A new pre-show concierge service to help first-time hosted buyers get the most from their attendance at IMEX in Frankfurt is being launched at the beginning of this year.

The service is one of several new ideas being introduced by the IMEX Group to increase business and networking value for buyers attending the trade show. Each new buyer will receive a telephone call from the IMEX concierge team giving them the opportunity to ask questions relating to travel, appointments with exhibitors, the education programme or other subjects.

Says IMEX Group CEO, Carina Bauer: “This new service typifies our market approach and our company values: high standards of customer service and a desire to ensure that both buyers and exhibitors receive excellent ‘return on attendance’. This service complements the live webinars we already offer to exhibitors which, in turn, help them maximise their business return from the show.”

Registration is now open. http://portal.imex-frankfurt.com/register.php

1.  Content Gets Bigger as Attention Spans Grow Shorter

The incredible growth of YouTube, TED and short, sharp TV and video news clips (including the birth of super-bite-sized Vine) means attention spans are shorter than ever. Four minutes is a lifetime online. Expect meetings and event content to be delivered in ever more entertaining, diverse and digestible pieces.

2.  Happiness is Hip

IMEX America 2013 MPI Keynote, CEO & Chief Happiness Officer of Delivering Happiness, Jenn Lim, was on trend when she urged her audience to think of happiness as a science that can be applied at work. “When values, vision and purpose in individuals and organizations come together, the impact can be so positive, and it’s about much more than a happy worker being a productive worker,” she said.

Expect more organizations to embrace happiness as their ethos for growth in 2014.

3. Technology Connects the Dots

Many big technology advances have been made, now they need to be managed. Coburn, CEO of DoubleDutch expects “the bandwidth of Apps to get lighter”, where Owen sees regulation and standards coming into play, such as through the new Apex Standards. He’s also clear that the future is “not about more technology but how that technology is delivered.”

4. Social Media Shifts Up, Out and Everywhere

In 2014 social media starts to receive its own budget, and begins to play a meaningful and measurable part in marketing and communications strategies across the meetings and events industry.

5. “Glocal” –  Helping Hands on Your Doorstep

Where once the international nature of the meetings industry meant thousands of opportunities to ‘do good and give back’ in far flung corners of the world, the trend now is to reach out to help those right on your doorstep.

6. Meetings Sector as Leading Economic Indicator

Could 2014 be the year when the meetings and events industry is finally recognized as an important economic indicator? Dan Berger, CEO of Social Tables declared at IMEX America, “Those of us in the industry know that when meetings and events start to rise they are the pulse of growth.”

7. Workplace diversity

Where once a hot conversation topic was demographic shift and what that meant for the global meetings and events market, now the big debate of 2014 looks set to be ‘workplace diversity’. Organizations are having to look at their recruitment and talent development strategies with more creativity, and awareness.

More info about these predictions you may find on http://www.imex-frankfurt.com/