ASSOCIATION meetings are holding up, with not-for-profit associations emerging as the market to watch.
Simon Pryor, president, Australian Society of Association Executives, said: “We have just discovered that the not-for-profit sector is bigger than the retail sector. In Australia, it is growing at twice the rate of the Australian economy.
“While people do target the sector, I don’t think they realise how huge it is in the US, Europe and Australia.”
The growth of the sector is attributed to the mood of governments to let professions regulate themselves and public services such as hospitals, schools and charities run themselves. In Australia, there are now around 60,000 economically-active not-for-profit associations, Pryor estimates, giving rise to bigger opportunities for meetings and conferences, he said.
Michael Anderson, president and CEO of the Canadian Society of Association Executives, agrees not-for-profit is growing in North America, albeit not at such as an aggressive rate as in Asia-Pacific, as North America is already a mature economy.
Concurring the association meetings market is holding up, Anderson also notes that attendance at congresses is stable in Canada, despite the global financial crisis (GFC) and the Internet revolution that opens new ways of communication and learning. “In Canada, we have seen attendance actually growing a bit,” he said.
– Read more in IT&CMA and CTW Asia-Pacific Official Daily – Day 1 issue
