Making do with reduced budgets for events will be the No. 1 challenge facing both in-house and independent event professionals in 2011, according to the ninth annual planner forecast from Special Events. "Reduced budgets" is listed as an upcoming challenge by 64 percent of in-house professionals and by 73 percent of independents.

In second place is the "uncertain economy," named as a 2011 challenge by 53 percent of in-house event pros and by 70 percent of independents. In a bit of bright news, this figure has dropped markedly in the last two years. In the survey for 2009, 79 percent of in-house pros and 88 percent of independents listed an "uncertain economy" as an upcoming challenge. The percentages fell to 69 percent for in-house pros in 2010 and 77 percent for independents in 2010.

In third place for the 2011 list of headaches is "shorter lead times." This issue is cited by 25 percent of in-house event pros and by 27 percent of independents.

See the full story in the January-February issue of Special Events.

QUESTIONS, PLEASE

At the Opening General Session of The Special Event 2011, Jan. 26 in Phoenix, Special Events will present "The Tough and the Smart," a panel of successful event professionals sharing the toughest decisions they had to make to stay in business during the recession and the smartest decisions they made. They will take questions from the audience; do you have a question you want them to answer? Please send it to moderator Lisa Hurley, editor of Special Events, by clicking here. Thank you!

Photo by iStockphoto.com / © Göksu Emre Ozkan

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