< PreviousT he pandemic propelled the marketing and sales events into chaos — ushering in the emergence of virtual and hybrid events. The game has changed and created a new equation for event marketers to solve: How do their company’s events stand out amid the disruption and gen- erate ROI? With no template and rapidly shifting conditions, there’s a critical need for marketers and sales teams to over- haul their event operations to meet key performance indica- tors (KPI) by measuring ROI amid the changing event land- scape. Companies are now rethinking their entire event pro- cess— from planning and execution to post-event metrics, and event marketers need more advanced insight into outcomes. Before the 2020 shake-up, teams had to collaborate after an event to determine the ROI with often only a handful of unstruc- tured insights to try to determine whether it was worth the invest- ment. Right now, with incomplete data and 18-plus months of lost pat- terning from prior events due to the pandemic, these calls are increas- ingly best guesses. Gathering data is a critical part of hosting events, and it’s the single most challenging part of tracking ROI. Data generated from events often slips through the cracks in the hustle and bustle of live, offline interactions. Key informa- tion flies through the fast-paced streams of offline, face-to- face events, and unrecorded meetings. But, when captured, extrapolated data can measure success and inform tactical decision making, allowing leaders to have crucial visibility into what is working. Interpreting event analytics to help with decision mak- ing and post-event reporting starts with a platform that collects data at every corner and connects into existing customer relationship management (CRM). With data col- lection ingrained, and the ability to capture and aggregate event data in real-time, marketers create a map toward ROI. Today’s events need to be re-created from the ground up and measured at every point to boil up the value — and it starts with gathering data that, so far, has required ineffi- cient manual tracking. Virtual and Hybrid Means More to Measure A recent survey of more than 1,500 event professionals found that 90% plan to use a digital event strategy even after in-person marketing events become popular again. But, with in-person, virtual and hybrid events, how will marketers know how to balance the mix or what is delivering the greatest returns? While virtual events existed before 2020, they were usually contained to webinars and pre- recorded panel interviews. Fast forward to 2021, and virtual events have become the new norm with expansive and engaging virtual conferences and networking events. As marketers move into 2022, the equation is going to rebalance once again. Without objective metrics in place, many marketers will have to do their best to make strategic guesses on the initial best mix in the new year. By proactively leveraging a marketing platform designed to measure ROI from the beginning, marketers can immedi- ately evaluate the best pipeline-winning event mixes — and course correct early. The First Step: Event Goals and KPIs Before getting into the event’s logistics, event and field marketers first need to determine their goals, KPIs and ROI for each type of event. Once marketers have determined PERSPECTIVE // The Data is in the Details: Event Data for Better Event ROI in 2022 BY ALEX PATRIQUIN DepositPhotos.com 10 December 2021-January 2022 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.comthe initial mix of event formats, the next focus is ensuring that events are aligned with their goals to reach ROI. How many leads does the event need to generate to succeed in line with the marketing plan? What is the number of upsells that align with sales objectives? What numbers does the pro- gram need in top of funnel to have the right outcome at the bottom of the funnel? Once those have been defined, it’s time to ensure they can measure the data. Data collection should span integrating a badge scanner at a conference with the company’s CRM platform or utilizing an integrated virtual event meeting solution that measures event engagement in real time. Data tracking must enable event marketers to be com- pletely present during an event and able to pay attention to their other tasks, such as engaging with leads, running the webinar or executing the event behind the scenes, with- out insights being lost. Event and field marketers require a platform that tracks, and feeds information back into their existing CRMs and pipeline measurement platforms with- out heavy manual data entry between platforms. To that end, marketers need to ensure their teams, and everyone involved in the event’s execution and data tracking, understand how to capture key unstructured data and when to use the tools mentioned above. This can be accomplished by sharing the event KPIs and creating customizable event briefs that automatically collect and store event information. Whether the data collection is for virtual, in-person or hybrid events, the platform should fully integrate with the team’s event marketing initiatives and comprehensive marketing strategies. This means the event data platform should also integrate into marketers’ existing tech stack, including Sales- force, Slack and Okta — seamlessly connecting the events channel to platforms leveraged for pipeline development. Track and Measure Marketers can measure their event’s ROI by defining their KPIs based on sales conversion. The solution will com- bine the objectives and KPIs established before the event with the post-event data to estimate if the event met the set goals and generated a return on the team’s investment. This can include tracking the sales won on-site, leads from check- ins, survey results, social media mentions and impressions. The data allows field and event marketers to draw smarter conclusions. For example, if the data shows that 48% of registrations were secured through email and 18% through social media, expanding the email database may be more efficient than throwing more dollars and effort toward social strategies. To truly track event ROI, event data needs to sync with records systems, like CRM or point of sale (POS) systems, so that marketers can measure and analyze opportunities created and closed downstream. Optimize By capturing data and evaluating pipeline equations post- event — marketers can gain insights into what events produce the most productive leads that convert to sales. Are market- ers driving existing top-of-funnel leads to the bottom of the funnel? Are they increasing pipeline depth, and by what fac- tor through events versus traditional demand generation? And what is the interplay between demand generation and event registration? A robust data profile allows event marketers to do more of what is working and invest less into lower returns. By leveraging a robust tech platform, companies can optimize the data garnered from events by connecting the analytics from the event’s registration, event briefs, CRM and cal- endars, and infusing it into one hub. The leads will be put into the system to track their journey through the pipeline, run campaigns and build an effective sales funnel — leaving time for marketers to follow the data to ROI presented by the platform and find their mix of what works for sales. While COVID caused significant disruptions for the industry, having the right technology in place and the ability to utilize critical data analytics opens the door for companies to host and sponsor events while tracking their success for better decision making. In 2022, as events reflect a mixture of virtual and in-person offerings, marketers need to build back their strategic and tactical approaches systematically, with data that enables them to drive KPIs and sales. C&IT “ A robust data profile allows event marketers to DO MORE of what is working and INVEST LESS into lower returns. ” ALEX PATRIQUIN Alex Patriquin is the founder and CEO of Circa. He has more than a decade of executive-level marketing experience at leading technology companies, such as HubSpot and Squarespace. Prior to founding Circa, Patriquin was director of marketing at the EdTech platform Versal, where he led digital marketing and events. Patriquin grew up outside of Boston, working at his family’s business, which has been continuously owned and operated by women since 1945. He holds a B.A. from George Washington University in American History and Literature and an MBA from Cornell University. TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | December 2021-January 2022 11F ifteen-year-old Frank Passanante was looking forward to vacationing with his family at Hil- ton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu in the early ’80s, but he had absolutely no idea that it would provide the initial spark to his successful 33-year career. “While staying there, I read Con- rad Hilton’s book, ‘Be My Guest,’ and I became obsessed,” he says. “The prin- ciples that Conrad [Hilton’s founder] described in his book struck me. He was all about dreaming big and think- ing big, and acting big, and he had overcome so much adversity. He talked about travel and hotels as something so glamorous and connecting. It really drew me to the business.” Passanante went on to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in hos- pitality management and marketing management from Florida State Uni- versity. Shortly before he graduated, all the major hotel companies came to the campus to recruit prospective employees. “There was only one job that I wanted: I wanted to work for Hilton,” he says. He was offered an opportunity to enter the company’s professional development program at Hilton at Walt Disney World Village — now Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista — and began serving as a sales manager for the company in 1988. He has steadily climbed the Hilton ladder, serving in increasingly advanced sales and marketing management positions for individual hotels and regions before being appointed in 2018 to his current position, senior vice president Hilton Worldwide Sales – Americas. During Passanante’s career, he has racked up an impressive string of accomplishments with Hilton, as well as the hospitality and meetings indus- tries in general. He has helped to build teams, mentored many employees who have gone on to have very successful careers, and helped to oversee some significant hotel renovations and open- ings. He does not hesitate to single out one achievement above all others, how- ever. “As I reflect on the achievements in my career — and I believe I prob- ably share this with many others in the industry today — I am most proud of what we have been able to accomplish since March of 2020,” Passanante says. “Certainly, nobody in the business ever saw or experienced what we have all gone through with the pandemic, and how our industry and the hotel busi- ness, specifically, were impacted. It has been life-changing, and I’m proud of what we’ve been able to do in a crisis mode when we had so many folks, both customers and team members, that relied upon us, and continue to do so as we emerge and continue to recover. I can’t think of anything that I would rather share with my grandkids and others about my job that would be more important than what we’ve done in the last 20 months.” One of the first things that Hilton did was on April 6, 2020. Christopher J. Nassetta, Hilton president and CEO, announced that the company would provide 1 million rooms to frontline Sales Leader Frank Passanante Describes Recent Achievements, Ambitious Plans BY DAN JOHNSON PROFILE // HILTON’S MISSION: LIVE EVENTS 12 December 2021-January 2022 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.comFrank Passanante, Senior Vice President Hilton Worldwide Sales – Americas. TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | December 2021-January 2022 13medical professionals in the United States. In March and April 2020, Hil- ton’s sales teams sought counsel from some of their customers, made up of more than one dozen major medical associations — including the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association — and emergency physicians. Hilton ended up facilitat- ing the distribution of the 1 million rooms through these customer part- nerships. “We made a direct impact on those customers and their members in a very, very real and meaningful way,” Passanante says. Passanante also lauds the way Hil- ton and its competitors in the meetings and hospitality industries united in a spirit of cooperation. He has served several meetings industry organiza- tions, including the PCMA and Meet- ings Mean Business Coalition boards, and the Events Industry Council’s Apex COVID-19 Business Recovery Task Force. “There has never been a point in time when the industry has rallied so much around a common purpose — that is, in the service of our shared customers,” he says. “There has been a collective need to solve our custom- ers’ problems, and that was the primary focus of the task forces that I served.” He notes that the Events Industry Council’s website shows the work that many different organizations have been doing. It is presented in a guide format to serve as a resource and educational tool for industry professionals to use as they put aggregated resources and materials into practice. “That wouldn’t have happened without the energy and effort of the collective industry. At the end of the day, great things happen when people come together,” he says. Expanding Hilton’s Reach Passanante is also pleased with the way that Hilton, as well as the hospi- tality and meetings industries in gen- eral, have weathered and are bouncing back from the pandemic. Hilton added 400 hotels and more than 55,000 guest rooms during the heart of the pan- demic, and in the third quarter of 2021, it opened 96 hotels, totaling 14,700 guest rooms. The company is continu- ing its ambitious growth, with more than 2,620 hotels and 404,000 guest rooms — 249,000 outside the United States — in the pipeline in its 122 coun- tries and territories, including 27 where Hilton doesn’t have any existing hotels. Hilton’s expanding Las Vegas footprint includes the recently opened Resorts World Las Vegas, its largest hotel glob- ally. It features 3,500 guest rooms and suites from three hotel brands — Con- rad Hotels and Resorts, LXR Hotels & Resorts and a marquee Hilton Hotels & Resorts hotel — as well as more than 250,000 sf of flexible meeting space, six ballrooms and a 5,000-seat theater. The company also unveiled the rei- magined Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, Curio Collection by Hilton, which includes more than 1,500 chambers and suites, an exclusive spa, 15 food-and-beverage outlets, multiple entertainment ven- ues, a state-of-the-art casino and more than 130,000 sf of indoor and outdoor meeting space. “We’re super-excited about both of these hotels because they are great meeting venues in the best meetings destination in the world,” Passanante says. Hilton also is aggressively expand- ing its portfolio in Mexico, where more than 30 properties are in the develop- ment pipeline to supplement the more than 70 that are currently open. Pas- sanante is enthused about the recent opening of the Hilton Cancun, an All- Inclusive Resort on 100 acres of Mayan coastline in Mexico. It will feature 714 guest rooms, nearly 100,000 sf of meet- ing space and 12 unique culinary expe- riences. An adjoining Waldorf Astoria hotel is scheduled to open in mid-2022 Hilton’s expansion plans include Signia by Hilton Atlanta, opening in 2023. It will offer 75,000 sf of meeting space adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center. Pictured, the iconic Rainbow Tower at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort in Honolulu, where in the early ’80s, Frank Passanante got the spark that ignited his career. 14 December 2021-January 2022 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.comwith 55,000 sf of meeting space. On the Riviera Maya, Conrad Tulum, another all-inclusive property, recently opened and will be connected to a new Hilton hotel in the spring. Collectively, they will offer some 1,000 guest rooms and 80,000 sf of meeting space. Passanante also is excited about the addition in July of Signia as the com- pany’s 18th brand, which is providing another attractive option to meet- ing planners. “It’s our new portfolio of premier hotels that will largely be located in highly sought-after urban or resort destinations,” Passanante says. “It is intended to appeal to sophisti- cated business and leisure travelers. The brand was built based on feedback specifically given by meetings profes- sionals and many other stakeholders. It definitely is a meetings-oriented brand with full-service amenities, premium meetings and events spaces, and state- of-the-art technology.” The first Signia property opened last summer as a result of converting Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek to Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek, and the meeting facilities are undergoing a major expansion. The brand’s initial new-build property, the 975-room Sig- nia by Hilton Atlanta, which is attached to the Georgia World Congress Cen- ter, is scheduled to open in 2023 with 75,000 sf of meeting space. “We also have some other very exciting meet- ing destinations that we either just opened or are opening that really speak to our commitment,” Passanante says. “I couldn’t be more excited about the return to group travel and live events.” The company offered its first in- person event in three years, Americas Commercial Conference 2021, late last year at Resorts World Las Vegas. It brought together Hilton’s commer- cial leaders from marketing, sales, cus- tomer experience, commercial opera- tions and several properties as partici- pants learned how to continue to drive recovery initiatives, foster internal relationships, and bring back travel and in-person events. Developing New Technological Tools Hilton also has been busy adding new technological tools for meeting groups and other guests. “We’re creating self- service tools that allow customers to shop, book, experience and plan their meetings seamlessly, which is very important because everyone is starved for resources today and looking for efficiency,” Passanante says. The company has been piloting Digital Key Share, which allows up to four guests to have access to a room’s digital key by using the free Hilton Honors app on a smartphone. The Digi- tal Key program, which was launched in 2015, now is available at more than 80% of Hilton’s properties worldwide and at all 18 Hilton brands. Also, this past October, Hilton introduced “Diary of an Event Planner,” a digital series in which Hilton Worldwide sales profes- sionals are sharing advice on how to prepare for in-person conferences. The series is part of the EventReady Play- book, which was launched in 2020 to provide meetings and events planners with guidance, inspiration and solu- tions for creating and executing engag- ing, safe events. In June, Hilton announced that it was partnering with Groups360 to help launch GroupSync Engage, the hospitality industry’s first integrated, direct-booking solution for group room blocks. It is providing meeting planners with the ability to view guest room blocks and book them in real time at 5,000 of Hilton’s hotels. Pas- sanante says that “very soon,” planners will be able to also book meeting space through GroupSync Engage. Passanante says that Hilton will also continue to evolve its meeting- room technology and booking-to- billing technology. Another program, Meet with Pur- pose, launched in 2015 as a component of Travel with Purpose, will be refreshed. It has focused on three pillars: mind- ful eating, covering food and beverage I read Conrad Hilton’s book, ‘ Be My Guest ,’ and I became obsessed. The principles that [he] described in his book struck me. — FRANK PASSANANTE Conrad Hilton TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | December 2021-January 2022 15offerings; mindful meeting, focusing on giving back to communities; and mind- ful being, targeting health and wellness. “Customers today, especially those that have shared values with us and others in placing a priority on CSR, sustain- ability and people-planet issues, are making it a part of their decision tree,” he says. “They are important consider- ations when they’re considering where they’re going to spend their money on travel. They are important to decision- makers, but we’re doing these things because they’re the right things to do.” He adds, “We will be engaging more on the mindful meeting aspect, which really speaks to sustainability, which is more important to our customers than it’s ever been. Also, our LightStay Event Impact Calculator [which focuses on carbon emissions, energy use, water and waste associated with meetings] is industry-leading, and will take a much larger stage as we refresh Meet with Purpose. We will focus on other activa- tions, such as more things groups can do in communities when they meet.” Retaining Recent, Innovative Changes Like all other hotel companies worldwide, Hilton was hit hard by declining business during the pandemic. This required the company to quickly and efficiently institute some major changes, such as boosting health and safety. That was partly done through the creation of the Hilton CleanStay pro- gram, in which the company partnered with Reckitt, the makers of Lysol and Dettol. Passanante thinks some of these changes need to be retained. “We’ve been saying that this past year has been a decade of innovation all wrapped into one condensed year,” he says. “The pan- demic didn’t just change the way people travel; it changed the way people live. We have made a concerted effort to not just recover and return to normal, but to recover and be better and stronger than ever before in serving our customers. He adds, “I don’t think we’ll just snap back into old ways. There have been too many meaningful changes, and we have innovated in ways that are responding to ways customers really want to expe- rience travel and our hotels.” One of the main changes that will be retained is enhanced virtual and hybrid offerings, which have been vital to planners during the pandemic. “Virtual has a place to convey informa- tion and hybrid has proven effective for small collaborations, but the value of live, face-to-face events has only been exaggerated,” Passanante says. “Human connection is absolutely para- mount, and travel is an unstoppable force. While digital elements of meet- ings will continue to be incorporated, there is simply no replacement for live events. That’s what we’re hearing from our customers and that’s what we’re experiencing ourselves. Elements of hybrid and virtual experiences will be incorporated, but they’ll serve as a way to supplement and extend audi- ences, certainly not replace the invalu- able human connection that is offered by live events.” Actualizing Hilton’s Purpose Passanante has seen plenty of inno- vative developments while serving Hilton. It has grown from one brand and 265 hotels when he started to 18 distinct brands, more than 6,700 hotels and 1 million guest rooms. He thinks this continuous expansion is helping Hilton to fulfill its mission by serving increasingly more customers, including meeting groups, and providing them with a greater variety of options. “We are extremely blessed that our founder gave us our collective purpose and vision — to fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality,” he says. Passanante says this purpose guides him every day, and says that it is “what keeps me going.” It also resonates with some of his main influences while grow- ing up on Long Island in New York City. He credits much of his success to the influence of his father’s strong work ethic and his mother’s creativity and kindness — but also points out the importance of his extended family, par- ticularly his grandparents. His father’s parents were immigrants from Naples, Italy, and he grew up with a large Ital- ian family. “That brought all the chaos, craziness, fun and excitement that you would expect in a giant Italian-Ameri- can family,” he says. “That had a huge influence on how I see experiences, and how I see food and the central role that it plays in life. On the flip side, my mom is a Southern belle who grew up in rural western Kentucky. My family on my mom’s side is all in the South. So, there was a stark contrast between my life as an Italian New Yorker and spending every summer of my childhood in a very small town in rural western Kentucky, where I experienced Southern hospital- ity, Southern food and Southern pleas- antries. “It was an extremely different environment, but one that very much influenced who I am today and how I like to live life by melding those two things together. They couldn’t be more different if you look at them indepen- Passanante, left, and Chris Nassetta, Hilton president & CEO, right, greet each other with an elbow bump at a customer event. 16 December 2021-January 2022 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.comdently, but the central theme of each was family values, family fun, really valuing family time — and food, breaking bread together, was important to both sides.” This emphasis on family and tradi- tional values have been central in Pas- sanante’s career, as well, and resonate with the type of camaraderie Hilton strives to cultivate with its employees and guests. “I am willing to push bound- aries, to tackle the really hard things and have the ability and willingness to chal- lenge myself and others,” he says. “I’ve often said that I live — and even prefer to live — in permanent white water. I much prefer to be in an environment where we are rolling really fast and have to be agile, quick and ever-changing.” This energetic approach to life car- ries over to his long-term passion for endurance sports, including long-dis- tance running, swimming, biking and triathlons. After the birth of his first child, however, he realized the impor- tance of balancing his ambitious nature with a more collaborative approach. “From a leadership perspective, I like to think that I am definitely passionate and very direct, but I’m also very collab- orative,” he says. “In retrospect, I think that the most important turning point in my life that shifted my thinking was fatherhood,” he says. “When I became a father, I had responsibilities other than just myself and my wife. It forced me to shift my mindset from being an individ- ual contributor — a hard-charging sales professional who was very focused on performance — to a team mindset, one that thought much more about oth- ers and accomplishing things through them, and being more empathetic and appreciative of the greater good to drive performance versus individual perfor- mance. He adds, “This made me a better and more effective leader. It allowed me to very quickly progress into different leadership roles.” During his career, he has also devel- oped a greater appreciation for the importance of listening. “I’ve learned that it’s important to listen more than you talk,” Passanante says. “I probably didn’t get this until further along in my career, but then I very quickly realized that whether it was in a sales environ- ment where I was interacting with cus- tomers, stakeholders or team members, or family, it’s necessary to listen, listen, listen. Listen loudly — and then talk.” He emphasizes the importance of listening while nurturing a coach- ing culture at Hilton to ensure that his sales teams develop strong con- nections with customers and deliver consistently strong performance. “The culture at Hilton really starts at the top with Chris Nassetta and our senior leadership team, but within the sales organization, we believe that we bring that to life in a very significant way,” Passanante says. “I think that the coaching culture we’ve created is really powerful and was central to our ability to see a path forward during the pan- demic. If we didn’t have the coaching culture in place, I’m not sure we would have persevered the way we have the last 18 months as our team has become even more reliant on each other’s sup- port, coaching and empathy.” C&IT TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | December 2021-January 2022 17 888-519-2089 • Meetings.HiltonSandestinBeach.com • #HiltonSandestinM any meetings and events industry experts were opti- mistic that 2021 would see things improve quickly after a dismal 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the vaccine roll- out started in earnest early in 2021, those feelings were amplified. But the pan- demic lingered and the recovery stalled, in part because of the Delta variant and unexpected supply-chain issues pushing back many of those recovery projections. So where do we go from here? Industry leaders remain hopeful, say- ing a strong rebound is just around the corner. We asked several of these lead- ers for their thoughts on how the indus- try can continue to recover in 2022. KEVIN BREWER, PRINCIPAL, LEO EVENTS, AND MICHAEL DALTON, SVP, STRATEGY, LEO EVENTS Q: As the U.S. eases out of the COVID-19 pandemic, how does the meetings and events industry rebound? MD: Oh, the industry is rebounding — has rebounded. Now, the challenge is how to meet demand while successfully navigating current conditions. The pan- demic occasioned what will be lasting change in how we produce meetings and events — and in the expectations of our attendees, clients, vendor-partners, employees and contractors. Q: What challenges will corporate meeting planners face in 2022? KB: Everyone is seeing the same demand and asking, “How do I fulfill that demand and still provide quality service?” Crew members have always been vital to the success of any event, and current labor shortages provide a powerful reminder of that fact. Produc- ers and planners are now paying more for labor, which is, in turn, increasing costs considerably. Q: Is the nationwide supply short- age something that is affecting LEO Events? Your clients? KB: Supply issues are temporary and will resolve, and the resolution of that is in sight. The labor issues will continue to be challenging for some time and may be our biggest obstacle, but the opportunities that come from a changing industry are everlasting. To continue to grow, we’ve got to investi- gate innovative ways to cope with sup- ply chain and labor issues. Q: What were your initial thoughts about how long the industry would be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? MD: We never doubted that peo- ple’s need to gather, connect and com- municate would only grow stronger as the pandemic surged. The question was how, when and where. The pan- demic very quickly became impos- sible to predict, and we all hoped to be clear of it by now. KB: The desire and the need to meet face-to-face, while affected by the pan- demic, never changed, and it will always be there. While our core competencies are still the same, the company we were in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the company we are today has changed in many ways. Our overall offerings have grown tremendously through innovation and the creation of opportunity. We’ve changed how we do things and how we look at things, and it’s not all bad. In fact, we needed to look at how we did things — it’s been a necessary reset in many ways. Q: What is the biggest hurdle other than the pandemic facing the industry right now? MD: Ongoing uncertainty about whether to produce a live event — and if so, to what degree — creates a dom- ino effect that knocks down all our conventional methods of planning and production. The decisions that need to be made are taking longer to make, and that eats away at our lead time — which had already been getting shorter and shorter, pre-pandemic. Everybody is under new pressure affecting timelines, costs, staffing and, ultimately, the qual- ity of the experience. We know people are going to be more selective about the events they attend, and they’re going to be more contemplative about why they Experts Remain Confident the Full Recovery is Coming Soon COMPILED BY HENRY FITZGERALD 2022 OUTLOOK // 2022 STATE INDUSTRY OF THE Kevin Brewer 18 December 2021-January 2022 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.comare making that effort. Up until now, our industry’s focus has been on the ability to produce any event at all. But as the threat of COVID wanes and the remaining challenges are related to the “how” rather than the “if” — the job will once again be to produce the best event. Q: How are 2022 meeting budgets different from 2021? 2020? KB: Economists don’t expect supply chain pressures to ease significantly until [well into] 2022 or even 2023. The pent-up demand and lost revenue of 2020 are continually increasing the price of live events. We’re finding that production costs have increased 30% to 40% compared to pre-pandemic events, and health and safety measures can now account for 10% to 15% of a total production budget. Deposits are higher, transportation is more difficult to obtain, and supplier response times are double what they were in 2019. Q: Did LEO Events host a meeting or event in 2020 or 2021? MD: We did. When the lockdown and cancellations hit in the spring of 2020, we took that time to refocus our strat- egy, staffing and services. We’re proud to say we have continually executed live, hybrid and virtual events for both long- standing and new clients. In 2020 and 2021, we have produced hundreds of vir- tual events. And now we’re producing a full slate of live, virtual and hybrid events. For nearly 20 years, we have produced AutoZone’s National Sales Meeting — and we continued that with great success this year. In September, 1,500 in-person attendees and 1,500 virtual attendees gathered for a week of education, rec- ognition and networking in Memphis, Tennessee. We are also proud to have produced the 43rd Ryder Cup Opening Ceremony at Whistling Straits for a glob- ally televised audience. Q: What encouraging signs or trends do you see ahead for the meetings industry? MD: While budgets, supply chain and staffing are the biggest pressure points at the moment, corporations and brands are listening and responding to consum- ers who, increasingly, expect focus and action on important social and environ- mental issues. That, in turn, shapes how meetings and events are planned and pro- duced — not only on the supplier side, but also in agendas, content and experience. KB: Diversity, equality, inclusivity and sustainability will continue to be major focal points for corporate events in 2022 — and many would agree that focus, and meaningful action, is long overdue. We’re beginning to see a shift in communication from Supplier Diver- sity Managers who are reaching out to certified women or diverse-owned businesses, like LEO Events, for event and production services. This helps create a relationship-based approach to the procurement process and is a huge step in the right direction for compa- nies looking to build more meaningful and diverse supplier connections. ROGER DOW, PRESIDENT & CEO U.S. TRAVEL ASSOCIATION Q: As the U.S. eases out of the COVID-19 pandemic, how does the meetings and events industry rebound? A: Business travel is not expected to fully recover until 2024, but we are hopeful and working to accelerate that timeline. First, travel leaders must set an example and lead the charge back to hosting in-person meetings and events. The Let’s Meet There coalition has been working to communicate the safety and value of holding in-person meetings again. U.S. Travel is also advocating for Congress to provide temporary tax incentives to help spur demand, such as tax credits to venues, event organizers and small businesses to help cover the cost of running an in-person event, as well as temporary deductions of enter- tainment business expenses. Q: What challenges will corporate meeting planners face in 2022? A: One obstacle is that budgets for corporate travel have changed, and with it, a shift in the number of busi- ness travelers taking to the roads and skies for professional travel. It will take some time to build back up to pre-pandemic levels, though a clear relationship exists between personally connecting with clients and colleagues and overall business success. Q: What were your initial thoughts about how long the industry would be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? A: In March 2020, we never could have imagined that COVID would shut down the world for as long as it did. The reality is that we must now find a way to manage it for the long term. Our hope is that, in the months and years ahead, we continue to effectively contain the virus and continue the safe resumption of all segments of travel. Q: What is the biggest hurdle other than the pandemic facing the industry right now? A: One of the biggest challenges we are facing is the visa processing backlog for international visitors. Of the top 20 countries for inbound travel to the U.S., Michael Dalton Roger Dow TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | December 2021-January 2022 19Next >