As the news media and voters continue to analyze the presidential candidates' performances in the debates and a sea of polls, the event industry has spoken: In a BizBash poll, 54.5 percent of event professionals said they will vote to re-elect President Obama, 36.4 percent support Romney, and 9.1 percent are undecided.
When asked which candidate would do a better job in office as it pertains to the event industry—a separate question from asking who will get their vote—respondents still favored Obama, but Romney support increased: 57.6 percent said Obama would do a better job, while 42.4 percent picked Romney.
When asked to rate a set of issues on a scale from 1 to 5 based on the importance to their voting decision, 74.7 percent of respondents gave candidates' management of the economy the highest rating. Meanwhile, 52.6 percent of survey takers gave the same high rating for health care, 45.4 percent for equal pay for women, and 40.2 percent for taxes. Support for same-sex marriage got the highest mark from 27.6 percent of respondents. Only 17.5 percent of survey participants said vocal support for the hospitality, meeting, and event industry was a top concern; 34 percent said this was of medium importance.
The event industry's support for Obama—at least in our admittedly unscientific poll—is higher than the nation's. On Tuesday The New York Times Five Thirty Eight blog, which aggregates and analyzes data from a cross section of polls, said President Obama had 50.1 percent of the popular vote, with Romney getting 48.8 percent.
A note on our—again, quite unscientific—methodology: We posted a link to the survey on BizBash.com, on our Twitter and Facebook feeds, and in an email sent to subscribers of our email newsletters. The survey drew 264 respondents between September 26 and October 12.
