While bookings are forecast to continue to increase this year, food and beverage is expected to get even more expensive, and planners expect AV and production costs to keep rising as well. These are just a few of the things new research suggests meeting and event professionals can expect to see in 2024.

More than half of all respondents to a recent meetings industry survey said they expect to book more meetings in 2024 than they did last year. Almost a third expected that growth to be up to 20%, while another 10% are forecasting an even bigger rate of increase of more than 20%. Most of the rest are forecasting their number of meetings to stay about the same, while just 10% or so think their meeting and event portfolio will shrink this year. Planners also say they expect up to a 10% increase in attendance this year, even while most meetings — 70% — still are being booked in the 200-attendee-or-fewer range. The study, called the 2024 State of the Meetings Industry Planner Survey, was conducted by Knowland in conjunction with ConferenceDirect.

While that is great news, there are a few headwinds they’ll have to face. One is that respondents also said they expect prices to continue to spiral upward, especially for event food and beverage (F&B) and AV/production services. “Pricing is a big issue,” the survey quotes one respondent as saying.

And the respondents believe it will continue to be, at least through the rest of this year. In fact, they anticipate that F&B and AV costs will increase up to 50% over the course of 2024. While most believe meeting space costs will more or less hold steady, respondents also indicated that they expect guest rooms and event technology prices to increase, with the majority looking at increases up to 20% in both those areas.

To deliver a high-quality event within the budget, planners are having to cut costs where they can, including shortening the duration of their meetings, seeking less expensive alternative destinations to book, and offering fewer activities and F&B events — or at least, lower cost versions than they used to.

“It is sad to see smaller companies eliminating functions and reducing attendee numbers,” one respondent is quoted as saying. “Even big organizations are cutting costs in many areas, impacting the overall attendee experiences.”

Another way some are looking to mitigate the rising costs is to move their meetings to secondary markets, something more than half are considering. About 58% said they’re outsourcing venue sourcing and contract management, while keeping meeting strategy and content development in house, the survey found.

And, while hotels have been staffing up and introducing new technologies to improve their responsiveness, just 37% said they were “very satisfied” with venue responsiveness — though this is twice as many as said the same in 2023, and about half said they were “moderately satisfied.” Overall, more than 30% of planners said staffing levels is still their top area of dissatisfaction.

As one person noted, “Hotel sales staff are more inexperienced than ever before, which impacts how much work I have to do on each contract.”

Note: Look for the Spring issue of MeetingMentor for articles exploring how to save on F&B and AV/production, as well as strategies to help navigate the reduced service levels due to short-staffed properties.

What do you think will be your top challenges and opportunities in 2024? Share your thoughts at sue.pelletier@conferencedirect.com.