­Thoughts for the New Year

I’ve given up on New Year’s Resolutions as they never seem to work for me. One year my resolution was to help with world peace. Well I didn’t get very far with that.

Then I decided that a good resolution would be to help improve the economy so I did my bit during the January sales. I didn’t make a dent in the financial crisis but I had a great time shopping! Other resolutions involving such things as aerobics, speed walking and other forms of serious exercise also ‘fell by the wayside’. So now my resolution is simply to look back on the year just past and look forward to the year ahead.

Looking Back
2011 started slowly with very little developing in the first quarter of the year. However, as the year progressed, the hospitality ‘gurus’ that had predicted significant growth during 2011 were somewhat correct. The last quarter of the year was particularly good for the special events industry with many of the people I spoke to saying that their business was really quite strong – some even indicating a big improvement over 2010. The DatebooK also saw a significant increase in the number of calendar listings in the Autumn issue with several listings still coming in, especially for December, after the issue had gone to press.

There was also more strength in the larger corporate hospitality market, however with a difference. A survey by christmasvenues.com has revealed that there is a definite rise in smaller team parties and departmental groups. This, according to the report, is particularly true of large companies and public sector groups.

The trend towards shared party nights also remains strong. These are very popular with smaller groups who can get much more for their money – a very important factor as the economy continues to struggle.
In my New Year's column last year I commented that “Events are going to be somewhat smaller as well as more efficient and the budget is going to be more important now than ever before.”  This is definitely the case!

Looking Forward
There is a great deal of optimism as we enter 2012 with the Olympics expected to bring big business to the events industry. Needless to say, one certainly hopes that will be the case. It does appear, however, that this ‘business increase’ for 2012 is a bit slow in coming.

As late As November of last year, many venues I spoke with were still holding space for Olympic events that had been anticipated, though not yet materialized, and in general, the prevailing attitude seems to be one of ‘wait and see.’ However it is still early in the year and no doubt ‘the best is yet to come’. I am optimistic … I hope you are too!

I wish you all a healthy, happy, busy year ahead.

Mary Kay Eyerman
Editor
E-mail: teyerman3@aol.com