Global Meetings Industry Day
#GMIDGoesVirtual
HOW A LIVESTREAM ATTEMPT ON A GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ TITLE RALLIED
12,500 MEETING AND EVENTPROFS IN GRASSROOTS INITIATIVE
Left: Meetings
Mean Business
leaders at
#GMIDGoesVirtual,
14 April
eeting and event
professionals and their
key international
association leaders rallied
en masse on Global Meetings Industry
Day (14 April) to support the
#GMIDGoesVirtual initiative,
narrowly missing a GUINNESS
WORLD RECORDS™ title.
The grass roots initiative was
sparked by a tweet from Calgary-based
Anh Nguyen, Principal and Founder of
Spark Event Management. She had
wanted to provide a platform to share a
message of resilience with industry
peers.
From the small acorn of the tweeted
idea, to the mass online gathering,
there were long hours spent by a bunch
of volunteers putting together a project
that ultimately showed just how tall
the events community stands together,
even when apart.
The idea clearly caught the
imagination in these difficult Covid-19
times and 12,500 professionals from
over 30 countries joined in for the
minimum 30-minute period required
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CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD
on the day, in the attempt at forming
the largest audience for a live-stream
conference.
Although the record attempt fell
short of the 15,000 goal, there were
numerous messages spread on the day
of hope and positivity as our industry
battles against the effects of the
coronavirus on all our businesses and
lives.
#GMIDGoesVirtual certainly
raised the collective voice of our global
community, and was opened up by
some stirring messages from leaders of
our big industry associations, including
COCAL, IAEE, ICCA, IAPCO, MPI
and PCMA.
MPI’s President & CEO Paul van
Deventer encapsulated the feeling well,
saying: “History has demonstrated that
working together as a community, as
an industry and as a society, we will
pull out of this situation more vibrant
than ever... When we meet we change
the world.”
PCMA’s President & CEO Sherrif
Karamat added: “In the direst days of
this crisis lies opportunity for us. [It
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is] a wake up call for all of us. We need
to meet differently. Now is our time.
Our time to be courageous and act so
that our business events can truly
transform the world economically and
socially when it is most needed.
Together we will do this.”
The livestream was co-hosted by
Jennifer Spear and Miguel Neves, who
introduced a series of polls powered by
Slido (#GMIDGoesVirtual became the
most interactive event in Slido history
with over 8,800 people participating
and 46,790 votes submitted), which
made for some interesting reading
given the size and quality of the
audience.
Tellingly, when the audience was
asked, ‘How will live events change
after the crisis is over?’ the biggest
response was: 62% thought most
events would become hybrid, while