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Coronavirus: The Vital Role of Associations in Industry Recovery

Trade associations have a vital role to play in helping the industry and wider world to recover as pandemic lockdowns end. So there is real and pressing work now for them to do. The association champion Jennifer Jenkins is PCO Lead and Director at the British agency Worldspan. From Association Meetings International…

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Coronavirus: Pandemic “New Normal” Actually Quite Abnormal

“The new normal” is an irritating phrase that has entered common parlance since lockdown measures began to contain further spread of COVID-19. While the transition to virtual events is a “new normal” we can take seriously, not much else of the “new normal” is “normal” at all. From editor’s blog at Association Meetings International…

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Coronavirus: Staging Exhibitions During the Age of the Pandemic

As the COVID-19 crisis has persisted, so has came the slow realisation that its impact will linger a very long time indeed. What does this mean for the exhibition sector in the future? Reed Exhibition’s former Chairman and CEO Mike Rusbridge, and former Commercial Director Nick Forster, offer thoughts. From UFI…

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Coronavirus: Expo 2020 Delay Should Reinforce Purpose and Legacy

BIE (the Bureau International des Expositions) has just unanimously agreed to postponing Expo 2020 Dubai. The rescheduled event will become a global celebration that the COVID-19 crisis is over. There are precedents for postponement across the past history of world fairs, and Dubai’s own back catalogue has seen other milestone events. From Meetings International…

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Coronavirus: How Events Will Look as Lockdowns Are Lifted

With the industry still one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis, the most pressing question on event professionals’ minds is what events will look like once lockdowns have been lifted. There are extra factors on the health and safety front that will pile on top of the measures traditionally taken. From EventMB…

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Coronavirus: Predicting New Norms for Future Meetings and Events

COVID-19 has made virtual events necessary, acceptable and habitual. The crisis will change the industry beyond recognition in that meeting face-to-face will not take place for a while at anything like the usual scale and frequency. In the mid to longer term, social distancing and hygiene protocols will also transform. From SoolNua’s Pádraic Gilligan at Padraicino…

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Gender Equality in MI Leadership: Trying to Shatter Glass Ceilings

Hillary Rodham Clinton chose the Javits Center for her election night party in 2016, but in the end didn’t shatter its glass ceiling. Leadership gender equality within the meetings industry was discussed at a Cvent CONNECT Europe panel in October hosted by BBC Director of Creative Diversity June Sarpong (pictured). From Meetings & Incentive Travel…

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Coronavirus: MCI’s Oscar Cerezales on Post-Crisis Strategy

Oscar Cerezales (pictured on right), Global Executive VP Corporate and COO Asia Pacific at Iceberg partner MCI, received the prestigious PCMA Chairman’s Award in January. Today he’s at working from his Singapore home, while pondering the flexible, diversified, and consolidated events industry that will emerge beyond coronavirus. From Event Crisis…

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Coronavirus: Change, Learning and Banging the MI Drum Together

Everything has changed. Meeting and travel are banned. Venues are hospitals. Events are online. We are learning so much about ourselves, but also need the world outside to learn about us and our £70 billion sector. Together we have to keep banging the drum. From editor’s blog at Meetings & Incentive Travel…

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Coronavirus: African Sector Also Suffering Under COVID-19 Crisis

Meetings Africa 2020 already seems so long ago. As the world struggles to tackle COVID-19, not only have major conferences and exhibitions in Asia, Europe and America been cancelled, but Africa is also feeling the crisis. Interviews include Gregg Talley, President and CEO of Iceberg partner Talley Management Group. From the Event…

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Coronavirus: UK Events Industry Promised an Amplified Voice

The coronavirus crisis is the biggest challenge ever faced by the events industry. Get ready for business as extremely unusual. In an editorial posted before the United Kingdom locked down, one Iceberg partner promised the UK meetings industry “to amplify its voice at every turn”. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…

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Coronavirus: Don’t Listen to the Voices of Doom or Complacency

Public views about COVID-19 have seemed to polarise around either very sensationalist panic or similarly dangerous complacency. Perhaps we should choose to hear neither of these extreme positions. The events industry is going to take a battering from this crisis. The sector should try to accept this. From editor’s blog at Association Meetings International…

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