.jpg?n=9517 "I-Meet May 19-2")
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 percent of planners surveyed last week think such events won't resume before 2021, compared with just 8 percent who thought that during the week ending April 6, the first week the survey was conducted.
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 canceled or postponed to 2021, with many not even scheduled until the second quarter of 2021.
Still, an equal portion, 38 percent of 303 respondents, plan to resume face-to-face meetings during the fourth quarter. During the survey's first week, 57 percent of 361 respondents were confident they would resume meetings by September. Last week, that percentage was just 16 percent.
For the week ending May 18, the largest portion of respondents, 34 percent, were corporate planners, followed by third-party planners at 31 percent.