Tracking the Changes Across Our Industry

Only 17 percent of women held leadership roles in the business events industry, according to a 2024 PCMA Foundation report. Photo: Adobe Stock

Two articles from the early 2020s highlighted the dominance of women in the meetings industry and the increasing importance of tech access on site at events:

What Glass Ceiling?

In 2003, former Convene Editor Peter Shure reflected on how the modern meetings industry took shape as a predominantly female industry in the latter half of the 20th century: “As the industry often grew out of administrative departments, many women in clerical positions found themselves planning meetings and began creating careers around those meetings,” Shure wrote. “When meeting management grew as a specialty and education became readily accessible, more and more of these women were promoted into management positions.… And because they were in on the ground floor, I don’t think there’s a glass ceiling for women.”

In retrospect, Shure’s optimism about the absence of a glass ceiling was premature: A 2024 PCMA Foundation report, “Advancing Women in Business Events,” found that while women make up 77 percent of the global events industry workforce, they hold only 16 percent of the industry’s top management positions. The disparity in roles has been reflected in a persistent, but generally declining, gender wage gap revealed in the results of Convene’s salary surveys over the years. In the 2014 Salary Survey, women represented 90 percent of respondents and earned nearly 30 percent less than their male counterparts. By 2024, when 87 percent of respondents to our annual Salary Survey were female, the gap had dropped to 6 percent.

— “Why Women Dominate the Meetings Industry,” December 2003

Need Wifi at Meetings? In 2005, the Answer Was Maybe

“What’s hot now?” Convene asked in a February 2005 story, “Meetings Go High Tech.” The answer: “Wireless Internet Access. Also called ‘Wi-Fi,’ it has taken the world by storm in the past two years,” David Giannini, CEO of Core Communication, told Convene. Still, 42 percent of respondents to a survey on tech said that wireless was not important to their meetings, and 75 percent said it was not important at hotels.

Also hot in 2005: USB drives. “One of the latest gadgets in the revolution of handheld devices, USB keys, or USB drives, are … finding a place in the meeting room. These keychain-sized gadgets range from $30 to $50 and can hold 32 megabytes to a gigabyte of memory.”

Before the advent of cloud computing revolutionized data storage, speakers loaded their PowerPoint presentations onto USB drives — aka “memory sticks” — and hand-carried them to meetings and exhibitors loaded them with digital brochures to give away at trade shows, where they were highly prized as swag.

— “Meetings Go High Tech,” February 2005

Barbara Palmer is Convene’s deputy editor

Read more from our archives in a story about Convene’s 30th anniversary.