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During the pandemic, uncertainty was a daily torment for association meeting planners. With the threat of lockdown ended in most countries, the market is approaching business pre-pandemic. But organisers are also caught between a labour and skills crisis plus rocketing inflation. From editor’s blog at Association Meetings International…
The problem is familiar and has been escalating rapidly over the decades. Global food produce is not enough to cover the needs of our planet’s ever-growing population. The issue will be discussed in depth at Quebec City, Canada, throughout the fourth edition of the International Insects to Feed the World conference. From Boardroom…
International Women’s Day, which has now been marked for over a century, offers the opportunity to remember the key conferences and other events that have helped move the needle on women’s rights. The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women (pictured) in Beijing, China, featured participation by future Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. From PCMA…
The Joint Meetings Industry Council pledge over Net Zero Carbon Events is not the end of the events industry, as some alarmists have decried, but rather a new beginning. But the key will be measurement. Here is how assorted Iceberg partners worked together to make progress on the issue, including Positive Impact. From Exhibition News…
The global meetings industry took a giant step towards recovery with the USA reopening to air travel. But the Joint Meetings Industry Council’s Net Zero Carbon Events Pledge at COP26 in Glasgow should also now focus attention on the challenge of industry environmental credentials. From Association Meetings International…
Sven Bossu was named as Iceberg partner AIPC’s first CEO back in May. Prior to that, he was the Managing Director for Innovation at ESTRO (European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology) after eight years at SWIFT’s SIBOS. Here he offers the same message of a retiring Flemish TV anchor… “everything will be fine”. From AIPC…
Ten well-known UK exhibition organisers have been describing their thought processes and plans for 2021. Several talked about how their teams had risen to the multiple challenges of keeping the lights on and their businesses ticking over. There was also real consensus of opinion about key learnings and outlook going forward. From Exhibition News…
We are in unchartered territory with a global pandemic disrupting lives and livelihoods. But with improved knowledge about the virus, more efficient testing and now with mass vaccinations, the tide is turning. Kai Hattendorf, Managing Director and CEO of Iceberg partner UFI, offers with his team five trends to drive industry development. From UFI…
When Marco Oelschlegel became head of Berlin’s Convention Bureau in January 2020, neither he nor the rest of the world knew how difficult and strange the coming few months would be. So just how has the start of his new role ended up being, and what is Berlin’s “new normal” like? From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Martin Sirk is International Advisor for Iceberg partner GAH (Global Association Hubs). In a sharp reality check for the business events sector, he warns that successful reopening relies on a much wider containment of the pandemic than the industry on its own can ever achieve. The economy and health are not zero-sum trade-offs or parallel-track…
After months of lockdown, many countries are just now gradually reopening events. This is not just countries that have suppressed the pandemic, but also many where the situation remains uncertain during a second wave of cases. So how do events look in a COVID-19 world? From Rod Kamleshwaran of the Iceberg partner GainingEdge via LinkedIn…
COVID-19 has forced a rethinking of travel. Many conferences have been cancelled. Some have gone virtual. This analysis looks at actions that might reduce conference travel emissions by up to 90 percent, including holding a conference biennially in accessible locations, plus having both regional hubs and more virtual events. From Nature…
Governments have differing ideas about how meetings should return safely during the pandemic. Industry bodies advocate different plans. But what of the science? Dr. Brian Labus, epidemiologist and health sciences expert at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, prepares organisers for the months ahead. From Event MB…
Asia’s business events industry has the potential to rebound faster than that of other continents, but being able to conduct business safely is important. So said the panellists at a Global MICE Situation in the Time of the Pandemic webinar, among them regional managers from the Iceberg partners ICCA and UFI. From Meetings International…
Iceberg partner UFI, the exhibition industry’s global association, staged an UFI Connects webinar on the role of government in exhibition industry recovery in Asia. It produced some great market insights, among them news of trade shows opening up in Shanghai this June, plus an update on the regional subsidies available. From Exhibition World…
Globalisation, the world’s closer integration, is under attack. After nativism, terrorism and of course climate change, now a microscopic pathogen is even stopping us from gathering to meet. If globalisation does have a positive legacy though, international association meetings may be the best of what closer integration gives society. From Association Meetings International…
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