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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: JMIC’s Rod Cameron Discusses Preparing for Recovery

International travel is now all but shut down and meetings are either cancelled, postponed or online. It’s hard to think about rebuilding while still in the eye of the storm, but it’s nevertheless vital. Rod Cameron, Executive Director of the Joint Meetings Industry Council, which presents The Iceberg, talks sector recovery. From JMIC…

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Four Cities Linked: The Global Associations Hubs Partnership

Most ambitious destinations market meetings by targeting key economic growth sectors and by making good use of knowledge economy assets. GAHP, the Global Association Hubs Partnership, links up four such cities with strong association ecosystems and support. GAHP is also a partner of The Iceberg. From Association Meetings International…

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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: Five Key Suggestions to Help Survive the Crisis

The meetings industry, very used to things “going viral”, is now dealing with a real virus crisis. One of this site’s favourite bloggers has distilled down five suggestions for survival. Stick with the facts. Postpone, don’t cancel. Make use of this “period of reflection”. Be kind. Remember, this too shall pass. From SoolNua’s Pádraic Gilligan at Padraicino…

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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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Coronavirus: ITB Berlin Learns Hard Lessons in Event Risk Management

Julia Sonnemann, PR Manager for ITB Berlin, was all smiles during a press conference on February 19th. On February 28th, days before its opening, the travel and tourism trade fair was forced to cancel because it couldn’t meet local health authority requirements on COVID-19. Sonnemann now picks through the difficult decisions that were faced. From EventMB…

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Coronavirus: Managing Event Risk While Event Planners Still Can

What next? The question is haunting meeting and event planners as the COVID-19 shows its contempt for national borders. There’s now grim fascination in seeing organisations responding quite differently to the unfolding crisis, and what this then says about our attitude to “known unknowns”. From editor’s blog at Association Meetings International…

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Beyond Tourism Event Legacies: BestCities’s Karen Bolinger

Many DMOs (Destination Marketing Organisations) have started to realise the true value of meetings and are tracking the social outcomes they deliver. Some governments include business events as part of policy. Karen Bolinger, Strategic Advisor at Iceberg partner BestCities Global Alliance, talks “beyond tourism” legacies. From City / Nation / Place…

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Measuring the Value of Incentive Travel: Don’t Forget Soft Power

Profit and productivity rank high when buyers of incentive travel experiences list the objectives of their programmes. Except that isn’t the whole story. There’s a powerful narrative emerging around other objectives incentive travel sets out to achieve which has little to do with tangible metrics. From SoolNua’s Pádraic Gilligan at Padraicino…

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Coronavirus: Highlights of the Events Industry Council Webinar

The Events Industry Council recently held a webinar “Industry Discussion on Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV): Identifying Reliable Sources and Factors for Informed Decision Making”. The conversation centred on how organisers should approach the choices about whether or not to postpone or cancel an event. Photo: Huangdan2060. From PCMA…

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