A chat with economist Elliot Eisenberg about and ahead of his IMEX America keynote, Oct. 8, “Navigating the Complexities of Macroeconomics for Business Success,” brought to you by Damon Brooks & Associates.

What do you hope attendees will take away from your IMEX America keynote “Navigating the Complexities of Macroeconomics for Business Success”?

 I want them to appreciate that economic data can give them a real edge. Don’t just look at the price of oil as in, “It’s going to cost more for the gas in my car.” Think of it as, “Airline prices will go up so people will travel less,” or “Inflation is up,” or whatever. We’ll look at how to know when you can get a hotel for a good price, what data is out there that will give you an insight into the hotel situation.

When do you know when $300/night in a city in a certain month is a good price or a bad price? You can look at last year’s data, but there are better [places] to look that are more recent. Let’s take advantage of that information. Give me 45 minutes of your time and I’ll give you some real insights into thinking about interest rates, etc. There are no iron-clad, perfect correlations here, but look at the economic background/dashboard and you’ll be a better event planner and more valuable to your firm or client.

What are some economic indicators or variables that you suspect event professionals don’t pay enough attention to?

There’s a lot of them out there, but I’ll give you two that are super close to the industry: ADR (average daily rate) and RevPAR (revenue per available room). [All of that can provide insight as to when hotels] will be more likely to offer you a better deal. If their RevPAR, ADR or occupancy is down, whoa…this is like manna from economic heaven giving you some deep insight.

If oil prices really skyrocket, it’s going to cost you, the hotel and airlines more and could be a damper. What about interest rates, are they going up or down? Why are they going up or down? Are they going up or down because of inflation or because the economy is doing badly or well…so, let’s give you a little inside baseball into understanding interest rates. That’s more of a long-term thing, but six months or nine months [in the future, awareness of] interest rates could really matter.

The idea is look at the data and think about it. Don’t be perturbed. Don’t think of it as a forest of numbers that’s indecipherable. Pick four, five or six variables that you think are important to your industry.

But there are overarching elements: high unemployment is never good for anybody; high inflation is bad for everybody and will jack up prices—most people get that with those. You’ve got to think about this holistically, don’t just look at one variable.

How can event pros best stay tuned and up to date on that data?

There’s so much information out there. I think it’s more a case of not ignoring the information. Don’t skip over the economic story in your newsfeed. You may not understand it, I get that, but over time you will. You can get a lot out of just reading just a couple sentences—I’m an economist and I struggle to understand what’s going on. So, while they might not understand everything, they’ll understand more [about the economic landscape] and that’s helpful. It’s being an informed consumer, if you will.

Event professionals are very smart people—executing events is a very complicated activity, but I want to give them a little extra edge. A lot of people don’t like numbers and that’s OK, but just dip your toes in the water delicately.

There’s so much data that if you’re not living in it, it can be easy to get overwhelmed.

Absolutely. But here’s some insights. We can look at TSA data—they’re down year over year because the Canadians and Europeans aren’t showing up. That tells us something—we can argue what and how. Don’t ignore that information, get it into your head with all of the other variables that you know, as an event professional—add that little more to it and you’ll be, hopefully, a little better. That’s the key.

Look, it’s not going to change your life, it’s not going to triple your salary, but it can help make things a little better. We all strive to be a little better, here are some relatively easy-to-understand ideas. I put out a daily, 70-word blog where I talk about these things regularly, but data on GDP, unemployment, inflation, it’s all out there and accessible.

I’m speaking to help event professionals and focus their attention on four or five different variables that can give them useful insights—quick ones that are easily available and relatively easily understood.