After several lackluster years during the worst of the economic downturn, the live corporate events business is picking up for those providing lighting, projection video or staging. Spending is predicted to climb 5.1 percent this year, to $268.5 billion, according to trade group the Global Business Travel Association. Its forecast, released in April, is up substantially from the 1.8 percent rise in industry spending in 2012, and is even higher than the group’s previous prediction for growth of 4.6 percent. The New York Times also reported that spending on group events is expected to increase six percent this year, to almost $116 billion, compared with an earlier prediction of 5.2 percent growth in 2013. Other indications of a revitalizing events market are the increase in the number of new convention centers, like the just-opened 350,000-square-foot, $623 million Music City Center in Nashville.
—Dan Daley, from “The Biz,” PLSN, June, 2013
