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Published:
24/04/2009
"MEETINGS ARE GOING VIRTUAL AND THERE’S NO GOING BACK" - CASEY
The events market will be forever changed by this recession and the virtual meetings sector will be a major beneficiary, according to Sean Casey, managing director of BCD Meetings & Incentives.
The economic downturn is driving companies towards the use of virtual meetings as they seek every opportunity for cost and time savings and, Casey believes, once the benefits have been experienced, participant numbers at live events will reduce permanently.
“Currently most of our events have only 10 or 15 per cent of delegates viewing online but that will increase significantly as clients become accustomed to the processes involved,” says Casey.
BCD has 11 offices in Europe and the Middle East and is positioning itself as one of the few communications agencies that can deliver pan-European corporate solutions.
“We are seeing significant growth in new media such as web-casting to save costs by reducing live delegate attendance, particularly from long haul points of origin. Traditional live meetings are being hard hit in terms of numbers. Some people are scared by this – but it’s purely a question of deciding which technologies are most appropriate for the circumstances and the budget. It’s about deploying the technology most intelligently but clients are definitely more receptive than they were to new media solutions.”
Casey admits it brings its own problems in terms of the interface with client systems but clients are recognising that they will have to change their systems to take advantage.
“In the next 12 to 18 months you will see a significant increase in international meeting delivery migrating to an online platform. This is primarily due to cost reduction. This crisis will change the industry permanently with a different approach and virtual meetings will have a strong presence in the new approach.”