Conference & Meetings World Issue 107 | Page 3

We need to reach out to our visitor bases and work to raise levels of confidence in any new normal for events, for all our sakes Leader Dateline confidence Managing editor, Paul Colston While nobody expected the road to reopening of conferences and meetings to be a smooth one, there is one factor that has not been fully factored in to our thinking amid all the campaigning for start dates and new rules of the game. And that is visitor and attendee confidence. Sure, many countries, especially large ones, realise that within their (often closed) borders component regions may be emerging from the pandemic at different speeds, as smaller waves of the pandemic provide one step back for every two going forward. However, where governments have had to take a stricter line and not yet fired any starting guns, it has often led to frustration in our industry and to a sharpening of the focus for demanding a concrete date in the calendar for the great restart. What has been neglected is the need to take people on that recovery of confidence journey. Whereas before, many ordinary folk had no idea what went on in a convention centre, they may well now link them in their minds with hospitals and breeding grounds for disease. There is work to be done to convince people our new standards are more than a copy and paste from our high priests’ tablets of regulations and that conferences are indeed a world away from moshpit crowd surfing. People making decisions on whether to commit resources to conventions or major events are also likely to be the accountants in charge of procurement. Already squeezed by other economic pressures, they are going to need some convincing that events are good to go and that we will look after their delegates. We have seen some big cancellations of events in October already, linked more now with the prevailing mood of attendees rather than any problem with dates or venue cleanliness. So, we applaud the Herculean work done by the Joint Meetings Industry Council and others, including major venues to get new standards and regulations in place and to help put our profession on the political map, now we need to reach out to our visitor bases and work with individual concerns in order to raise levels of confidence in any new normal for events, for all our sakes. MANAGING EDITOR PAUL COLSTON [email protected] GLOBAL ACCOUNT DIRECTOR IAIN STIRLING [email protected] GRAPHIC DESIGNER KATERYNA SMIRNOVA [email protected] CONTRIBUTING WRITERS SIMON GEORGE RAMY SALAMEH PRODUCTION MANAGER ELIZABETH NIXON CIRCULATION MATTHEW WILLIAMS PRINTED BY PENSORD MASH MEDIA GROUP LTD 2ND FLOOR APPLEMARKET HOUSE, 17 UNION STREET, KINGSTON-UPON-THAMES KT1 1RP TEL: [phone] FAX: [phone] EMAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: WWW.C-MW.NET @CM_WORLD © COPYRIGHT CONFERENCE + MEETINGS WORLD ALL MATERIAL PUBLISHED IN CONFERENCE + MEETINGS WORLD IS COPYRIGHT AND REMAINS THE PROPERTY OF THE PUBLISHERS. NO MATERIAL MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHERS. THE PUBLISHERS DO NOT NECESSARILY AGREE WITH THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS, NOR DO THEY ACCEPT ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY ERRORS OR INTERPRETATION IN THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THIS PUBLICATION. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE COPIED OR REPRODUCED, STORED IN A RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, OR BE TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM BY ANY MEANS ELECTRONIC, MECHANICAL, PHOTOCOPYING, RECORDING OR OTHERWISE WITHOUT THE PRIOR PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHERS. ISSUE 107 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 3