Meeting planner confidence that face-to-face meetings will
resume in 2020 has significantly dimmed over the past month, according to
i-Meet's weekly Planner Confidence Index online survey of 291 planners.
The percentage of respondents who expect to restart
face-to-face meetings during the fourth quarter fell from 38 per cent on 18 May
to 25 per cent for the week ending 21 June. The percentage of surveyed planners
who think events won't return until 2021 jumped from 38 per cent to 61 per cent
during this period.
About 73 per cent of corporate planners who completed last
week's survey indicated they expect to resume in-person events in 2021,
compared with 20 per cent who plan to do so in the fourth quarter. This aligns
with third-party meeting manager respondents, at 69 per cent and 21 per cent,
respectively.