The findings of the second Corporate Event Organiser Survey were announced at the Meetings & Events Australia (MEA) National Conference on Monday 7 May at Adelaide Convention Centre.
This partnership with the Association of Australian Convention Bureaux (AACB) and Meetings & Events Australia (MEA) supports Executive PA Media efforts to reach out to Australian based PAs and EAs to identify trends that will help the meetings industry assess the effectiveness of their initiatives to meet their needs, when managing events for their organisations.
Executive PA Media Chairman, Russell Peacock, said “I’d like to thank Meetings & Events Australia and the Association of Australian Convention Bureaux for the second year, for their input into this research, particularly with their help to identify how closely executive assistants may be considered part of the events industry. Far more people now organise corporate events alongside their other job responsibilities, than dedicated in-house events managers and this second survey alongside the first, identifies trends to better understand how this group of buyers work and just as importantly, how to work with them.”
Robyn Johnson, CEO of Meetings & Events Australia said “The Australian meetings and events industry is constantly evolving as new technologies become available and as the global marketplace adopts new ideas, we need to remain known for best practice event management, both domestically and internationally.
“Corporate meetings are a vitally important part of the events industry and executive assistants play a huge role in the delivery of these events. The annual review by Executive PA Media delivers critical information that assists the events industry, and MEA as its peak industry body, determine how best to meet the needs of our clients.
“MEA would like to see more executive and personal assistants join as members and is constantly looking for new ways to provide value from their membership. The results of this survey will help us do this.“
Andrew Hiebl, CEO of the Association of Australian Convention Bureaux said “Congratulations to Executive PA Media for continuing its research in the corporate events space through its Australian membership and audience. The Association of Australian Convention Bureaux has been proud to collaborate on this project.
A key highlight was discovering that almost two thirds of respondents identified that event management was part of their job description, and that nearly a third had previously worked in events businesses or departments. This is significant, and helps the events industry better communicate and engage with executive assistants. From this, we know that professional development in areas of event management and participation in events trade shows are valued by their employers if pitched in alignment with core responsibilities.
While nearly all EAs prefer to deal direct when they can, it is clear from the results that time-poor EAs need support with short-lead event turnaround. Services offered by many of Australia’s convention bureaux directly address this requirement.
It is also promising to see the continued rise in interest for regional Australia, both in realised events year-on-year, as well as in future consideration.
Access the report here.
Over $30billion is spent on business events in Australia each year with the majority of this spend coming from corporate events. Executive Assistants are responsible for large event budgets and independent research has shown that they have average travel & meetings budgets of $394,000, but other than that very little is known about this sector and the value they provide to the Australian events industry.
The initial survey in 2017, carried out by Executive PA Media, was the first study into the value of executive assistants to the meetings and events industry and the findings have proved to be extremely useful; so much so that the document has been used at state government level to lobby for resources and funding.
