Just announced, eVenues.com has been invited to speak at one of the year's premier networking events in Seattle on August 19th at the Maydenbauer Center in Bellevue. Come check out Nic Peterson, cofounder of eVenues, as he talks about leveraging your underutilized space assets to uncover new revenue opportunities and their experiences in building a many to many e-commerce marketplace.

More from EastsideNetworkingEvent.com:

We worked hard to gather the best talents from around the Seattle area. Our speakers come from best companies in the city: T.A. McCann from Gist, Nic Peterson from eVenues, Werner Vogels from Amazon.com, Bill Baxter from Cozi Group, Barbara Evans from Seattle Wine Gal, Ari Steinberg from Facebook Seattle, and Mike Whitmore from Fresh Consulting. This event is for anyone who wants to learn the latest insider secrets and strategies for staying on top of the hottest trends in the Seattle technology scene. The schedule includes presentations by speakers from several of the world’s largest tech companies including Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook. There will also be several local success stories including eVenues, an incredible local startup that’s radically changing the way we use space, meet, and organize.

Buy your tickets now as they are selling out quickly:

 http://eastsidenetworkingevent.com/register-now/

By Kathy Janich
Published: August 2, 2010
 
The outlook for the U.S. meetings industry is improving, according toa survey that polled 505 professional meeting planners throughout the country. The news comes after 18 months of declining demand and an uncertain future.

The survey, commissioned by the Professional Convention Management Association, the PCMA Education Foundation and American Express, was conducted online in April and May. Of the 505 respondents, 56 percent were association planners; the rest were corporate, incentive or independent planners.

Among the results:

  • Off-site bookings in 2010 rose 15 percent compared with 2009, and 24 percent for 2011 (about 17 more meetings per planner).
  • Expectations about attendance at off-site meetings rose 23 percent for 2010 and 38 percent for 2011.
  • Only 6 percent planned to postpone, cancel or re-book 2010 meetings because of the economy vs. 41 percent in 2009.
  • 89 percent had no plans to postpone, cancel or re-book meetings in 2010-2011 vs. 54 percent in 2009.

“While it’s been a difficult 18 months for our industry, I’m encouraged to see both actual business as well as business sentiment improving,” stated Deborah Sexton, PCMA president and CEO. “There continues to be caution in budgets and cost controls, which is to be expected, but if we can stay on this positive trend there are certainly brighter days ahead.”

Conversely, the survey also showed that planners seem to be judiciously choosing meeting destinations and venues, with cruise ship events dropping 15 percent, luxury accommodations dropping 24 percent and mid-scale lodging increasing by 18 percent. About one-third of thosepolled plan to shorten meetings by at least one day, although one in four said they are working with slightly bigger budgets.

To see the rest of the article, please follow the link: http://www.planyourmeetings.com/newsbrief/2010/08/future-brightens-for-meeting-planners/