Eventful: The Podcast for Meeting Professionals

Jason Gewirtz, editor and publisher of SportsTravel, has been covering the Olympics for several years, but this year's Games have been an experience like no other. Even with no spectators permitted, an estimated 50,000 people will visit Tokyo for this year's competitions. All were issued extensive Covid-safety protocols to follow before and during the event.
 
In this week's episode of Eventful, Gewirtz shares his experience with Loren Edelstein, vice president and content director for Northstar Meetings Group, and explains how the Olympics might set an example in Covid safety for other large-scale global events.
 
Among the points that were discussed:
 
• All participants needed two negative Covid tests prior to arrival, and then were tested again at the airport — a six-hour process! (2:05)
 
• There was a lot of criticism about whether this event should even take place, with Covid rates in Tokyo even higher than they were last year when the Games were postponed. (6:25)
 
• Logistics involved an extensive transportation system connecting the Olympic venues with about 200 area hotels. Public transit was off limits, per Covid protocols. (9:40)
 
• Media members were required to wear masks at all times. (10:55)
 
• For athletes on the medal stands, the 30 seconds that were allowed for photographers to get pictures of the competitors without their masks was not quite long enough. (11:30)
 
• Extensive and well-organized testing throughout the event was critical to the safety plan. (15:00)
 
• The loss of revenue from tickets sales and spectator spending is financially devastating to the host city. (18:45)
 
• Planners of large-scale sporting events, meetings and conventions can learn from what worked — and what didn't — in providing a Covid-safe international gathering. (21:45)
 

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Event Specialists’ Mahoganey Jones shares tips for leveraging audience data, monetization opportunities and more.
 
The restrictions on in-person gatherings over the past 16 months gave meeting planners the opportunity to embrace digital events. But for Mahoganey Jones, founder and CEO of Toronto-based Event Specialists, her company had already been “going virtual” for more than a decade.
 
In this episode of Eventful: The Podcast for Meeting Professionals, Jones discusses how she used her experience as a longtime producer of virtual events, and how the growth of hybrid is opening up new ways for planners to extend the life of their meetings. Here she discusses how to drive value before and after the event itself through smart monetization opportunities, digging in to audience data and more.
 
Among the points Jones discusses:
 
Why planners must focus on their core strengths, whether they are creating a virtual, in-person or hybrid event. (3:40)
 
How a “paid upgrade” approach can help planners monetize their virtual events. (5:55)
 
How to stand out in a crowded marketplace. (9:35)
 
How an affiliate model can be used to create additional funding opportunities. (10:30)
 
Why limiting space for in-person events can be an advantage. (15:20)
 
Why the post-event process is a crucial, but often overlooked, piece of the event marketing cycle. (19:15)

This episode is sponsored by Hubilo, the hybrid platform built for event excellence.

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The events sector must transform itself in order to address the issue of global climate change, stresses Fiona Pelham, CEO of Positive Impact Events. With COP26 — the United Nation’s 26th Climate Change Conference — just months away, the industry must take action now.
 
COP26, set for Oct. 31 - Nov. 12, 2021, in Glasgow, will bring parties together to accelerate action toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This should be of vital importance to meeting professionals, says Pelham. Coming out of a year where we saw a dramatic reduction in meetings and travel, we are now challenged to resume those activities in a much more sustainable matter.
 
The June 29 launch event, “Road to COP26: Events Sector Transformation,” aims to compel at least 1,000 meeting and events professionals to commit to a carbon-reduction target and begin the necessary action to achieve it. The program, which provides tailored resources and education, is ideal for small to medium enterprises that don’t already have a carbon target, says Pelham.
 
Among the points she addresses on this episode of Eventful, the Podcast for Meeting Professionals, are:
 
Why planners should now be seeking ways to reduce the carbon footprint of their events (8:35)
 
Why being proactive on climate change initiatives can help planners avoid having tougher restrictions being imposed on them later (10:00)
 
How the discussion about climate action provides an opportunity to trumpet the importance of events (12:55)
 
What a “sustainable event” looks likes (14:20)
 
The business opportunities that are created by focusing on sustainable meetings (20:35)

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John Nawn explains how creating impactful hybrid and digital events requires thorough analysis well in advance of the gatherings.
 
Event planners must think strategically, whether their meetings are virtual, in-person or a hybrid version of the two. John Nawn, cofounder of Event Strategy Network, maintains that planners too often get caught up in the technical details of an event and lose track of the big-picture stuff: specifically, how a particular event fits into their overall business goals.
 
Nawn delves into greater detail on this topic in his just-released "A Planner's Guide to Digital and Hybrid Events," which can be downloaded at northstarmeetingsgroup.com/HybridGuide. In this episode of Eventful: The Podcast for Meeting Professionals, Nawn discusses specifically what a planner should be assessing in the early stages of developing a virtual or hybrid event.
 
Among the points he covers:
 
• How to conduct a needs analysis to clarify an event's mission and value proposition (3:30)
 
• How to build a team that can best execute a technically complex event (8:50)
 
• Why selling "generic, prepackaged opportunities based on tiers" is a dead sponsorship model (14:25)
 
• How to apply to in-person and hybrid events the lessons we've learned about gathering attendee data during virtual events (16:40)

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Pride Month is here. A time to celebrate, support and uplift members of the LGBTQ+ community. While diversity issues have taken on greater prominence over the past year, there is still much work to be done, and the meetings industry is well-positioned to lead that charge.
 
On this episode of Eventful: The Podcast for Meeting Professionals, Derrick Johnson chair of the LGBT Meeting Professionals Association and chief diversity officer and director of event strategy for Talley Management Group speaks with Northstar Meetings Group's senior associate editor Elise Schoening about how planners can better support the LGBTQ+ community. Among the points discussed:
 
-What sets this year's Pride apart from that of previous years (2:55).
 
-LGBT Meeting Professionals Association's plans for the coming year (3:40).
 
-How planners can seek out inclusive destinations and use their influence to encourage greater inclusivity in the sites they select (12:35).
 
-Details about LGBT MPA's first ever educational event, Day of Diversity, taking place on June 30 (16:30).

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A new white paper from ADMEI lays out ways planners can strengthen their relationships with destination management partners.

One of the key resources for many meeting planners is the destination management company that helps them select a location for their event, scout venues and assist in almost every aspect of a gathering. When a planner needs local, insider knowledge they lean on their DMC partners. But the halt to many in-person events that began last spring revealed the vulnerable position in which many DMCs find themselves and the disadvantages of their current business model.

This issue is the focus of “Evolution of the DMC,” a white paper produced by the Association of Destination Management Executives International. Drawing on industry research and focus groups, this report suggests best practices for adjusting the current arrangement between many DMCs and meeting planners, providing a way forward for a more open partnership that will benefit all involved. The full white paper is available at northstarmeetingsgroup.com/DMCwhitepaper.

On this episode of Eventful: The Podcast for Meeting Professionals, we spoke with two people instrumental in this effort: Lorenzo Pignatti, ADMEI president as well as CEO and founder of Italy-based TerraEvents, and Jill Tate, CEO of Corinthian Events & Newport Hospitality, a DMC Network Company and a member of the ADMEI Focus Group/Task Force. They discussed the ways the current business model often falls short and some simple measures that could create a better situation for meeting planners, DMCs and attendees. Among the points discussed:

How the pandemic exacerbated longstanding problems with the model for many DMC-planner partnerships. (4:20)

How a more simplified RFP process could benefit planners as well as destination management companies. (7:55)

How a letter of engagement can alleviate one of the biggest weaknesses in the current RFP process. (11:37)

Why now is a good time to rethink the industry’s standard approach to site inspections. (14:10)

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Mary-Ann Urbanovich discusses how the Pandemic Compliance Advisor designation makes health an enduring priority.

As more face-to-face events resume, health protocols should be considered in every stage of planning. Efforts to establish best practices are ensure that they are being followed bring a new set of responsibilities to the process, from the earliest stages of venue selection through post-event follow-up. This imperative led three meeting planners to develop the Pandemic Compliance Advisor certification, which trains industry professionals on the specific, practical steps needed to keep their attendees and staff safe, even as conditions are changing rapidly.

On this episode of Eventful: The Podcast for Meeting Professionals, we speak with Mary-Ann Urbanovich, MS, CMP-HC, meeting manager at healthcare education company HMP Global. Last year, Urbanovich and two fellow healthcare meeting planners — Heather Seasholtz, director of Americas operations for the Drug Information Association; and Shannon Majewski, education program coordinator for the department of pathology at Medical College of Wisconsin — saw a need in the industry for a program that provided members with an end-to-end understanding of how to ensure event safety in the midst of a pandemic. They launched the three-hour PCA course in beta form last October and more than 2,000 industry members have taken part since (the next course takes place June 4, and Eventful listeners can sign up for 15 percent discount with the code NSM15).

Here, Urbanovich shares how the PCA program was developed (3:00), why organizations should include a pandemic compliance advisor as a distinct member within their planning team (9:45) and how best practices in attendee health continue to evolve as face-to-face meetings return (20:20).

This episode is brought to you by Visit Long Beach.

Long Beach Live. Revolutionizing the Event Industry.

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MeetingPlay's Joe Schwinger discusses how to get the most value from events with both in-person and virtual audiences.

After a year in which most found themselves only attending events remotely, the value of in-person has never been clearer. But the meetings industry has also seen the many advantages that virtual events can provide, including greater accessibility, availability and data-collecting opportunities. As travel and gathering restrictions continue to loosen, planners are looking to create events that tap into the best of both the in-person and virtual worlds — in a word, hybrid.

On this episode of Eventful: The Podcast for Meeting Professionals, we speak with Joe Schwinger, CEO of MeetingPlay, about how his company has shifted from planning in-person meetings to all-virtual, and is now helping clients leverage a hybrid approach. He discusses how a year of virtual events has shifted audience expectations of in-person (5:20), how organizations can manage the extra costs of connecting with both on-site and remote attendees (11:25) and why there are more options than ever to generate revenue with both audiences (17:15).

This episode is brought to you by Visit Long Beach.

Long Beach Live. Revolutionizing the Event Industry.

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The conference for online creators transformed its annual gathering into a year-long online offering. 

Pulling off a successful virtual event is no easy task, especially when there are thousands of attendees to cater to, but it can also present opportunities to rethink your entire event strategy. Such was the case for VidCon, an annual conference for digital creators that typically attracts 75,000 attendees. It was one of the first events canceled due to Covid-19 last March. But rather than cancel outright, the organizers decided to transform the four-day, in-person conference into a summer-long digital program.

It proved successful enough that VidCon was soon expanded into a year-long online offering. In the end, its 2020 numbers far surpassed that of previous years. 

In this episode of Eventful: The Podcast for Meeting Professionals, Jim Louderback, general manager and senior vice president of VidCon, speaks with Northstar Meetings Group’s associate editor Elise Schoening about how they created new opportunities by embracing digital. Louderback discusses the process of bringing an event of this size online, including how to generate engagement opportunities with such a large gathering (4:00), how to tailor content to a truly global audience (6:10) and VidCon’s new metrics for success (12:05). 

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Global Wellness Institute’s Nancy Davis discusses how the pandemic has transformed the way we think about attendee wellness.

As meeting planners navigated the Covid-19 pandemic this past year, concerns about attendee wellness transformed how events were held — or, in most cases, not held. Now, as vaccinations become more widespread and in-person gatherings are poised to fully return, it looks like one of the lasting effects of this disruptive year may be a continuing, elevated focus on the health of attendees.

On this episode of Eventful: The Podcast for Meeting Professionals, Nancy Davis, the chief creative officer and executive director for the Global Wellness Summit and Global Wellness Institute, discusses how planners’ approach to wellness at events is likely to change after the pandemic. She shares how meetings will be planned with “wellness at the core,” how planners are shifting to a more proactive approach in instituting health measures and the changes she is instituting at this year’s Global Wellness Summit.

This episode is sponsored by Colombia, the most welcoming country in the world for events.

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