Frankfurt. The Power of 10 Study was commissioned from Fast Future Research by organisers of the IMEX trade shows to mark IMEX in Frankfurt’s 10th anniversary this year – with the aim of giving ‘something of lasting value’ back to help drive the development of the industry over the next decade.
Fast Future’s researchers conducted interviews with over 100 leaders, respected practitioners, innovators, change agents and future thinkers from across the industry. The interview insights, together with desk research, a student essay competition and the results of a global survey, which gathered feedback from 765 respondents in 68 countries on six continents, were analysed to produce the final Power of 10 Report.
Against a backdrop of ‘a perfect storm of mega-trends’, the study identifies three main themes that look set to dominate the decade ahead and therefore hold the key to success for the industry as a whole and, more urgently, those companies, associations and destinations that serve it.
Three dominant themes:
1. An uncertain global economic outlook and the challenges presented by hard to predict macro-economic shifts;
2. The rapid availability and penetration of new technologies, whose quality, cost and diversity are touching every aspect of our lives; and,
3. The everyday reality of shorter and faster business cycles.
In a snapshot from the global survey findings on key factors shaping the industry’s next decade, 71% expect global economic uncertainty and instability to have an impact across the sector worldwide. A further 49% believe we will start to experience the impact of improvements in the quality and cost of technology alternatives to live meetings. In addition, shorter and faster business cycles are expected to play a significant role by 47%, while 46% anticipate growing political and economic influence coming from Asia.
Five main sections to the final research:
The Delegate Experience and Event Design; The Learning and Knowledge Transfer Imperative; Sector Analysis and the Future of the Value Chain, 10 ‘Grand Challenges’ and future scenarios for the industry.
Says Ray Bloom, Chairman of the IMEX Group: “What becomes very clear from the study findings is that the pace of change has accelerated far quicker than any of us ever thought or imagined possible 10 years ago. I fully expect the next 10 to be even richer with change – bringing both anticipated and unexpected developments – and if the industry has the collective will to transform itself to meet those challenges then we are set for a very exciting decade ahead.”
Obtain a free download of the IMEX Power of 10 Executive Summary.
