Few businesses are more reliable and accurate monitors and indicators of Calgary’s post-COVID business recovery and momentum than the business of Calgary event planning and management.
Traditionally, event planning and management involves the strategic planning, organization, and execution of corporate and social events, ranging from big conventions, trade shows, conferences, more intimate meetings, seminars and award banquets, to motivational team-building retreats, private celebrations and entertainment events.
While event professionals are resilient and upbeat, they are also unanimous about COVID being a devastating broadside for the event planning industry. In some ways, the recent tough times redefined the art and science of event management, and some event professionals suggest the fallout continues to be felt.
In addition to regrouping, moving forward and doing whatever it takes to recoup the COVID-induced event planning business losses, the event management sector must also deal with new speedbumps like shrinking budgets, lingering attitudes about mingling in large groups, warp speed technology, and basic business options like Zoom and other event and meeting possibilities.
From thousands of convention attendees mingling with long lanyards and dangling name badges to sprawling global trade shows and lively team building events, the business of event planning and management is being transformed.
According to the upbeat Greg Newton, executive vice-president, Conventions and Events and general manager of Calgary’s sprawling and reimagined BMO Centre, “Broader business events have seen a resurgence with compressed budgets, as people emerged from the global pandemic with a desire to resume gathering and being together. All things considered, the situation is good and getting better!
“Attendance numbers are up, inquiries are up, and the demand for the mix of business and leisure (sometimes called ‘bleisure’) is strong. And mixed travel appears to be at an all-time high.”
He admits some challenges, citing the event management realities that labour and materials at all-time highs across the board as the key culprit for triggering reduced event budgets. “It is proving to be challenges in the silver lining of the pandemic cloud.”
Event planning professionals agree and caution that bouncing back from the pandemic crunch is happening, but it is dealing with various new normals.
“Event client needs and expectations have changed,” explains the plugged-in Sue Mercer, president of CanSPEP (the Canadian Association of Event Planners), the leading voice in Canada’s event industry. There are new event budget restrictions. For a number of reasons, we are also noticing tight timelines and last-minute registrations. The rate of no-shows is also a factor, combining to make event planning much more challenging than before. Some clients are waiting longer to commit to destinations and venues, which limits availability and also restricts the amount of time to effectively plan and execute.
“It is causing significant staffing challenges at all levels at many venues. Event is definitely NOT back to normal. It may never be. Maybe it is now a very different normal.”
While the crowds, the buzz, the excitement and the mass schmoozing which are popular stereotypes of special events get much of the attention, event planning professionals underscore that – beyond the thunderous applause for the keynote speaker, the display booths of freebie samplers, the spontaneous lobby huddles, the clapping for award winners and the pre, during and after gala dinner socializing – event management is (and always has been) a potent business.
Stats and trending from Meetings Mean Business Canada, the advocacy voice of the Canadian meetings and business events sector, show the important economic, social and legacy impacts of conferences, conventions, trade shows, exhibitions and large business meetings.
- Events account for more than 40 per cent of all tourism spending in Canada.
- Events have a $47B direct economic impact, and a $27.4B direct GDP impact.
- Events create 242,000 direct jobs.
And the basic but essential business reason why most cities, like Calgary, have small armies of municipal economic development reps, beating the drums and pitching their hometown’s event appeal and attractiveness: Surveys show that event participants drop an average of more than $900 per visitor in the event’s host city.
The new event trends underscore how the business of even planning and management is changing.
“The primary focus on event planning now seems to be less about speaking at an audience
and more about having the audience speak with each other,” Greg Newton notes. “With work-from-home, years of being away from each other, hybrid meetings, attendees are once again valuing networking.
For the event planner, the value is not only the registration value of the events but also paying
sponsors contributing to the event, and having attendees interact with each other and the sponsoring brands.”
He explains that although technology has become a key factor in the event management profession, many of the event planning trends that started well before the pandemic are now being amplified.
“The level of production (audio visual) expectations and desires of event clients have grown dramatically. Service is still a key. Expectations have changed, not only for the corporate organizer clients, but the attendees are expecting a higher level of service. The desire for specialty and flexibility on food and beverage is at an all-time high.
Technology and COVID lessons learned have also re-defined the traditional long-range planning for events. “The desire to make decisions on events for hundreds to thousands of people with only a few days notice is not uncommon, even though it can get difficult to meet and respond to the short notice when we think of the scale, labour pool and the supply chain we are dealing with,” Newton adds.
Mercer points out that, from technology to catering, event management is transforming. “There is increased interest and demand for sustainable events, an emphasis on reducing food waste and wellness sessions built into agenda.
“There is also a shift to making the event a memorable curated experience, with event programs that include blocks of non-scheduled time, highlighting local destinations (food as well as activities), and lots of interest in how AI can benefit the event planner experience.”
While the pandemic jolt gets a lot of the blame for event management changes, some of the new ways of doing event things are a natural evolution of the event planning business and, as with most businesses, the multi-facetted and transformational impact of technology.
Event planner professionals are embracing the role of technology in the business of event management.
The hybrid event evolution trend combines both physical (in-person) and virtual (online) participation in contemporary events.
Many event clients are realizing the value and benefits of reaching a broader and more diverse audience by incorporating virtual components into events.
And mobile technology continues as an essential event management feature and is changing how people attend events, access event information as well as routinely using smartphones and laptops while participating in the event.
The good news, at least for Calgary, is that the business of event planning is rebounding and showing positive momentum.
Just one exciting Calgary example is the sprawling, $500-million and over one-million-square-foot (accommodating 33,000 visitors at one time) BMO Centre which opened in June.
It is the newest, largest and most modern convention centre in Western Canada, and already proving to be a magnet for the business of events.
More than 500 BMO Centre conventions and events have already been booked, including the massive Rotary International Convention with nearly 20,000 attendees flocking to Calgary in June 2025. The Volleyball Nationals and the 27th Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography, both in 2026, The American Bus Association (ABA) Marketplace in 2027. And the International Society for Computational Biology conference in 2028, just to name a few major Calgary business events.
