The MICE industry has changed a lot. We would rather say that it has evolved. A process of progress that was and is being driven by a wide variety of developments.
Business meetings focus on the shared experience
Classic business events have mutated from meetings where information was mainly exchanged to emotional experience hubs. The value of face-to-face encounters is gaining in importance again. Corona has made this very clear. Interpersonal communication cannot be represented virtually. However, a face-to-face meeting is not always necessary to exchange information. There are excellent digital media that can be easily used as needed. In the best case, the communicative range is brought to an ideal and balancing level, while at the same time reducing the contact costs per person. In short, many face-to-face events of the past can and should be implemented virtually today. When you meet, however, these encounters have a higher priority. This goes hand in hand with a redesign of the events. Fewer participants, less pure information transfer in the form of a plenary situation, more interactions and a changed timing. So, it is only logical that plenary sessions and workshops often only take place in the morning and that the afternoons are used for creative group experiences. Companies try to create unforgettable shared experiences that have an effect far beyond the event.
Boutique hotels and new destinations
Fewer participants and a changed relationship between plenum, workshops and external parts go hand in hand with a noticeable reorientation in the event locations and hotels. Away from the classic meeting and conference hotel towards individual and inspiring boutique hotels. The destinations are also changing. Boutique hotels in trendy districts of big metropolises or a conscious choice of “unknown” B and C cities that bring the chance for a special and new charm. But the desire to be in a natural region is also increasingly in demand. Especially the Alpine regions and/or rural regions that are easily accessible in terms of transport benefit from this.
Sustainability is mandatory
Sustainability is now a basic requirement for a contemporary event. The times when sustainability was more of a green marketing buzzword are over. Sustainability is taken into account in all areas of the event industry. Arrivals and departures, but also local transfers. Here there is a clear tendency to use alternative forms of transport and/or the use of public transport. The introduction of a vegetarian day changes the catering world. In the field of technology, less is more. The days of rampant LED excesses are now over.
All these developments document a changed MICE world. An industry that has always been in the midst of life has to take up current trends in society as a whole and update them.