According to a study just released by Special Events Magazine, 57 percent of event planners expect to produce more special events in 2005 than they did in 2004. Both in-house and independent event professionals responded to the survey, which was distributed in October.

Twenty-eight percent say they will stage the same number of special events in 2005 as they did this year, and only 4 percent say they will stage fewer next year. The remaining respondents are unsure or gave no answer.

The 2005 forecast shows that event planners see a brightening picture for special events. For the 2004 forecast, 49 percent of planners predicted they would do more events in the new year than the prior year, while a third said they would do the same number of events and 8 percent said they would do fewer events.

In-house event planners expect the following (in order of importance) to be their top five challenges in 2005:

• Reduced budgets to work with
• Shorter lead times
• An uncertain economy
• Demonstrating the value/ROI of special events
• Their own company’s uncertain finances.

Independents say their top five challenges will be (in order):

• Reduced client budgets
• An uncertain economy
• Increased competition
• Shorter lead times
• Demonstrating the value/ROI of special events.

For the complete story, see the January issue of Special Events Magazine.