FUTURE OF THE PCO - 2 OPINIONS

3 TRENDS BOUND TO STAY BEYOND THE PANDEMIC

Opinion: José María Ávila, VP BD for Iberia & Latin America, KENES Group

Although the spectrum is very wide with market differences between countries, most events are still being organised virtually, especially the scientific and medical ones. There are places where commercial or corporate events are being held in-person, but these remain the exception. Association clients cannot afford an eventual worsening of the situation that would force them to cancel or reschedule. Virtual events offer that safety net they need at the moment.

From our observations and conversations with clients, I fear that the return to face-to-face events will not take place before 2023. Of course, we expect 2022 to be a year of transition, during which it is very likely that certain events in specific locations and countries could and will be held. I anticipate that the first quarter of 2022 is going to be a very complicated period.

We are also seeing some interesting trends, that we will need to capitalise on. I will share 3 with you:

Higher number of international attendees

With no travel and accommodation expenses to worry about, attendees are more likely to join an event. We are experimenting an important increase of international delegates across all of our conferences. This new audience provides added value to the interactions taking place at the meetings. This brings me to the next trend:

Delegates want to network

Participants are of course interested in content, but they want more than attending a session out of their congress experience. They want to have the opportunity to interact with each other. We need to develop and deploy platforms and tools that allow networking among participants.

Hybrid events

The two trends above will ensure the success of hybrid events. Events will not only be conducted face-to-face, but they will have an online component with different venues, speakers connected through technology and virtual platforms. If we are able to provide the right tools and find a way to maximise interaction and networking, we will be able to capture the international audience that has joined our virtual events on the longer term, and enhance the reach of our content. This will be the future, and we are getting ready for it.

REGAINING THE CONFIDENCE OF ASSOCIATIONS: KEY ELEMENTS DESTINATIONS CANNOT AFFORD TO MISS

Opinion: André Vietor, Managing Director Bco Congresos

These are not easy times for any destination around the globe to regain the confidence of hosting international meetings. Uncertainty prevails for all associations when it comes to deciding on future editions of congresses and their format. These decisions used to be taken a long time in advance but the current climate forces associations to shift their decision making process to a much shorter term. Whether to cancel, to maintain the scheduled dates, to postpone their conferences to another date and sometimes even to consider a destination change can happen at the very last minute.

My view on how to seduce organisations to select a destination for an in-person or hybrid meeting comes down to these 3 key criteria: risk assessment, safety measures and flexibility.

Risk assessment

No association can afford to take risks neither related to the health of their participants nor financially. Destinations who are smart enough to provide a risk assessment plan to associations have a greater chance to be heard and considered as they show empathy with their clients’ concerns. Solutions on how to minimise risks gives destinations a competitive advantage over others that do only “sell”. Furthermore, the IAPCO National PCO Association Task Force is working with 14 National PCO Associations to advocate for the safe re-opening of events. IAPCO International FORUM of Tourism & Development Ministers | IAPCO: The International Association of Professional Congress Organisers

Safety measures

Besides implementing safety measure at the conference venue and given that all attendees have to have a Covid passport or have to go through mandatory daily PCR tests to attend the meeting, the difficulty lies in how to ensure safety of the participants outside the venue. This can be achieved but is very complex since we have to get all stakeholders in the city “on board” to ensure a safe environment for all attendees such as at the airport, hotels, public transport system, restaurants and bars, to name only a few.

Flexibility

Flexibility is a must when it comes to Force Majeure clauses, cancellation terms and postponement of the meeting. The recent experience shows that destinations who were flexible and collaborative with cancellations or postponements gained a loyal client for the years to come. This isn’t just about the venue, but hotels and other service providers involved in the supply chain.

In most of the cases we assisted associations and destination marketing organisations with all 3 by providing solutions and avoiding major damage in critical situations.

In this respect I would like to mention that IAPCO Ambassadors have recently worked with BestCities Global Alliance to update bidding guidelines that help associations re-write their own bid guidelines or RfP’s to ensure they include the virtual and hybrid requirements. Hybrid-Congress-Guidelines-April-2021.pdf (iapco.org)

This feature was originally published in Latin America Meetings Magazine