"The best known and among the most reputable statistics come to us every year from the Union of International Associations"..."For any student of the [meetings] industry they are essential reading." - Yearbook & Meeting Statistics Report review

The Statistics of Conferences
By Geoffrey Smith,
EFCT Marketing Director

 

For a major world industry, our shortage of statistics never ceases to surprise anyone who looks into the matter. But it's true; there's a drastic lack of reliable figures about the size, nature and future pattern of the national and international meetings industry.

 

Most conferences fall into one of two major categories - association or corporate meetings. There are others - government, inter-government, trade unions and some more; they are often of importance - but represent only a minor factor in world terms.

 

The best known and among the most reputable statistics come to us every year from the Union of International Associations in Brussels. UIA have been doing this for the past seventy years, so they know something about the growth of international conferences, which they see as mainly the annual or more frequent meetings of non-government professional international associations.

 

They put together some remarkable volumes every year, issued by the Munich publisher K. G. Saur. These analyse about 20,000 international associations, and in many cases offer surprising detail about their origins, objectives, activities and future plans. For any student of the industry they are essential reading. There are three annual volumes, sometimes supported by additional books dealing with, eg, Arab, Islamic or African organisations. Each quarter, there's a comprehensive Calendar which lists meetings currently scheduled throughout the world, an important adjunct to the main volumes. [K. G. Sauer Verlag, Possenbacher Str 2b, D-8000 Munich 71.)

 

Each year UIA issue a shorter listing to their members which states where the main international meetings have been held in the past twelve months; these currently cover over 6,000 events.

 

For 1986, the most recent year available as these notes are written, this shows a total of 6742 meetings. 4183, or 63,36% took place in Europe, 1241 in the Americas, 819 in Asia, 280 in Africa, and 158 in Australasia.

 

Among the host countries, the United States came top, with 684 meetings, followed by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria.

 

Paris was top city with 358 international conferences, followed by London, Brussels, Geneva, Vienna, West Berlin, Rome, New York and Strasbourg.

 

UIA have also undertaken a good deal of other research about the size and content of international conferences, as well as the reasons why associations select particular destinations for them.

 

A recent such survey shows that 42% of international associations meet every year, 24% every two years and 25% every three or four years. 9% more than once a year.

 

On size, 39% of events have less than 200 participants, and 25% up to 250. 36% last up to three days, and 41% four or five days, UIA say. 39% use a convention centre. 31% prefer a hotel and 18% a university. And 11% schedule a destination five years in advance.

 

Who decides where to go? 48% of international associations require a Board decision and 31% go to their General Assembly, according to this research.

 

There's much more UIA data available; our industry is indebted to them for the work they so cheerfully and efficiently carry out year after year. (UIA, 40 rue Washington, 1050 Brussels).

 

To round it off, I should add that their publisher K. G. Saur, also issues another remarkable volume from the same source. It's called World Problems and Human Potential, full of fascinating, quite deadpan information about every conceivable problem, presented in an impartial manner, with both sides of every argument side by side. You'll find it hard to think of much which isn't in this weighty volume, that can be delined as a problem. Depressing? In fact, it's most interesting, and often rather entertaining.

 

But UIA is not, thank goodness, the only inquisitive organisation. AIPC, l'Association Internationale des Palais de Congrès, has also published some valuable and partly comparable data; it follows some years of research on AIPC's behalf by Ms Regine May of the Paris Convention Centre.

 

This is based on questionnaires sent to 1,500 international association leaders in 35 countries. They had to have meetings of over 500 to quality.

 

50% said they selected a venue after an invitation from the National committee of a would-be host country. In 45% of cases this was followed by an inspection visit.

 

85% demanded smaller rooms for break-out sessions. 10% needed up to thirty of them.

 

85% used the services of a convention bureau, and 68% ran an exhibition as part of their programme.

 

In response to the question about the length of the meeting, 9% said two or three days, 48% said four or five days, and 9% like to carry on meetings for over a week.

 

Participants in this AIPC sample used a Congress centre in 78% of cases; 11% planned the event two years ahead, 29% three or four years ahead - and a hefty 57% had made up their minds four years or more before it was actually going to take place.

 

AIPC asked about simultaneous interpretation. 59% of respondents said they used it. 44% said it was too expensive. 35% said they used English as today's lingua franca. 11% said it was hard to find interpreters who really understood their special terminology; though I'm sure that in many cases this is a problem that could be overcome by closer investigation, perhaps via AIIC, l'Association International des Interprètes de Confèrences.

 

All of the above is entirely about international congresses; and these are, while very significant, only a small part of our total industry.

 

What about national meetings, for instance? In many countries there's not much data that's very reliable. But it's worth investigating the country you may be interested in, and EFCT would be glad to try to put you in touch with a useful contact there.

 

Corporate meetings are the most numerous of all - and the least covered by data. But in the United States there are some good sources, such as the New York magazine Meetings and Conventions, which every two years issues a comprehensive US survey, The Meetings Market.

 

The most recent issues, for instance, shows there were 706,100 corporate meetings in the year, 12,240 major association conventions and 185,400 other association meetings. Grand total, 903,740 meetings in all. And the magazine estimates the total expenditure as $31,416,900,000 - over $31 billion.

 

IACVB, the International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus, which is based in the US, has run research every few years on convention expenditure. Their most recent data say convention delegates are expected to generate $30,7 billion in the current year.