Survey: Corporate Mtg. Planners Wary Of Procurement, See Spending Rise

The number of corporations with centralized meetings departments are decreasing slightly and many meeting buyers are unhappy with procurement's involvement in meetings, according a new survey released this month by Meeting Professionals International and American Express.

The sixth annual FutureWatch report surveyed 1,643 meeting professionals. Nearly 51 percent of the 343 corporate meeting planner respondents said meeting functions at their company were mostly or completely centralized, a slight drop from the 54 percent who indicated that last year.

As the role of procurement increases in the industry, many buyers said they still are not happy with the relationship. Of the 150 buyers who responded to the survey's questions about procurement, including but not limited to corporate buyers, 42 percent said their procurement departments had "created significant frustration or difficulty" in the meeting planning process. "They don't want to have more constraints that make their job harder," said Cary Broussard, vice president of marketing and brand management for MPI.

While corporate meeting buyers said the total number of meetings in 2008 would increase only slightly, they anticipate an 11 percent increase in meeting attendance, from an average of 278 in 2007 to 309 in 2008.

The survey also said that corporate respondents' average companywide meetings budget would be $7.66 million in 2008, a 27 percent increase from $6.03 million in 2007. Per-meeting spending was expected to increase from an average of $175,000 in 2007 to more than $212,000 in 2008.