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…
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…
The COVID-19 crisis is a great time for associations to rethink the way they function and deliver value. In the second part of a series, Iceberg partner Boardroom’s Advisory Board, a mix of key association voices, talks rethinking your revenue streams in a fast-changing world, as events are redesigned and revamped. From Boardroom…
When life gives you lemons, there’s only one thing to do with them. The massive economic disruption aside, meetings professionals, venues and organisations have still found ways to support both each other and their communities. These include Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID), help in housing healthcare workers and donating food. From Associations Now…
From creating virtual trade shows to turning a mere three-day event into a multi-week offering, planners are getting experimental as they pivot their meetings to virtual. The current reality requires improvisation simply to keep things moving, and that can sometimes turn out to be something of a creative shot in the arm. From Associations Now…
From feeding workers on the front line, to making sure that food from cancelled events goes to the hungry and not to landfill, here’s a roundup of how organisations from across the business events industry have offered help during the pandemic, like the Los Angeles Convention Center and Levy Restaurant (pictured). From PCMA…
Luxembourg has a new convention bureau aiming to punch above its weight in business events. The CVB is prioritising green meetings, so wants to register with Iceberg partner the Global Destination Sustainability Index. As not only a city, Luxembourg will be registered as a country, the first to be benchmarked in the index. From Boardroom…
This AIPC and UFI guidance aims to help convention and exhibition centres prepare for and perform in an exceptional role they were not designed for but are increasingly being asked or forced to perform: as temporary emergency facilities. The immediate worldwide concern and context for this guidance is the COVID-19 pandemic. Convention and Exhibition Centres…
The speed with which the COVID-19 pandemic hit the business world – and the totality of its damaging effects in every corner of the hospitality, destination marketing, travel and live events sectors – cannot be overstated. To get a sense of the pandemic’s impact, PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association) Convene sent an email invitation on…
During education sessions of the suddenly virtual Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID), leaders from Meeting Professionals International, IMEX and other sector organisations advised fellow professionals to focus on long-term recovery and to work together to help the industry come back stronger than before. From Northstar Meetings Group…
About 60 percent of the UK event industry’s supplier base faces ruin unless the government offers more support, according to a survey just published. Around six percent of businesses polled said they were unlikely to survive until the end of April. Some 1,490 companies took part from all across the UK. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Harrogate Convention Centre is the latest UK event venue to become an NHS Nightingale temporary hospital. Harrogate has joined ExCeL London, the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre and the Manchester Central Convention Complex, with the SEC Centre in Glasgow also set for use as a hospital. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
A nationwide initiative led by the American Hospital Association is working to ramp up production of the personal protective equipment (PPE) that healthcare workers need during the COVID–19 pandemic. The 100 Million Masks Challenge joins up manufacturers, community businesses and individuals to leave a life-saving legacy. From Associations Now…
Stockholmsmässan in Sweden has now been set up as a field hospital to manage the current COVID-19 crisis, in joint partnership with the Swedish Armed Forces plus Region Stockholm and Locum. 140 beds were ready by the end of March, with 50 additional staff members preparing a further 600 for Easter. From Boardroom…
Adelaide has been doubly hit by bushfires and coronavirus, causing unemployment and food poverty. So the Adelaide Convention Centre and other venues of its parent operator are now using their big commercial kitchens to make tens of thousands of meals for food charities to send out into the community. From Boardroom…
The UAE Government has filed a formal request to postpone Expo 2020 Dubai due to the COVID-19 crisis. The proposed new dates are from October 1st 2021 to March 31st 2022, but the government has also asked BIE (the Bureau International des Expositions) for the official name to remain “Expo 2020 Dubai”. From Association Meetings International…
The UK’s Minister for Sport, Tourism and Heritage, Nigel Huddleston MP, has held an online discussion with over twenty industry CEOs about the government’s £70 billion fund for business events. Leaders from across destinations, event venues and creative agencies were asking whether the economic assistance was enough. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
The 2020 2nd AAT-AD/PD™ Focus Meeting has been held as a wholly virtual event. The Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease conference was attended by 1,143 sector delegates from 56 countries across four days. 250 speakers pre-recorded lectures, and fourteen forums and “Meet the Professor” sessions were streamed live. From Meetings International…
CEO of ExCeL London Jeremy Rees has confirmed that the UK’s National Health Service is using the exhibition and conference venue free of rental fee. The Sunday Times had reported that the venue’s owners, Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company, were charging the NHS £2-3 million per month. From Conference News…
Iceberg partner ASAE plus almost 3,000 associations have asked the US Congress to provide further aid for trade and professional groups during the COVID-19 crisis, and to make such not-for-profits eligible for small business interruption loans. The recent $2.2 trillion CARES Act does little to assist associations. From Associations Now…
Iceberg partner ICCA and CIMERT (Center of International Meetings Research and Training) have jointly monitored since February the status of meetings in the ICCA Association Database affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Based at Chengdu University, CIMERT has had fifteen students and three lecturers working virtually on the project. From the Event…
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