White Paper. The economic crisis presents the meetings world, and especially the quality-driven PCOs, with challenges and opportunities; it should not be seen as just the forbearer of doom and gloom. With corporate companies and associations facing the need to downsize and slash budgets, one of the first places they will inevitably look is to cut their internal meetings departments, or at the very least reduce the size to minimal staff. 

The number of meetings may not be reduced but management will be outsourced to a more cost-effective solution:  to PCOs. The question is whether the PCOs are ready to meet this opportunity? Are sales teams in a position to ensure that they can win the business? More importantly, are the PCOs retaining their staffing levels and their quality standards so that when these opportunities present themselves, they are ready to meet the challenges?

IAPCO PCOs at their Annual Meeting agreed that this was no time for the professionals to sit back and wait for the economic crisis to overwhelm them;  it was a time to hold fast, maintain staffing levels, ensure quality standards are retained and meet the challenge full on. There is the potential to say that “times could not be better for the PCO” says Roslyn McLeod, MD of Tour Hosts, the leading PCO in Sydney Australia, “but only if driven to meet the challenge and maximise opportunities, whilst providing a cost-effective solution and value add to clients”. www.iapco.org