This Concomitance Consulting study was carried out among more than 600 meeting planners in the top three European markets: France, Germany and the United Kingdom. These interviews have been conducted end of 2015 and mid-2016. This study laid the foundations for the white paper that we are offering to share with you. You will find a summary of the study's main findings, the salient points of the French, German and UK markets. This document represents an executive summary of the information collected. A broader summary is available.

1. 1
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance
White Paper
October 2016
Produced by

2. 2
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance

3. 2
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance

4. 2
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance

5. 2
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance

6. 6
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance
FOUR KEY TRENDS
1. Above all, MICE continues to be an in-house affair in the organisation's home country
Practices mainly focus on in-house events and the use of company-owned facilities
The overwhelming majority of companies prioritise events in their home country (73%), and 82%
of companies manage their own events.
The favourite venues are in-house meeting rooms or company-owned sites (52%), hotels (23%)
and conference centres (12%).
2. Outsourcing offers true growth prospects
The use of outsourcing is restricted to highly specific types of event, which primarily concern
companies looking to generate awareness and image.
Events that are outsourced include conferences (25%), incentives (23%) and special events (21%)
Note that 10% of organisations outsource internal team meetings, while 20% outsource training.
Companies outsource the management of their events on grounds of practicality and the need
for professionalism.

7. 7
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance
The main reasons include the time saved (65%), greater familiarisation with the venue, top
management's decision (58%), professionalism (56%) and the large number of participants (54%).
Note that the price comes in sixth place in the rankings.
Companies entrust their events to a wide range of providers in the market, with TMCs (travel
management companies) and events agencies level-pegging at 60% and 59% respectively, while
hotel groups are at 34%. Companies enlist the services of specialised providers depending on the
type of event, such as PCOs and venue finders.
3. Companies take a quality-based approach towards the management of their event and
how they measure their employees' satisfaction
Companies use a learning curve when selecting the venue as well as criteria for assessing the
event (price, accessibility, employee satisfaction and means of transport).

8. 8
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance
Participant’s satisfaction is systematically measured: this practice is shared by 77% of companies
and is highly focused on the quality of the event and participants' impressions.
The key satisfaction indicators are the value of the content in 93% of cases, the professionalism
of the event providers (88%), the density of the event timetable (82%), networking (for meeting
colleagues and customers) (73%) and activities for improving team building (69%).
57% believe that the conditions at the venue are essential and highly important for raising the bar
on professional efficiency.
Finally, note that companies have very few quantitative indicators for measuring the actual
productivity (11%) of their events.
4. Overall, companies have only achieved a low level of maturity in terms managing the
MICE value chain
On the whole, the maturity indicators are low, especially when compared against the business
travel sector.
53% have a documented MICE policy, while 41% do not monitor or measure implementation of
their events.
In most cases, management of the event mix continues to be decentralised (44% of events are
managed independently by each entity). Only a third of companies have a department that is
specifically responsible for purchasing and managing events.
When it comes to management solutions, there are very few automated management processes
(from RFPs through to reporting). The value chain continues to be managed manually or using
tools for part of the process (39% of organisations have not implemented a MICE management
solution).

9. 9
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance
THREE PRIORITIES FOR 2017
The 3 priorities are: enhance participants' satisfaction, achieve a clear insight into expenditure and
incorporate digital technologies.
1. Enhancing participants' satisfaction is a top priority for 85% of the companies polled… and safety
is becoming an increasingly important issue
Above all, companies are shifting the focus on achieving excellence in terms of participants'
satisfaction, which involves two aspects:
Provide employees with the best professional conditions possible (60%)
Address participants' safety (48%)
2.Keep a tight rein on expenditure
As is the case with business travel, organisations are looking for an overview of their expenditure.

10. 10
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance
• 54% of companies want an overview of all their expenditure by cost item, 22% wish to incorporate
their expenses into their accounting system, and 15% want the option of assigning expenses based on
analytical references.
Their expectations are especially high, since the vast majority of companies depend on internal
functions (internal finance 79%) for reporting. Furthermore, over 19% of MICE expenses are paid
through expense notes, which makes it harder to reconcile data and gain an exhaustive insight into
their expenditure.
In the absence of a consolidated view of their expenditure, a key concern among companies is
measuring the contribution of their MICE policy and calculating the ROI.
45% of organisations wish to increase the extent to which their events contribute to the added value
generated by the company, whereas 41% do not measure the return on investment from their events.
Only 8% of companies claim to measure MICE's contribution to the company's revenue, and 32%
measure the impact of each event.
3. A planned move towards greater use of digital technologies
81% of organisations have already held mixed events with a preference for virtualised internal
meetings (69%), training (49%), seminars / executive committee meetings (42%) and customer
conferences (33%).
65% of companies train their employees on the use and practices of digital technologies (video
conferences and web meetings are a close runner-up to conference calls).45% wish to develop their
virtual events in 2017.
Mobile platforms are not yet perceived as an extension or substitute for the current method of
organising or managing MICE, unlike the business travel sector. They are seen more as a way of
facilitating event management (especially for determining satisfaction and networking).

11. 11
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance
OUTLOOK FOR THE MICE MARKET
The structure of the MICE market will crystallise in three key areas over the next few years:
• greater complexity in the value chain,
• superior expertise in analysing and bringing solutions to the market,
• greater focus on managing MICE policies.
1. New decision-support tools
Replicating the example of the business travel sector, new decision-support tools will enable
companies to weigh up the pros and cons of carrying out a given event and measure the return on
investment. The aim is to determine the extent to which events play a contributory role in the
company's development (business profits and participants' satisfaction and safety).
To do so, companies will need to be capable of integrating the economic benefits generated by the
different methods of interaction (physical vs. virtual) and proposing the most appropriate
combinations for making the right budgetary decisions supported by an exhaustive view of their
expenditure.
2. Customization with specific components
New expertise will also be developed for controlling the event mix and delivering personalised
solutions. For example, core competencies will include knowledge of the customer environment and
the ability to anticipate the events that will be affected by technology and/or the macro-economic
environment.
Expertise will be required to determine the effectiveness of all methods of interaction for each type
of event (motivation, sales, recruitment, etc.) reinforced by benchmarking tools and best practices by
type of event.

12. 12
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance
3. Cost streamlining
Just like business travel, the MICE market will be affected as companies pursue their policy of
streamlining direct and indirect costs. These demands will prompt the MICE industry to forge new
positioning strategies.
In this respect, events firms will need to reinvent or upgrade their business models to reflect physical
and virtual forms of interaction as well as take account of companies' purchasing practices. This
situation should spawn the development of end-to-end solutions and hybrid pricing models (cross
between TMC and events agency models).

13. 13
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance
ABOUT THE 2016 INTELLIGENCE REPORT ON PRACTICES AND TRENDS IN THE MICE
MARKET
This intelligence report, sponsored by BVA and Airplus International can be credited to the
collaborative effort between Concomitance, B3tsi and TendanceNomad.
For additional information or inquiry on this pulse survey, please feel free to get in touch at
baromice@concomitance.com.
Methodology
It is based on telephone interviews with 600 people in charge of managing MICE (5% meeting
planners, 28% executive or departmental assistants, 47% executives / directors / managers, 20% other)
in December 2015 and July 2016.
The companies polled include SMEs (25%), mid-cap companies (25%), large organisations (25%) and
associations (25%) in the three main European markets (France, Great Britain and Germany) with a
MICE budget in excess of €180 million.
Credits: the icons used in this white paper are taken from The Noun Project collaborative icon
sharing platform and were created by Ema Dimitrova, Olivier, Creative Stall, Frederick Allen and
Gerard Wildmoser.

14. 14
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance

15. 15
This report is protected by copyright - Any full or partial reproduction is subject to prior authorization of B3tsi - Concomitance
About Concomitance
Concomitance, a brand of B3tsi, is specialised in marketing and sales consulting.
Concomitance is an independent consulting firm specialised in management and strategy. We focus
on two levers of value creation built on customer experience: marketing and sales.
Since its establishment in 2002, Concomitance has stood out in terms of its capacity to transpose
commercial and marketing issues into action plans which are immediately effective and
comprehensible to all players.
This capacity is a direct result of Concomitance's DNA: the prior business experience of our
consultants allows us to formulate recommendations and share them with our clients in line with
the maturity of their organization.
Concomitance Consulting
3 rue de la Grange Ory – 94230 Cachan – France
Follow us on Concomitance.com or SlideShare
Contact for this white paper: info@Concomitance.com