News
UK – Event budgets for 2012 to be slashed by 27% according to survey
Figures from the P&MM‘s Metric report on the events industry have revealed that UK organiser’s event marketing budgets are set to be cut by 27% this year.
A total of 400 event firms took part in the survey and the figures make for interesting reading across the meetings and events industry. Just 10% of the respondents believe their event marketing budgets will increase in 2012, while 60% say they are going to stay the same as 2011. The results reveal that 40% of companies are expecting the number of delegates to attend their events during the next 12 months to increase, while 54% feel celebrity speakers are not important to the success of an event. The report also highlighted the importance of venues with 89% of respondents revealing a quality venue is very important or essential to any event’s success. 
Chris Clarke (on the left), director of events and communications at P&MM said: “Everyone is feeling the pinch at the moment and there are some seemingly easy cuts, but the survey shows that some less obvious cuts might include a celebrity speaker. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. The importance of face to face events is still very high and we should expect more events, higher participation and increased use of best practice communication tools to boot.”
As to be expected the rise of social media has had a huge impact on the industry with 44% suggesting they use it to promote their events, while 10% have embraced new technology such as QR codes to promote their events. Results also showed that 89% of those questioned view pre event marketing as very important or essential.
Sandra Collins, strategic communications manager added: “The face of communications has changed drastically in the last few years with the rapid pace of new technology and the rise of social media. We now have information on demand – 24/7 – if we want to know something. A vast list of options is instantly available to us. We have email, SMS, QR codes, apps, intranet, internet, blogs and tweets. Almost 90% of event professionals recognise the importance of pre-event communications.”
(eventmagazine.co.uk)