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Planners are ready to get back to in-person meetings while attendees are a bit less enthusiastic, MMGY tells HSMAI.
Expectations differ a bit on ”getting back to normal.” While professional planners expect to get back to “normal” in the coming months, prospective attendees express more hesitancy on their plans to revert to attending meetings, conferences, and conventions in person as they did pre-COVID. 40% of professional planners believe attendees currently prefer to meet in person, yet only 27% of prospective attendees actually feel that way. Looking forward to a post-COVID environment, the percentage of attendees who say they’ll prefer in-person meetings essentially doubles (53%), but it still lags planners’ expectations (59%).
Hybrid meetings are here to stay. 23% of attendees would currently prefer to attend hybrid meetings, a combination of in-person and techconnected meetings online, well-aligned with the 20% of planners who believe that’s what their attendees prefer. However, thinking ahead to a post-COVID environment, 20% of attendees say they’ll continue to prefer hybrid meetings, yet just 5% of planners believe that will be the case.
