Knowingly or not, many planners (41 percent) have booked meetings or events that coincided with federal or state holidays, and another 27 percent overlapped religious holidays, according to a recent M&C survey. Of the 342 respondents, 16 percent were unaware of the conflict at the time of booking, while another one-third cited limited availability of dates and space as a reason to book anyway. Nine percent said they "sometimes" consult a calendar to check dates for religious or other holidays before booking, while 2 percent rarely take that step before signing a contract.

86% of planners consult a typical U.S. calendar before booking a meeting.
38% check dates against religious calendars.
25% look at a detailed global calendar.
2% rarely consult any type of calendar before setting meeting or event dates.
16% have unknowingly booked a meeting that conflicted with a holiday.