The mission of the Event Marketing Institute (EMI) is to help our members enhance their professional performance by providing comprehensive education, research, and analysis related to emerging trends and insights into event marketing strategy, as well as creating a growing list of productivity tools and professional networking opportunities to foster information exchange.
Industry Spending and Changes: 2012 EventTrack Study
The Event Marketing Institute (eventmarketing.com) and leading experiential marketing agency Mosaic (mosaicxm.com) have unveiled the most comprehensive annual study of event marketing spending and activities ever fielded. The groundbreaking study found that event and experiential marketing spending by companies is growing much faster than the overall economy. The EventTrack 2012 study found that in a slowly rebounding economy, brands are expecting their event and experiential marketing budgets to grow by nearly eight percent (7.8%) in 2012, more than double last year’s rate of (3.6%).
2011 Trade Show Labor Rate Benchmarking Survey
A detailed breakdown of labor rates in 41 U.S. trade show cities. This report provides average hourly rates for carpenters, electricians, A/V technicians, and other exhibit services, including comparisons to the national average. This report was prepared by Red 7 Media’s Research & Consulting Group, in association with the Event Marketing Institute (EMI) and the Exhibit Designers & Producers Association (EDPA) as a benchmarking and planning tool for each organization’s members, and the industry at large.
How Attendees are Changing
During the recession, corporate funding for business-to-business events and tradeshows has been reduced more than travel, training and event attendance budgets. Yet convention and tradeshow producers see positive attendance trends. Consider that overall convention and tradeshow attendance has grown by 3 percent so far in 2010 and show producers collectively expect 5 percent growth next year, according to surveys by EMI.
Still, attendance was down by close to 10 percent in 2009, some events have not rebounded, and attendees and buyers have clearly changed their behavior. Here’s insight from exhibitors and event producers on how they see attendees changing:
- Smaller buying teams, but those that attend have more authority to purchase.
- Registering closer to the event or “last minute”.
- Shorter event visits, such as attending only one day.
- Looking for more content and information.
- More cost conscious and looking for discounts and deals.
The Connected Event
Insights into 2012 Event Technology TrendsThe relationship between events and technology is becoming more critical to event producers, exhibitors and event marketers – as well as attendees and participants. This trend is being driven by the rapid pace of change in communications technology. The last three years alone have seen an explosion in the use of social media to communicate event information, drive attendance, and build year-round online communities.
