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Future Meeting Space Tackles New Trends in Business Travel

Future Meeting Space’s latest research radar has looked at global studies, reports and articles on the future of both business events and business travel. Across over eighty studies, nine concrete trends have been identified about the industry, from the impact of sustainability on mobility to the role of hybrid event formats. From Response Room…

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Edinburgh Venue Gives Theatrical Legacy to Local Community

The Edinburgh International Convention Centre has given hundreds of Edinburgh Festival Fringe tickets to the venue’s local community. EICC worked with the Pleasance Theatre Trust to provide tickets for the famous arts event through a number of charities and social enterprises. The initiative has been supported by EICC’s catering partner Leith’s. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…

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Environment Answers: Five Experts Address Twenty Questions

International conferences are the most carbon-intensive activity for associations. Here five sustainability experts answer twenty fundamental questions to let organisations begin their journey towards net zero and assess their progress along the way. Included are views from Iceberg partners GDS-Index and Positive Impact. From Association Meetings International…

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Tips on Keeping Cool: How Meeting Planners Deal with Heatwaves

The UK has experienced red weather warnings and unprecedented high temperatures of late, with services shut down and events postponed. Europe and the United States have also suffered. Liz Taylor, the CEO of event management firm the Taylor Lynn Corporation, has sweated over the best solutions to keep delegates cool. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…

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Brewers Association DEI Mini-Grants Ferment Beer Event Legacy

“Mini-Grants” for diversity, equity and inclusion are being used by the US Brewers Association to ferment legacy at craft beer sector events. One meeting funded was a 2021 hybrid conference at which local female music producers created beats inspired by different craft beers to attract new consumers. From Associations Now…

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UK Events: The £84bn Sector That Deserves Government Respect

The UK events industry as a whole is a vastly fragmented animal, before the pandemic worth £84 billion to the country every year. This leading article from Martin Fullard is a direct message for the UK’s Government, which calls for the industry now to be shown the respect it deserves. From Conference News…

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Northstar Editors Give Global Outlook on Sector Recovery

Singapore is tightening up its COVID restrictions. The UK has piloted large free-of-mask events, but uncertainty remains over resuming international meetings. With the global vaccine rollout still not injecting enough certainty into the industry, four Northstar editors from around the world have collaborated on a global outlook. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…

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Recovery of the Sector: Different Professionals, Different Viewpoints

The trends expert and conference speaker Daniel Levine sees the near future of live events as “nothing less than spectacular”. For special events company owner Kevin Molesworth the picture is not quite so rosy and the sector has to be more realistic. The two have unique and rather different perspectives. From PCMA…

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Fighting Zoom Fatigue: Taking Your Meeting Out on the Tiles

The Netherlands Tourism Board recently hosted a meeting called “Dis-Connect”. Association, venue and destination professionals joined a virtual workshop staged live at the museum of the Royal Delft pottery factory. They painted white tiles with blue paint in the style of the famous “Delftware” produced in the town since the 17th century. From PCMA…

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Meetings to Remember: Karaoke, Kazoos and Zooming with Goats

Looking to hold a virtual conference to remember? What can you do to spice things up? Here are five rather unusual ideas for injecting fun into the mix, from sharing some musical experiences with karaoke or kazoos to the nonprofit animal sanctuary running a service called (I kid you not) “Goat-2-Meeting”. From Associations Now…

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Beyond Virtual Events: Destination Canada’s Chantal Sturk-Nadeau

After months of conference calls, webinars and online meetings, we recognise perhaps more than ever the role that business events play in exchanging ideas, building networks and fuelling innovation. So explains Chantal Sturk-Nadeau, Executive Director of Business Events at Destination Canada. From PCMA…

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Future Meeting Ideas: Martin Sirk Brainstorms Beyond the Nostalgia

Nostalgia inhibits our imagination, according to Martin Sirk, Iceberg partner Global Association Hubs’ International Advisor. Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be, says The Iceberg. Here Martin offers some innovative brainstorming of future meeting concepts in which associations could play leading roles. From Association Meetings International…

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ESR’s ECR 2020: Vienna Radiology Congress Runs Virtually

Europe’s largest medical meeting in radiology and radiotechnology, the European Congress of Radiology, was held exclusively online for the first time this year. A record 15,265 delegates from over 130 countries took part, an increase of five percent in delegate numbers from the 2019 edition. From Association Meetings International…

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A Reality Check for the Global Business Events Sector from Martin Sirk

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…

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