Frankfurt, 4 December 2023. For business events to fully unleash their potential for success even in challenging times, they need to serve a purpose, leave a legacy, and have genuine meaning. But how can meetings, conferences, and congresses meet these requirements? What are the event features that organizers need to focus on in the future as key success factors? In its latest research phase, the Future Meeting Space innovation network looked at these and other questions. The key findings of the analysis will be presented by the network’s initiators – the GCB German Convention Bureau and the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO – in a free online event on 22 January 2024, at 3:00 PM (CET). 

Kicking off its 2023 research, Future Meeting Space identified what triggers and motivates organizers to run business events. In a next step, co-creation workshops and interviews with
experts from diverse fields, including community building and business ethics, provided interdisciplinary insights for the development of new event concepts.

Among the emerging trends and developments that shape future events, the experts surveyed identified sustainability and digitalization as the most impactful topics. However, they also viewed factors such as economic viability, shortage of skilled workers, cost pressure, globalization and regionalization, demographics, and our new flexible ways of working as playing a significant role in future business events.

Based on these findings, the research team then developed and evaluated the building blocks that are essential for an integrated event concept. The goal and result of the process is a “periodic table for events” with practical recommendations for meaningful events of the future.

The GCB and Fraunhofer IAO research team, together with other experts, will present selected results in a free online event (approx. 60 min) on 22. January 2024, at 3:00 PM (CET).

Registration is now open here.