The meetings, incentives, conferences and events industry is continuing to grow and develop. During low seasons for tourist destinations the MICE industry generates income for venues and other suppliers for the industry. Globally trends and issues within the MICE industry are arising annually. These trends and issues that affect the industry globally, can impact the Irish MICE market also. I plan to outline certain trends and issues that are making an impact upon the global market currently and see if they impacted upon the Irish conference market.
The technology trend is still an on-going trend within the MICE market.
“2011 will be remembered as the year in which the meetings and events industry finally made peace with technology” EIBTM 2011 Industry Trends and Market Share Report, 2011.
Technology has continued to evolve providing venue and conference planners and destination marketing organizations the innovative solution to enhance them to work faster and better during the stages of the event life. Technology is a top trend from an INCON (a global partnership of conferences and events) survey. Social media is growing in importance, as a very importance digital marketing tool and also as a way of communication with clients/ attendees/delegates. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, podcasts and YouTube, to name but few, are used more and more throughout the MICE market globally. This trend has made a definite impact upon the Irish Market. Most venues/ event companies/ destination marketing organizations throughout Ireland have at least one of the above mentioned social media websites, using it as a strong, cheap marketing tool. Take for example the RDS. They have a Facebook page were they let people who have liked there page know what is currently taking place in the RDS and also lets them know what is
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