Thursday, September 10, 2026

Why Half of Planners Are Rewriting Their Contracts

The industry has changed. Contracts need to do the same.

David McMillin, Skift Meetings Head of Content

September 10th, 2026

Understanding corporate meetings has never been easy. Fortune 500 companies share quarterly earnings reports, but they’re never going to include how many employees went to the sales kickoff meeting or what the ROI was at the latest user conference. They all host events, but what those events actually look like tends to stay behind closed doors.

That lack of data is what drove us to develop a new Skift Meetings research report that just went live. We surveyed 111 in-house corporate event professionals, and the results reveal that a lot of them are putting their contract language under the microscope. Barbara Scofidio dives into why half of the respondents have made adjustments to their contracts over the past two years — and what the other half should be considering for future protections. Scroll below to get the full story, along with a look at Annette Gregg’s upcoming exit from SITE and a heads-up from the FBI on event impersonation scams. — David McMillin

Less than two weeks to Skift Meetings Forum

Half of planners are rewriting their contracts because the ground under every program keeps shifting. The other half are working out what to protect next, and that is the conversation happening on stage at the Javits Center on September 22.

The 2026 agenda takes on the pressures driving those rewrites head-on: doing more with less as budgets tighten, reading which destination risks are temporary noise and which are structural, and defending programs against AI-fueled fraud. Senior planners may be eligible for a complimentary VIP pass.

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FEATURED STORIES

SITE’s Annette Gregg to Become CEO of the World Trade Centers Association

By Barbara Scofidio

After four years of moving the incentive industry niche forward, Gregg is taking the top spot at this well-known global brand.

GET THE STORY

Why Half of Corporate Planners Are Changing Their Contracts

By Barbara Scofidio

A hotel contract used to be fairly boilerplate. In today’s business environment, many are missing the clauses that matter most.

GET THE STORY

What the FBI Phishing Warning Means for Event Planners

By Andrea Doyle

Event invitations are built on trust. The FBI's latest phishing warning shows how easily cybercriminals can exploit it — and why protecting attendees now extends beyond the event itself.

GET THE STORY

WORTH YOUR TIME

Five things worth your time today.

Why attendees are skipping more sessions and what’s filling the gap.
What a $100 experiment reveals about reducing no-shows at events.
Where a successful meeting is about the story organizers get to tell after everyone goes home.**
How more women can move from running meetings into running the entire company.
Who will be in the room at Skift Meetings Forum next week.

_{** A sponsored message from Meeting Destination Vienna.}

SKIFT PICK: TRANSLATING TRAVEL TRENDS FOR MEETINGS

Snap, Crackle, and BoomPop.

Remember around two weeks ago when Andrea Doyle made the case that the wall between business travel and meetings is falling after the Spotnana acquisition of TROOP? Navan, which reported a 35% year-over-year revenue uptick last quarter, just took another sledgehammer to that wall by gobbling up BoomPop. It wasn’t a total shocker — the two companies teamed up earlier this year for AI-powered venue sourcing — but the move is a signal that Navan is betting on meetings to continue on its growth trajectory.

Here’s the number that should get your attention: $1,000 per event (or $6,000 for unlimited events) will get you an AI-powered RFP across 50 hotels on the company’s Pro plan. Still longing for a real human being you can count on? The Full Service plan, which comes with a dedicated event planner and white-glove service, starts at $129 per person. Pull up your last event and do the math on what you paid per person for outside help. If it’s higher than $129, your CFO now has a cheaper option to point to.

Skift Meetings Toolkit

Great events are built on strategy, innovation, and the right resources. The Skift Meetings Toolkit is your go-to hub for best practices in managing meetings and events.

EXPLORE THE TOOLKIT

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Wednesday, September 9, 2026

New research: how corporate planners are dealing with budget pressures

Skift Meetings logo_Logo M monogram color + black-1

Corporate meeting planners are feeling the pinch: 79% say costs have jumped by at least 5% over the past year, but nearly half of them are dealing with budgets that look identical to last year.

That’s the starting point of Corporate Meetings in 2026, new research from Skift Meetings in partnership with MPI. We surveyed more than 100 in-house corporate meeting professionals to get a sense of how they’re navigating this year’s biggest challenges, what they’re doing to continue to deliver top-notch experiences, and how they’re working to meet evolving attendee expectations.

Download the report today to learn:

How geopolitical risk is reshaping destination decisions
Why standard ROI metrics no longer satisfy leadership
What contract revisions planners should be making to mitigate risk
Where AI is genuinely saving time, and where it’s still getting the numbers wrong
What planners want their leadership to understand about the value of their work