A better business climate? Yes. Continuing cost pressures? Yes again. According to the party and event rental forecast conducted each year by the research arm of Special Events Magazine, rental operators are expecting both these forces to be in play in 2005.

One of the most notable changes in the last three years of the Special Events study is the rental industry’s growing confidence that the economy is stabilizing. While 53 percent of respondents told us that an uncertain economy is the biggest challenge they expect to face in 2005, this is a marked drop from the 2003 figure, when nearly three-fourths of respondents feared the roller-coaster economic climate.

"Business continues to return to the same normal level ... This article is available free to our subscribers in their February issue and for sale in our online Research Store. To visit the store, click here.