The conscription of venues as field hospitals can be seen as one of the grimmer aspects of the COVID-19 crisis, but can also foster optimism and hope. Ana Carrazon, Congress Sales and Logistics Expert at IFEMA Feria de Madrid, has been working as a volunteer at the IFEMA Hospital. From Association Meetings International…
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…
Tokyo-based Congress Corporation has sent Iceberg partner Boardroom a letter outlining the current status of the Japanese events industry. The COVID-19 crisis even saw the 2020 Summer Olympics being postponed. Having also had to weather SARS in 2003, Congress President Noriko Takeuchi has been among those lobbying for government relief. From Boardroom…
A webinar has been held to discuss “Restarting Events in a COVID-19 World”. Chaired by Peter Sheahan, Karrikins Group Founder, speakers included Sherrif Karamat, PCMA President and CEO, Kati Quigley, Senior Director of Global Industry Marketing at Microsoft, and David Peckinpaugh, President of Iceberg partner Maritz Global Events. From PCMA…
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…
Matthias Schultze, the German Convention Bureau’s Managing Director, has been discussing the future of meeetings with Christina Buttler, the MCI Germany Director of Strategy and Innovation (MCI is a partner of The Iceberg). She is sure virtual and hybrid events will still be revolutionising established formats even after the current crisis ends. From GCB…
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…
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…
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…
The recent staging of Iceberg partner AIME (the Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event) was not only a platform to showcase the strength and resilience of the region’s events industry, but also as always of destination Melbourne itself. Last October Melbourne Convention Bureau posted record results for the financial year 2018 – 2019, with over…
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…
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