100 Global Event Statistics (2018 edition)
Interesting statistics provided by EventMB Team
Do you know all the key statistics that will affect the way you create events? Here is a comprehensive collection of 100 key statistics for the event industry in 2018.
The event industry is living a second life. As more brands prefer live experiences as the best way to engage with audiences, here are some of the impressive and surprising statistics defining the industry in 2018.
For quick reference, the facts and figures have been broken down to cover the following 10 essential sections:
Business-to-business (B2B) events industry revenue worldwide amounted to 30.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, up from 29.3 billion a year earlier. (Statista, 2018)
43.6% of business-to-business (B2B) events industry revenue worldwide was in the United States in 2016, 19.8% from emerging markets, 14.4% from continental Europe, 5.8% from the United Kingdom and 16.4% from the Rest of World. (Statista, 2018)
In the US, 1.9 million meetings occurred in 2016, with 251 million meeting participants. (Oxford Economics and Events Industry Council, 2018)
In the US, direct spending on meetings increased 23 percent between 2009 and 2016, primarily due to increases in the number of meeting participants. (Oxford Economics and Events Industry Council, 2018)
US meetings generated $325 billion of direct spending and $845 billion in business sales in 2016. (Oxford Economics and Events Industry Council, 2018)
The UK events industry is worth over £39.1bn, up from £36.1 bn. The spend represents 35% of the total value of the UK visitor economy. (Business Visits & Events Partnership, 2014)
There are around 1.3m meetings held in the UK each year. (Business Visits & Events Partnership, 2014)
THE VALUE OF EVENTS
On average, meetings generated $1,294 of spending per participant. (Oxford Economics and Events Industry Council, 2018)
Six million international participants generated $38 billion of meetings direct spending, representing 11.5% of the sector total. (Oxford Economics and Events Industry Council, 2018)
International visitors generated a disproportionate share of travel spending (21.8%), including shopping (24.6%), recreation and entertainment (26.5%). (Oxford Economics and Events Industry Council, 2018)
In-person events are the most effective form of content marketing for B2B marketers. (Content Marketing Institute, 2016)
81% use in-person events in their B2B marketing strategy. (Content Marketing Institute, 2016)
Trade shows and conferences are one of the top-3 sources buyers turn to when researching a vendor’s products and services. (Marketing Charts, 2015)
WORKING IN THE EVENT INDUSTRY
The projected growth for meeting, convention and event planners is expected to increase 11% in the USA between 2016-2026, faster than average. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018)
The events industry in the USA provides over 5.9 million jobs. (Oxford Economics and Events Industry Council, 2018)
The UK events sector employs over 530,000 people in 25,000 events businesses. (Business Visits & Events Partnership, 2014)
The outlook for the global event industry is positive, with 85% of event planners being optimistic about the future and only 15% expressing concern or worry. (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
Most event planners (89%) love their career in the event industry. Less than 10% felt indifferent and less than 2% said they didn’t love their career. (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
$65,160 is the average event planner salary in New York City, USA (EventMB, 2018).
£26,107 is the average salary for event planners in London, UK (EventMB, 2018).
The majority of eventprofs (51%) feel that their salary will stay the same in 2018. 43% think salaries will rise and only 6% believe they will fall, indicating a generally positive outlook. (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
People skills and organization are the essential skills every event professional needs, 81% agreed. Around three quarters also agreed that time management, flexibility and passion were important skills. (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
Almost half (47%) of those surveyed said having more clients would help them advance their event planning career. Almost equally important were better personal branding (47%), better technical knowledge (46%) and better use of social media (44%). (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
Shrinking budget is of the biggest immediate concern to event planners, affecting 56% Long hours were cited as an issue by 30% and mentioned third was unethical behavior (29%). 28% are concerned with their lack of career progression. (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
Budgets are one of the biggest challenges currently for event planners, followed by finding sponsors and attendee numbers. (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
EVENT BUDGETS
Events occupy the largest part of budgets, at 14% of total budget, on average. (Forrester Research Inc., 2015)
The majority of event planners (65%) feel that event budgets will remain the same. 26% expect an increased budget for the next 12 months. (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
TYPES OF EVENTS
In North America Conferences and Tradeshows are the most common meeting activity type, with 23% of the market in 2018. Conferences and Tradeshows represent 20% for Europe, 17% for Asia Pacific and 10% for Central/South America. (Global Meetings and Events Forecast, 2018)
In the US, 53% of attendees participate in corporate and business meetings, 18% in conventions, conferences and congresses without an exhibition floor and 16% in trade shows or conferences with an exhibiting component. 6% participated in incentive meetings and 6% in other meetings. (Oxford Economics and Events Industry Council, 2018)
When listed by host classification, 43% were corporate events, 34% were association/membership events, 14% were non-government, not-for-profit events and 4% were government events in the US in 2016. (Oxford Economics and Events Industry Council, 2018)
CORPORATE EVENTS
For corporate event planners, budget is their biggest concern (82%), followed by new ideas (62%) and Return on Investment, or ROI, at 54% (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
When planning corporate events, planners are most concerned about finding innovative ideas (81%), good venues (65%) and marketing their event effectively (48%). (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
The priority of attendees attending corporate events in 2018 is networking (82%), learning (71%) and entertainment (38%). Self-improvement is important to 37% and time out of the office is appealing to 16% (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
EVENT SUCCESS AND ROI
The average ROI for events is in the 25-34% range. 19% don’t know their event ROI. (Marketing Charts, 2015)
91% measure the success of their events on attendee satisfaction. 61% measure according to their specific event objectives and 60% determine results based on staying within budget. (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
67% measure ROI on attendee satisfaction, 52% determine results based on staying within budget and 51% measure ROI based on the number of registrations. (EventMB, 2018). Graph available.
MEETING DESIGN
27% of event planners are looking to invest more into meeting design. (EventMB Report, 2017). Graph available.
50% of event planners are particularly interested in the content delivery element of meeting design. (EventMB Report, 2017). Graph available.
