The objectives of this study were to develop homogeneous groups of meeting
or conference attendees based on criteria used to select a meeting and to profile
these groups based on their demographic profile. A factor analysis was performed
on meeting selection criteria items to determine underlying dimensions. Four factors
surfaced: education, leadership, networking and destination attributelrecreationl
social. A surrogate variable from each factor was selected to represent the factor in
a cluster analysis. Three homogeneous groups emerged from an agglomerative
hierarchical clustering procedure. Crosstabulation analysis with demographic vari
ables was used to profile the clusters. It was concluded that each homogeneous
group of respondents had a distinct demographic profile. The results of the study
provided implications for both the attendee and the meeting planner. Meeting
planners can provide a more effective meeting if they are aware of what theirtargeted
audience finds important.
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