American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) released on Oct. 13 its “2027 Global Meetings and Events Forecast,” which details the findings of a survey conducted by London-based YouGov of 500 meeting professionals across 11 countries. The report includes top priorities for meeting professionals, as well as how they are adapting to uncertainty and managing changing budgets.
“Meeting professionals are entering 2027 with more demands on their programs, from rising costs and disruption caused by geopolitical uncertainty to higher attendee expectations,” says Gerardo Tejado Donde, senior vice president of professional services at Amex GBT, in a prepared statement. “Yet, they are responding with resilience, resourcefulness, and creativity, adapting their strategies rather than stepping back. There is a real sense of optimism across the industry, grounded in a clear understanding of what lies ahead.”
The top priority for meeting professionals, according to the report, is improving the attendee experience. It also shows that as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more pervasive, attendees increasingly are looking for experiences that feel authentic, including more personalized experiences; hands-on sessions and workshops; and social activities and networking. Meeting planners said they see AI’s potential to reduce their workload and create more time to focus on the attendee experience. They report using AI for several purposes: supporting on-site staff with AI insights intended to allow for more personalized service (34%); event communications (32%); tracking attendee engagement (31%); and generating creative concepts and themes (31%).
Responding meeting professionals also reported changes in how they planned events due to global instability. A change in destination or city was reported by 39% of respondents, while 37% said they held more virtual meetings. The majority of respondents, 79%, apply risk management practices to most or all of their meetings.
Although the meetings industry has faced a multitude of challenges in recent times, its professionals have maintained a positive outlook—93% of respondents are optimistic about the health of the meetings sector moving into next year.
