The Polish Tourism Organisation-Poland Convention Bureau has joined the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau and Seoul Tourism Organisation as an offiicial partner of the Brussels-based Union of International Associations’ (UIA) Survey on Covid-19 Impact on International Association Meetings being conducted March-October 2021 among 25,000 international associations worldwide.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on the meetings behaviour of international associations. Exploring that impact and finding out the consequences is the focus of the survey, which will also aim to determine the changes in approach of associations when planning and organising their international events: the shift in their needs, expectations and technological approach.
The UIA says it will describe, in text, graphics and tables, how associations are dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic impact and the areas of concern for associations, focusing mainly on their meeting activities: dealing with events cancelled and/or changed in their format (online/hybrid), perspectives for re-establishment of in-person programmes, technology challenges, the role of social media, the economic impact on the associations’ future, their expectations in a relationship with convention bureaux, etc.
Each association listed in the UIA Yearbook will be asked to complete the survey with 19 questions – 15 of which are multiple choice. The survey also will be available to the public on UIA’s website (https://uia.org/publications/meetings-survey).
“The UIA Surveys are the largest surveys looking into the meetings behaviour of all the diverse types of international associations,” said Clara Fernández López, the UIA’s external relations manager.
The most recent edition of the survey, 2020, revealed that 82% of respondents hold at least one major international meeting every three years. Forty-four percent of these associations hold their meetings annually and 54% of meetings have a length of two to three days.
The Survey showed that, in 2020, 41% of the associations responding did not offer options for remote participation in their meetings, and 21% were not considering options for remote participation at all. UIA expects the forthcoming survey to show a shift in this behaviour.
The Poland Convention Bureau, which is lending its support to the project, says it is particularly interested in associations’ changing attitude to co-operation with convention bureaux.
In 2020 as many as 33% of international associations involved in the survey admitted they were not yet familiar with the free services offered by a convention bureau, and only 12% had ever used the services in question.
The UIA forecasts the increasingly online-oriented formula of meetings and events in 2021 will result in a need for more technical support and show an increase interest in partnerships with convention bureaux.
The full survey report will be released on 18 November 2021 at the annual UIA Associate Members Meeting in Prague.
On 10 May 2020 the UIA also published the 61st edition of its traditional International Meetings Statistics Report 2020. That report is based on data collected on meetings matching the following four criteria: they last at three days, they gather at least 300 participants, at least five nationalities are represented and at least 40% of the participants are from countries other than the host country.
The 14th UIA Associations Round Table Europe will take place as a hybrid meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, 18-19 November 2021.
