Maritz Global Events 与 J. Shay Event Solutions 在 IMEX America 期间发布活动成本指数

Among the many product announcements made by industry players during mid-October’s IMEX America Show in Las Vegas, one that cut through the din for corporate and association event planners was this: Maritz Global Events debuted an Event Price Index that shows costs from 2025 and 2026 plus forecasts for 2027 costs of F&B, meeting space with AV and coffee breaks, decor and entertainment, transportation, hospitality support staff and activities. 

Jim Russell, global head of business events solutions for Maritz, told Meetings Today at IMEX America that the company will update the index quarterly as it collects data in each of those categories from suppliers in tier-1 cities.

Interestingly, "there are some folks in the industry saying that there's a somewhat positive aspect to event costs rising at the present rates," Russell noted. "Specifically, the costs have elevated the visibility of in-person events to the highest levels of the organization—executives are saying, 'Hey, these are getting to be big numbers; why is this happening?' This gives planners the opportunity to articulate the value of their events, and to show that while we must spend more, here are the benefits we gain from our events." 

Click here to access the first edition of the Maritz index.

Another Agency’s Event-Cost Data Package

J. Shay Event Solutions, an incentive-travel and corporate-meeting agency based in Dallas, also released a 2027 price index that compares expected costs for different elements of incentive programs, sales kickoffs and product launches to 2026 data collected by various sources, including GBTA, CoStar, USDA and Maritz.

The report covers airfare, hotel rates at upper-upscale and luxury properties, F&B costs plus service charges, and AV staging and labor costs, with data from several large meeting and incentive properties around the country used for comparison. Trends in destination choices for upcoming incentive programs are also covered, as are typical tax costs for incentive-program qualifiers. 

The J. Shay report can be found here: https://jshay.events/corporate-event-cost-index/

About the author

Rob Carey serves as content manager, news and features for Meetings Today, where he leads coverage of the latest trends, issues, data and insights related to corporate meetings and incentives as well as association conventions and exhibitions.

Carey has been covering the business-events industry since 1992, when he was hired as an intern at Successful Meetings magazine in New York while still a student at Columbia University. During his 15 years at SM’s parent company Nielsen, Carey moved steadily through the ranks to become editorial director for Successful Meetings, Meeting News and the Meeting World conference and exhibition. SM and MN won several FOLIO: Eddie Awards for editorial coverage during his tenure.  

Carey then spent 11 years as principal of Meetings & Hospitality Insight, covering not just the MICE market for various industry publications but also writing about business disciplines such as hotel management, golf-facility management, small-business operations, middle-market leadership and others. And for several years he wrote the annual trends white paper for the International Association of Conference Centers.  

In 2018, Carey became a senior content producer for MeetingsNet, an Informa media brand, and a panel moderator for Informa’s Pharma Forum annual event. 

Come September 2025, he moved to Meetings Today.  

A native of New York,  Carey now resides in the Phoenix/Scottsdale metro area with his wife Kelley and their dog Ziggy.