By David Jennings, Co-Founder of eVenues

Meeting planners might have one of the toughest jobs this year, especially when it comes to evaluating their future business. Not only did their industry undergo major fallout in 2009, but many corporate planner roles were eliminated altogether. Trying to forecast an industry with still so much uncertainty is hard enough, yet trying to make predictions while out of work…well, that’s darn tough!

Needless to say, the meeting(s) must go on![1] But how is the meeting industry changing in 2010? Who is in control? What exactly do planners need to know?

eVenues, an emerging online service for booking fast and affordable meeting space, has some ideas and would like to share its top five themes for 2010.

1.       Value is king

Today’s meeting organizers are all about more for less. For a corporate sales person, entrepreneur or consumer, meetings in 2010 must be practical, have a definite return on investment (ROI), and deliver affordability and value foremost.Meeting planners can provide clients with good value by reducing unnecessary costs and finding alternative solutions for site selection, catering, food and beverage, décor, etc. 2010 will certainly be a better year than 2009, but it will be a transition year for planners to update the tools in their toolbox, entertain working smaller meetings, and ultimately establish a new niche based on a changing landscape.

2.   Be flexible

In order to jumpstart the multibillion meetings and events industry[2], flexibility is fast becoming a popular term. One of the obvious trends is shrinking the meeting size. Due to the complexity and hidden costs associated with organizing larger meetings, meeting buyers are championing corporate team meetings.[3] Team meetings ultimately can be cheaper, but might require shorter lead times.Therefore, both planners and venues need to stay nimble. Planners need to become better acquainted with more unique, unconventional venues in their markets that can handle the short-term duration and short-lead times. By streamlining the site-selection and booking process, planners can spend more time organizing the content of the meeting or learning how they can add more value to their clients in the future.

3.       Real-time information

With nearly 115 million smartphones in use today, it’s no surprise that mobile devices are forcing consumer’s expectations to change and influencing near real-time availability and accessibility to information.[4] As a result, meeting planners can expect to experience better response times from venues and service providers for meeting room configurations, amenities, quotes, and availability. Venues can’t afford for business to be lost. Meeting planners are best prepared if they adopt key service providers who work in real-time mode.

4.       Public or coworking spaces

As large hotels and conference centers continue to lose business, a new segment of the meeting market is emerging: public or coworking meeting venues. Public or coworking meeting venues are timely as they attract laid-off workers, consultants/freelancers, entrepreneurs, and non-profits. Operating on a time-based model, these facilities are surfacing in all markets to accommodate the influx of corporate team meetings, coupled with the thousands of existing small meetings happening each day.[5]Meeting planners should become familiar with this emerging opportunity because these spaces are affordable, flexible, progressive, and don’t think in long-term ways.

5.       Social media

Finally, one of the ongoing themes for 2010 will try and answer what effect social media will have on meetings or events. Social networking is obviously responsible for bringing lots of people together “virtually” to share ideas online and market important new causes. But, a big question still remains: can online replace face-to-face meetings? Nevertheless, as these events spread and grow, it could spell out an interesting new opportunity for meeting planners to chase.

About David Jennings

David Jennings is co-founder of Seattle-based eVenues, the first online public marketplace for meeting space. He has over 20 years of corporate and start-up development experience having worked at Microsoft, IBM, Yodio, and DiscoverU. eVenues was originally born in 2008 at DiscoverU, an adult learning network, where there was a need for a real-time meeting venue booking solution. Today, eVenues has close to 150 spaces in 30 markets with new venue sign-ups going live every day. For more information on eVenues or to visit the online marketplace to book meeting/event space, visit www.evenues.com.