Survey: Mtg. Execs Project Favorable Conditions Amid Staffing Issues

Meeting and event industry executives foresee “favorable” business conditions for the year ahead despite staffing concerns and a continuing seller's market, according to a new survey by Meeting Professionals International. 

MPI for its 2023 Meeting Outlook report and in partnership with IMEX Group surveyed 289 meeting and event professionals from Dec. 13, 2022, to Jan. 2, 2023. Of the survey respondents, 53 percent were industry suppliers, 45 percent planners and 2 percent faculty members or students, an MPI spokesperson told BTN by email. 

According to the report, 85 percent of respondents expect 2023 business conditions to be favorable, while 10 percent said conditions would be “neutral” and 5 percent said negative—down from the 8 percent negative reported in MPI’s previous survey, released last quarter.

Despite the mostly positive outlook for 2023 business trends, one respondent from MPI’s Houston area chapter, event planner and trade show manager Jennifer Lazarz, said she expects business to dip due to lack of staff.

“There is a stretch in demand for services from vendors that wasn’t there before due to the fact that clients/companies don’t have employees to fill voids,” Lazarz said in the report. “This is why I think in some ways business will decline—neither the client nor some vendors can meet their operational goals.”

Staffing shortages remain a concern among all sectors of the hospitality industry. According to the report, 58 percent of respondents said they experienced hiring challenges, compared with 62 percent response last quarter. That said, full-time hiring in the hospitality industry is on the rise. 

According to the report, meetings industry employment is scaling up for the sixth consecutive quarter, with 49 percent of respondents indicating an increase in hiring. This metric is the highest on record for the MPI's report. Only 9 percent of respondents see hiring decreasing, which is down from 16 percent recorded last quarter.

As for the varied market landscape, 64 percent of respondents said it’s still a seller’s market, which remained consistent from the previous survey, according to MPI. Up from 16 percent in the fall of 2022, 21 percent of respondents in the most recent survey said the market landscape was “balanced,” and 15 percent said it was a buyer’s market, down from 19 percent in the last survey—highlighting a potential, yet slow, perceived shift toward a more balanced market experience on the horizon.