This week the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) published results from its January 2022 Tracker Poll with US business-to-business (B2B) exhibition organisers assessing the impact of Covid-19 on the 2022 show schedule.
The poll included an update of CEIR’s forecast for the overall US economy and B2B exhibition industry through 2023.
Epistemix CEO John Cordier offered insights on the expected trajectory of COVID-19 cases through 2025, and how organisers can plan events safely in light of this outlook.
“Survey results signal a new day for the industry,” noted CEIR vice-president of research Nancy Drapeau, IPC. “The largest share of executives report plans to run their events. They have learned how to navigate operating successfully in a pandemic and they are putting those learnings into action in 2022.”
“CEIR has consistently been forecasting that the recovery would accelerate in 2022,” added CEIR CEO Cathy Breden. “This data affirms that is in play. We thank John Cordier for sharing a powerful planning tool for organisers to use to help understand when mitigation tactics are needed to run an event safely in a given city at a given time of year.” She added that organisers could listen to and download a webinar to access the insights.
Despite the explosion of Omicron cases in the US at the timing of this survey, few executives report postponing or cancelling 2022 events. And, when looking at the expected impact of Omicron on the 2022 event schedule, fewer expect it will impact their schedule compared to the expected impact of Delta, as reported in the October 2021 CEIR tracker survey.
The CEIR webinar covers the following:
- Profile of events that remain scheduled or postponed – event size, location, regional scope of participation, whether hybrid model is being used, requirements for participants attending in-person events.
- Profile of events that happened in January – preliminary data on key performance metrics.
- Profile of events that have cancelled - event size, location, regional scope of participation, alternative digital or face-to-face engagement efforts with audiences that would have participated in cancelled events.
- Portfolio and revenue impacts due to cancellations/postponements.
- Lessons learned operating during the pandemic and how business practices will adjust in 2022 in light of these learnings.
Download the recorded version of the webinar here for a fee of $30.
For additional information, visit www.ceir.org
