Findings from what is believed to be the first research for the meetings industry, exclusively ask personal assistants for their insights and to seek information on their buying patterns when organising events, executive level assistants to be time poor but savvy business event organisers, whose needs are not yet being properly met by the meetings industry.
Of the $30.2billion spent on business events in Australia most comes from corporate events, which personal assistants organise more of than any other professional group. Whilst recent independent research has shown PAs to have average travel & meetings budgets of $394,000*, very little is known about them by the meetings industry because they sit outside of it.
Two of the peak professional bodies for the meetings and events industry, the Association of Australian Convention Bureaux (AACB) and Meetings & Events Australia (MEA), have partnered with Executive PA Media to find out more about the needs and buying patterns of executive assistants when organising and booking corporate events.
CEO of Meetings & Events Australia Robyn Johnson pointed out “The survey results highlight the critical role played by executive and personal assistants in decisions about the events run by their organisations. There’s clearly a gap in our understanding about their priorities and a need to provide more sophisticated channels for information about our services.”
Andrew Hiebl, CEO of the Association of Australian Convention Bureaux said “It has been a fantastic opportunity to partner with Executive PA Media and Meetings & Events Australia, to gain insights from the corporate sector and share these findings with the business events industry. The knowledge of the ways in which a convention bureaux can assist EAs is valuable, as destinations seek to provide a quality service to the corporate market to deliver highly successful events”.
Russell Peacock, Chairman Executive PA Media said “I’d like to thank Meetings & Events Australia and the Association of Australian Convention Bureaux for their forward-thinking approach and involvement in shaping the research. The findings are going to be very beneficial to their members to attract and retain corporate business, and helpful to our members who work with them when organising their business events.”
The survey also provides other insights, such as procurement processes, budget sizes, types of event organised, favoured and up and coming destinations
To download a copy of the 2017 Executive PA Corporate Event Organiser Survey click here.
