With millions of professionals across the country working remotely, everyone is turning to video conferencing apps such as Zoom to stay in touch with colleagues, along with family and friends. While tools such as Zoom, Webex, Skype, FaceTime and Google Hangouts are the next-best thing to seeing each other in real life, having back-to-back calls throughout the day can easily become exhausting.
COVID-19 has had an enormous effect on business, with the live events industry one of the first to be hit. While some predict the pandemic will reduce or even eliminate the number of live events in the future, I disagree. The general consensus among our clients and event organizers is that trade shows will fiercely reemerge this fall and into next year.
Talk about baptism by fire. Mark Tester had only been at the helm of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando for three weeks when disaster struck in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic. Luckily, the new executive director of the country’s second-largest convention center was undaunted.
The power of in-person events is inimitable, no doubt about it. However, when faced with the option of cancelling completely until 2021 or forging ahead with some kind of online component, many shows are finding solutions in the form of creative virtual offerings. Here’s how a few are navigating these uncharted waters and experimenting with components that attendees can access from their home office—for some, at a discount or entirely free.
In case you missed it, start here with an introduction to B2B digital event amplification strategies. This is part 2 of three in a series.
While social distancing has taken hold throughout the world, many convention and visitors bureaus are innovating amongst the current crisis to continue to (tactfully) spread messages about their destinations. Across North America, CVBs and DMOs far and wide are shifting to digital to bring the best of their destinations to homebound audiences via virtual tours, live-streaming experiences, online classes and interactive content, as well as deliver encouraging messages of hope and reassurance.
If you don’t yet have a Real ID-compliant license or identification card, you now have another year to obtain one, and the nationwide deadline has been extended to Oct.
Networking and events platform Hio (which stands for “hit it off”) has launched two new offerings to facilitate virtual networking and socialization — and is offering free Hio Premium access from April 1 – June 30.
The coronavirus pandemic has been like a Class-5 hurricane through our industry. Mass event cancelations are creating a devastating wave through the event industry that is cascading out to vendors and service providers in all related fields.
ASAE applauded Congress for swiftly constructing a $2.2 trillion emergency coronavirus relief package while calling on policymakers to include more association-specific relief in a fourth relief package currently taking shape.
