Flexibility Key to Future In-Person Meeting Design

The meetings industry saw a bright light at the end of the
proverbial tunnel in spring and early summer as multiple hotel CEOs noted the
increasing recovery in their group segment during first and second quarter
earnings calls. There even began to be compression
for space happening around the start of 2022 with rates surpassing those
from 2019.

Flash forward a few weeks and by mid-July the delta variant
was spreading rapidly; Covid-19 cases were on the upswing again; companies
started to delay their return to work plans; and based on updated Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention guidance, some cities reinstated indoor masking
requirements even for vaccinated individuals. In August came the news of
cancelled trade shows, further delay of the United States opening its borders
to international travel, and reports of corporate return-to-work delays
accelerated. 

BTN first began to report on future meetings design in June,
and by mid-July, realized we needed to start over with all the changes quickly happening
in the industry. 

Initially, sources said that companies and planners had pivoted
away from having on-site Covid-19 testing, thermal scanning and temperature
checks at meetings and events as vaccinations continued their rollout, the CDC
eased its guidance, and government restrictions lifted. That trend has begun to
change.

“Clients had all moved away from it, and we have not
seen much in thermal scanning and testing, but in the last two weeks, requests
have come in to have it implemented moving forward,” said ITA Group event
solutions director Erica White in mid-August, adding that not many requests had
been confirmed yet, but she anticipated they would be. 

“In response to the recent increase in guidelines, we
are discussing more protocols for testing and temperature checks,” said
American Express Meetings & Events VP of the Americas Linda McNairy. “There
are many factors that go into this, including the local requirements and
guidelines as well as the culture and beliefs of the organization. It is a
thoughtful time, where proper education and preparation are critical to
defining the best approach.”

The decision to implement optional health protocols varies
based on the host company or organization and the local government regulations
in the destination of the meeting, said Marriott International SVP of global
sales Tammy Routh. “The majority of meetings have some element of health
protocols ranging from allowing only [those] fully vaccinated to attend to
simple temperature checks,” she said. “This has not changed in recent
weeks as meeting professionals continue to lean on our hotels, the CDC and
local government guidance for best practices.”

Booking Momentum

Despite the setbacks mentioned, some sources have not yet
seen a pullback in corporate meetings.

“The booking momentum has not changed,” White said.
“People are used to being flexible, and they’re not as quick to react like
the first time around.”

Event marketing technology company Splash has continued to
see an increase in companies preparing to plan events. “They are clearly
planning for in-person and hybrid events to return in the coming quarters,
particularly in early 2022 as event and travel budgets are replenished,” Splash
CEO Eric Holman said. Still, he added that events customers had for the summer
and fall already had a heavy hybrid component.

McNairy has seen some meetings cancel, some convert to
virtual and others rescheduled for the near term of August through
mid-September. “For anything beyond this time period, our customers are
taking a ‘wait and see’ approach as opposed to making firm decisions around
changing the meeting format. We are proactively having discussions and
providing guidance on changes they should consider in light of the variant,
such as on-site testing, vaccination requirements or contact tracing.”

Mandated Protocols

Some venues, such as event-space
provider Convene, are requiring all employees and attendees be vaccinated
in order to be admitted into their facilities. This goes in hand with increased
regulations like those in New York City, where people 12 and older are required
to show proof of at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine for indoor
activities, including convention centers, exhibition halls, entertainment
venues, restaurants and bars, and more.

“The in-person events that have been advertised as
‘proof of vaccine required’ are becoming more common and driving good
registrations,” Holman said. “Event managers must think about the
pressures of their audience. On the one hand, Zoom and virtual fatigue are at
all-time highs, driving the demand for in-person events. On the other hand,
in-person events come with uncertainty—the fine line is probably going to be
requiring proof of vaccination to attend. This removed most of the uncertainty
and gets us out of our kitchen offices for a few hours.”

Both McNairy and White also noted an increase in interest
around vaccination requirements for in-person attendees.

“With the variants, the majority [of clients] are
requiring vaccination or proof of a negative test prior to arrival, and then a
rapid test upon arrival on-site,” White said. She added, however, that
some clients are allowing more personal choice. “It’s more, ‘Here is what
the CDC says. We are asking you to do what category you fall into—if you are
un-vaccinated, wear a mask please, if vaccinated, don’t. If you’re not comfortable
going to a reception, don’t go.’ They’re asking everyone to do what they are
comfortable with.”

Meetings technology company Cvent recently held its Connect conference
in Las Vegas, where an indoor mask policy had been reinstated just days before
the start of the event. In addition to mandatory masks, Cvent required a daily
health screening survey for admittance to its in-person sessions and trade
show. The company also provided color-coded ribbons for attendees to indicate
their comfort levels in regard to social interactions.

Cvent is seeing these measures—masks, comfort indicators,
health surveys—as trends when looking at its meetings data, said Cvent VP of
customer success Scott Castleman. In addition, the company has noticed an
increase in daily temperature checks, use of plexiglass dividers in key areas,
and more programs requiring event staff and/or attendees provide proof of vaccination
or show a recent negative Covid test.

Updated Content Design

Health protocols aren’t the only changes meeting planners
are making to their events. Marriott’s Routh noted that some planners had moved
the general session from the morning to the afternoon in order to avoid having backlogs
at the elevators. “It allows for a better flow,” she said. “It’s
really working with each customer.”

Other organizers are giving attendees the option to view
keynotes and general sessions from their hotel rooms, then they can attend the
breakouts in-person, said Cvent CMO Patrick Smith. 

“The general sessions, more and more are being
simulcast,” Holman agreed. “It’s a truly hybrid event in
real-time.” 

McNairy added that giving in-person attendees a virtual
option as well “speaks to the additional mindfulness around the comfort
level of each individual,” she said. “There’s a spectrum of people
who cannot wait to get out and ready, whereas there are others being more
cautious for whatever their reasons may be. Event designers are being more thoughtful
of that, and it’s the absolutely right thing to do and I hope it stays
permanently in the industry.”

Cvent’s Castleman noted there could be capacity limits to
sessions, or planners may repeat sessions in order to accommodate more
attendees if they couldn’t make it into the version of the session. Further,
room setups are being done with more attention to the need that it could be
shown virtually, so there’s more sensitivity to mic setups, he added.

ITA Group’s White also noted capacity limits as well as some
planners managing flow with assigned seats and group designations.
“Attendees stay in the same spot, then they get broken into groups, with
each group being released at different times,” she said. For example,
group one would get a restroom and hallway break, followed by group two, and so
on.

“The amount of time it takes the hotel to clean the
breakout rooms is impacting agenda design,” said industry consultant Betsy
Bondurant. “In the ‘good old days,’ we built in 15 minutes to get from one
breakout to another, but now I don’t the exact timeframe, but it’s certainly
not 15 minutes. That either is going to impact the number of education sessions
you can have in a given day, or you are having the same amount but with short
timeframes. Really understanding what those needs are from the hotel staff side
and how that will impact agendas is definitely an intricate part of the
conversation that needs to take place.”

Further changes include reducing the size of meetings, higher
demand for outdoor space and shortening the number of days of conferences. 

“Does the event need to be three days?” White
said. “You can’t have full days of content anymore. It doesn’t work.
Planners are being creative with how the content is delivered, whether through
team building, shorter keynotes or more lab work. It’s making sure you aren’t
just doing long sessions. People, I think, frankly aren’t going to sit and sit
any more. The agenda needs to be creative and exciting.”

Hybrid to the Rescue

In June and July, some meeting industry sources had noted
that hybrid wasn’t taking off as much as had been anticipated earlier in the
year. Attendees and companies were more eager to meet face-to-face. That, too,
is changing in recent weeks, especially as locations and some companies are
beginning to mandate vaccines.

“Planners are still thinking of those who have chosen
to remain un-vaccinated, and for them a virtual component can be made available,”
American Express M&E’s McNairy said.

“Hybrid events are going to have a place in event
planning way more than they ever had in the past,” Splash’s Holman said,
adding that he has seen the number of attendees for the virtual sessions
increase during the current uncertainty. “It’s new behaviors that will stick
around. With companies saying you don’t need to be in the office all the time,
people meeting may not be in the city that you are in, and being able to
service them virtually is important.”

Cvent Connect operated as a hybrid event, and the company is
seeing quite a bit of interest in hybrid, Smith said. “Planners are
asking, ‘How do I pull it off? What flavor of hybrid do I use?’ “

At Marriott, Routh said most meetings on the books already
had a hybrid component and the company hadn’t seen much change in recent weeks
other than the face-to-face component continuing to grow. To prepare for the
increase in hybrid events as well as to demonstrate that in-person events could
be safely conducted, the company created Hybrid Learning Labs. Marriott held 11
of them across the United States.

Attendees could step into a “lab” environment that
adhered to social distancing guidelines and protocols and would receive a
90-minute tour with private guides that showcased hybrid meeting elements, such
as how to set up an on-site rapid Covid-19 testing center, temperature
screening processes, general session and breakout set-ups, redesigned
food-and-beverage concepts, virtual streaming capabilities and more.

“We had more than 3,000 people go through these
experiences with staff and get their questions answered so they could walk away
more confident and do their own [meetings],” Routh said. “This is
exactly the change in the way we are working with customers today. It is a lot
more consultative. It takes a lot more dialogue between customers and property teams
to talk through everything. If a meeting planner or professional has already
don’t their homework and knows what they want to do, … then it’s more
logistics. But also there’s a subset of customers, this is their first time
doing [hybrid]. They ask, ‘How did you work with other groups that have done
this?’ “

McNairy also noted that in addition to planner
communication, attendee communication is paramount to delivering a successful
experience. “Providing step by step about what to expect, what will be happening,
what is that experience going to be like, especially for people attending their
first meeting or conference since Covid, is important,” she said. “It
can be a little bit unnerving.”

But the main trend ITA Group’s White has seen is
flexibility. “It’s the beauty of the flexibility of the industry,”
she said. “I am appreciative of everyone’s grace and flexibility so we can
hold these live events. It’s been so nice to see people come together so we can
put on safe events.”