The first Meeting & EventBarometer 2007 created by European Institute for the Meetings Industry (EITW), on behalf of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB), the German Convention Bureau (GCB) and the European Association of Event Centres (EVVC), gives a comprehensive insight into the German meetings and events market.

Via online questionnaires it interviewed over 3,000 suppliers in Germany, 37,000 organisers in Europe and over 600 experts worldwide. For the first time since 2003 the industry now has spot-on market data again. In future, trends and developments will be identified by annual updates of the Meeting & EventBarometer.

The supplier questionnaire served to identify the size and structure of the German events market, broken down by centres, meeting hotels and special venues. The organiser survey collected opinions of corporate and association organisers and of professional event service agencies. This market research was rounded off by forecasts and profiles of national and international experts from trade associations, trade journals and research institutes.

German meetings & events in figures

The German meetings and events market has over 6,000 venues (with capacities for 100 people and more in theatre-style seating in the largest room): Around half of which are in meeting hotels and one quarter each in convention centres and special venues. Event and banquetting services of centres, meeting hotels and special venues generate 66,000 full-time jobs. The Meeting & EventBarometer 2007 identified a total of 2.6 million conventions, meetings, presentations, exhibitions and special events with 291.5 million attendees.

Meeting hotels provide half of the 64,000 function rooms in Germany. Centres dominate in terms of size, accounting for 88.6 per cent of total meeting space and large venues - making them the preferred sites for sports and culture events or larger functions.

In contrast, meeting hotels focus clearly on the seminar and meeting segment, while special venues host quite a large share of exhibitions and presentations. Event centres are multipurpose facilities with meetings and conventions normally accounting for one-third of their business and exhibitions, events and functions for the remaining two-thirds.

Which events, where and with how many attendees?

The German Meeting & EventBarometer 2007 shows that around one half (48 per cent) of all events are corporate meetings, including staff and customer trainings, product presentations and shareholders` meetings. The dominant role of business is particularly obvious in the case of meeting hotels, where corporate business accounts for two-thirds of events. The culture and entertainment industry prefers event centres, while non-profit organisations with their social functions, receptions and galas, association and club events favour special venues.

The survey specifically highlighted the meetings category: Over half of all meetings are attended by a maximum of 50 delegates, with a third accounting for 51 to 250 attendees and only six per cent of events falling under the 1,000 delegates-plus category. Smaller seminars, workshops and conferences are mostly hosted by meeting hotels, while mega-congresses are held almost exclusively in convention centres.

Event budgets: from under 25,000 to over five million euros

At 77 per cent, the majority of organisers in companies and associations spend a maximum of 500,000 euros p.a. on meetings and events. 21 per cent are restricted to a budget of up to 25,000 euros and 28 per cent fall under the 25,000 to 100,000 and 100,000 to 500,000-euro categories each. 15 per cent of event planners are investing over one million euros in meetings and events in 2007.

Criteria for venue selection

For information on potential venues, organisers mainly resort to personal recommendations and websites of event destinations and venues: 96 per cent and 88 per cent of informants in Europe rated these information options as very important or important respectively. Networking also plays a major role through agency and association recommendations: Half of all organisers rated them as very important or important.

Location and reachability by all carriers clearly comes first for the choice of venue. For the meeting location itself hotel and centre capacities are decisive criteria - with a preference for modern centres with adjacent hotels. Not only event-related infrastructure but also soft facts, like the positive image of a destination, also play a major role for selecting an event location.