Who is vaccinated and who is not?
While that question is at the core of the COVID-19 vaccination debate, meeting professionals tell us they are clearly in the pro-vaccination camp.
Our latest quarterly signature research survey, Meetings Outlook, reveals that vaccination rates among meeting professionals are almost twice that of US and Canadian averages, with more than 91% of respondents telling us that they are fully or partially vaccinated against COVID-19. Digging a bit deeper, and 84% of respondents say they are fully vaccinated, 7% say they are partially vaccinated and less than 4% say they do not want the vaccine.
The survey, featured in this month’s issue of your member magazine, The Meeting Professional, reveals that meeting professionals are eager and innovative while envisioning major growth for the year to come for hiring, budgets, attendance and more even as coronavirus variants threaten to delay a much-needed recovery.
The survey closed before many locations began seeing the impact of the delta variant and indications are that there will be changes, in the short term at a minimum, such as the return of masks in certain situations, health certificates and even vaccination mandates.
Let’s all continue to work to get our business, and our communities, back to work safely and quickly.
Whichever camp you are in, the one thing we don’t want is to slow the momentum that we have seen in the return of face-to-face business meetings.
Starting with our own World Education Congress—as well as with our colleagues at Destinations International and IACC—we have seen numerous examples of business meetings and events beginning to fill conference centers and hotels, all with health and safety as the No. 1 priority.
The surveys reports that 93% of respondents are projecting favorable business conditions over the next year, the second consecutive quarter of record positive expectations.
While there is optimism for the return of business meetings, there are concerns about staffing. Tracy Judge, CMP, MS, HMCC (MPI San Diego Chapter), founder and chief connector for SoundingsConnect, who is on the cover this month, says the talent shortage is the most significant trend affecting the meeting and event business. Even though 49% of respondents say they are not having difficulty filling job vacancies vs. 29% who say they are having such troubles, industry leaders are working diligently to restore their workforces, particularly in the hospitality sectors.
“The length of the pandemic forced many in our industry to find new work or a new career path,” Judge says. “There were some industries and companies that did really well during the pandemic. They were able to hire new talent and most can afford to pay more than the events and hospitality industries.”
There’s much more relevant industry information for meeting professionals in this quarter’s Meetings Outlook report. Spend a few minutes reading this authoritative narrative written by Senior Editor Michael Pinchera.
Let’s all continue to work to get our business, and our communities, back to work safely and quickly. It’s a shot in the arm we can all use.
Be safe out there.
Until next time…
Rich Luna
Editor in Chief
rluna@mpiweb.org
