In Focus
ting and parallel communication, which we call the ‘dark social’ (Alexis Madrigal). On average we share about 31% of content on social media and the remaining 69% through direct communication. The biggest challenge in 2016 will be to find the content that your clients share through these parallel worlds. And thus the knowledge of content marketing will come to the fore.
6.
NEW ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES instead of platforms
PayPal was not invented by a bank, Amazon was not invented by merchants, Airbnb was not invented by hoteliers… In the world of the new economy, changes are not happening within the existing structures, but on a completely new set of platforms. If we are still thinking about the meetings industry on the same set of generalizations and models as twenty years ago, it is highly likely that we will no longer decide on our own business (or even ourselves) and someone else will be ready to take advantage. The question is whether the existing organisations and associations are properly ready for enabling and driving the campaign for a better future of the meetings industry.
7.
MORE VALUE FOR EVENT PARTICIPANTS Respecting participants as participants It sounds like a phrase already heard a million times, but we really do live in a time when every link of the meetings chain has to offer more value. Looking specifically at the new framework, the focus is more than ever on the participant and his or her needs. The Millennials are the largest target group of participants in the meetings industry, a group that has perfectly mastered technology, do not believe in institutions and that wishes to change the world for better. How well do we really know their habits and do we really know how to listen to them?
8.
CONTROL OVER THE USE OF PARTICIPANTS’ PERSONAL DATA Protection of the rights of privacy and the confidentiality of personal data are fundamental human rights
integrate data from different services and applications that are today mainly based on services in the cloud, have that advantage. But it is one that comes with responsibility and the guardians of privacy have long been aware of the traps of such conduct. We believe that users will continue to try to regain control over the use of their personal data. Privacy, anonymity and security or encryption of communications is a key challenge for the future.
9.
INTUITION EQ - Emotional Quotient of your destination
What is the EQ - Emotional Quotient – of your congress destination or product? With all the big words we use we often overlook the challenge of finding people with great intuition. It is a complex assembly of knowledge, experience, creativity and emotional intelligence that make a good event, destination or product.
10.
BEAUTY, SUSTAINABILITY AND FUNCTIONALITY OF EVENTS In the search for full compliance with the form and content of events
Experimenting with different forms that we have a common name for – meetings architecture – has become a standard. Knowing the context of the destination and thinking of the environment has become a part of the congress story we no longer talk about. A good meeting planner must be an explorer interested in different professional fields that do not use stereotype solutions. The region has a good starting position for a congress breakthrough and a lot of well-trained professionals who importantly are flexible and receptive to change. As we are now accustomed to recession we are able to cope with all of the challenges it brings. The goal that we must strive to promote is the exchange of knowledge among all of the key partners. Last but not least, we must learn to be critical when managing the destination.
Happy 2016!
Conference organisers have been collecting data on participants and in a way have also been trading it. The larger organisers, who are able to 7