Fair weather forecast: The brightening outlook for the corporate special event market continues, with 86 percent of respondents saying they will produce the same number or even more special events this year than they did in 2010.

And for 2012, that figure jumps to 94 percent. Some 43 percent of respondents predict they will have bigger budgets to work with next year, compared with the scant 29 percent who said so in the dark days of 2009.

In a significant development, the tools used to measure an event's ROI — return on investment — have shifted away from simple metrics such as attendee head count and props from management to more analytical tests such as evaluating attendee response and measuring client retention.

Today more than ever before, corporate events are getting down to business.

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