (such as the Brexit vote in the UK, the failed coup in Turkey, and the US presidential elections) has impacted the meetings and events industry. Buyers and suppliers now have to adhere to reformed policies while decision making.
• Regulatory landscape: Industries are highly regulated and scrutinized, such as the pharmaceutical and financial companies. Meetings are affected by these regulations.
• Impact of Immigrant Policies: Due to adversities in immigrant policies, the meetings and events industry in the US is expected to get affected.

COVID-19 Impact on Meetings & Events Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the dynamics of global business operations. Even though the pandemic has shed light on the pain points in the existing business models across industries, it has also paved new avenues for event management service providers to broaden their businesses across numerous industrial verticals with the emergence of virtual events during nationwide lockdowns. 

The COVID-19 crisis has compelled the event management industry to make significant changes in the way they carry out business processes. Virtual events were not prominent at the start of 2020. At present, they are witnessing rapid adoption as they have kept business-related operations afloat amidst the pandemic.

Supply Market Outlook: Supply Trends and Insights

The meetings and events industry trends with regards to supply are:

Global/regional supplier

The global suppliers provide a wide array of services, due to their vast resources of employees and contracts made with other companies that aid in organizing meetings, like hotel chains, venue providers and travel agencies. Network: Most of them also operate through partnerships and joint ventures in many countries, where they do not have a direct presence.

Types of Suppliers: 

• End-to-end suppliers: This segment includes end-to-end event management firms, such as Grassroots, MCI, Amex, CWT, BCD

• Standalone suppliers: Standalone Suppliers specialize in providing specific services related to event management, like George P Johnson, PRG, Encore event technologies, PSA

Tier-2/localsupplier

Engagement: Typically, companies engage with a local supplier when the complete event is organized within the country.

Service capabilities: As local suppliers have limited resources, their service capabilities are not as extensive as those of the global players.

Superior knowledge: They do have superior knowledge about the local culture and suppliers, and they can bring a local flavor to the events and also can get reduced rates through better local relationships.

Engagement trends

Most adopted model globally: A fully outsourced model for M&E category management. Most adopted engagement model: 2–3 preferred EMCs in every region.

Why: Engaging with 2–3 preferred suppliers provides better supplier management than multiple suppliers.Pricing strategy: Fixed fee model and cost-plus models are the most frequently used pricing models

Factors Determining the Type of Service Provider

The choice of a service provider depends mainly on the scope and scale of the event being organized and the in-house event management capability of the buyer. Companies with a large number of events in a year and with events across regions will prefer to engage with an EMC with global capabilities. 

There is an upcoming trend of using a specialized/boutique MPA catering to the M&E needs of a particular industry. However, the preferred end-to-end supplier list of both the client and the EMC remains a primary factor in selecting an EMC.

Why Should You Buy This Report?

This report on the event management industry underlines different aspects of the global market by analyzing through value chain analysis as well as Porter’s Five Forces analysis. In addition, it includes various quantitative and qualitative aspects of the event industry trends, drivers, opportunities, and challenges. Further, the report provides a holistic valuation of the industry competitiveness along with company profiling of global as well as local market players.