Thanks for jumping into the 2010 Meetings Market Trends Survey, the first digital magazine offered by Meetings Media!

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that our entry into the world of digital publishing begins with this edition, as it illustrates the trends shaping the business world—both in the meetings industry and in publishing. And both are changing fast.

The publishing world is marked by "convergence," a term that basically means traditional print publishing is undergoing a revolution in which what was once a "static" mode of communication is opening up the conversation to readers via digital distribution channels. Check out our video interviews with top industry thought-leaders starting on page 18 to get an idea of the possibilities. You’ll also notice that all of the urls in this publication are live, so you can just click and explore without having to enter the information in your Web browser. 

On the meetings side, what many call the deepest economic plunge since the Great Depression has resulted in new hotel and meeting facility construction being delayed or abandoned—on the heels of one of the most brisk construction and investment periods in recent memory—corporations and associations massively cutting back their meetings and events budgets, low attendance numbers, and negative government, media and public perceptions about the very idea of meeting face-to-face.

All of these forces combined into a hurricane that tore through the meetings industry in 2009: oversupply, less demand and meetings spend, public discomfort over "boondoggles"—bad juju all around.

But even if the numbers were disconcerting, the attitudes of meeting planners who participated in this year’s Meetings Market Trends Survey were refreshingly upbeat, and not just because they have a lot more negotiation power on rooms and attrition rates! We decided to include their predictions for 2010 inside the main story, and even though many of them responded that their budgets and attendance were scraping bottom, and they feared downsizing, they remained very positive for how this year will turn out.

We also brought back two features from last year’s Meetings Market Trends Survey, a column from American Express Business Travel—this time an opinion piece by Issa Jouaneh, vice president of Maxvantage and Global Meetings Solutions, on the even more-pressing need for strategic meetings management—and a finely researched story from our Career Forum columnist, Sheryl Sookman Schelter, on what to expect in the meetings industry hiring market next year.

With the economy starting what appears to be a comeback—let’s hope the hiring pace picks up, though!—many think the lean years are over, so enjoy, interact with and share this digital edition of "Trends."

See you on the upswing…