Global Trends and Innovation

Ros McLeod gives readers an insight into the latest global trends during her most recent travels.

 

Story by Ros McLeod

One of the many reasons I spend so much time in international forums is to keep pace with global trends and innovation. There is no point in thinking we are keeping pace only to wake up one day and find the field has passed us by. Learning is perpetual to running a successful business.

In Europe the current focus is on the change that is besetting the pharmaceutical world and the current opportunity presented in the guise of recession for companies to opt out of old ways of doing business. The voice of these companies is saying it is time for a rethink on how we spend our marketing dollars and perhaps it should be in patient communication rather than meetings and events.

In the Emirates there is a quietly growing confidence that despite a current downturn, the market will bounce back to fill the growing number of hotel rooms. Perhaps the reason for this confidence is the rigorous investment in their airlines. With access to cheaper fuel and labour coupled with an unregulated industrial relations regime, there is a feeling that the Middle Eastern airlines will be the world leaders in air space. With a two year interval between my visits to undertake IAPCO seminars in Dubai it was amazing to see the shift that has been made in their focus on the meetings industry.

Turkey continues to be at a crossroads in more ways than one! It has a very strong meetings industry and the competition among Turkish PCOs is fierce. Turks are the largest country membership of IAPCO as they strive to demonstrate their understanding of international meetings. The Turkish members are serious about the business and their approaches to business and technology are inspiring.

Technology is on everyone’s agenda. Although there is lots of talk about social networking (web 2.0 technologies) and how it can be applied to meetings, there still remains a general reluctance by the average conference delegate to take up some of these innovations, such as chat forums. But is it a matter of generation change? The overwhelming comment of the drowning by email syndrome seems to be the major obstacle in delegates finding time to engage in chat forums. But the technology is moving fast and it is expected that it will be a viable tool, albeit in an improved format in the next year or two.

 Roslyn McLeod is the founder and managing director of Tour Hosts, a Sydney-based conference and event management company.