The 2025 IACC Assembly Room of the Future Barometer ,launched by IACC in collaboration with Improvement Counsellors Worldwide, highlights a major shift in assembly planners’ priorities, with a marked improve within the significance of venue facilities. The report is predicated on responses from over 200 assembly planners throughout North America and Europe, together with a considerable illustration from associations and nonprofits.
In accordance with the survey, 55 % of assembly planners now contemplate a venue’s bodily traits a vital think about reaching their assembly aims, a notable improve from 36 % in 2023. Equally, the importance of meals and beverage choices has elevated, with 50 % of planners citing it as vital, up from 30 % within the earlier survey.
In distinction, the emphasis on content material and schooling has declined, with solely 50 % of planners figuring out it as key, in comparison with 65 % in 2023. Networking has additionally seen a lower in precedence, dropping from 52% to 33%.
The report notes that planners are more and more in search of distinctive assembly places, comparable to stadiums, museums, and vineyards. This pattern is mirrored within the 51 % of planners who chosen specialty venues, in comparison with 33 % in 2023. Regardless of this shift, the report emphasizes that planners will not be essentially devaluing schooling, however are as a substitute in search of venues that supply larger flexibility in studying strategies and group actions.
The demand for adaptable assembly areas is rising, as planners reply to numerous session codecs and personalised attendee experiences. This pattern challenges venues to maneuver past static layouts, requiring infrastructure and companies that may shortly adapt to altering content material wants.
Whereas robust web connections stay important for profitable conferences, planners are more and more disenchanted with the complexity of internet hosting hybrid or livestreamed occasions. The share of planners who don’t plan to livestream has doubled, from 21 % to 42 %.
Relating to social duty, planners prioritize accessibility as a excessive precedence however present much less concern for the environmental affect of their occasions. A big 82 % of planners don’t require a carbon footprint measurement for his or her occasions.
The report highlights the trade’s ongoing post-pandemic adaptation, with a rising emphasis on creating distinctive and interesting experiences for attendees. Assembly planners are prioritizing versatile room layouts, genuine meals and beverage choices, and distinctive native experiences to boost the general occasion expertise.
2025 IACC Assembly Room of the Future Barometer
