The 2009 Industry Research Report on Healthcare Meetings and Exhibit Marketing

What do 24,000 medical meetings over the last 12 years tell us about the industry of healthcare conventions and exhibit marketing?

• How is professional attendance at these medical events?
• How many competitive exhibits are vying for the attention of medical professionals?
• Are exhibit space costs in step with inflation?
• Which meeting sizes offer the best value?
• Which therapeutic specialties are showing the most growth?
• What’s the investment ratio and the opportunity ratio of exhibiting at these medical events?

Who is This Report For?

Healthcare Marketers and Exhibit Marketing -- Medical Convention Organizers and Healthcare Associations -- Industry Supporters

If you need data-driven evidence to better plan your marketing strategies for reaching professionals at medical meetings, this is the report for you. If you need comprehensive, independent research to benchmark your healthcare convention marketing programs, this is the report for you. If you need to track trends, identify opportunities and compare metrics between your events and others, this report is for you.
 
Pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech marketing professionals, all healthcare convention and exhibit marketing professionals, medical meeting planners and organizers, healthcare event and exhibit market researchers, and destination management professionals will find this 12-year market research report vital.

Did You Know?

How are you taking advantage of the fact that reported professional attendance at all medical meetings has risen 11.4% over the last five years? How would you plan differently if you knew 51% of all reported healthcare meeting in 2008 took place in 20 locations and that the average cost of labor between the most expensive and least expensive locations was 57%?

HCEA’s decades worth of data and subsequent analysis represent a first for the healthcare convention marketing and medical meeting industries and incorporates meetings of all sizes and therapeutic specialties.

What Will You Find Essential in this Report?

Professional Attendance trend analysis for all reported medical meetings, for medical meetings defined by size categories, and for medical meetings defined by therapeutic specialties.

Investment Ratio and Opportunity Ratio

The report features two fundamental ratios analyzed over time that are the benchmarks for measuring value: 1.) the investment ratio of attendees to exhibit space cost to create a cost per attendee benchmark. 2.) the opportunity ratio of attendees to competing exhibits to create a competition ratio of how many exhibits are competing against one another for the attention of the attendees. These two ratios are featured in the report to provide a clearer picture of space cost and competition over time.

Exhibit Space Cost trend analysis for all reported medical meetings, for medical meetings defined by size categories, and for medical meetings defined by therapeutic specialties. Have healthcare exhibit space costs risen above the rate of inflation?

Total Exhibits and Net Sq. Ft.trend analysis based on different meeting size categories and therapeutic classes. Exhibit hall net sq. ft. is also measured and reported on in order to measure whether exhibits are trending to requiring more or less total space.

Location Trend Analysis for all reported medical meetings held over the last 12 years. This section of the report analyzes 12 years of meeting location data as well as a U.S. salary analysis by city region of the top 20 locations.

Inflation, National Labor Data and Gross Domestic Product

HCEA also analyzed healthcare meeting trends in relation to other outside major market factors to provide greater context. Exhibit space cost data is compared to inflation-adjusted rates over the last decade to measure whether space cost is in line with inflation. Where applicable, the report also analyzes national survey data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to context labor costs and the U.S. economy to trends seen in healthcare meetings and exhibits.

Are certain size medical meetings better for you than others? Do you need to benchmark against like-sized meetings?

• Very Large Meetings: 10,000+
• Large Meetings*: 4,000+
• Medium Meetings: 2,000-3,999
• Small Meetings: Less than 2,000

*The Large Meeting category includes Very Large Meetings.

The comprehensive report is available to HCEA members only.

For more information, contact Frank Skinner at 404.252.3663 or fskinner@kellencompany.com.