< PreviousT he world of business continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, with half of all S&P 500 companies expected to be replaced within the next decade. Moreover, the first place that organizations need to adapt if they want to survive lies in the area of evolving workplace skills and upskilling their workforce, accord- ing to HR People + Strategy. Clearly, those talents which bring enterprises success in tomorrow’s working world will be greatly different than those which have served them in the past. Following, you’ll find seven new skills that every business should be adding to its employee learning and development plan if it wants to succeed in an age of constant change; and for that matter, the ben- efits of upskilling employees in this manner, as well as why it pays to be making this retraining a priority. Creativity — Shh, don’t tell: Innovation is just another word for improvisation. Likewise, it’s often a matter of perspective, as simple shifts in business or communications strategy can prove every bit as powerful as game-changing breakthroughs at driving positive results for your organization. Don’t have the time or cash to think three to five years ahead into the future, or invest heavily in giving your business plan a huge overhaul? No worries: You can succeed by upskilling the workforce and teaching employees to think differently here and now instead. Train them to ask themselves questions like: What other possible uses for our products and services exist? How can we repackage or represent existing solutions to better appeal to new audiences? Are there ways we could be doing in a single step what’s currently taking us several? You may be surprised at just how quickly simple exercises such as these can send profits soaring. Communications — Wondering how to most effec- tively upskill team members? Take a tip from the found- ers of technology giant Google, who once created a scien- tific method to analyze nearly every HR- and job-related decision that the company had made in order to see what made its top-performing employees so successful. Sur- prisingly, what they discovered was that technical skills such as an individual’s ability to manipulate software and create cutting-edge applications weren’t what gave these executives an edge. Rather, it was soft skills such as the ability to effectively communicate with co-workers and empathize with others that were likelier to determine who would be an effective leader in the end. Especially worth noting if you’re an employer: STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) capabilities ranked among the least PERSPECTIVE // DepositPhotos.com The Future of Workforce Training: 7 Skills Employees Need to Know BY SCOTT STEINBERG 10 October/November 2021 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.comimportant determinants of success to be found amongst top employees. High emotional intelligence (EQ) proved a better predictor of superior on-the-job performance instead. Keep- ing this in mind, training workers to be strong communicators is every bit as crucial to finding success in tomorrow’s working world as training them in today’s most cutting-edge software engineering techniques or management theories. Multi-Tasking — According to researchers at IBM, constant change is the new normal in the workplace, and unpredictability is the only thing we can predict. Noting this, colleagues’ efforts will only be further stretched between more tasks and projects in coming years, and their attention split increasingly thin. As a result, teaching workers how to effectively juggle a multi- tude of responsibilities and deadlines will become a growingly important fact to add to employee learning and development plans going forward. Given that they’ll continue to be pulled in multiple directions in coming years, and with greater fre- quency, it’s vital that you train associates to effectively manage multiple tasks, and perform work efficiently. Likewise, you’ll also want to teach them how to better relieve stress, and the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Agility — Numerous businesses can now go from concep- tualizing to executing a new idea in under 90 days, a process which can also take under 30 days for many startups. That’s because these organizations understand that the quicker you can deploy a new idea, the faster you can get feedback from the marketplace — and more rapidly you can use these insights to enhance business strategy. That’s why it’s vital to also teach employees the importance of adopting a mini- mum viable product (MVP) mindset, wherein they use the least time and resources possible to create and test work- ing prototypes. The faster you can bring concepts to life and determine how audiences react to them, and the more rap- idly you can translate these learnings into action, the more successful you’ll be. Listening — Want to rapidly create positive change in your organization, and consistently find ways to stay ahead of the curve? Train your team to grow bigger ears. Studies repeatedly show that customers are the single best source where organizations get successful and innovative new ideas, and everyday employees are often the most informed audience in any business. Unfortunately, nearly half of all businesses aren’t even surveying or polling clients, let alone collecting actionable information from customer service reps, salespeople and other frontline leaders. Bearing this in mind, teach your people to keep their antennae peeled for incoming signals from the marketplace at every turn. The better you become at hearing them, the better off your business will be. Empathy — It’s also important to train workers to be more empathetic if you want them to stay better attuned to any operating environment and respond rapidly and productively to changes within it. That’s because doing so frequently requires us to relate to the needs of customers of co-work- ers; engage with these individuals; and find ways to inspire them to take positive action at every turn. Similarly, boasting strong emotional intelligence is also key to leading people and helping guide them past setbacks, and through times of great uncertainty and upheaval. So if you want workers to be suc- cessful leaders, teach them to be more empathetic — it’ll make them more open-minded, flexible and resilient in the end. Leadership — Trade secret: In a world of new and novel problems, it pays to teach your people to be capable of applying both logic and creativity to solving any given chal- lenge. What’s more, in increasingly uncertain business envi- ronments, it’s also vital to train them to make firm decisions, even in the absence of perfect information. This can be done by introducing them to the concept of strong, but weakly held opinions — wherein you do your homework and make the best choice given current insights, but remain open to revising plans as more feedback is gained. Likewise, it’s also important to underscore the importance of keeping a cool head under duress, and acting thoughtfully, even amidst ongoing disruption. While leaders can’t predict every twist or turn the marketplace will take, they always have the abil- ity to pivot action plans to better steer organizations toward success — and the ability to course-correct and revise those plans further as scenarios continue to develop. C&IT SCOTT STEINBERG Hailed as the world’s leading business strategist, award-winning professional speaker Scott Steinberg is among today’s best-known trends experts and futurists, and the bestselling author of “Think Like a Futurist;” “Make Change Work for You: 10 Ways to Future-Proof Yourself, Fearlessly Innovate, and Succeed Despite Uncertainty;” and “Millennial Marketing: Bridging the Generation Gap.” He is also the president and CEO of BIZDEV: The International Association for Business Development and Strategic Partnerships. His website is FuturistsSpeakers.com. “ You can succeed by upskilling the WORKFORCE and TEACHING employees to think differently here and now instead. ” TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | October/November 2021 11t’s been a strange time for cor- porate meeting planners over the last 18 months, as the meet- ing cancellations and the transi- tion to virtual and hybrid com- pany events have significantly impacted the corporate meet- ing landscape, thereby affecting budgets. But as social distancing guidelines have eased and more compa- nies are thinking about getting together in person again, it means planners need to once again rethink how budgets will be affected in 2022. Latasha Brooks, CEO, Coach Brooks Business Consulting and an event plan- ner who specializes in government and corporate contracts, knows the best way to budget for the future is to think about what has already happened in years prior. “For the year 2022, I plan to handle my meeting budget by reflecting on what was successful in the past, and focusing on room for improvement,” she says. “Organization and transpar- ency are vital. I will be intentional on strategies that produce growth, while at the same time, continuously chal- lenging my areas of development.” Meredith Smith, principal – Ameri- cas at FESTIVE ROAD, a travel and meeting management company, has seen a broad spectrum of clients adjust- ing budgets due to the pandemic, rang- ing from zero-based budgeting to a percentage of 2019 pre-pandemic spend, to a percentage increase from 2020. “Many factors influ- ence the budget around the uncertainty of hybrid meet- ing costs, [and the] contin- ued effectiveness of virtual meetings,” she says. “Ulti- mately, the budget still resides with the business unit, and there has never been a more important time for the meetings team to engage with the budget owners, to be their trusted partner to discuss options and to enable information to be shared with meetings partners for resourcing and delivery excellence.” These factors include what is the “new normal,” what attendees should and can expect, what is their appetite to attend, where and how. “The biggest change is the uncertainty and the lack of control over the circumstances that can affect the event even occurring,” Smith says. “Those that have embraced this and moved fast with regaining con- trol by determining the what, how and when on their terms will be slightly ahead of the game as we enter 2022.” A NEW WAY OF THINKING No matter how many years of expe- rience someone has in the business, almost everyone is thinking about 2022 in a totally new way. For instance, hybrid meetings can cost much more than a virtual or face-to-face meeting. Increasing the budget to include more reach of attendees to do a hybrid meet- ing is one important area of change. As one CEO of a successful enterprise shared, he’s handling his budget for 2022 meetings by working closely with stakeholders, setting the goals and planning for the meetings. But due to the pandemic, his budgeting strategies for meetings have changed by cutting his meeting budget for food, drinks and entertainment. “Actually, budget allocation is becoming really difficult,” he says. “This is because the time we spent and lost evaluating and tracking individual budgets is high.” PLANNER TIPS // 12 October/November 2021 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.com I will be intentional on strategies that produce growth, while at the same time, continuously challenging my areas of development. LATASHA BROOKS CEO & Event Planner Coach Brooks Business ConsultingBrooks knows that being stubborn and trying to think in the “old way of doing things” will fail. “First and fore- most, the pandemic has taught us to be open to change,” she says. “Therefore, the biggest adjustment in my strategy was mental. I had to learn to pivot and shift my mindset first, before I could successfully apply these strengths to my business model. Then, I could efficiently transition the modifica- tions needed to fit the new mold and customer needs based on the cur- rent circumstances of the pandemic. This pivot was vital to the success of my business.” The biggest changes in budgeting currently, she notes, are the electronic conversion and shared data between systems. “You can easily trans- fer budgeting data between multiple systems and categorize them,” Brooks says. “The efficiency of this advanced technology can minimize the hassle of filing your taxes.” Mandi Graziano, vice president of global accounts for HPN Global, a venue procurement and meeting man- agement company, and owner, Facetime Coaching Company, has more than 20 years of experience in hospitality and group sales, and deals with corporate planners regularly. She is also very involved in the front-end analysis of meeting costs, so she understands how planners are thinking about budgeting in the upcoming year. “Currently, my clients are evaluating budgets in many different ways,” she says. “We obvi- ously can’t look solely at 2020 because some clients had vir- tual meetings only, some had hybrids and some did not meet at all. Looking at 2019 is the best measuring stick for now with a plan for growth.” Also, many of her cli- ents are evaluating what a global meeting looks like vs. a domestic meeting only with a virtual compo- nent for global attendees. This has meant strategies are all over the board. “Some cli- ents are planning for regional meetings within drive markets. Some are planning to blow their numbers out of the water,” Graziano says. “Some cli- ents are focusing on customer-facing events, [such as] external meetings, where others are really building their culture and boosting morale with a ‘wow’ in-person live meeting for their employees. It really depends on the industry and the propensity to want to travel and have events within that par- ticular organization. Each organiza- tion’s DNA is different.” Daniela Sawyer, business develop- ment strategist for FindPeopleFast, has seen a lot of changes to her corporate meeting structure the past 18 months, and knows that working with a hybrid module will require multiple meetings for team sync, project discussion, cli- ent meetings, etc. “We need to procure a separate budget for meetings, which will be for virtual meetings and on-site meetings as well,” she says. “Therefore, we need to spend 10% of our budget on meetings arrangement, software sub- scription and other things related.” Michael Hammelburger, CEO of Sales Therapy, helps marketing agen- cies boost their closing rate by coaching them on game-changing sales strate- gies, and also advises on the best bud- geting practices for meeting planners. “We’ve started incorporating spend management practices consistently in Budgeting Strategies Are Fluid Due to the Pandemic BY KEITH LORIA TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | October/November 2021 13 As for expenses, we continue to look at A/V upgrades to adapt to hybrid events and make the user experience in the space as pleasant as possible. LYNETTE MOORE Director, Quorum University City Science Centerour [financial planning and analysis],” he says. “Spend management involves managing costs related to supply chain, outsourcing and procurement. Whether you are going through cash- flow challenges, or you are facing a potential loss of funds, learning how to reduce your business expenses is vital if you are to survive the storm.” He added that in some instances, a few minor tweaks here and there can help planners minimize their monthly expenditure, while in other cases, they might need to consider other major cost-cutting measures. “We’re more careful with budgeting, but we don’t want to compromise our plans at all.” Once a planner finishes the budget- ing process, one of the biggest mistakes they can make is to file it away, only to pull it out again at the end of the coming year. After all, if there’s one thing that the pandemic has taught us, it’s that anything can happen to change things. If there’s a CFO on the team, they can correctly facilitate an imperative fore- casting process that reaches beyond the annual budget and includes more of a three-year plan. This can assist a business to think about future busi- ness determinations and goals. Doing this will help observe spending money during the year and help management make important decisions. THE VIEW OF THE VENUES The last 18 months have been a roller coaster of closing spaces, reopen- ing, seeing new bookings, and dealing with cancellations because of new waves of COVID-19. That’s meant the traditional slow time of year has com- pletely changed, and venues need to budget correctly themselves to ensure they have a long future. Lynette Moore, director, Quorum, at the University City Science Center in Philadelphia, notes the venue is tak- ing a conservative approach on revenue budgeting. However, she is seeing more leads and bookings occurring for spring 2022. “As for expenses, we continue to look at A/V upgrades to adapt to hybrid events and make the user experience in the space as pleasant as possible,” she says. “We have always been flexible and creative in the way we think about convening people. Room layouts, food offerings and set-up take a more cre- ative approach than before.” The A/V elements and technology have really exploded since the pan- demic started. Before it was rare to have meetings that needed video con- ference capabilities for people to listen to presentations, but now the venue is seeing more hybrid events that attend- ees not only need to hear, but need to participate and engage with others. “Also, the technology for linking events to virtual health pass wallets [is now a factor],” Moore says. “With more and more companies requiring vaccina- tions, we are looking into ways to have people register, and be identified as vaccinated, while keeping their infor- mation safe and secure.” While the Science Center is seeing an uptick in clients wanting to schedule in-person meetings at Quorum, there are still a lot of new ways of thinking about running a safe and secure meet- ing. “We find ways to meet their goals of the meeting and keep everyone safe,” Moore says. “With more events going hybrid, we are finding creative ways to have hybrid meetings in which both people in the room and online will have a great experience.” EVEN MORE CHALLENGES Despite the uncertainty that still exists with the Delta variant possibly causing more cancellations, COVID- 19 issues aren’t the only thing that is impacting budget planning. The biggest challenge Brooks foresees with planning a budget for next year pertains to the additional funding from the federal government within the economy. “Business owners need to be very strategic with staying organized and documenting carefully in the event of an audit,” she says. “Budgeting and organization is even more vital when a federal entity is involved.” One thing to keep in mind is that there are more eyes on the budget than ever before, and that can create issues when too many people are trying to make decisions. “The C-level suite is more involved in the decision-making process as full financial analysis of items are reviewed now in the site-selection phase, where [before] many items were reviewed more in depth during the planning phases,” Graziano says. “There’s defi- nitely a lot more spreadsheets these days. There are many more people involved in the budgeting process and evaluation earlier in the process at a higher level than ever before.” Sawyer adds that there’s closer dissection of budgets as well, and every item has to be looked at care- fully. “We are considering our pres- ent financial situation, present fund condition, upcoming invoices and rev- enue predictions, along with our busi- ness goals,” she says. “As we had faced delayed payment from our clients very often last year, it’s better to keep this in mind and plan primarily according to present funds.” Another thing to consider with bud- gets is that hotels that may have been used in the past and available for certain prices, may either no longer be operat- ing due to pandemic pressures, or had to raise prices. “Staffing is a concern at hotels within vendors and on-site,” Gra- ziano says. “Low staff means it may be more expensive. [It’s] tough to budget for this. Also, since it’s many people’s first meeting back, many clients want the meetings to be as high-touch as possible, which physically means more people/staff at the meeting, which has to be budgeted for as well.” Food and beverage costs are also rising due to supply-chain issues and 14 October/November 2021 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.com It really depends on the industry and the propensity to want to travel and have events within that particular organization. Each organization’s DNA is different. MANDI GRAZIANO Vice President of Global Accounts HPN Globalother seasonal issues. Planning for higher costs, new hotel add-on costs, and unexpected travel-related costs are all factors that planners must con- sider. “The unknown of everything is the biggest challenge,” Graziano says. “Most of my clients have a plan A, B, C, D and E for everything, and have to be ready to pirouette at any moment based on when travel is booked, the limited number of direct flights, the availability of hotel costs, rising hotel room rates, vendor pricing, etc. Be ready for every- thing, and add on a buffer to all the bud- gets to compensate for all the changes.” For example, transportation seems to be all over the place. At one point during COVID-19, instead of putting everyone in one vehicle, the client had to get four vehicles to adhere to social distancing guidelines. Most planners budgeted for one — not four — but needed to be compliant, and so did what they had to in order to make it work. Things like that need to be con- sidered for 2022 planning purposes. TIPS FOR SUCCESS Some of the best tips Graziano offers to those planners consider- ing 2022 budgets now are to plan for expenses to increase due to supply- chain interruptions and shortages, plan for expenses to increases in staffing, and if the plan calls for a hybrid meet- ing, plan for more expenses. “Doing a face-to-face and virtual at same time will cost almost twice the meeting,” she says. “Estimates are 1.5 [times what an in-person] meeting costs.” For those who have been success- ful as planners in the past, budgeting is not intimidating, it requires a strategic plan, utilizing proper resources and staying organized. “To plan accordingly for budgeting, I plan to stay organized throughout the year,” Brooks says. “Being proactive is less stressful than being reactive. Going into the new bud- geting year with a plan is key. Knowing your resources and supporting appli- cations helps alleviate stressors.” She suggests adding a cushion to the budget of at least 35% just to be safe. For Graziano, her advice is to “Com- municate, communicate and commu- nicate,” she says. “Be in contact with all your vendors so you know what’s changing and what’s available. Be in contact with your inter- nal teams on the realistic costs and availability.” For 2022, Smith recom- mends a bottom-up approach vs. the traditional top- down approach. “Deter- mining why you need to meet, how and who needs to attend, with direction- ally correct costs based on meeting type ultimately gives you an end figure,” she says. “If you plan to a number, you’re executing events for the sake of meeting that number allocated. This is the time to be applying focus to the effectiveness of the content and ensuring the outcomes of the meet- ing are achieved.” Also, for those in charge of meetings at a company, the advice is to engage, talk and have a seat at the table. “Lis- ten and ask really great questions about what meetings need to occur and why,” Smith says. “It’s also OK to ask the tough questions, like ‘Is the budget decision coming from the leaders, or can it be developed by the individual in charge?’ ‘How can we maintain the positive outcome the pandemic has had on the dramatic decrease in car- bon emissions?’ or ‘Can we rethink how we execute meetings?’ The answers to all these questions will affect both the budget and actuals.” And most importantly for any planner, if you want to have a meet- ing in the future — and are sure you can do it — book it now. Availability is going to continue to be scarce in 2022, 2023 and 2024 due to the amount of programs that have been lifted and shifted out of 2020 and 2021. “If you have a bucket-list location you’ve always wanted to go to, make that list; book it now,” Graziano says. “It’s pos- sible to get better packages now to the end of 2021 for future years. But, be OK to consider something new — a new city; a new way of doing your meeting. Being flexible is the name of the game.” C&IT Courtesy of Lynette Moore Lynette Moore, left, director, Quorum, says she is seeing an uptick in bookings for in-person events at the Philadelphia venue. TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | October/November 2021 15 Ultimately, the budget still resides with the business unit, and there has never been a more important time for the meetings team to engage with the budget owners. MEREDITH SMITH Principal – Americas FESTIVE ROADPlanners Must Have the Ability to Adjust on the Fly BY DAVID SWANSON INDUSTRY INSIGHT // Catherine Chaulet, president and CEO, Global DMC Partners, says keeping connected is essential to survive. F ew industries have been as impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as travel and tour- ism, meetings and conferences. But in some ways, meeting planners may have been better prepared than some industries to roll with last year’s succession of lockdowns interspersed with spikes of optimism. “Contingency planning is nothing new for meeting planners,” suggests Marla J. Everett, CMP, CMM, CITP, director, consulting solutions, Event Travel Management. “We have to be the most Type B/Type A people on the planet. [Typically], we’re going to have everything buttoned up, thought- through, with a plan, an agenda and a schedule. But nothing ever goes as planned — there is always something, and you just never know what it’s going to be. You have to be able to think on your feet and go with the flow for what- ever starts to pop up.” Over the last few months, meeting planners have found ways to embrace the new pandemic normal — a land- scape of shifting sands and foggy hori- zons — while reflecting on the lessons learned through this epic crisis. Everett says her No. 1 path to suc- cess has been learning to leave room so that she and her staff are able to react, and not be stretched so far that everything has to go exactly as planned. “Like in an emergency room,” she says, “there’s the triage that happens in the very beginning, to take care of what- ever needs to be taken care of first, then long-term recovery planning, and knowing when to move from one to the next. Otherwise you’re kind of stuck in the emergency planning mode.” Suc- cessful meeting planners are carefully attuned to details, but must also pos- sess an easy-going attitude — that Type A/B dance. “If you’re so uptight that it has to go exactly as planned, it’s not going to, and the recovery is going to be that much harder.” A TEST LIKE NO OTHER Still, the COVID-19 pandemic has tested the meeting planner sector like no other previous event. Catherine Chaulet, president and CEO, Global DMC Partners, says the length and the scope of this crisis has been its defining element. “We have had others — 9/11, SARS, the financial crisis — but none of those were as long in time and involved SURVIVE & THRIVE 16 October/November 2021 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.comthe entire world in such a dramatic way,” Chaulet says. “Tourism, [and] the meetings and incentives industry were all at a complete halt for such a long time. That was unparalleled. It required a set of skills to maneuver this crisis, and we’re still not out of the woods.” The scale of the crisis made things much more difficult than previous inci- dents. “Typically, we are used to dealing with a crisis in a specific destination or within an industry,” says Sarah Haines, CIS, vice president, event management, ITA Group. “This most recent crisis impacted all industries, all in-person event types, and all geographies. At ITA Group, we always work with our clients to ensure we are mitigating risk within their programs. We evaluate risk and have mitigation strategies in place for the destination, venues, and health and safety of our participants. The pan- demic required us to act on those plans for almost all of our scheduled events.” Adam Tillotson, senior event con- sultant with Prestige Global Meeting Source, says severity has been a defin- ing element of the pandemic. “When we look at the 2008-09 economic cri- sis, hotels in particular had the ability to have different revenue streams,” Tillotson says. “Business travel, airline crews, leisure, groups — the economy may have been slowed or halted, but there were still entities that had money. In the pandemic, everything stopped. Most people weren’t prepared — the faucet just turned off.” AN EMOTIONAL WHIRLWIND Adding to the crisis has been the emotional impact the pandemic has had on many. “Fear has been the biggest and probably cruelest part of this crisis,” Chaulet says. “If you remember at the beginning — the numbers were going up, there was no direction, no vaccine; nothing. Managing the angst of this crisis and not knowing or even having an idea of when there would be some kind of treatment, that was the most painful part. Very close to it is seeing so many of our clients and some of our partners simply not survive, financially or business-wise. Not to mention, we have lost some clients and partners to COVID — that has been very, very difficult. Morale has been very impacted.” Chaulet adds that she saw communications with clients and partners become more essential than ever during the pandemic. “Being extremely connected, organizing hundreds of webinars was, for us, so critical. We would keep in touch with everyone and hopefully help as many as possible,” Chaulet says. Extending assistance and expertise was another way to keep the lines of communication open with clients who weren’t planning events. “They wouldn’t need DMCs in the same way, but were needing other types of services. So we actually changed and increased some of the services we offered to better help some of the clients. And, at the same time, we helped DMCs also evolve and be able to offer services that they were not very strong at — such as virtual activities, shipping and tipping at a large scale. All of this was created to some extent as a result of COVID. As painful as this crisis has been, it has also proven to us how flexibility, and the ability to react and switch the model, is essential to success.” Tillotson says internal communica- tions with his team have also been vital. He and another Prestige employee started a Friday show broadcast on LinkedIn, to summarize what was happening in the industry each week. “Things were changing so quickly,” Tillotson says. “We were able to stay researched and up to date. One of the things that I implore with our team is, stay researched. There’s a lot that’s changing every single day, every week. Regulations aren’t state by state — they can be city by city. As event profes- sionals and consultants, it’s our job to be aware of these things and help risk manage for our meeting owners. We need to set them up for success.” COMMUNICATION IS KEY And as the meetings industry starts to chart a course for the future, the need for a dedicated communications strategy continues, says Vivian Mari- nelli, Psy.D., senior director, crisis management services at FEI Behav- ioral Health. “I hate to use the word ‘survey,’ but you really need to know: How do people feel about meeting in person?” Marinelli asks. “What’s going to give them that level of security that it’s OK to do this? Anything that can give more reassurance that ‘We’ve looked at how to make this safe for everyone.’ Make sure you can put all those pieces together for the attend- ees, whether it’s a board meeting or a conference.” Marinelli continues: “Think about who might be coming to your meeting, Courtesy of Sarah Haines The COVID-19 pandemic affected everything about planning a meeting, from F&B setup to figuring out budgets. TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | October/November 2021 17where they’re coming from, look at public health stats in those locations, have people tested when they get there, take temperatures.” But while safety is a top-most concern for meeting planners, communications also need to stress personal responsibility. “Remind everyone of their personal accountability. You need to take care of yourself; remind them of things they might need to pack.” While the bigger hotel companies and convention centers have removed a lot of the uncertainty around safety standards, Tillotson notes corporate cli- ents are still going to want to remove as much liability as possible. “Corporations are much more at risk bringing people together,” Tillotson says. “There’s still a fair amount of uncertainty. It’s very different if you’re an association or a leisure traveler, because the risk is your own. So, absolutely, [for corporate events], we’re going to be doing COVID testing on arrival, full masks the entire time; 6-foot separation. And as we start to allow international folks to attend meetings, those metrics will still be in place in 2022, because the world isn’t vaccinated yet. Fortunately, there are really smart event planners that are set- ting up great alternatives and operations to help people feel comfortable.” One thing most meeting planners agree on: It’s not going to be business as usual. They’re not referring to masks or social distancing, or whether the buffet line is a thing of the past. Instead, purpose is going to be a driving force for gatherings in the future. “In hindsight, I don’t know of another time in human history where we just stopped what we were doing to take a pause and reflect — ‘Why are we doing things this way?’” Tillotson asks. “As meetings come more and more onboard, we’ll start to see people reflect upon what they want out of a gathering in a different way. The things that we may have been used to — show up, welcome reception, alcohol, food, go to sleep, full day of meetings, drinks at night, go home the next morning — I don’t know if that’s going to be the mainstay anymore.” Chaulet says virtual events are defi- nitely here to stay, though not at the same level as this past year. “There is Zoom fatigue and there are some limi- tations,” Chaulet says. “But we do have clients that, with the immense cost savings they were able to gather from doing more virtual meetings, they are now mandating that X% of their meetings and events stay virtual. We’re seeing some hybrid events, but there are real con- cerns around costs.” A NEW WAY OF THINKING Everett notes that the pandemic forced her company and clients to collectively change the mindset as to what was happen- ing. “It was this continual morphing of, what are meetings going to look like? Rather than focusing so much on rebooking the meeting, it was really about getting into the purpose — why were you going to meet in the first place, what did you need to accomplish, and then, how do we still accomplish this?” Everett continues: “We’ve also found we’re not limited. [In the past], you either came to the event or you didn’t. Now, there are some entry points for people to be able to partici- pate, where they can attend partially in person — they come for a day and catch a few sessions virtually, or if you’ve got a hybrid event, you’ve got people who might attend virtually altogether.” Different mixes of synchronous and asynchronous content are being evalu- ated, according to Everett, to narrow the length of time that attendees are physi- cally together. Further: Must the in-per- son and virtual experiences be equiva- lent, or should the in-person experience provide added value to those who have invested time and expense to attend, potentially giving virtual attendees a reason to come in person next time? “People are trying to find that bal- ance,” Everett adds. “When you’re in a pandemic where somebody might not attend because they don’t feel safe, that might be a reason to make it the same. But, I think moving forward, you will see strategies to differentiate the way the audience is engaging matches the way that you’re meeting their level of engagement. It’s about the total engagement of the message that you’re trying to give.” Courtesy of Sarah Haines Outdoor meetings and events have become more prevalent during the crisis. 18 October/November 2021 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.com The pandemic highlighted how imperative it is to align with partners who understand your business and the goals of your event, but in addition, are focused on growing the relationship. SARAH HAINES, CIS Vice President, Event Management ITA GroupTillotson says attendees may expect something more interactive in the months and years to come. “For peo- ple that haven’t been traveling, I want to feel like I’m in that city,” Tillotson says. “If I’m in Palm Springs, I want to feel like I’m in Palm Springs. Send me outside — I want to take a look at the area. That’s what people desire these days. Rather than going to a city cen- ter and staying in a Marriott that looks like it could be in any city and doing the same kind of motions we’ve always done, take me to someplace cool. If you take me to Nashville, I want to feel like I’m in Nashville. I want to get some hot chicken and listen to live music.” Charting a course to the future means acknowledging not just the les- sons learned, but silver linings of the past year. “The PPP loans helped us,” Chaulet says. “We were lucky to be in a country that offered that type of sup- port. Even though it wasn’t enough, it was definitely a little bit of oxygen that we needed.” Chaulet also notes the ability for the U.S. to get vaccinated, and to start meetings and events again, has far surpassed what is seen in other countries. “You really see the extraordi- nary strength of the U.S. economy when [the response] is well organized. It can go big faster here than any other coun- try. Meeting planners drive so much of it, and for economists, meeting plan- ners are one of the best indicators for the economy getting better.” LOOKING AHEAD Chaulet says, for the next year, her meetings will be largely focused on North America. “Very local to local — meaning U.S. traveling within the U.S., and to the Caribbean and Central America,” she says. “The second part of 2022, sud- denly you see much more of the world opening; Europe is back, Asia is back.” The opening of international markets, especially Can- ada, cannot come soon enough for many meeting planners. “Right now, a lot of our meeting planners are strug- gling to find space in the U.S., so people are eager for Canada to open — they need more options.” Demand is largely focused on places that can provide outdoor space, accord- ing to Chaulet, including Arizona, Texas and Denver. “Always Florida and Las Vegas — again, because of the space and how easy it is to organize a confer- ence,” Chaulet adds. “And Southern California is hot, hot, hot.” Costa Rica, Mexico and the Caribbean have also been in high demand for Chaulet. Tillotson cites Los Cabos as a des- tination that has not only been manag- ing the pandemic well but has also been open to meetings. “Los Cabos exists for tourism,” Tillotson says. “Outside of a flutter of agriculture, there aren’t other industries that can support the destination. They figured out pretty quickly, if all of us don’t get this right, the one weak link in the chain will ruin it for everyone. So, restaurants, tour operators, resorts — every part of that ecosystem depends on everyone being a part of that community — and they came up with a game plan. They struck this beautiful balance and they’ve done an exemplary job of keeping it together, providing a great experience in trying times.” Haines points to a less-expected option for meeting planners. “Cruises are slow to come back,” Haines says. “But cruise lines have put in place all sorts of protocols, and when you think about creating a travel bubble, you could char- ter a cruise ship. I wouldn’t be surprised that now that the CDC is lifting some of their restrictions, and they are coming back in to U.S. ports, that some of those options start to open up for groups.” One thing meeting planners are con- sistent on: the value of relationships in a crisis. “Relationships matter,” Haines says. “The pandemic highlighted how imperative it is to align with partners who understand your business and the goals of your event, but in addition, are focused on growing the relationship.” Chaulet says the strength of her company’s relationships — with clients, partners and the industry at large — was her biggest lesson learned from COVID. “We knew we were very strongly con- nected, but we experienced it firsthand during this crisis,” Chaulet says. “Those relationships you’ve built over the years, that hopefully you’ve kept in touch with and you’ve supported — work with them, help them help you. We’re all coming out of it, and a lot of our cli- ents are frightened. Trust the vendors and companies that have been present; that have been strong during this crisis, because if they survived, you will con- tinue to build great meetings and incen- tives, and shine in your job by relying on people that you can fundamentally trust. Count on your relationships.” C&IT Los Cabos, pictured, and other destinations have not only been managing the pandemic well, but have also remained open to meetings and events as their economies depend heavily on them. TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | October/November 2021 19 They struck this beautiful balance and they’ve done an exemplary job of keeping it together, providing a great experience in trying times. ADAM TILLOTSON Senior Event Consultant Prestige Global Meeting SourceNext >