August 15, 2009 — The economic downturn, which has affected all nonprofits in one way or another, has also cut into conference attendance, according to a recently completed national survey which found that 31% of those surveyed haven’t attended a professional or association conference in the last six months.

The survey, conducted by The NonProfit Times, also found that:

• Nearly 57% of respondents attended one or two professional or association conferences during the past six months
• 55% they will attend fewer conferences this year, compared to last year.
• More than 35% said the conference attendance year over year stayed the same.
• Less than 10% said they will attend more conferences this year.
• For those who cut down on conferences this year, 73% said it was down one or two conferences, while nearly 23% said three to four conferences.
• Nearly 2% said they cut five to six conferences and another 2% said they cut seven or more conferences compared to last year.

Nearly all respondents—91%--noted they were trying to cut costs when attending conferences, the publication reported.

Conference price ranked first as a factor for those deciding to attend a conference, followed by the perceived value of educational tracks. According to the survey, “Respondents also said professional relationships (11.8%) and proximity of the conference to the organization (8.7%) influenced what conferences they would attend.”

The publication also noted that “A majority of those surveyed responded that participating in educational tracks was the best part of a conference (64.4%), followed by networking with colleagues (34%).

“Survey respondents seemed interested in a wide variety of conference educational topics, led by major gifts (24.1%), corporate or foundation giving (22.9%), leadership preparation (14.1%), social networks (12.4%) and online fundraising (11.8%). Career development (7.6%), direct mail (4.7%) and regulation (2.4%) rounded out the ranking of educational topics.”

Half of the respondents said free coffee was the worst part of conferences, closely followed by talking to vendors, the publication reported.