The end of cheap oil could affect the meetings economy in a number of different ways, but panelists in a Tuesday morning breakout on peak oil agreed that the industry must adapt to an era of volatile energy prices and drastic reductions in the carbon emissions that cause climate change.
Economists may debate whether oil prices will hit US$150 or US$200 per barrel—and if they do, whether they’ll stay there—but meeting and travel costs will be affected either way.
“We’re going to destroy the planet long before we run out of fossil fuels,” said economist Mark Jaccard. “If we don’t, it will be because we take severe action, not against the use of fossil fuels but against emissions from fossil fuels. That action is going to drive up the cost of travel.”
Marge Anderson, associate director of the Energy Center of Wisconsin, said meetings must generate the greatest possible value from every activity that relies on fossil fuels. “When we do hop on a plane or burn up something to get somewhere, we [have to] actually get the results. This is a huge charge that only we can carry out.”
She suggested a hub-and-spoke model of regional meetings as an alternative to large global events, noting that Cisco Systems, Inc. had replaced a single, 19,000-attendee meeting with three continental hubs linked by technology. Details were presented at a breakout session earlier in #WEC10.
“I think that’s really, really cool, and it might be where we’re going,” Anderson said. “The economy is going to push us into that, fuel prices are going to push us into that,” but if meeting professionals can adopt hybrid meeting strategies and relentlessly measure their return on investment, “I think we’ll be okay.”
Former British Columbia Premier Mike Harcourt traced the growing shift to sustainable cities, with “dead downtowns and sprawled ‘burbs” giving way to communities that have “re-energized downtown and reinvented the idea of suburbia.”
For meetings, the difference shapes what a destination can offer when participants come to town. “We’re really talking about what choices we want to make into the future—as cities, as nations facing the peak oil challenge and the whole issue of climate change, and as event organizers and planners.”