© Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre

Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre has kicked off what is set to be its busiest year since the opening in 2018.

A leading exhibition and conference centre in Hampshire, UK, which hosts more than 55 B2B and B2C exhibitions, conferences and experiences annually, a world-renowned event organiser, and film studios, Farnborough International is a catalyst for innovative experiences and rising events conglomerate. The award-winning venue has seen vast growth across its client portfolio and new customer base, with 2024 planned to bring 85% more visitors through its doors and counting, compared to last year. 

This year will see Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre host a variety of acclaimed events, including the likes of Southern Manufacturing & Electronics, Security & Policing, the Big One – Fishing Show, SQLBits, the British Motor Show, Screwfix Live, Everything Electric South and the internationally attended Farnborough International Airshow.

As the venue enters its next period of growth, Farnborough International has looked internally to bolster its leadership team. Helen Ridley has been promoted from Head of Event Management to Assistant Venue Director. With over 14 years of industry experience across leading hospitality and event venues, Helen will be driving forward the operational delivery of the venue with a focused, customer centric approach, and supporting her team with their career development. 

Discussing her appointment, Helen Ridley said: “After four years of career development at Farnborough International across event management roles, I am thrilled to be appointed the Assistant Venue Director. Over the last 12 months we have been focusing on increasing our events portfolio and client base, driving a wider range of events to the venue and region. Looking ahead to 2024, we will be dedicated to supporting our clients and partners with delivering first-class events, with customer service at the epicentre of our strategy, while positioning Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre at the heart of the UK’s event industry.”

For more information on Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre visit the website

Since its formation in 1988, SITE Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) has raised over $10m USD to support projects, initiatives and programmes in the incentive travel industry.

Funds were raised through annual events like SITE Classic, SITE NITE North America, SITE NITE Europe and through donations from SITE Chapters, SITE Members and industry at large.

Today it launches its first Impact Report, highlighting how its global community of incentive travel professionals has benefitted from the funds SITE Foundation has raised for professional development and learning; content and research; and grants, bursaries and awards.

Kevin Regan, CIS, MBA, 2022 SITE Foundation President and AVP, Global Charters and Incentives for Azamara said, “A key element of our mission is to raise funds but to reach our full potential, our Board of Trustees determined that a better, clearer, more comprehensive articulation of our impact was necessary. That’s why we produced the Impact Report, showing how SITE Foundation has invested a staggering $10 million USD back into the incentive travel industry since the Foundation's formation in the late 80s. The report also shows how we spent over $1.7m USD since 2016 alone, supporting 105 projects, and impacting over 16,000 individuals.”

Annette Gregg, CMM, MBA, the CEO of SITE & SITE Foundation, added “SITE Foundation’s mission is to raise funds to drive the business case for incentive travel & motivational experiences, and support professional development within the industry. Our inaugural Impact Report channels the real, tangible difference that our programmes make, year in and year out on the lives and livelihoods of incentive travel professionals all over the world. It demonstrates, unequivocally, to our supporters, sponsors and donors, the extraordinary impact of their generosity.

The Impact Report is available for download here. If you would like to make a donation to SITE Foundation, you can do so via this link.

The centrally located Hilton Prague Old Town is proud to announce the appointment of Mrs. Tanya Podgoretska (cover photo) as General Manager. Originally from Ukraine, Tanya is transferring from Prague, where she was Cluster Commercial Director for Hilton Prague and Hilton Prague Old Town since 2018.

”I am excited to join such a diverse and professional team and will do my best to keep up the great performance and brand recognition Hilton Prague Old Town has achieved over the recent years”, said Tanya Podgoretska.

Educated in the University of Tourism, Economy & Law in Kyiv, Tanya has over 20 years of experience in the hotel industry. She has been with Hilton for 9 years and has worked at Hilton Kyiv and Hilton Warsaw City as Director of Business Development before moving to Prague.

In her new role, Tanya will focus on delivering lifetime memories and outstanding quality for Hilton guests and a great place to work for Hilton’s Team Members.

Tanya’s native language is Ukrainian, she speaks fluently English, Polish and Russian. She has a 10-year-old daughter and in her free time, Tanya likes to practice yoga and is interested in history and art.

About Hilton Prague Old Town
Located 25 minutes from the airport and in the very heart of Prague, the newly renovated Hilton Prague Old Town provides a complement of services and brand amenities, including 303 guest rooms and suites, 1.200 square meters of renovated meeting space situated on one floor, with flexibility to accommodate groups ranging from 10 to 800 people in 14 meeting rooms with natural daylight and stylish Dvorak Ballroom, Zinc Restaurant, Lounge & Bar, health club with indoor pool and a 24/7 fitness. The Art Deco design elements throughout the hotel are bringing in an authentic Prague experience.

Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) has secured six international incentive groups from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and New Zealand. This will be the first time Melbourne and regional Victoria welcome back incentive groups since Australia’s international borders closed in 2020. 

The wins signal a resounding vote of confidence in Melbourne as the ideal destination for incentive meeting planners and corporations looking to offer a premium programme to reward, motivate and retain staff. 

The first influx of delegates sets the tone for a busy season this May when 162 South East Asian and New Zealand delegates are due to arrive filling close to 1,661 room nights and expected to inject more than $898,000 in economic contribution to Victoria’s economy. 

MCB Chief Executive Julia Swanson said the arrival of these incentive groups is encouraging for the Victorian visitor economy following a lengthy hiatus of international travel. 

“We’re thrilled to once again welcome back international corporate incentive groups - both large and small - to Melbourne. MCB works to boost hotel occupancy in the traditionally quiet shoulder periods with visitors staying mid-week,” said Ms Swanson. 

For Victorian regional tourism suppliers and local businesses, business events are a major driver of regional visitation and provide a substantial economic contribution enhancing local communities. Pre-pandemic, Melbourne attracted on average just over 100 incentive groups with approximately 55,000 international delegates each year spending on average $1019.00 per day, across accommodation, tourist attractions, local shops and cafes. 

Across the five incentive groups arriving, delegates will visit an array of attractions in Melbourne and regional Victoria. The exciting line-up includes some of Victoria’s most popular regions, the Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula, Phillip Island Nature Park for the iconic Penguin Parade as well as a trip to enjoy the splendour of the Great Ocean Road. 

“Every incentive group secured by MCB visits regional Victoria. There is an abundance of experiences available all within a short drive from the city centre - from coastal attractions, wine and dine experiences to nature and adventure-based activities,” said Ms Swanson. 

“Melbourne is the ideal city to host incentive groups and MCB excels in crafting bespoke itineraries designed to suit every group. If you want to take your corporate incentive activities to the next level, let us be your eyes and ears on the ground to help you get started,” said Ms. Swanson. 

As a premium incentives destination, Melbourne offers limitless experiences to be enjoyed in all seasons. From dining, shopping and art, through to wildlife encounters, adventurous activities and beautiful regional spots, delegates will walk away with a larger bucket list of must try experiences than when they started off. 

For more inspiring ideas, check out MCB’s ‘Itinerary Inspirations’ page

HBAA has relaunched its ‘Meet Safe, Meet Smart’ (#MSMS) campaign with a supporting member action group to install consumer confidence to kick-start the meetings and events sector.

It will again encourage planners to have the confidence to book and organise meetings and encourage delegates to attend meetings in a safe environment.

To build confidence, the ‘Meet Safe, Meet Smart’ campaign will showcase the safety features of meetings with hotels and venues having updated their protocols to be Covid secure. It will also highlight the flexibility of contractual terms and conditions at all venues involved.

The campaign aims to provide facts, drive confidence and highlight that booking these venues offers delegates tangible assurances.

Juliet Price, Consultant Executive Director HBAA, said: “It is clear that there is still a lack of confidence among event planners wanting to commit to future live meetings and events. This campaign is to provide assurances and outline how HBAA venue members provide safe and smart establishments to deliver experiences and ensure we continue on the road to recovery.

“‘Meet Safe, Meet Smart’ aims to deliver on both fronts and drive confidence while demonstrating why people want to meet – and should meet – shoulder to shoulder – in line with the prescribed measures.

“There are many reasons why meeting in person is absolutely essential, from productivity to creativity, to positive mental health. However, we completely appreciate and acknowledge that that we must follow the government guidelines which are subject to change.

“Our industry must continue to unite to build customer confidence in resuming booking and attending live business meetings and events.”

Michael Begley, CEO of venuedirectory.com commented; “17th May 2021 is a landmark day for the UK as a country as hospitality gets back into full swing. Meetings and Events are a vital part of our economy and meeting up with colleagues at business events can be a huge boost for mental wellbeing. The HBAA Meet Safe Meet Smart initiative is one that we can all get behind; safe venues to meet at with flexible terms and conditions - let's get meetings started.”

The World PCO Alliance (our longtime HQ partner) has elected new bodies for its board: Nancy Tan was elected president, André Vietor is the new vice-president and Sumate Sudasna was elected treasurer.

The elections were held at the Alliance’s Annual General Meeting, which took place May 26, 2021. Nancy Tan of Singapore-based Ace:Daytons Direct is the Alliance’s new President, taking over from Noel Mitchell of Keynote PCO. André Vietor of Spain’s BCO Congresos is the new Vice-President, and Sumate Sudasna of Thailand’s Conference and Destination Management (CDM) will serve as Treasurer. The new officers will serve two-year terms, beginning July 1, 2021.

“I am very honored to assume this new role,” says Tan, who is one of the Alliance’s founding partners. “Thanks to Noel Mitchell, our immediate past-president and all our past presidents for having laid the foundation. I am very excited to work with them and our other new officers to contribute to the Alliance’s continued growth, and to serve our members from around the globe as we all look ahead to a new, post-COVID normal.”

“I am grateful for the confidence of having been appointed Vice-President and very much pleased to support Nancy in her new role as President,” says Vietor. “These are critical times for our profession and the whole meetings industry, and we are ready to lead the change towards a new era post-COVID.”

Says Sudasna, “I am honored to join the Alliance board as Treasurer. I look forward to working with the President, Vice President and Secretary-General as we work towards new goals for the Alliance.”

Kaoru Shibuta, Executive Managing Director, Congrès Inc. was re-appointed as the Alliance’s Secretary-General and the secretariat will continue to be managed by the company, based in Japan.

Founded in 2009, the World PCO Alliance provides leadership in meeting management through the delivery of streamlined and effective meetings around the globe. The Alliance’s mandate includes the collective exchange of education, technology, and other information for the mutual benefit of the industry and ensuring the effective global promotion of its clients’ events. The organisation is comprised of 20 leading PCOs in the meetings industry from around the world.

New Chair and eight HSMAI Region Board Members were announced today.

The nominations to join the HSMAI Region Europe Board of Directors are open until 7 July, 2021. The 19 board members will be made up of senior management, marketers and academics working in the UK and European hospitality industry. Candidates are invited to submit nominations by return of this form to email: postbox@hsmai.eu.

The successful candidates will join the president and CEO of HSMAI Region Europe, Ingunn Hofseth, and the newly elected Chair Michael Nowlis (cover photo) - an independent consultant and a former Associate Dean at Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Ingunn Hofseth comments: “This prestigious leadership opportunity is open to any HSMAI member in the UK and across Europe looking to be part of the team working on the strategic direction of the industry in the post-pandemic era as the hospitality industry embarks on its business recovery.

Whilst 60% of board positions are made up of those working directly in the hospitality industry in the region, HSMAI Region Europe is particularly keen to ensure the board is made up of a complementary mix and diverse backgrounds and careers. Above all, all the board members will be passionate about helping to drive our industry forward and flourish in 2022 and beyond.”

They will join the board members that are already elected to serve on the board:

• Paul Proctor, Vice President - Commercial Europe at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)
• Monique Jaspers-Wijn, Global Head of Data Insights & Digital Media Travelport at Travelport
• Per Griwell, VP Commercial / CCO, Business Development & Franchise at Thon Hotels
• Markus Keller, Senior VP Sales & Distribution at Accor
• Roberta Possenti, Vice President Europe at Preferred Hotels
• Guy Barnes, Area Vice President Growth, EMEA at IDeaS
• Michael Schaffner, VP Sales EMEA at Duetto
• Gino Angels, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at OTA Insight

CEO & Board member at Foodback and former Chair of HSMAI Region Europe and Chair of the Nomination Committee, Martin Jørgensen (right side), announced today: “We look forward to adding more people to the board later this summer and we will make sure we get a good balance of competence and gender. We are looking for individuals that can help us to continue to build on our strong culture on appreciative leadership.”

Michael Nowlis – newly elected Chair of the HSMAI Region Europe Board – commented: “As the global hospitality industry emerges from the most difficult period of the last half century, sales and marketing will be critical functions in restoring the sector to profitability. HSMAI Region Europe will play a leading role in driving industry renewal and growth. I am humbled to have been selected to chair the HSMAI board and support a talented executive team in these challenging but exciting times.”

SITE Foundation has launched a White Paper on the future of incentive travel that confirms corporate America’s commitment to incentive travel, indicates a sooner-than-expected return to travel, and highlights how safety is now the number one priority for corporate organisers.

Following a qualitative survey that elicited 50 submissions from US Fortune 500 corporations, SITE Foundation commissioned a full White Paper to analyse and interpret the results of the survey, explore the extensive verbatims provided by the respondents and provide niche perspective and commentary from 4 key sectors of the incentive travel spectrum.

VP of Content & Research, Selina Sinclair, CITP, and CEO, Realm, Singapore said “The United States as a source market and destination is very much a bell weather for the future of incentive travel. With responses from 15 key sectoral users of incentive travel in the US, including Finance & Insurance, Information & Communications Technology, Automotive, Pharma and Direct Selling, Corporate inSITEs brings us to the heart of corporate America and channels a compelling story of confidence, following almost 18 months of uncertainty. Incentive Travel is highly prized as the ultimate reward and recognition tool, it’s recovering much quicker than originally expected but there are changing priorities too, with safety and risk mitigation ranked as the ultimate considerations”.

Terry Manion, CIS, CITP, President, SITE Foundation added “As the only industry association dedicated exclusively to incentive travel, SITE and SITE Foundation have earned a reputation as the indisputable, indispensable go-to resource for quality data, information and content on incentive travel in all its myriad guises.Our Corporate inSITEs series, which will be issued three times in 2021, delivers on our mission to support research, education and advocacy projects on behalf of the incentive travel industry. Since 2017 SITE Foundation has invested over $1.25million to drive the business case for incentive travel and support professional development within the industry.”

The 20-page white paper includes:

1. a brief overview of SITE Foundation and the work it is doing to support the industry;
2. a detailed description of the methodology of the survey—respondents, when fielded, questions, response rate, etc.;
3. breakdown of key themes that emerged from the survey (commitment to travel as a reward, acknowledgment of the power of human connections and meeting face-to-face; and the new priorities for companies in a post-COVID world);
4. and lessons for the incentive travel supply chain (DMC, destination, hotel, and agency viewpoints).

White Paper Edition 1 is available for reading and can be downloaded free of charge here.

South African Tourism (SA Tourism) was a big winner at the International Tourism Film Festival Africa (ITFFA) awards ceremony held in Cape Town last Friday.

The television commercial (TVC) “Because South Africa”, produced by the WWP Group, was up for various nominations in a host of categories.

The commercial was awarded a Silver award in the Destinations, region category, a Gold Award in the Tourism Destinations category, and lastly, it was distinguished with the GRAND PRIX AFRICA ITFFA 2021 for outstanding storytelling. 

With vibrant images and a strong message, the film reinforces a feeling of unity and hope for a near future when people will be able to experience again all that South Africa has to offer.

The ITFFA, founded in 2019 is an exclusive and unique festival which honours all video content related to the tourism and travel industry. They evaluate TV ads, promotional films, video campaigns, videos for social media, video blogs, documentaries, reports and TV magazines related to the promotion of tourism destinations.

“Competition was fierce this year as Covid-19 made it difficult for many destinations to market what they have to offer - so to be announced winners alongside countries such as Australia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom to name a few is what makes this win significant for us says Themba Khumalo, Chief Marketing Officer.

“As an agency of the National Department of Tourism mandated to market South Africa as a tourism destination domestically and internationally, we take pride in producing good work and when it is recognized by our peers in the industry, it brings excitement and fulfilment to all of us”. 

The entries were evaluated by an international jury, which brought together renowned professionals from audiovisual production, marketing, and tourism fields. 

“The GRAND PRIX AFRICA ITFFA 2021 award is a great distinction, which reflects the successful opening of South African to tourism during the pandemic. It is an addition to the achievements and globally acclaimed accolades of how the South African government and citizens have managed the destination through the pandemic,” concludes Khumalo.

The two-day ITFFA 2021 festival kicked off with a series of educational and thought-provoking Masterclasses at the V&A Waterfront on Thursday 27 May, facilitated by noteworthy industry experts and top content creators.

In addition to the closing ceremony, the festival program included an insightful master class hosted by FC Hamman, Senzelwe Mthembu, Neo Mokuene and Refiloe Chakela-Gava, dedicated to tourism promotion through video.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Tourism Economics released a long-term view for post-COVID-19 passenger demand recovery which demonstrates that people remain eager to travel in the short and long-term. To ensure that aviation can sustainably deliver its social and economic benefits as it meets this long-term demand, it is critical that governments step-up their support for more efficient operations and foster an effective energy transition.

Forecast highlights include

• In 2021 global passenger numbers are expected to recover to 52% of pre-COVID-19 levels (2019);
• In 2022 global passenger numbers are expected to recover to 88% of pre-COVID-19 levels;
• In 2023 global passenger numbers are expected to surpass pre-COVID-19 levels (105%);
• By 2030 global passenger numbers are expected to have grown to 5.6 billion. That would be 7% below the pre-COVID-19 forecast and an estimated loss of 2-3 years of growth due to COVID-19;
• Beyond 2030 air travel is expected to slow, due to weaker demographics and a baseline assumption of limited market liberalisation, giving average annual growth between 2019 and 2039 of 3.2%. IATA’s pre-COVID-19 growth forecast for this period was 3.8%.

The recovery in passenger numbers is slightly stronger than the recovery in demand measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), which is expected to grow by an annual average of 3% between 2019 and 2039. This is owing to the expected strength of domestic markets like China with large passenger numbers and shorter distances.

“I am always optimistic about aviation. We are in the deepest and gravest crisis in our history. But the rapidly growing vaccinated population and advancements in testing will return the freedom to fly in the months ahead. And when that happens, people are going to want to travel. The immediate challenge is to reopen borders, eliminate quarantine measures and digitally manage vaccination/testing certificates. At the same time, we must assure the world that aviation’s long-term growth prospects are supported with an unwavering commitment to sustainability. Both challenges require governments and industry to work in partnership. Aviation is ready. But I don’t see governments moving fast enough,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.

Short Term: Restart

The damage of the COVID-19 crisis will be felt for years to come, but all indications are that people have retained their need and desire to travel: 

• Any possibility for borders to re-open is met with an instant surge in bookings. The most recent example is the 100-percentage point spike in bookings from the UK to Portugal when the UK’s “Green List” was announced in early May.
• The economy is strong and can fuel growth in travel. February 2021 industrial production levels stood at 2% above February 2019 levels.
• Consumers have accumulated savings in the lockdowns, in some cases exceeding 10% of GDP.
• Vaccination rates in developed countries (with the notable exception of Japan) should exceed 50% of the population by the third quarter of 2021.

“This should be a clarion call to governments to get ready. The travel and tourism sector is a major contributor to GDP. People’s livelihoods are at stake. To avoid greater long-term economic and social damage, restart must not be delayed. Governments can facilitate a safe restart with policies that enable restriction-free travel for vaccinated people, and testing alternatives for those unable to be vaccinated. Governments must also be ready with processes to digitally manage the vaccine or test certificates—ensuring that a safe restart is also efficient,” said Walsh.

Sustainability

“Aviation will grow because people want and need to travel. But we must be able to fulfil that consumer demand sustainably. Those are the ground rules for any business. It is no secret that this is more challenging for aviation than sectors with broader energy alternatives. But with the support of governments we will get there through a combination of means,” said Walsh.

Aviation is committed to cutting its net carbon emissions to half of 2005 levels by 2050. It already has a good track record of decoupling emissions and demand growth per passenger journey in half since 1990 through efficiency gains, but governments need to step up as well. 

In addition to efficiency and technology gains, CORSIA (the first global carbon offsetting scheme for an industrial sector) is stabilizing emissions from international flights at 2019 levels. A low-carbon energy transition for aviation has commenced with sustainable aviation fuels that are powering flight today, to be followed by electric and hydrogen powered aircraft. And there is much more that can be done with infrastructure—airports and air traffic management—to operate with maximum efficiency and minimum emissions.

“If we work in partnership with governments there is great potential in all these areas. But easy sustainability wins are being left on the table. In Europe, which has led on many sustainability initiatives, why are we still waiting for the Single European Sky? This could immediately reduce emissions by up to 10%. There is no excuse as the technology has been here for two decades or more. The partnership with governments on sustainability must exist in deeds as well as words,” said Walsh.

View the COVID-19 An almost full recovery of air travel in prospect

Unification accelerates innovation for both companies and enhances customer success in times of crisis.  

Ungerboeck and EventBooking, two leading software providers of event and venue management tools, announced a merger that will enable the unified company to offer customers an integrated set of capabilities that further enhance the world-class solutions they provide today. The consolidation will provide customers with expedited technology enhancements and accelerated innovation, while continuing the focus on customer success.

With the backing of Cove Hill Partners, these two leaders bring their combination of over 50 years of experience together to power the events world in ways never before possible. Manish Chandak of Ungerboeck will serve as President and CEO, and Steve Mackenzie of EventBooking will serve as Executive Vice President.

“Together, we unify our efforts to provide easy-to-learn and powerful products to drive the industry forward, all while we marry the aspects that clients love about each,” Mackenzie said. “And, of course, the biggest focus will always be on service and ensuring we continue to set the standard in this area.”

While Ungerboeck and EventBooking have developed similar offerings in the past, they’ve always shared the same mission: driving innovation for the success of their customers. Now, under one company with one set of values and a shared roadmap, the unified team can focus on propelling their clients’ business to new levels and help the entire events world achieve new heights.

Brad Mayne, CEO of International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM), said: "IAVM is delighted with the news of this merger. Not only have Ungerboeck and EventBooking been long-standing IAVM members, but they have also contributed immensely to areas such as our education and diversity initiatives that make the lives of industry professionals better. I'm looking forward to the innovation and service levels that this merge will bring to our members."

“This is the best way to come out the pandemic as the industry expects technology-driven efficiencies and new attendee experiences,” Chandak said. “We could not have found a better growth equity firm than Cove Hill Partners as they share our values and mission. Adding EventBooking to this group is the perfect trifecta to accelerate us into the future as the world’s event software.”

Senthil Gopinath, CEO of ICCA said "It is exciting to see how two significant ICCA member companies have adapted to the new environment and consolidated their talent and expertise to better serve the ICCA community. We would like to congratulate Manish and Steve and their teams on joining forces and trust this will be to the advantage of all member venues around the Globe."

William Blair advised Ungerboeck, and Raymond James advised Cove Hill Partners on the transaction.

Not even one-fifth of all C-suite roles are filled by women. In fact, only 5% of all CEOs are female – even though half of the employees in the travel and tourism industry are women.

This is revealed in a new report by World Tourism Forum Lucerne and Aptamind Partners, which also presents sustainable solutions and specific recommendations on how to improve diversity and inclusion. 

The figures shown in the latest report by World Tourism Forum Lucerne and Aptamind Partners are stark: Despite an equal presence in the total workforce, female representation falls to 40% at mid-level management and 33% in senior management. In the Executive Committee/C-suite, 19% of roles are filled by women, with only five organisations led by a female CEO. This is echoed at board level, where 24% of board members are women and 8% of boards include no women at all. The report examined the top 100 listed companies in the travel and tourism industry worldwide.

Systemic inequalities peaked during the pandemic; now is the right time to redress discriminatory organisational cultures

With the COVID crisis, systemic inequalities have increased even more. Women are disproportionately represented in sectors that have been negatively affected by COVID-19, such as hospitality, travel, and retail.  

“We need to use the current pandemic to dismantle gender stereotypes, change our organisational culture and make an even stronger commitment to empower women in every sector”, says Prof. Martin Barth, President and CEO of World Tourism Forum Lucerne.

“Ultimately, more diversity leads to better quality decisions, which in turn lead to better results.”

Diversity and Inclusion is one of the World Tourism Forum Lucerne’s four pillars. The organisation offers excellent platforms for addressing international stakeholders and leading personalities on the topic of diversity and inclusion, such as its “Think Tank”, a “Next Generation Leaders Day”, a “Talent Boost” and its “Start-up Innovation Camps”. 

An invisible glass ceiling - high potential for the cruise and airlines sectors

While 24% of C-suite executives at food and beverage companies are women – the highest proportion in the industry – the cruise sector lags behind with only 10% and airlines at 15%. Hotels have the highest proportion of female board members at 29%, and casinos and entertainment firms bring up the rear with 19% female representation. 

“While many organisations are working on promising solutions and have taken significant steps to address gender diversity, it has not resulted in accelerating gender diversity into a collective, cohesive movement that motivates action at scale. The push to disclose diversity data is only going to gain momentum post-pandemic and companies who do their bit to move the needle and course correct will win in the long term”, said Aradhana Khowala, CEO and Founder of Aptamind Partners and Board Member at World Tourism Forum Lucerne.

Specific solutions to promote diversity and inclusion

The results show very clearly that there is a need for action. The author of the report outlines specific recommendations on how to overcome existing gender inequalities. “Private companies need to make a stronger commitment to step up their diversity and inclusion efforts. We’re planning further studies, joint initiatives with the industry, concrete action plans, a diversity index and consulting, together with interested partners. We welcome new partnerships that want to join us on this journey”, says Martin Barth.

About the report

The report analyses data from 100 publicly listed companies in the travel and tourism industry across seven ‘buckets’ – Hotels, Casinos and Entertainment, Airlines and Airports, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and Travel Companies, Cruises and Restaurant Chains/Food and Beverage Companies. Together, they employ 6.2 million people across 120 countries, with a total market cap of more than $1.6 trillion. To read the full report, including in-depth analyses of all seven sectors within travel and tourism, click here.

Cisco announced on Wednesday the intent to acquire privately-held, U.S.-based Socio Labs, a modern event technology platform that provides event organizers with everything they need to successfully host in-person, virtual or hybrid events of any size and format.

Together with Socio Labs, Cisco will enrich Webex Events beyond meetings, webinars and webcasts to also include large-scale, multi-session hybrid events and conferences. The solution will enable live streaming, sponsorship, networking and advanced analytics, along with continuous engagement before, during and after events – as well as Webex features like polling, Q&A, chat and real-time translation.

The pandemic has permanently changed events. Almost overnight, event planners adopted a virtual-only format. As recovery continues and in-person events gradually resume, the hybrid event model—a combination of in-person and virtual — is emerging as the new norm.

“The future of events, like the future of work, will be hybrid,” said Jeetu Patel, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Security and Collaboration. “With that comes increased complexity of creating inclusive experiences, and meaningful and measurable interactions for both virtual and in-person attendees. Socio Labs offers Webex powerful technology to provide customers with an unparalleled hybrid event management solution to engage participants whether they join in person or virtually.”

As part of Cisco Webex’s vision to deliver inclusive, engaging and intelligent meeting and event experiences, the acquisition of Socio Labs complements Cisco’s recent acquisition of Slido, an industry-leading audience engagement tool, which together will create a comprehensive, cost-effective and easy-to-use event management solution that spans the following best-of-breed event capabilities — all through a single portal:

• Webex’s cutting-edge virtual meeting innovations like background noise removal and speech enhancement, gesture recognition, immersive share, real-time translation, customized stage layouts and more; 
• Slido’s audience engagement capabilities such as polling, trivia, Q&A and gamification, which make virtual meetings and events more interactive and effective; 
• Socio Labs’ hybrid event technology platform that manages the full lifecycle of large-scale virtual, in-person and hybrid events – from registration to post-event analytics.

“We are delighted to join the Cisco Webex portfolio to continue our common goal of enabling seamless, personalized hybrid events of all sizes,” said Yarkin Sakucoglu, Socio Labs co-founder and CEO. “Teaming up with Cisco gives us an amazing opportunity to apply our technology and expertise at an outstanding scale. We look forward to finding new ways to support the recovery and transition of the events industry.”

The acquisition is expected to close in Cisco’s Q4 fiscal year 2021. Subject to customary closing conditions and required regulatory approvals. Upon completion of the acquisition, the Socio Labs team will join the Webex Customer Experience team led by Omar Tawakol, vice president and general manager, reporting into the Security & Collaboration Group led by Jeetu Patel, senior vice president and general manager. Cisco Collaboration is trusted by 95 percent of the Fortune 500.

© Ant Clausen

ACC Liverpool hosted the UK’s first business festival since national lockdown began in March 2020.

The Good Business Festival’s launch event, Change Business for Good, was the first in-person live business event to take place without covid measures in place, informing research to examine transmission, aerosol and contact risks in a medium-sized indoor venue

The conference was part of the government’s Events Research Programme (ERP) - a science-led initiative to get audiences back safely as restrictions are gradually eased.

Delegates were required to take a lateral flow test within 24 hours prior to attending and were encouraged to take a free at-home PCR test on the day of the event and also five days afterwards.

Around 400 guests heard from a series of speakers including Nigel Huddleston, tourism minister; Felicia Odamtten, founder and director of Black Economy Network and Wayne Hemingway, creative director of The Good Business Festival.

Sharmadean Reid, entrepreneur and founder of WAH Nails and Beautystack, appeared alongside Paul Mason, award winning journalist and author.

The event closed with a 'Live at the Apollo'style show featuring comedians Mick Ferry, Rachel Fairburn and Kiri Pritchard-Mclean.

Faye Dyer, managing director of The ACC Liverpool Group, said: “Change Business for Good felt like a truly pivotal moment as we aim to return to hosting business events as soon as it is safe to do so. We were thrilled to be chosen to host the government’s only business event pilot and to be playing a significant role in this important step towards the reopening of our industry.

“We have all adapted to a new landscape over the past year but nothing can replace face to face meetings. It was wonderful for delegates to be able to attend in person and fully interact during this milestone conference.”

The pilot launched The Good Business Festival main event taking place from July 7-9. Commissioned by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, the festival will be a platform for consumers and leaders to come together and explore the powerful potential of business to improve lives, deliver meaningful change and realise a purpose beyond profit. Official event partners include MasterCard, British Council, Deloitte and Google Digital Garage.

Tourism minister Nigel Huddleston said: "As the first live, in-person business event that has taken place in the UK this year - this is an important landmark in the recovery of the sector from the pandemic - and everyone involved should feel proud about the part they are playing."

The festival is curated by Culture Liverpool and creative agency Hemingway Design, with a focus on uniting business, civil society and consumers in a collective effort to tackle the biggest challenges facing our world.     

Claire McColgan MBE, director of Culture Liverpool, said: “In the Liverpool City Region we're committed to building the fairest, greenest, and most inclusive economy in the UK. Today’s launch of ‘Change Business for Good’ is the business world’s wake-up call. A chance to listen, learn and make a change for the better.”

Wayne Hemingway MBE, creative director, The Good Business Festival, added: “Today is an exciting day as we continue the Good Business Festival’s aim of working with businesses to play a role in creating a fairer society.  Change Business for Good will mark the start of our return to normal life, with consumers and leaders coming together to explore the powerful potential of businesses to improve lives, deliver meaningful change and realise a purpose beyond profit.”
 

The Digital Tourism Think Tank (DTTT) today announced its renewed support for city destinations by strengthening the existing cooperation with European Cities Marketing (ECM). Working together with the philosophy of embracing a ‘partnership-led recovery’, members of both organisations will now benefit from four new areas of cooperation, including a new online group dedicated to Cities, ‘The Future of Urban Tourism’.

With the renewal of this long-standing partnership, members will benefit from exciting new programmes, including quarterly ‘Trends Chats’, exploring fresh perspectives in an exciting new format. ECM will also collaborate on DMO Journeys, an initiative from the DTTT going further behind the scenes into the work of destinations. This offers members a chance to follow the journey to transformation over time, as cities work through their recovery process.

Other areas of collaboration include strengthened cooperation on research and events, with the DTTT’s CEO, Nick Hall, providing thought leadership on global destination trends to the ECM Community at upcoming ECM Conferences. Later in the year, following the success of X Festival in 2020, both partners have committed to a strong focus on urban tourism at this year’s event through joint cooperation, with a co-authored programme segment, focusing on the questions being asked by ECM Members.

“With the ECM Strategy focusing on helping DMOs align their own strategic agenda with whatever demands, challenges and opportunities tomorrow will bring, we are delighted to come together again with the Digital Tourism Think Tank, where new areas of collaboration truly make us stronger together” said Petra Stušek, President of European Cities Marketing. “ECM is committed to the ‘power of community’ to build collaborative advantage by sharing, learning, meeting – and through that growing both as a community and as individual destinations and destination leaders. This reinvigoration of our work together with DTTT is a perfect example of this.”

“With the announcement of this new programme of activities with our longest standing partner, we are really excited about this new collaboration.” said Nick Hall, CEO of the DTTT. “It represents a significant strengthening of our existing partnership and a true coming together of values, knowledge and expertise, to create a uniquely relevant joint platform for dialogue, precisely when it’s needed most.”

This new partnership kicks off with the first Trends Chat at 16:00 CET on April 29, where the DTTT will be discussing the Future of Urban Tourism with perspectives from Paris and Dublin. A moderated discussion will follow thereafter for members in the Future of Urban Tourism group on the DTTT Community, exploring topics raised further as cities work towards a post-pandemic recovery. Participation is free for members of both organisations, shaped around their needs.

The Meetings Industry Association (mia) has launched its powerful business intelligence tool miaTouchstone, providing a pioneering platform for venues to manage bookings, benchmarking, and customer feedback.

An evolution of its original industry benchmarking reports, the latest offering in the mia’s expanding support package for venues will enable organisations to receive real-time insights into their market position and establish how they compare to the national, regional or local competitor sets they wish to target.

Available exclusively and free of charge to groups and venues holding AIM Secure accreditation, the sophisticated system, commissioned by the mia and developed by Infonote Datasystems Ltd, will leverage data from customer feedback to produce live ‘net promoter scores’, enabling venues to evaluate customer satisfaction levels and subsequently facilitate business improvement.

The sophisticated and secure system will serve venues as a multi-functional platform, also enabling them to provide any necessary legal documentation and certification directly to risk-averse event buyers.

Jane Longhurst, chief executive of the mia, said: “We’re proud to be launching the latest in our comprehensive suite of tools to continue driving best practice and high standards across the industry. miaTouchstone and its evolution is a project that we have been eagerly planning and developing over the course of the last three years and is something that we felt was extremely important to accelerate behind-the-scenes during the pandemic as we continue to aid the industry’s recovery with the upmost support and resources. The project has required significant but necessary investment and we’re delighted to provide this to our AIM Secure members free of charge.

“Not only will the tool provide a plethora of innovative capabilities and benefits to venues, but it will also facilitate the collation of extremely pertinent data that we will utilise to evaluate the state of the industry in real-time. As venues benchmark on a national, regional and local level, we will also be equipping ourselves with invaluable insights that can be used to shape industry-level strategies, the subsequent recovery and future prosperity of business meetings and events, so it’s an extremely exciting project that will soon become central to the sector.”

Working in partnership with leading online booking platforms, plans to provide further integrations on the platform are already well underway to support the management and development of venue bookings.

To find out more and set-up your venue on the miaTouchstone platform, visit MIA's website 
 

GainingEdge, a global leader specializing in providing advice to the business events industry, is pleased to be offering its first round of instructor-led, online courses as of May 10th.

These 90-minute courses will provide industry professionals an opportunity to upskill their expertise through practical and interactive learning sessions. Led by senior GainingEdge specialists, the first courses offered will include: business events branding; bid process and strategy; and local host development. These are being offered in multiple times zones around the world to provide flexibility in scheduling. After participating in a session, the learner will receive a certificate of completion.

The courses are geared toward DMOs and convention bureaus, though all industry members will find them useful. The level of training is targeted to those with industry experience and in positions with managerial or project responsibilities.

Jon Sivertson, CEO of GainingEdge, said: “GainingEdge is pleased to be bringing our extensive background in industry training to the online world on a course-by-course basis. We have been working virtually with our regular clients over the past year in helping them continue to learn and adapt in our everchanging MICE industry, and we will now be able to bring these sessions to the broader business events community.

For more information on the online courses including how to register and introductory prices, go to Online Professional Development.

Event technology company AMMP Digital is about to launch a new platform and event registration product called Twigged.

Twigged aims to simplify the registration process for conferences and trade shows, eliminating the need to fill them in multiple times. It also serves as a digital event wallet, while giving event participants complete control of their data.

The product is being developed by AMMP Digital, a company co-founded by Matt Coyne, formerly of event tech company GES, and Bogdan Maran. Twigged can be used across numerous digital event platforms. It is currently being developed in beta, and is looking to launch in April 2021.

Coyne said the new product aims to improve the delegate experience at all touchpoints. He said: “This platform aims to be a tool for event organisers to relieve the frustration attendees often feel at their first point of contact with the show brand. The benefits of Twigged are not solely focused on improving the customer experience, it will also improve data quality for event organisers globally.”

Maran added: “We are delighted to form an alliance with Coyne, our mission being to re-imagine and re-purpose every aspect of our industry, with a particular focus on how we look at data-driven personalised experiences, across all events.”

The Twigged product is currently in the beta testing phase, with AMMP Digital aiming to launch it in April 2021.

Global convention industry consulting firm, GainingEdge, has launched a new internal unit, GainingEdge Analysis & Research (GEAR), with a mission to expand and improve the quality of research available to international convention destinations.

GEAR will focus on issues of destination competitiveness, new forms of market intelligence and new insights into the dynamics of the global meetings industry. GainingEdge CEO, Jon Sivertson, said the vision for GEAR is to fill a research gap in relation to both the convention industry and the association community.  

“Our industry has never really had a dedicated research unit” Sivertson said. “We were struck by the lack of real quantitative analysis available to support quality decision-making processes. We want GEAR to make a real difference for both the meetings industry and associations. We want GEAR to be the go-to when people are focused on facts-based decision making.”

Long-time GainingEdge consultant, Milos Milovanovic, has been tapped to head-up GEAR. He said GEAR came out of a journey that began in 2018 with the publishing of the first annual International Convention Destination Competitive Index, the 3rd edition of which was released in December 2020. He said GEAR’s next contribution will be “cutting edge” research into the “intellectual capital” of convention destinations around the world.

“I think our next report will have a big impact on destinations and how they go about pursuing international conventions,” he said. “We’ve done a deep dive on the leadership of 3,500 international associations and developed a database of association board members and the cities where they live. From this research, we will be helping cities to understand how well they are doing in terms of the number of their local leaders who are active members in governing bodies of international associations. 

Milovanovic said the upcoming report would help cities understand how well they are leveraging their influencers to secure conventions.

“We want to help them in their recovery strategies as they pursue future growth” He said.  “Intellectual capital is a main driver of how conventions decide where to meet. We want to help destinations to understand how well they are harnessing that intellectual capital and to find quick pathways to the people they need to engage in the process of securing conventions.”

GainingEdge is a global specialist consulting firm advising the tourism and business events industry and associations since 2004. It provides a data-driven approach to market synthesis and on strategic recommendations that are specific, practical, and actionable.  

GainingEdge has offices in Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur, Paris, The Hague, Johannesburg, Dubai, and Vancouver.  

What makes a good event planning nowadays? What are the most popular tools and resources for setting up a conference? How can we find a balance between humanity and technology in these hybrid times? Realizing how you can start as efficiently and quickly as possible the path to your ideal event, is halfway to the success of your project. When the pandemic hit and event planners and marketers worldwide began to pivot to virtual, the whole “board” changed. During Cvent CONNECT Europe Virtual 2020, we discussed the future of events and research findings with Karla Pearce, Senior Marketing Manager for Europe at Cvent.

1) A recent survey by ‘EventMB’, identified that 47% of event planners believe that the venue influences whether or not an attendee joins an event. What makes a modern event venue great these days?

Given the current environment and the evolving restrictions and guidelines regarding in-person events, what makes a venue ‘great’ in today’s climate is fundamentally different than pre-pandemic and being committed and adhering to duty of care/safety are the overriding factors. In Cvent’s recent 2020 Planner Sentiment and Sourcing Report: Europe Edition more than half the planners said that the top influence for choosing a venue is whether it’s a safe space and every possible measure has been put in place to mitigate any health risks.

Many planners now expect venues to provide a clean, sanitised environment, offer daily temperature checks during the event, and provide on-site medical personnel. This may seem like an obvious checklist that most venues have covered, but there is a major disconnect in hotels and venues effectively communicating these protocols to the right audience at the right time. If venues are providing comprehensive safety measures, but no one knows, it’s a moot point. Venues must highlight their health and safety procedures on their website, on online sourcing platforms, social media channels and share them with destination marketing organisations (DMOs).

All in all, what makes a modern venue great these days? A venue that continually reassess and prioritises the unique challenges of planners and provides both guidance and solutions to deliver safer meetings, while also prioritising the overall attendee experience.
 

2) Venue selection often sets implicit expectations for attendees. They are becoming central references of cities and can be transmuted according to the characteristics of the events. Is it important that the venue sets the tone for its own agenda or is it preferable to take the opposite attitude and be more flexible with the event supply?

The key is balance. A venue can’t be all things to every planner. I’d say it’s important to have a defined voice, play to your strengths and USP’s but within this, set the tone for flexibility by going outside of the box to illustrate what the venue space is capable of. If you’re a historic venue, show how the space can be transformed into a contemporary setting, or if a space is traditionally used for meetings and conferences, showcase how the space can be transformed to host an indoor festival or concert. Help planners by being a facilitator and partner and not just providing them with a standard spiel of what you do well.
 

"Events will still need to deliver on three key elements: content, connection, and experience; and the metric used to measure success across these elements is attendee engagement because it flows through every stage of the event life cycle – pre, during, and post event."

3) Speaking about the digital transition, what can we also expect from a meeting planner with these new market solutions in place. Do you think that some of these professionals can be replaced by digital service providers?

Technology has undoubtedly changed the way we live our lives and with every advancement, there is often a fear of the negative impact it might have on our jobs and our industry. But technology often proves to be an enhancement to be utilised alongside of, not instead of. Likewise meeting planners and digital service providers will continue to work alongside one another as the roles require a different set of expertise.

What should be noted is the rise the event technologist role. While planners expand their knowledge pool to include video production and editing skills to create impactful virtual and hybrid events, they will also continue to manage the overall event planning and strategy. Event technologists will manage the technology side, including sourcing optimal tech based on the goals of each event as well as of the organisation. This frees up valuable bandwidth that planners can allocate to other logistical issues or higher-level event strategy.
 

4) After a year of almost zero revenue and an industry in full anxiety to get back on track, do you fear that the return of the events agenda will overlap their quality and a proper research finding?

I think organisations will actually be more strategic with their event programme approach in 2021. There won’t be all of a sudden hundreds of in-person events scheduled just because a vaccine is widely available. It will be a slow and steady return. But what’s really important for planners and organisations to remember is that whether these future events are virtual, hybrid, or in-person the value propositions do not change. Events will still need to deliver on three key elements: content, connection, and experience; and the metric used to measure success across these elements is attendee engagement because it flows through every stage of the event life cycle – pre, during, and post event. Organisers can use technology to leverage the wealth of data insights to create the right content, select the right format (virtual, in-person, or hybrid), and provide attendees with a more memorable, personalised, impactful experience.
 

"Help planners by being a facilitator and partner and not just providing them with a standard spiel of what you do well."  
 

5) If we consider that many of the events that were suspended or postponed may be held in 2021, we can face a recovery year but also congested by the flow of events and new rules. What will this change in a meeting planner's routine?

2020 has been an unprecedented year for meeting and event planners who have been faced with re-scheduling, then cancelling, and then a nearly complete pivot to virtual events. As planners prepare for the return of in-person events, regulation will play an important role. Planners will seek to align event delivery with safety protocols, they’ll leverage technology more frequently (planners have already embraced digital transformation during the pandemic) such as event diagramming tools, to map out events to comply with social distancing and onsite logistics for safer events. Our research revealed that over three quarters (76%) of surveyed planners said that they would consider hosting hybrid events in 2021. This presents new considerations for planners as they need to create one event with two seamless and complementary experiences that provide both in-person and virtual attendees with engaging content. In short, there will be nothing routine about the planner process in 2021, but by nature, event organisers are incredibly resilient and are used to adapting and finding new ways to adjust. There is no question that they will be able to adjust and use their skillset to succeed in the new normal, it will take a digital-first mindset to do so.

6) Your gut feeling: what will be the scenario of the meetings industry in 2030 with all these premises at stake?

The future of business is sustainable business, and the event industry has an opportunity to lead the charge, leveraging event technology to source smarter, work with suppliers and venues with eco practices and green credentials, running paper-less events and reducing the carbon footprint with virtual and hybrid event options.

Karla Pearce - Senior Marketing Manager Europe (Head of Marketing for Hospitality Cloud)

Events industry’s two biggest leaders continue collaboration efforts to strengthen global community. 

Meeting Professionals International (MPI), the largest meeting and event industry association worldwide, announced the extension of their strategic partnership with the IMEX Group for an additional five years through 2025 during a press conference at their recent World Education Congress event in Grapevine, Texas. The continued partnership fuses the industry’s two biggest organizations into a one-of-a-kind, unrivaled resource, providing opportunities for meeting and event professionals to grow smarter and stronger together through year-round activations. 

For almost twenty years, MPI and the IMEX Group have collaborated throughout the meeting and events industry, establishing a formal strategic partnership, the only one of its kind for MPI, in 2015. The extended strategic partnership will make a significant impact on the meeting and events industry by continued collaboration on thought-provoking content through digital properties and signature events, including European Meetings and Events Conference (EMEC), World Education Congress (WEC), IMEX America, and IMEX in Frankfurt. In 2021, MPI’s EMEC will take place concurrently with IMEX in Frankfurt, while the event in 2022 will take place in Brighton, UK, which happens to be the home city of the IMEX Group. 

“What we have established with Ray, Carina and the entire IMEX team is more than a strategic partnership, it’s family,” said Paul Van Deventer, MPI President and CEO. “We truly believe that the collective passion and remarkable collaboration between the MPI and IMEX teams make our global community smarter and stronger together, and that drive will continue to benefit and advance this industry, and the professionals within it, into recovery and far beyond.” 

MPI will also continue to deliver state-of-the-art education and programming through Smart Monday at IMEX America, Future Leaders Forum, She Means Business and other sessions at the collective organizations’ signature events. The partnership will also work to raise awareness of the MPI Foundation, for which IMEX is a Legend Level partner. IMEX is also actively involved in supporting initiatives to advance the industry globally and just recently provided a $250,000 donation resulting in the launch of the non-profit’s One Million to Meet campaign, intended to raise one million dollars by the end of 2020. 

“Since 2001, IMEX and MPI have together built a strong, rich history that has benefited our industry as a whole and we are honored to continue our strategic partnership,” said IMEX CEO Carina Bauer. “As we reflect on all that our organizations have accomplished in our nearly 20 years of collaboration, and especially during this time as we have navigated the pandemic’s impact, we are thrilled to team alongside them and bringing the smartest opportunities for our community of professionals to learn, network and excel.” 

The IMEX Group brings the global meetings industry together twice a year at IMEX in Frankfurt and IMEX America in Las Vegas. The vibrant shows are must-go destinations for the industry to share ideas, discover new tools, learn new skills and inspire innovation. This year, in place of their two annual in-person events, the organization launched PlanetIMEX, an innovative, virtual experience allowing for professionals to connect, learn and support each other within a unique online environment. 

"The original creation and now extension of our strategic partnership makes perfect sense for both organizations while offering global value to our industry,” commented Darren Temple, MPI COO. “When you look at the global footprint that both IMEX and MPI have in terms of an active community and in-market activations, then marry that to the innovative and progressive education and networking we collectively execute, the total impact and benefits is remarkable and, quite frankly, immeasurable.” 

Deal for Cvent Transient Business Intelligence signals Radisson Hotel Group's commitment to leveraging innovative technology to help maximise its corporate travel segment.

Today, Cvent, a market-leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider, and Radisson Hotel Group (RHG) announced a multi-year agreement for Cvent Transient Business Intelligence. Under the agreement, Radisson Hotel Group will use Cvent's business intelligence software to evaluate and enhance property-level transient performance for 85 of its properties across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

As the hospitality industry contends with the impact of the global pandemic, hoteliers are increasingly turning to technology, including Cvent Transient solutions, to gather comprehensive market and competitive intelligence to win business and improve property and chain performance. Since acquiring Lanyon, Cvent has made significant investments in its transient platform to support both buyers and suppliers in an increasingly dynamic travel environment. Radisson Hotel Group has been a Cvent partner for more than a decade, and this multi-year partnership is the first Transient Business Intelligence deal specifically for its portfolio of hotels across EMEA. The deal highlights Cvent's industry-leading insights, expertise and commitment to support the evolving needs of hotels through its innovative suite of software solutions.

"We are pleased to expand our partnership with Cvent and leverage its world-class transient business intelligence solutions to expand our market share and maximise our corporate sales and marketing efforts as part of our ambitious five-year growth and development plan," said Gianni Di Fede, RHG EMEA VP of revenue management.  "At Radisson Hotel Group, we believe that the road to recovery is closely connected to the effective utilisation of technology to drive results. Cvent's solutions are crucial to helping our properties successfully navigate the RFP season, and ensuring we are in a strong position to attract guests and partners." 

"A deal of this nature not only reflects our two companies' confidence in the future of business travel, but also highlights the increasingly important role technology plays in the hospitality industry to drive success," said Patrick Smith, chief marketing officer at Cvent. "With decades of industry expertise, we have the solutions hoteliers need to gain valuable insights and outperform their competitive set to win more business. We've supported tens of thousands of hotel clients through good times and bad, and deeply understand that in times of crisis, success means being there for your customers and delivering the solutions they need to not just recover but thrive long-term. This is why we are so excited to continue our long-standing partnership with Radisson Hotel Group and to work closely with their team growing and increasing their market share for years to come."

One of the UK's leading suppliers of wireless headset technology for events, Silent Seminars (Silent Noize Events), has launched an innovative mobile app designed to allow audiences to listen to live audio using their own headsets.

Intended to work alongside their existing physical headset systems, the app allows users choice when accessing audio at live events. In the wake of the Covid19 crisis, issues surrounding hygiene and infection control are going to be more prevalent than ever. By offering audiences the option to use their own headsets, the Birmingham based headset supplier is hoping to generate user confidence and demonstrate that delegate health and safety is being taken seriously.

With the option to download the app from either the Apple or Google Play Stores, users can connect to the content from their smart phones and listen to the audio using their own headphones. Users can choose which seminar they want to listen to and simply press play to access live events that they would otherwise hear over loudspeakers, or through Silent Seminar's headsets. The app will help event organisers to continue to deliver clear audio at large and small-scale events with the option to stream in as many different theatres as required, and in multiple languages.  

The flexibility of the app means it can also be used outside of the conference and exhibition arena. Being completely mobile and power free opens it up for a multitude of other uses such as fitness classes, yoga, cinema, tour guides and film screenings. Music and audio can be delivered 'silently' via personal headsets in any environment.  

The app is equally flexible and straightforward for event organisers and producers. Every event has its own tab accessible by a password distributed by the organisers. The app is fully customisable, so event information, branding, and sponsorship can all be included in the individual event tab with the additional option to capture and safely encrypt email addresses, names and numbers. For the technicians delivering the audio, a tablet with a separate broadcaster app is provided.

Duncan Strain, director at Silent Seminars, commented: "We are incredibly excited at the launch of this innovative app which will make delivery of seminar content even easier and safer for delegates to access!"

"It is a great time to be launching our app as planners are currently preparing to make up for time lost in 2020 and are keen to use technology to help them adapt in line with Covid regulations. The app offers all the benefits of our headsets – great audio quality, multiple breakout spaces in the same room and reduced noise levels within the space so that multiple exhibitors and presenters can communicate clearly and simultaneously – plus the process of tuning in is even easier than before."

"The app is another big development in our technology which is continuing to reshape the way audio is delivered within the conference and exhibition industry."  

A recent research by Maria Arlene T. Disimulacion, associate professor at Manila’s Far Eastern University, analysed the future directions of MICE tourism during and after COVID-19.

“MICE generates foreign exchange, increases trade and investments, provides employment, boosts local economies, and promotes destinations. The major key to its success is the strong collaboration with the travel, hospitality, and leisure sectors that provide products and services for the industry,” she wrote.

“Therefore, any disruption along its value chain may lead to significant losses for its stakeholders: organizers, participants, suppliers, sponsors, and host destinations. Although the industry is resilient, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) may be the definitive crisis that will reset any previous gains from a formerly robust tourism industry.”

For instance, the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) changed completely during the pandemic.

Despite the disruption brought about by COVID-19, the paper argues that stakeholders can gain from the use of ICT when the technology is matched with objectives of sustainability, engagement and collaboration. “To remain relevant in the dynamic, interconnected, fragmented MICE environment, stakeholders must revisit the guidelines issued in response to the pandemic [...] This may refer to an optimal combination of face-to-face and virtual techniques for competitive advantage that may result in improved revenues and profits.”

Disimulacion believes that new conceptual frameworks, innovative formats and replicable business models may help stakeholders navigate MICE post COVID-19. She is not the only one.

IAPCO’s survey on the impacts of COVID-19 shows that almost the totality of members (95%) have been offering virtual meetings to replace physical ones.

Also, 57% of them advised that up to 25% of their congresses or meetings remain virtual or hybrid for this year.

According to 38% of respondents, hybrid meetings will increase at least by 25% of current levels next year, while physical meetings will decrease by 10-25%.

IAPCO member Barbara Calderwood wrote: “Fully virtual congresses may be the engagement technique that associations must embrace right now for their business resilience, but hybrid will surely be the blended congress solution of choice for their robust recovery and growth beyond the immediate impact of COVID-19.”

“Never has there been a more important moment in time for PCOs to demonstrate to associations the full force of their value proposition. We are key in supporting associations with the redesign of their congresses to fit the digital space and in driving engagement with their customers for effective business resilience and growth.”

A new article in the Singapore Business Review says hybrid events are arising in the current post-pandemic era.

For instance, Sino Elite MICE Services is working on technologies for cloud conferences and digital conference solutions. Their clients would previously invite 300 to 600 people and now more than 1,000. “Since the outbreak, we found that previously developed technologies no longer meet the needs of clients,” chairman and CEO Martin Zhao told Singapore Business Review.

Other digital innovations include: virtual scanning for hotels, e-banking for restaurants, AI in venues and smart identification in airports.

To take a step ahead, let’s try to imagine: facial recognition technologies that could read facial expressions in conference rooms and give organisers a better understanding of how their attendees are feeling, real-time translation services through apps, data powered by AI used to match them with like-minded individuals.

Of course, changes won’t come without challenges. One example is data integration and tool fragmentation. “I see bigger events invest a lot of budget into custom design and attempts to extend and increase the attendee experience,” Steen Tromholt, CEO of Conferize, told The Meeting Magazine. “Usually things look good, but the digital design extending the event experience is usually lacking. The reason is: It’s hard.”

But we all look for immersive experiences. As Daniel Newman wrote already four years ago in Forbes, “We live in an age where people want to experience everything. We want to get the most out of life. We want to be immersed in the story, feel like we’re ‘living’ the story, not just reading it. By making your community the main character, and having a keen understanding of what your customers want, you will be able to include them in the story, in the experience, you are trying to tell and sell.”

It may seem like a futuristic scenario, and it is exactly what will reward destinations that are better prepared.

Cvent also made it clear: “It pays to think like a futurist when tech is involved. Innovations like facial recognition pave the way for better experiences, and this includes MICE events. Not only does it make them more engaging, but it also simplifies the event organisation process and gives both the hotel and event planner a better way to collaborate. Meeting planners and attendees expect the same level of technology in their event experiences.”

A joint evolution between buyers and suppliers will be born. In the future, any association will favor a destination that is better prepared technologically, as the destination itself can select the savviest association to host in its space. We are here to see what will happen next.

In a world where technology and social media allow individuals to gather information and network online, professional associations are already evolving their offering to members in order to stay relevant. And now with the current pandemic impacting all of us, it has further accelerated associations to fast track their move in the space of technology to ensure their offering is even more relevant, available and allowing their members to have access to all resources.

Every morning we start our day with getting news headlines, social media updates and emails through the smartphones, which pushes organisations to ensure that whatever they offer - learning programs, publications and more - are all compatible at the touch of the proverbial button.

Associations need to ensure that technology is integrated internally and externally so that the experience is seamless, and their staff are ready to put this offering forward to their members. You cannot offer something in the best possible manner when you are not adapting or using it. So what does this internal and external mean? It basically brings the ecosystem of the association together - talents that work for the association, members and customers, its products and services, the stakeholders that comprise volunteers and supporting organisations and the government institutions.

Before COVID-19 changed the world we live in, associations continued to focus on innovation, working around the globe through a mobile workforce and recognising the importance of data privacy, ensuring they had the right policies and infrastructure to make this happen. However, now we have a seismic shift in the way associations operate; with the changing dynamics, these trends have further evolved, and the next 12 to 18 months will bring forward the following:

1. Digital Transformation - which will mean not only having associations run their programs digitally but ensuring everything they do is seamless and connected digitally in a holistic manner. Staff will need to be Re or Upskilled; tools and applications will need to be in place to make their work effective. Integration, convergence and seamlessness will be the mantra. 
2. Remote Workforce - The ‘work from home’ ideology brings in a new definition to a mobile workforce which will have a long lasting impact even beyond the pandemic. Organisations have found a new working experience, and this will replace large offices and infrastructure for many organisations in the future. 
3. AI and BI - With so many programs and events being run virtually, two key focus areas will be the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Intelligence (BI). Whilst AI will help customise the offering and cater to individual needs, BI will assist associations to collect and analyse the data to be more effective in connecting with their members.
4. Mobile First Offering – Everything being offered from training to events to publications as well as meetings will need to be mobile compatible as audiences connect remotely from their phones even more than ever before.
5. Employee Wellbeing - The pandemic has increased the trend of employers playing an expanded role in their employees’ financial, physical and mental well-being. Personal factors rather than external factors will take precedence over what matters for organisations and employees alike.

As we talk through the future, the majority of associations today depend on meetings and events as their primary source of revenue or, in some cases, the sole driver to keep them afloat. And with these activities being the first to get impacted, associations will need to re-think, re-strategise and put a whole new context to make this work for them and their communities. So whilst in the past the number one reason for audiences to be at events was networking, the current world of digital meetings not only impact the experience but even affect the priorities as they will change for everyone.

More so, when life starts coming back to normal, meetings and events will surely jump back to face-to-face interactions but with a long-lasting impact of audiences wanting to still be connected digitally. Whilst hybrid events have been in existence for some years, it is now more than ever that they will be tested and become a key ingredient in the planning of future events. 

So, what does this mean for us as event organisers? Well, on one side there will be some impact on physical attendance but then it also opens a whole new audience outreach in different parts of the world. In the last three months, we have seen many associations comment on virtual events being larger than expected and that they are attracting audiences they never connected with in the past. There are a whole lot of new members who demand quality, content and the ability to connect without the hassle of moving from the comfort of their offices. 

Associations will, however, need to think harder on engagement as to how they can keep audiences active in front of screens for longer hours as well as condensing their content to ensure they remain connected and relevant to their community. The reality is that change is now, the future is here and you have very few options, but to adapt to the new paradigm.

The key areas of focus for associations will include:

1. Globalised Content – associations can look to produce content relevant to more than one region or country, resulting in more audiences drawn from all around the globe.
2. Marketing on a Global Scale – associations will need to get more aggressive with their marketing campaigns and use digital tools and social media to get the best outreach.
3. Business Models – It will be easier to push digital products but on the other hand the charges will need to be less for audiences, especially to those in low income countries.
4. Engagement – Relying on bite size information, interviews with speakers, key highlights of content and other small pieces of information prior to the event and a whole new set of engagement actions such as interactions through polls, quizzes and other social media activations during the event.

As we saw with post 9/11, the impact of COVID-19 will come with both short and long term changes, in how we interact and offer products to our members. Associations will need to remain agile to quickly adapt and deal with uncertainty, since changes in demand  will be influenced by economic fluctuations.

This article was provided by the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers, author Ajay Bhojwani, Managing Director, MCI Middle East. MCI is an independent, privately held company, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, with 64 offices in over 32 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, India, the Middle East and Africa delivering projects for clients all over the world. IAPCO represents today 139 companies comprised of over 9900 professional congress organisers, meeting planners and managers of international and national congresses, conventions and special events from 40 countries. 
Author (photo): Ajay Bhojwani, managing director of MCI Middle East.

Silent Noize have teamed up with marketing and PR agency, 52eight3 to raise their media profile ahead of the return of live events in 2021.

Birmingham based Silent Noize and sister brand Silent Seminars are positioning themselves to take advantage of the opportunities that they predict will arise as venues and events return to action in the new year. The company, which provides premium quality headsets for silent discos, conferences and exhibitions is keen to build on its success and has engaged 52eight3 to ensure its story reaches new audiences. 

Since 2010, Silent Noize has been providing its three channel LED colour changing headsets to delight party guests who can dance the night away in a unique style with no need to worry about keeping the neighbours awake. With thousands of weddings having been cancelled this year, Silent Noize is expecting 2021 to be busier than ever as the business responds to the backlog of weddings and parties.

One unexpected result of the Covid-19 pandemic, is that schools are currently seeking safe and fun ways to entertain teens who are bubbling together in lockdown. Silent Noize is working with numerous schools to ensure the young people can enjoy themselves at a silent disco in a safe and Covid-secure way.

Silent Noize’s sister brand, Silent Seminars delivers audio to seminars, conferences and large-scale talks, allowing audiences to focus on a speaker without ambient distractions. This improves both communication and engagement, significantly increasing benefits to event organisers. With many events postponed due to Covid-19, businesses are raring get back to trade shows and meetings, and Silent Seminars is preparing itself for a surge in demand from event organisers as live events retuning 2012.

Katie Morhen, founder and director of 52eight3, commented, “we are incredibly excited to be working with this innovative and dynamic business which provides both great entertainment and has a serious application for the events industry as well. We are eager to use our creativity to share its story and position Silent Noize and Silent Seminar to take advantage of the pent-up opportunities in 2021, helping it go from strength to strength!”

Duncan Strain, director of Silent Noize Events, commented, “we are really looking forward to working with 52eight3. We’ve been speaking with a couple of agencies but their historying of working with event suppliers and the enthusiasm for our products really won me over. Like our industry colleagues, we can’t wait for the return of live events and are ready to come back to what we know and love.”

Conferli has recently announced the launch of its innovative platform, a solution that streamlines the process of matching association events with destinations and venues. HQ interviewed the CEO and founder Nienke van der Malen.

1) Can you tell us how Conferli was born?

During my career in the MICE industry from venue sales to destination marketing, I have found that there is a huge lack of independent benchmarking options for cities and venues in our market. There are so many different parameters that matter when a conference organiser chooses a destination. We decided to build the solution to the problem we have been dealing with for years, so we can help hundreds of associations, destinations and venues across the world.
Conferli was officially piloted on the 3rd of June, featuring all of its core functions: from matchmaking, to benchmarking and RFP management. This launch was preceded with an intense period of business and technical development. Our team of experienced professionals in the field of destination marketing, convention bureaus, conference organisation, MICE, hospitality and digital technology joined forces. As a team, we are driven by our passion for this market, our curiosity and our ingenuity to come up with new solutions. We let go of old structures and give the power to our users.

2) Who are your clients?

Conferli is the world’s first match-making platform for association events that helps associations, destinations and venues find each other directly. The platform revolutionises the way associations structure their tender process, by introducing a data-driven city-matching tool. We are currently operating in Europe, we do feature 275 destinations. Our clients are cities, associations and event venues. We do focus on the smaller associations events up to 400 people.

3) What do people need when in the process of organising an event?

As content is getting more and more important, a link to a destination is often key for associations. Until we launched Conferli, there was no global service that provided associations with information about destinations. Nowadays, it’s not just the number of hotel rooms you are offering anymore. Times change and in modern times organisers are looking for a number of metrics when deciding where their next event will be held. They need stronger content, knowledge hubs, more delegates, marketing support and so on. Cities evolve and invest in certain sectors or knowledge hubs, differentiating themselves from their competitors.
Associations, venues and destinations need each other to organise conferences, but they have no way of finding each other easily. Smaller associations do not have resources to conduct a thorough research into destinations and venues that meet all their needs. On the other hand, destinations and venues don’t have easy access to the market of smaller association events, which would help with long-term booking. Conferli solves both of the problems with its match-making and benchmarking tools.

4) What challenges do you face?

Launching a new platform during a crisis was our biggest challenge. While everybody is on a tight budget and uncertain about what the future will bring, being the new kid in town is challenging. Then, we had to adapt to the everyday changing needs of our three target groups (associations, destinations and venues) especially in times like these. For the long term, focus on safety and security (1,5 meter distance) and changing of hygiëne measurements will impact the industry. Furthermore, for the delegate there is uncertainty about travelling across borders. In a traditional sector like the associations, it will be a challenge to convince them to virtually find their new destination without seeing it first. It will impact the associations, but also the way destinations and venues are doing sales.

5) How has your business changed through time, especially in the last eight months?

Of course our launch during COVID-19 was rather controversial. We were hesitant about continuing with our launch, but soon we realised that our platform can play an important role in the recovery of our industry. We offer virtual matchmaking and, in times where it is impossible to meet, it appears to be a great solution. We needed to adapt our business model and, because we just started, we were flexible to do so. We temporarily lifted our membership fees, we set up an integration with the World Travel and Tourism Council to mark destinations with a safe travel stamp. Through these kinds of actions, we can unite our industry during these difficult times and enable all participants to find each other and make plans for the future.

6) Do you believe new technologies are surrounded by a lot of hype, or is there a real potential for future development?

We truly believe in new technologies, by using techniques like AI, it can save time and money during the process and will make the end result much better. Technology can help to broaden your horizon, gives inspiration and stimulates your brain to explore the world.

7) What do you foresee next year will look like for the industry?

Without a doubt we have been hit hard and it is not over yet. But we foresee that there will be a slight recovery in 2021. Meetings might get smaller and more regional but virtual will never take over face-to-face. We showed as an industry how flexible and creative we are. Assets that will help us to come out of this stronger and better than before. Conferli is ready for that.

For More Info:
Email - info@conferli.com
Web - www.conferli.com

Caption: Nienke van der Malen 

Article Included in our HQ#96 October 2020

140 Tourist Information Centres’ professionals representing 42 leading European cities joined the Digital ECM TIC Expert Meeting on September 30 – October 2, 2020 to exchange knowledge and best practices of adaptation and innovation on Tourist Information Centres!

The 7th ECM TIC Expert Meeting on adaptation & innovation in crisis time

The TIC Expert Meeting traditionally takes place physically over the course of two days but due to the pandemic, the event dedicated to TIC managers & staff (whether they are ECM members or not) was transformed into a digital event.

“This year’s event has been focusing on the crucial topic of “Adaptation & innovation in crisis time“, providing the attendees with a mix of best-practices from ECM members (Rotterdam & Helsinki) and exclusive presentations by inspiring speakers - Patrick Chen from Shanghai & Jordi López from Sant Carles de la Ràpita.The digital event attendees were also given the opportunity to discuss and exchange in smaller groups on a specific topic during digital breakout sessions. This has been a strong opportunity for participants to keep on the dialogue and get some inspiration from their European peers on how to cope with the crisis and its impacts, as customer service providers.” explained Pablo Ortega Novillo, Chairperson of the TIC Knowledge Group and Responsible for the promotion of the Network of Tourist Offices of Turisme de Catalunya.

Discussion topics for attendees were “TIC Strategy“, to exchange on the current and future role of TICs, but also where to play & how to adapt to the trends we are now facing, and “TIC Tactics” so they could share at a more practical level what kind of innovations, new activities and big ideas they have been implementing as they adjust to the challenges of Covid-19 and look to maximise the potential of their domestic markets:

• Although keeping a face-to-face contact is crucial for all members, they are doing efforts to implement more and more digital communication tools to interact with their visitors (chatbot, WhatsApp, video chat, etc…), and also to replace most of the paper documents such as maps or brochures into digital ones (shared by email or QR codes) for sustainable and health prevention reasons.
• One of the new roles some TICs have been having in the past months is to provide information about the Covid-19 situation in their destination to visitors.
• The main adaptation they have been implementing is to adjust their products to the domestic market (specific marketing campaigns, new itineraries, …) and encourage tourists to visit the ‘safest’ places in the current situation (museums with online reservation, outdoors activities, …).

The ECM TIC Hostmanship Award rewards best service offered to visitors

For the 5th year in a row, prior to this year’s edition of the TIC Expert Meeting, European Cities Marketing organised a friendly competition amongst its members, who were asked to nominate a member of their TIC staff who gave added value to their work on customer services. The winner of the ECM TIC Hostmanship Award 2020 was revealed during the Expert Meeting. Among all of this year’s applications, the TIC Knowledge Group jury voted for Morana Suton from Zagreb for being present at the Zagreb Airport Visitor Center on the day of the earthquake, to greet, encourage and guide visitors in extraordinary circumstances.

Along with this award, Morana was granted a gift box from other TICs of Europe plus a 2-day work experience at Girona’s TIC in 2021 before attending for free the next edition of the TIC Expert Meeting.

Morana Suton commented on her award: “On behalf of Zagreb Tourist Board and myself, I want to express that I am very happy and truly honoured to win the TIC Hostmanship Award 2020. It was a great pleasure for me to be able to represent Croatian capital Zagreb at the TIC Expert Meeting and to meet TIC experts from other countries. I also want to thank my office, Zagreb Tourist Board, for nominating me for the TIC Hostmanship Award, thus giving me the opportunity to be a part of this year’s meeting and competition. TIC Expert Meeting 2021 in Girona is already in my calendar and I really look forward to attending it next year. It will be my pleasure to get in touch with other people doing the same job as I do and sharing professional experience. It’s always interesting to meet my European colleagues and talk about the similarities of our job, while learning at the same time how to improve our work in order to give the best in representing our city to the visitors.”

The ECM TIC Best Covid Pivot Award rewards excellence in action in the face of Covid-19

Due to the exceptional COVID-19 crisis this year saw also the creation of a special award to recognise an individual’s contribution to the new challenges we face. Hence it will reinforce the can-do behaviour we would all like to see from our staff.

The winner of the new ECM TIC Best Covid Pivot Award 2020 was John Ringh from Uppsala for its enthusiasm and high level of professionalism in contributing to the different alternatives to give the best possible service to visitors under the global pandemic.

“I am very thankful that we’d won the ECM TIC Best Covid Pivot 2020 Award. All the different ways we’d made for the visitors to explore more of Uppsala are important. Both this Covid-19 year but also for the future! I’m also very proud to work with a fantastic team at Destination Uppsala!” commented John Ringh.

The application for the 6th edition of the ECM TIC Hostmanship Award will be sent during summer 2021. Next year’s host destination is Girona, Spain. The winner will also get the opportunity to work 2 days at Girona’s TIC and will have free access to the next TIC Expert Meeting in Girona.

IFES conducted an international study on the general status quo and expectations in the exhibition and event services industry. A clear statement: In countries where there is a high-willingness to wear a mask for everyday life, trade fairs start almost half a year earlier.

Due to the postponements and cancellations of trade fair events so far, many trade fair and event service providers have got into economic difficulties. For IFES, International Federation of Exhibition and Event Services, this was the reason to ask its members worldwide and to present a comparison of effects, measures and expectations for the individual continents.

"Almost all trade fair planning for the coming months has lost its reliability: organisers, exhibitors, visitors and service providers lack any planning security. As a result, exhibitors have to rely on other distribution channels and service providers are deprived of any basis for business," says IFES Managing Director Uta Goretzky. "The extent to which the industry has been hit varies from country to country or region to region, and here it is important to gain an overview and, if necessary, learn from solutions from other regions of the world!

In Asia and Europe, for example, trade fair organisers in the USA rely 100% on hand disinfection and the wearing of masks, while only three quarters of trade fairs in the USA publish this among their exhibitors and visitors.

In Asia, 60% of the companies surveyed expect trade fairs to be able to take place as early as the first quarter of 2021. In Europe, 75% share this view from the second quarter onwards, while in the USA, three quarters of companies do not expect trade fairs to return until the third quarter of 2021.

The survey was conducted from 11 to 25 September 2020. A total of 86 companies participated in the survey.

The full results of the study can be found on the IFES website.

Digital attendees of PCMA’s Convening Asia Pacific: The Global Recovery Forum will have the chance to partake in six interactive deep dive sessions with key industry leaders via the ‘Conversations with the Experts’ sessions on Tuesday 10 November.

These conversations are designed to provide practical and key insights into managing and innovating business events in the COVID era. The experts include planners, event organisers, marketers, technology specialists and creators from some of the most important organisations in our industry. 

Topics and speakers include:

• Customer Deep Dive: Incentive Travel and Events with Bert Li, Associate Director of Event Production, Amway China;
• Customer Deep Dive: Corporate Meetings and Events with Deborah Caldwell, SVP Asia Pacific Head of Event Marketing, Bank of America;
• Customer Deep Dive: Association Meetings and Events with Paula Rowntree, Head of Events & Experience, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Kirsty Grimwade, Senior Manager, Events, The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy;
• China Focus: Are We Back in Business? with Frankie Gao, Managing Director, China MCI Group and Stephen Zhang, President & Chief Distribution Officer of Manulife Sinochem;
• Engaging Your Audience with Digital Events: Up Close and Personal with Sourabh Kothari, Co-Founder and CEO, Mindcurrent and Jennifer Kingen Kush, Founder and Strategist, Kingen Kush Solutions.

Digital attendees will nominate a topic before the event and interact live with the presenters in these 25-minute breakout sessions. 

Karen Bolinger, Managing Director of PCMA APAC, said, “We want to make sure our digital attendees get a lot of value from the content and what better way than by giving them a chance to engage with the experts and their peers around the region in a personal way. 

“Through our APAC research, surveys and community chats with planners, what we’re hearing is that you want to ask your peers and customers what they are doing, how they’ve made decisions and what the next 12-months looks like. Now is your opportunity to ask them directly, as well as share some best practices and tips on rebuilding the business events sector in APAC,” said Ms Bolinger.  

More Convening Asia Pacific News

PCMA has engaged Interprefy (read the HQ Interview with them here) to deliver live and simultaneous translations of the presentations from English into Japanese, Korean and Mandarin, for the entirety of the event.

The PCMA Foundation is granting scholarships for individuals to attend Convening Asia Pacific: The Global Recovery Forumeither in-person in Sydney or digitally; each scholarship covers the cost of the event registration.

Convening Asia Pacific: The Global Recovery Forum will be available digitally / OnDemand and face-to-face at ICC Sydney on Tuesday 10 November, 12pm-4pm AEDT, all at the affordable price of $99 USD.