SPECIAL EVENTS MAGAZINE-2010 Showing Better Event Business
Sally Webb, CSEP, head of The Special Event Co., with offices in London and Durham, N.C., is enjoying a 60 percent increase in business in the first quarter of 2010 versus last year. And while she sees clients keeping the budget reins tight on their decor and catering spend, they are "increasing their spend on the marketing and branding components of the programs," she says. "Marketing budgets seem to have come back stronger than sales and incentive event budgets."
Lee Rubenstein, president and chief operating officer of New York-based agency TBA Global, sees a steadier event landscape.
While noting that the market is still in "disarray," he says, "The general feeling is that clients feel conservatively optimistic that 2010 will be equal to or better than 2009. There are not as many events now as there were pre-2008, but it is better than 2009. What’s improved is that the wholesale cancellation of events we saw in 2009 has diminished."
Not only are the violent business swings past, "Clients that attempted to re-create quality results on a fraction of the available budget in 2009 have now gotten their management to agree to more realistic budgets for 2010, based on the results of those events," Rubenstein says.
Although the uptick in business is welcome, many event professionals say some of the same problems still plague them—especially short lead times. Lead times are "crazy close," Webb notes. "Clients are not getting their own budgets approved until nearer to the event date, but they also realize they are in a buyer's market and will still be able to achieve their results in shorter lead times."
Sally Webb, CSEP, head of The Special Event Co., with offices in London and Durham, N.C., is enjoying a 60 percent increase in business in the first quarter of 2010 versus last year. And while she sees clients keeping the budget reins tight on their decor and catering spend, they are "increasing their spend on the marketing and branding components of the programs," she says. "Marketing budgets seem to have come back stronger than sales and incentive event budgets."
Lee Rubenstein, president and chief operating officer of New York-based agency TBA Global, sees a steadier event landscape.
While noting that the market is still in "disarray," he says, "The general feeling is that clients feel conservatively optimistic that 2010 will be equal to or better than 2009. There are not as many events now as there were pre-2008, but it is better than 2009. What’s improved is that the wholesale cancellation of events we saw in 2009 has diminished."
Not only are the violent business swings past, "Clients that attempted to re-create quality results on a fraction of the available budget in 2009 have now gotten their management to agree to more realistic budgets for 2010, based on the results of those events," Rubenstein says.
Although the uptick in business is welcome, many event professionals say some of the same problems still plague them—especially short lead times. Lead times are "crazy close," Webb notes. "Clients are not getting their own budgets approved until nearer to the event date, but they also realize they are in a buyer's market and will still be able to achieve their results in shorter lead times."
Read the full article: http://specialevents.com/economy/2010-showing-better-event-business-special-events-survey-shows/