y all accounts congeniality and Covid-19 were spread in equal measure by the thousands who descended upon Frankfurt recently for the first IMEX show in Europe since 2019 .

All caution was thrown to the wind as we found each other again and feverishly embraced the opportunity to connect in-person , both metaphorically and physically .

We couldn ’ t keep our hands and faces off each other following a painful 20 months of strictly virtual that most of us , at the end of the day , couldn ’ t wait to see the end of .

But if high-pitched euphoria was a key theme in a brilliant IMEX story , there were other themes , too .

One concerns the many who didn ’ t make the show for the plain and simple reason of being way too busy with last-minute site inspections and programme operations .

For incentive travel professionals , business contracted in the year , for the year , is rare enough . In 2022 though , it ’ s almost the norm as corporations play catch-up on programme activity paused during the pandemic .

2022 is an unusual amalgamation of postponed programmes from 2020 and 2021 , normal 2022 programmes , and site inspections for 2023 and beyond . Incentive agencies and , in many destinations the DMCs that support them , have never been busier .

But there ’ s a sting in the tail . Resources and overall staffing levels are nowhere near what they should be for this level of frenetic activity . The pandemic furloughs and lay offs are not coming back – yet , with some having found what they ’ re looking for

elsewhere , often in the welcoming , bountiful arms of the tech sector . When you don ’ t have your people , to paraphrase the poet Yeats , “ Things fall apart , the centre cannot hold ”.

This perfect storm of high levels of activity matched by low levels of resources will pass , just like the pandemic . We need to persevere , keep our heads down , try to hire and train new people , and await , perhaps , the return of the swinging pendulum , as our people realise that tech inducements like free food and branded Northface vests are no substitute for the raw , nervy excitement of planning and operating a live event .

Besides the general euphoria and the weeping and gnashing of teeth over our current operational challenges , IMEX surfaced a number of intriguing themes – the rise and rise of sustainability was one ; the patchy , uneven nature of recovery was another : with some source markets and destinations approaching or even exceeding 2019 levels and others remaining , decisively , in the doldrums .

Above : Pádraic

Gilligan

The three ‘ Cs ’ – Covid , conflict and climate change – were part of many conversations but , as always for our industry , our pathological positivity , built upon our remarkable resilience , was the dominant tone . We heard great survival stories , great pivot stories , and the palpable sense of hope was a third person in every two-way conversation .

As an industry , Covid-19 knocked us off the horse and , for months on end , it seemed like we were the horse , on all fours , crawling aimlessly in an arid desert . But the real horse has come back now and somehow , we ’ ve managed to climb back up and get back in the saddle again .