by Steven Sulkin, MBM Productions International
Not too long ago, the biggest buzz in the meetings industry wasn’t spend management software, but online registration software.  Application Service Providers (ASP’s) sprang up everywhere trying to be the company to capture the market, to charge a per attendee fee or no fee at all so as to attract millions of users to their site for future gain.  Everyone it seemed wanted to get in on what was perceived as the lucrative ASP model of licensing (essentially “renting”) registration software to millions of users via the web.  Eventually this turned into what so many Internet models turn into and that is a commodity with a small group of companies providing a low cost web based service to millions.

by Todd Hanson, CRP, CPIM, Catalyst Performance Group, Inc.
Now that we have had a chance to assimilate all the 2010 predictions made by all the self-proclaimed pundits, I thought it would be interesting to weigh in on what I believe won’t happen in 2010.

Predictions for What Won’t Happen in 2010

1. Face-to-face meetings and events will continue to decline in use.
People still do business with people and deferred spending in this area will have its price in eroding engagement and relationships, a price that will be increasingly difficult to ignore.

by Janet Elkins, EventWorks, Inc.
Obviously, when you ask me this question, the answer is: That is how we make money. Not only does event production create income for our twelve full-time employees, it also affects countless contractors in many cities, states and countries in a very direct way. However, while the need for jobs in our industry is clear to us, the public perceives business meetings still in a very negative way; fat cats indulging themselves in tropical resorts, in some cases financed by tax payer money bailouts.

by Travis Himstedt, Corporate Event Interactive
Whether we run a small business or a department of a larger business we all have the same goal in mind; we want to grow our business entity to the optimal size and have it run efficiently and effectively.  To accomplish this we implement the best possible strategies available.  The word strategy is loosely defined as a plan or method for obtaining specific results.  As business managers and owners we constantly try to find and execute on strategies that best serve our needs.  However, just as an event cannot be successful with only one participant, businesses cannot succeed with only one strategy.