Face-to-face Meetings |

Real relationships are most often the result of face-to-face encounters in the real world according to a new study by Oxford University anthropologist Robin Dunbar. Good news for those of us in the meetings and events industry where real people meeting in real places is our raison d’etre.

Back in the 1990s, Dr. Dunbar carried out research showing that the part of the brain responsible for thinking and language cannot accommodate more than 150 friends — defined as a people a person cares about and makes contact with a least once a year. That figure has since been known as “Dunbar’s number.”

Now, Dr. Dunbar’s new reasearch suggests our ability to maintain friendships is just as limited on the Web as in the real world.

“People obviously like the kudos of having hundreds of friends but the reality is that they’re unlikely to be bigger than anyone else’s.” Dr. Dunbar says.

Dunbar’s study is due to be published later this year.

Virtual meeting and Web conferencing usage is up and conference attendance is down in these economically challenging times.

However, meetings and tradeshows can still provide great value for your education, networking, and sales budgets.

Events offer unparalleled opportunities to bring buyers and seller together, to build relationships, to brainstorm, to network.

For an exhibitor, it is often the best way to meet so many qualified buyers in such a short time. For buyers, it is a great chance to meet vendors of interest – all together in one location, categorized and mapped for your choosing.

The events, tradeshow and hospitality industries are relationship-based and events and tradeshow are some of the best ways to build these relationships.

Although webinars are good for short information exchange, meetings offer a much richer learning experience. What happens in the meeting room is important – people have made the commitment to be there and are not as distracted as in the office. The conversations in the hallways, receptions and exhibit hall contribute greatly to the information exchange.

Meetings provide a vastly richer, more targeted, and more focused learning experience than any virtual meeting. There is no such thing as a “virtual beer!”

The attendance drops at many association events may not be a negative if you can still make it to the event as the decision makers (both on the buyer and seller sides) are still coming. When the quantity of the attendance goes down due to economic pressures, the quality of the attendees goes up.

Corbin Ball is a Guest Blogger with WTTC.com - The Meeting Planner’s Best Resource. He is well-known author, columnist and consultant to the meetings and event industry.