

“We’re not all in the same boat but we are in the same storm” Kristy White, Knowland
Event planners and venue suppliers in Europe are still feeling uncertain about when and how the meetings and events industry will fully pick up. With restrictions persisting and a slower vaccination rollout, Europe has lagged behind other regions in its recovery. The silver lining?
A chance to use relevant data and real life recovery experiences to navigate the choppy waters into the inevitable upturn.
For over an hour, Co-hosts Lea Jordan (Co-Founder,techtalk.travel) and Rita Machado, (VP Sales and Marketing, Great Hotels of the World), together with featured panelists, Kristy White, (VP, Product Management, Knowland) and Luke Stevenson, (Regional Sales Manager, Encore Global), discussed a sweeping number of issues based on hard data points and on-the-ground-experience. Topics on the mind of every event operator were addressed including the return of big events, the cost of technology for hybrid events, the rise of bleisure and how hotels can leverage their leisure facilities to boost meetings, RFPs and online the future of online bookability, to name a few. Access the full live streamed conversation here.
In the meantime, based on the discussion here are:
10 things you can do now to bounce back better without bloating your budget
“We don’t need big events for recovery” Kristy White, Knowland
Datashows that as recovery began to pick up in Asia, Middle East and the U.S meetings with meetings that had an average of 15 to 20 people but the meeting space was twice what it typically would have been. Across geographies, these meetings were often booked on the same day as the inquiry was made – directly with the hotel. They weren’t looking for quotes, they were looking for availability of space.
“Football matches are hybrid events,” Luke Stevenson, Encore Global
Television is the platform, and audiences and their experiences are vastly different. In the stadium attendees have big crowds, cheering and singing. Participants at home though, have replay and can choose different angles, for example. We don’t often think of this, but hybrid events have been around for a long time now.
“We need to go hunting” Rita Machado, Great Hotels of the World
Opportunities are there. Getting back to sales, while different now, will be necessary. Proudly a “people industry,” technology has been a looming presence that we have been reluctant to embrace. We´ve made the shift now. Our clients have too.