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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…
COVID-19 has struck a blow to many associations by halting their key source of revenue: the massive annual meeting. With the timescales of lockdown uncertain, associations should try out new ways to support and connect members. So says the CEO of Iceberg partner TMG (Talley Management Group), Gregg Talley. From Northstar Meetings Group…
As the World Health Organization designated COVID-19 a pandemic, and the US announced more flight restrictions, so PDPW (Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin) was one week away from welcoming over 1,200 attendees to its annual Business Conference in Madison. Converting the meeting to virtual was the only way forward. From PCMA…
The coronavirus crisis has led to unprecedented interest in virtual events. For many organisers, this meant seriously looking into their possibilities, in some cases for the first time. But directly transposing the aims of a live event can mean missing the potential benefits of producing relevant and bespoke video content. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
New York’s Javits Center has been put to use in crises before. It was a command and control base for the Federal Emergency Management Agency after 9/11, and in 2012 also had minor government operations running after Hurricane Sandy. But the venue has never been used as a hospital until now. From PCMA…
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…
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…
There has never been a more vital time for the services and value that associations provide, at precisely the moment traditional business models are falling apart. With a strong focus on societal mission, and by making urgent challenges the top priority, associations now have a unique opportunity to make difference. From Martin Sirk via Boardroom…
In the wake of so many meetings cancelling due to the COVID-19 crisis, and the resultant economic losses, the Founder of The Iceberg James Latham has been discussing how event organisers are reacting, and why the sector could be leading the charge when business does start to return to normal. From Duetto…
The Australian Federal Government shut down all non-essential indoor events for over one hundred people on March 18th (then for more than two people on March 29th). Event venues like ICC Sydney no longer are able to deliver events. This is an unprecedented situation, says CEO Geoff Donaghy. From Boardroom…
The Iceberg exists to celebrate the legacies of business events. Sadly, sometimes the chance to create social legacies is strikingly missed. It’s a salutary lesson to look back at a TED talk from 2015 given on the subject of pandemic preparedness by philanthropist and Founder of Microsoft Corporation Bill Gates. From Boardroom…
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…
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…
Iceberg partner IMEX has just taken the “devastating decision” to cancel IMEX Frankfurt. Citing the danger of the German health ministry forcing a last minute shutdown very close to the trade show’s opening this May, the meetings industry stalwart has just given the sector a textbook lesson in how to make a difficult call. From PCMA…
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…
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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