Global Meetings Industry Day 2018

April 9, 2018

Every Dollar Spent on Face-To-Face Meetings and Business Events Generates an Additional $1.60 in Benefits for the U.S. Economy

Paul Van Deventer, Meetings Mean Business Co-Chair and President and CEO, Meeting Professionals International

(Washington D.C., Monday, April 9, 2018) – The US economy and businesses are directly affected by the meetings, conferences, conventions, incentive travel, and trade shows that are held across the state. Leaders from across the meetings and events industry are coming together to support Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID) on Thursday, April 12, 2018.

  • Face-to-face meetings and events play an integral role in bolstering our nation’s economy. According to a recent report from Oxford Economics:
    • Every dollar spent on face-to-face meetings and business events generates an additional $1.60 in benefits for the U.S. economy – a 160% return on investment.
    • The meetings industry contributes hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue to the U.S. economy and supports 5.9 million jobs.
    • In 2016, the industry generated $325 billion of direct spending and $845 billion in business sales. These numbers represent a contributing $446 billion of GDP and $104 billion of federal, state and local taxes. The total impact was $879 per U.S. household.
    • The industry supported more direct jobs that year than many large manufacturing sectors, including machinery, food, auto, and chemicals. It also sustained more jobs than the telecommunications and oil and gas extraction industries.
  • Hosting a meeting, convention or trade show stimulates a region’s economy by bringing in new visitors, who stay in area hotels, eat in local restaurants, shop in neighborhood stores and bring new revenue to the destination.
  • Meetings also play a critical role in connecting people and driving business results.
    • Organizations depend on face-to-face meetings to win new customers, close new deals and develop high-performing talent.
    • When it comes to making investments in their business, executives find face-to-face meetings to be a high priority (82%) – even more than technology (79%) or customer research (66%), according to MMB’s 2016 Business Leaders Survey.
    • Nine in ten say meetings improve their ability to close deals (93%), network (90%) and grow professionally (88%).

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