The Answer of a Magazine

My view has always been that a trade show is the best measure of an industry’s success. Our branch in this whole thing had to go on a heavy diet and had to cancel a lot of their contacts around the world, and that's exactly what we're dealing with right now.

The good news is that two trade fairs will be restarting soon where we can meet our industry people again. And we will all tell each other how much we thickened (figuratively speaking) after all this time. It will be different. How different, we will only know when the first trade fairs − IMEX America and IBTM World − are over. I myself do not believe much in the predictions of the suppliers, as they tend to be very coloured.

I will, however, listen carefully to what the associations have to say. They will eventually express their needs after the post-virus period and make their new expectations clear. The first signs are already there. The Geneva International Association Forum (GIAF) was launched in mid-September; ICCA has issued a last call for their upcoming forecasting report; then, there are the UIA Round Tables Europe and Asia (Tokyo and Prague). And as I am typing this text, I get the news from Dubai that the Dubai Association Centre is inviting me to a meeting on “Associations and the New World: Roadmaps for Reinvention”.

I am very curious about the reports of all these events. What will the future be like? We, at HQ, are going to work hard to help shape a new chapter in the meetings industry. A meetings magazine is ultimately the third pillar on which our industry is built. A medium that questions and informs about what is happening around the world in the conference field. We will continue to fulfil this calling even after issue #100 of Headquarters Magazine.

By Marcel A.M. Vissers, HQ's editor-in-chief
marcel@meetingmediagroup.com