Procurement professionals are playing a bigger role in centralised meetings, which is leaving some buyers uneasy with the relationship says a new report.
The annual FutureWatch study, released by Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and American Express, which examines market trends in the global meeting and event planning industry, revealed a level of unease among some participants.
The report indicated that more than half of respondents said their firm's meetings were largely centralised, a drop from the previous year and a sign of the increased role of procurement specialists.
Surveying 1,643 meeting and event professionals and suppliers from across the world, this year's study suggested attendance at meetings was expected to rise by 19 per cent in 2008.
However, at the meetings Cary Broussard, vice president of marketing and brand management for MPI, identified the potentially awkward presence of procurement, with 42 per cent of the buyers contacted saying they had created "significant frustration or difficulty".
"They don't want to have more constraints that make their job harder," she explained in comments reported by BTN Mag.
Among the other findings of the study were concerns over the direction of the global economy in 2008, although corporate planners remain confident about their budgets, predicting a rise of 27 per cent in 2008.
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