ABPCO, the Association of British Professional Conference Organisers, reckons its PCO members generated an estimated £58m in annual spend on conferences and events.

The statistic comes from a poll, sent to the Association’s full and associate PCO members, aimed at calculating the average annual spend per member. They were asked to select which spend bracket represented their annual budget in terms of business placed with venues and suppliers. From this, 19 per cent of members had a budget between £500k and £5m, with six per cent placing business to the value of between £2m and £5m.

ABPCO chair Michael Foreman said: “We have always known that our members represent a significant proportion of spend on conferences and events and this result supports that view. Our focus has always been on excellence in conference and events organisation and it is clear that our members represent the highest calibre of conference professionals in the UK.”