Meeting trends 2016

Meetings, seminars and conferences inspire a large part of international business travel. 2016 shows some interesting trends. First: meeting planners put more effort in wooing their guests with culinary pleasures. Second: creative team building meetings are back on the map.

The meeting business is doing well. Leading the demand cycle for meetings in 2016 is the pharmaceutical industry, followed by Financial and Insurance industries.

In ‘Top Meeting Trends for 2016’ Benchmark Resorts & Hotels sums up some important trends in the world of conferences and seminars. One trend is that today’s planners devote more attention to the F&B component of their meetings. The food and drinks part of the session has to be good and memorable, the Benchmark report states.

HotelNewsResource reports that teambuilding is strongly rebounding. In 2016’s meeting budgets, there is room for creative and effective teambuilding, which can include a focus on the physical, intellectual and spiritual aspects of attendees. Many hotels, resorts and conference centers are partnering with professional teambuilding companies to help planners gel their participants into effective work units.

More trends: meeting group size in 2016 is steadily increasing. Finally, planners in 2016 are absolutely obsessed with special dietary needs, requirements and menus… and the 1# request is for gluten free options. 

Further reading on hotelnewsresource.mobi