Planner confidence about the return of face-to-face meetings
has darkened considerably in the past six weeks, according to i-Meet's weekly
Planner Confidence Index survey. About 38 per cent of planners surveyed last
week think such events won't resume before 2021, compared with just 8 per cent
who thought that during the week ending 6 April, the first week the survey was
conducted.
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This finding is in line with what several meeting managers
in recent weeks have told BTN: The vast majority of face-to-face meetings
for 2020 have been cancelled or postponed to 2021, with many not even scheduled
until the second quarter of 2021.
Still, an equal portion, 38 per cent of 303 respondents,
plan to resume face-to-face meetings during the fourth quarter of 2020. During
the survey's first week, 57 per cent of 361 respondents were confident they
would resume meetings by September. Last week, that percentage was just 16 per cent.
For the week ending 18 May, the largest portion of
respondents, 34 per cent, were corporate planners, followed by third-party
planners at 31 per cent.