In a 2019 survey conducted by event management solutions-provider Cvent, results show that planners nowadays carry very heavy workloads. Of the 2,650 planners who responded to Cvent’s 2019 Planner Sourcing Report: Global Edition, 16% claim they are managing 100 or more events each year. Thirty-seven percent (37%) arrange 50 or more events annually, while 69% plan at least 11 or more in a year. More than half of those surveyed attest that attendance in primary meetings with clients have increased.

 

Respondents to the survey come from different parts of the globe: Asia, North America, Europe, South Africa and the Middle East. Moreover, the report also highlighted the fact that the subsets of planners who participated in the survey are unusually young: 12% belong to Generation Z (between 18 and 24 years old), 35% are from the millennial group (between 25 and 34 years old), while those from Generation X whose ages range from 35 to 54, represent 46% of the global respondents to the Cvent survey.

Yet in managing their workload, 81% said they encounter difficulties in sourcing, from point of negotiations, to research, up to evaluating responses to their Requests for Proposals (RFPs). According to 80% of planners who participated in the survey, the difficulty with research is that it takes up a lot of time. Time is also a constraint to the 69% who indicated difficulties in comparing the RFP responses they received.

Now what do these event-planners do to manage such difficulties? As planners have to deal with the reality of needing to deliver great experience for clients and their attendees, whilst having to attend numerous meetings in order to achieve the best results, they tend to resort to seeking assistance from third party service providers, DMCs or CVBs. Although 20% said they never rely on those agencies, more than half find it necessary to acquire the services of external planners when it comes to handling destination-related events.

What are DMCs?

A third-party external planner known in the event-planning world as DMC is a firm that specializes in providing professional planning and implementation services for events or programs to be held out-of-town.

DMC stands for Destination Management Company because the professional services they offer involve and include knowledge and expertise of the locality and resources, in relation to the implementation and design of the activities of an out-of-town event, such as program logistics, transport provisions and tours.

Twenty-one percent (21%) of the Cvent survey respondents say they often tap the services of DMCs, while 15% say they always depend on DMCs when planning out-of-town events.

What are CVBs?

CVB stands for Convention and Visitor Bureau.which undertakes work in marketing and promoting a destination to public travelers. They give advice and provide resources not only to tourists but also to the media and event planners as well.

CVBs are non-profit organizations that event planners use as time-saving resources, in order to streamline plans for an out-of-town event. Planners harness a CVB’s knowledge of the local convention and hospitality facilities being promoted as a way of boosting the tourism industry of a community.

Twenty-one percent (21%) of the Cvent survey respondents say they rely on CVBs, while 16% always coordinate their out-of-town plans with local CVBs.

Cvent 2019 Survey Shows Event Planners Double Down on Workloads via DMCs or CVBs
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