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Over the past few months, several studies and surveys have been published that highlight the increased use of virtual events. We’ve brought together some  stats that have been published over the past few months. Are there any other stats or surveys? Include them in the comments. 

Tradeshow and Events Industry

• Updated 9/22/09 – Wired Magazine (August 2009): Per the Wired article, “Analysts expect 5,000 virtual events next year, an increase of 500 percent for the industry.”
• Updated 9/22/09 – MarketingProfs Chart – Changes in Information Resources Used During First Half of 2009:

Virtual Events Grow by 30%

• Conducted in April and May of this year, PCMA and the PCMA Education Foundation partnered with American Express to survey 516 association, corporate, and incentive meeting professionals. As printed in Convene (July 2009) and pdf summary:
  • “Going virtual — Planners intend to make greater use of alternative meeting methods in the months ahead, including Webinars (54 percent), teleconferencing (48 percent), and videoconferencing (30 percent)”
• Digital + Exhibit Marketing Insights 2009 (June 2009) by the Center for Exhibition Research and George P. Johnson: “40% of corporate brand marketers and 31% of exhibition management executives report using virtual media; 71% of respondents use virtual media to accommodate geographically widespread workforces and customers.”
• Meetings & Incentive Travel Magazine’s survey (June 2009): “A survey of nearly 1000 people in the events industry across all sectors – one of the largest surveys carried out in the UK meetings industry – showed 70 per cent of corporate organisers and 64 per cent of intermediary agencies predict a growth in the number of virtual conferences such as webinars and a reduction in the number of live events in the coming year.

 Fewer live events were forecast by 56 per cent of corporate buyers and 59 per cent of intermediary agencies while only 7 per cent of corporates predicted an increase in the number of live events in 2010.”

• Meeting Professionals International’s Future Watch 2009: “FutureWatch 2009 respondents see virtual meetings as an important trend, and many of them predicted a shift to Web-based learning as a way to control meeting and travel costs. However, they are not entirely convinced that the enabling technologies are ready for prime time.”

Analyst Reports

• ABM Face-to-Face Report by American Business Media and Forrester Research (April 2009): “75% of business decision-makers surveyed said they attended three or more Web-based events during the past 12 months.”

• Gartner Predicts 2009 (February 2009 – via Virtual Worlds News) – Gartner is looking at high-definition based video meeting solutions to replace 2.1 million airline seats annually by 2012, costing the travel and hospitality industry US$3.5 billion per year

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Industry stats – Event and corporate marketers turning to Virtual Events  by @InXpoLive: http://bit.ly/44m7d4