WHAT DOES THE FUTURE OF MEETING PLANNING LOOK LIKE?

Hello, this is Les Goldberg, and welcome to The Road Ahead. The Road Ahead podcast is dedicated to the future of the live events business, bringing together industry experts. Hello, production world. Welcome to The Road Ahead. This is Les Goldberg, and I have two amazing guests today. I have Amy Kramer, and she is the market and product innovation leader at Maritz Global Events. Welcome. Amy. And I also have Martin Bay, who's the vice president of meetings, operations and procurement of the Kellen Company. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you. Today we're going to talk about meeting, planning and the future of live events and how that will be impacted in a post-COVID world. So I'm going to throw the question right to you, Amy, to start off with right now. So how do clients today, knowing what they know and the certainty and the uncertainty, how do they decide to confirm and go forward with a live event? How are you experiencing that? Well, we really believe it starts with data and knowing your guests needs and also designing for those needs. We are so used to the old world where events were just part of our everyday life, and now these events need to look very, very different. So the way in which we've been approaching each and every event that is either currently being planned and executed or coming up in the next few next years and future, it's really looking at where their guests are and designing an experience that's going to be right for them. Interesting. Okay. Martin, would you open on the subject? So if you're an event planner and you're trying to confirm event, you know, what are the things that are going through their mind and how do they how do they decide to do it? Yeah. So, Les, Kellen is association management company. So our clients are all trade associations and professional societies. And we've been polling our clients and during the last few months and getting their opinion on this and finding out what's important to them. And by far the biggest consideration for booking new events and going back out into the in-person meeting world is cancellation penalties, lack of cancellation, flexibility on force majeure language and any kind of attrition associated with the meeting because there's just a huge fear factor out there still about the whole travel environment bringing membership, being responsible to the membership, bringing membership to a live event, and should things continue not to improve or go south or get worse, then they, you know, the associations, they need an out. They want to know that they can back out without paying huge penalties because the huge penalties at this point every day get more and more detrimental to their bottom line. It's interesting how you said that because. So they're protecting kind of the downside in the event they're not able to have that physical event with an audience. And there's a downside there. Risk. So so I'm going to throw this question to Amy. Amy, if you're booking an event, you know, what are the things that you have to address and that have changed maybe pre-COVID to post-COVID. What are the like checklist of items that a meeting planner is going to say? And obviously Martin mentioned the the cancellation policy. You know, that force majeure. But what other items maybe would be different than planning a meeting, let's just say six months ago? Yeah, absolutely. And I'm going to take this back to just fundamental human behavior, because that's part of what I think a lot of organizations aren't really thinking about. They're really looking at like the tactical components, which are really important. Yes, you're going to have to have safety. You're going to have to have screen guards, you're going to have to wear masks. But it's also about really understanding the human and how the human is going to feel and how they're going to engage in these events as they come back. And if you think about Maslow's pyramid, this is something that I constantly use and refer, because our whole business has been on motivation events and bringing people together. Our that pyramid has been completely flipped, right? Because we've been looking at belonging in a sense of connection and even self-actualization, which is really what people want when they come to a meeting. But now safety and security are threatened. So I really, truly believe that we need to be looking through the lens of safety and security, and also through the idea of comfort, so that we can create experiences that meet those foundational needs so that people can engage again. We also need to look at how we can accomplish objectives in this next normal tied to that, and it will come out in the form of your typical event planning components, whether it's the arrival and the check in experience and the registration experience, and how are we putting up guards and allowing people to navigate, and how are we looking at space and room and seating and all of those things differently? But if we can really get at the heart of people's comfort and safety and security, we're going to start to knock down those barriers and build the confidence for people to come back. I love hearing the word confidence for people to come back. That would be the hashtag for your quote of the day. Amy two points. So so I'm going to throw this to Martin. Martin. When the live event is booked from now forward, do you think it's really happening? Do you think when the when your company books an event and they confirm the space and even with all the protective elements that you mentioned as far as in the contract and force majeure, you know, what do you think about the concept of, is that event really going to happen? Well, less so with associations. The they tend to book, you know, multiple years out the larger the event. So a lot of our client associations have meetings on the book through 2023 and beyond. And so these meetings are going to happen right now as planned, if you ask me how realistic that is. We knew we knew months ago that a couple of months ago that 2020 wasn't happening. And as the summer went by, cancellation after cancellation, rebooking to a future year took place in our fall. Our fall calendar is almost nothing, and I just don't think anything is going to happen in 2020. So that's a feeling for that first quarter, second quarter, 2021. I think there's a good chance that some of those meetings will go off, but they'll be hybrid. They'll always have a virtual component to them because we know that if we do go with the live event, it's going to get greatly reduced. We're down at least 3,040%, if not more, and we have to be prepared for that and to keep the members engaged, we're going to have to do the virtual side of it in some way as a hybrid meeting or such. But what about room density? What do you think room density will look like? You know, it's funny because I was talking to a hotel yesterday down in Tampa that showed me an example of a state association meeting that took place just recently with photographs of what the rooms looked like with the six foot etcetera going on and their capacity. They did all their capacity charts. And it is it is pretty interesting to see what it's going to look like and what it's going to be. You do see all the social distancing. You do see the seats. If you go into a room that set theater style for 100 people at six foot social distancing, you're going to look at it and go, what the heck is this? Because you've got these solo seats sitting around and they're going to do it. Our knees are going to do it. They're going to try to practice social distancing, but keeping that enforcement of that is going to be the difficult challenge. And I don't think we have to worry too much about having the space booked for 200 people and then 50 to 100 show up, because it's going to end up being the perfect fit for the space. So I'm not real worried about that right now. As we go down that path into 2021 and beyond, you know, we'll reevaluate that, see if we need to change, you know, the space requirements for the for the number of people involved. Well, hopefully, and going into 2021, we'll have a vaccine and some of these challenges will go away. So so, Amy, I want to throw the same question to you because it's such a very poignant question. When a live event is booked, is it really happening? So I'm taking the other side, I think. Yes, actually it is contrary in view. Good job. It's so we're at a point right now where we have a lot of events that are still on the books, even for the remainder of this calendar year. And. Right, you know, into our last Q4. And it's not that people are canceling all of those meetings. It really goes back to my first point, which is data. We really need to use data to inform those decisions. And what we've been doing on our side is really taking a consultative approach to understand not only the government needs and regulations, but also what's happening at the local level. How are we partnering with our own suppliers and teams that are putting on that show in that given event to understand what needs to be changed and shifted, and then ultimately, how are we bringing that back and putting it through the funnel of our approach to this next normal, which we're calling plan well, meet well and and being flexible because our clients are looking to us to really make that decision for them. And we're not going to tell somebody, you shouldn't have this event or you should have this event. It's really using the data, using the information to make the right decision. And if you do that now, you might find that your attendees and your guests are not as concerned as you thought. And even in some recent studies that we've been tracking, we're seeing things every single two weeks or month. We're actually doing a new look into this data, and we're seeing 47% of people, even in July, after the spike, are wanting to take a cruise, 42% people are comfortable attending a live event, 47% are wanting to stay at a hotel or a resort, 40% wanting to attend a conference or a trade show. So those are pretty significant numbers that we're seeing continue to increase, which means that people are starting to feel more comfortable. They may need some assurances. And so the more that we can track these live events as they are coming back, sharing that information and really providing that journey map, a lot of it's just the unknown. We are so fearful of what we don't know and what what the expectation is going to be from the moment we leave our home until we get to the airport, to we get in that car to, we get to the hotel till we get to the venue. And if we can build some comfort and safety and security around that with the measures we're taking, I think we're going to start to see more events. And on our side, we actually have had over ten live events just this past month, which have been different in scale, not the largest meetings. Those are going to be harder to come back, but we are seeing a shift in a trend in people getting out there feeling more comfortable, and that's huge. And it's sharing those stories with our industry so that we can collectively come back. Do you know, in Orlando about two weeks ago, they had a get together like a summit get back together. And one of the goals was to like a show of force as well as we're still an industry that's alive and well. And they partnered with Orlando Health for another conference, which was the volleyball, which had about 10,000 participants. This was the previous week. And I think when you partner with a health organization like that, it automatically adds the optics. We're going to do this in a safe way, and I think that is something that clients really will gravitate. And it doesn't matter what city you go to, if you have a partnership with a hospital, they just know safe protocol will happen. So let me shift this questioning to to Martin. And this is about you mentioned about virtual events. We have been doing literally hundreds of virtual events. So I'm curious when we talk about virtual options, what are your thoughts as far as virtual options in conjunction with a big event, as some people may not feel comfortable traveling and and what type of virtual experience would a person get? And I want to ask the question in a very complete way. Are you talking about complete virtual meetings? Are you talking about hybrid meetings where there's some live and some and some virtual? Well, so basically we're talking hybrid where the live show will take place, the in-person event will take place, and then there will be a live virtual component to it. Now it can't be the entire show. It can't be all the breakout sessions can't necessarily be the the network engagement will have some components to it that will be put out there. Live to the virtual world for those who can't attend. So associations our client base is about half and half trade associations and professional societies. With professional societies, they're the quickest to adapt to the virtual environment. They they're focused on education, continuing education, certification and learning. And they can go into that virtual world and have moved into that virtual world with with not much of a hiccup. Trade associations, especially those with exhibits, they're the ones that are hesitant. They're holding on to their live events to the last minute. They do not want to go into the virtual world if they don't have to. They know they're going to lose their engagement and their networking is not going to be the same. And we've all looked at a lot of different virtual platforms, and there's pros and cons and about what what works best, what and who your audience is. And there are some good platforms out there and there's ways to make them work, but it's not going to be the same as the in-person meeting. And those exhibitors, especially in those big shows, know it and they're hesitant to go there. And I think that's what's kind of holding us back from the from the whole big, whole big hybrid piece of the pie for the trade associations with the professional societies. It's not going to be a problem. You know, sometimes when you're in an exhibit trade show, you want to see the product, you want to touch it, see it, sit in it. You know, you want to. You want to have your senses engaged by whatever the product is, whether it's a big construction machine that has big tires that are bigger than me as a person or, or it's something that's you just have to get an emotional connection, you know, sit in a car and smell the new leather, and then you have this emotional connection to the car. I want to ask the same question to Amy, and this is about virtual events. How do you see virtual events fitting in, whether they're virtual only hybrid? How does that fit into the world in your opinion? So in my opinion, I feel that we really refer to it as digital because it's an experience. We are going to be agnostic on how we bring people together for now and into the future. This is completely changed our world. I do not believe that digital is going away. I think that it's going to be expected as a format, as part of all events going forward. And I don't think that that's necessarily a negative, because the value that digital brings is a way to extend that experience to people that may not have been able to be there before. For the association side, it could also be a huge opportunity to reach new members and in different revenue formats. So you may have your most loyal members attending a live show and then having other people that are interested. It could be an opportunity to acquire new members. I think it's going to be a huge differentiator for us going forward. What's really interesting from my perspective is I believe our industry as a whole thought that this was going to be a point in time that they thought, gosh, in August, even we thought, gosh, this is going to pass. By the time fall comes around, we're all going to get back to normal. And the truth of the matter is, is that we really need to offer more choice and how people attend events. It's not always going to be a face to face. I love Martin's example of hybrid, because we have seen a huge shift in this as well, and more so on the global side, where you may not be able to bring everybody together in a global environment. But we don't look at it just as an in-person event and a 1 to 1 via a computer. We also see it as a system of hubs where you might have regionally based events also occurring at the same time as a physical face to face event, and then also having people have the opportunity to come in digitally. So it comes back to consultation, understanding the needs of the guests as well as what the objectives of the event are, and then being able to connect those in a way that are most meaningful for the people that are attending. You know, we did a technology conference that last year had 3000 attendees, and this year it was a two day conference online and we had 80,000 attendees. And the irony is what you said about the scalability to touch people. That may not be people that would attend. Oh, so so, you know, in every great crisis, there's an opportunity. And the opportunity is to transform our business so that we can have a digital component. So let's say this hadn't happened. Let's say I go back to January and the good Times of Roland, then we wouldn't be having this conversation about a digital component. It'd be like, get on your airplane and go get on your flight and check in your hotel and show up at the conference and pay your conference fee. And and the fact that this has happened, it's made us kind of pivot and transform our offerings as people in the live event space. And, and I think what I got from your your response was that this is here for, for, for good, this is here for good. And all of those great things that you attributed to the things that we're going to be reflecting on in ten years ago. You know, it was 2020 was the year we started doing these digital virtual conferences. And and boy, if that hadn't happened, who knows where we would have been. So I want to throw this to Martin. And this question is really about the attendee. And so far I've heard really about I've heard data and information. What are the objections that that the attendee has for showing up at a meeting and whether it's fear or all the elements? And then what can a meeting planner do to encourage people to come? Yes. So so in some cases we have travel restrictions. And of course, it's not necessarily that that I don't want to come and said I can't come, I'm not allowed to. So we're having to deal with that, especially with the association member database, because you're in so many different industry market segments out there in different segments handling that different ways. But what we can do, one of the primary fears is a fear of travel, fear, the destination perception of the destination as a safe environment. And we're partnering. We've asked our DMOs, our destination management organizations, to partner with us in helping demonstrate. Don't just tell us that we have safety precautions in place, don't send us just the list. This is great information. I commend the hotels, the venues, convention centers, the DMOs out there for putting this information together and getting it out there. But we're now ready for that next step. We've seen all the paperwork. We know everybody's on the same page, but show us, demonstrate to us what's going on. Show. Give us something that we can in turn show our clients that says, this is going to be a good thing for you. This is going to be safe for your members. Look at what they're doing. So this is what you're going to experience when you get there. You know, from the time you arrive in the airport, pick up your bags, get on the transportation, get to the hotel. Check in. Elevator up. Elevator down stairwell. One way, you know, going out to venues to get go to a restaurant, do a little private networking, walk around, see some of the sites. All of that needs to be expressed and demonstrated to the membership to get over that fear of fear of coming to a destination to to up for an in-person event. Do you know, I think what you're describing are the optics of how I feel, and you're trying to persuade me as an attendee to feel comfortable, and if I can get over the comfortable hump, then I might go, as Amy said, confidence. Amy, do you want to add anything to this? I'm an attendee and you have to get me to your show because without attendees you don't have a show unless you have a scalable virtual show, right? It's 100% exactly what Martin articulated, and I really don't have anything else to add except for it comes back to safety, security and comfort and giving them choice. And that's going to build their assurance and their confidence and wanting to come. If you think of your own experiences, whether it's going into the first job or going to a destination that you've not been to before, it becomes that anticipation. What is going to happen? What am I going to expect? And there's anxiety that naturally goes along with that. And the more that you can communicate and the more that you can provide information. I love the visual representation that Martin was explaining, and we look at it very similarly, and we call it the journey map. And it's really understanding that. And there's different types of people that are out there too. So a big part of understanding that journey and that communication is also the persona of the individual. You might have some person that is immediately, I'm ready to go tomorrow. I'm jumping on that plane. I have no fear to somebody that is afraid to walk out of their house and go down to the local supermarket, because they haven't done that in four and a half months. So building those personas, speaking very clearly to your audience, knowing your audience and being able to create that level of comfort is huge. Okay. So so let me ask you this to Martin. What will event demand look like going into 2021? And I know the uncertainty of, well, we will have a vaccine. We won't. I don't know how many times I'll see Doctor Fauci on TV, but I just want to know if you had to have your crystal ball and you're going to predict demand and whether it's demand for live events, demand for virtual events or hybrid events, maybe you could share with everyone your crystal ball view on demand. I don't have a crystal ball. Okay, so let's explain the process a little bit with with the bookings and especially with booking multiple years out. So for 2020, for all the events we canceled, we were able and we're very proud to say that we were able to rebook 80% of those canceled events to a future year. Now that future year becomes 21, 22, 23, whatever it is. And that takes the place of the new business RFP that was out there looking for a site for 2023. Now we've put that aside. Now we're taking 2020 and popping it in there for the next available date. So that's so as far as that demand for new business, it's already being fulfilled in some ways. But you know, what are they going to do first half of 2021 is just anybody's guess at this point. And is is going to be so dependent on where we are with the vaccine. And beyond that, we're going to overcome this. We're going to make this work where everybody's working together on this. We're all on the same page trying to figure out what to do. And I have to believe, and I'm confident that going into late 2021, going into 2022, it's going to be there. It's going to be back to not where where it was, because that's going to take a long time, but it's going to be back up there in the 7,080% tile range of of those meetings taking place. I just have to believe that. So, Martin, I have to ask this question. A vaccine gets approved, let's just say next month. Are you a guy on the block that takes it, or are you first in line? You are first in line or on first in line? I'm again, stick me with the needle. Oh my goodness. Amy, your thoughts on on on on this idea of demand for next year. And I have to ask you, are you on the vaccine immediately? Are you going to wait 30 days, like wait 30 days after Martin or what is you? Because once the vaccine comes out, there going to be some naysayers that say, I'm it's been done in six months. I'm not comfortable. Amy, where are you on on the thoughts of demand and the vaccine. So I feel just again, going back to the human people are clamoring for interactions. We're seeing it all over the country. It's why we're contributing. People are saying it contributes to spikes because people are starting to get back out. People want to be together with other people. I, I believe that digital is a great alternative. It's supporting the need that we have in order to conduct business in order to connect. But it's not fulfilling that personal social connection that we all need, and we're going to want to have that back. I know people that I see and talk with every day are just tired of it. They want to get back. But we also have to be careful and we have to follow the guidelines as much as we can. And based on our own preference and opinion, I do think we are going to start to see the small events come back first. We're already seeing that in our business and we're executing them and people are feeling really good about it. What also can contribute, I believe, to a faster turn would be the more that we share the stories, the more that we talk about this and come together as an industry and say, hey, here's experiences. If this company can do it, you can do it, and here's how they've done it. And let's learn from each other so that we can help build this economy back up, that we can help our industry recover more quickly, but in a way that is really focused on the individual. And, you know, we're giving those people choice on on the on the vaccine. You know, I feel like that's kind of like a political question, like it's if you're for it or if you're against it. I, I think the, the vaccine for the greater group is going to be very, very important. I personally have been a vaccinator my entire life, my family, everything else. It's just what I've grown up knowing. So I think that I would take that because I would put my trust in the people that are developing it. Who knows? You know, we might learn more the next few months. You know what? I want you to know? I'm a vaccinator with both of you. So we're all going to be like one, two and three on the line. But but what I hear from you, Amy, is we are all advocates of our industry. And the more we can do to promote, to tell that story of what is possible instead of what is not possible will further the cause and all boats will get will float higher. And I think that's awesome. That sounds like a future. That sounds like a future podcast. Oh, I don't know. Boats floating higher. We'll see. Maybe I haven't got a title for next week. We'll work on that one. So. So listen, this is my last question. This is to Martin. I'm going to ask Amy. Last. What is the most exciting part about live events that you miss? And being that this is my I'm in my 37th year of doing this and so I obviously must like it or else I wouldn't be doing it. But I want to know from your perspective, Martin, what is the thing that you miss most about what we do and you know, the success that we have doing it? Well. Well, let's. That's it. It's a success. I'm miss the sense of accomplishment, you know, putting a bone it wrapping it up. You're going to get feedback one way or the other. Good bad positive negative. It's it's the feedback that I missed because I feel like some sort of working in a silo these days. And, and I want to get it back out there in the live event world, in the in person event world, and help people success succeed, help these meetings succeed. And it had this huge feeling of accomplishment when it's done. That's what I miss the most. And that is the most exciting part of it to me. I like it, Martin. Okay, Amy, it's your turn. What do you miss the most? So I really miss the overall experience. It's exciting. It's entertaining, it's social. You have an opportunity to bring everybody into this desire to be together. And people look forward to that. But like all things, I look at the silver lining. And you mentioned this earlier. I think that this is a learning experience. I think it's a huge opportunity to improve our experiences long term. I think keeping people safe and healthy and connected is the most important, and I think it's something that we kind of took for granted. We were always safe and we were we were, we weren't we weren't putting people in harm's way. But I think about just the changes that are going to come from this pandemic and how that's going to help probably our entire world be healthier. And I think it's going to make people feel even more comfortable coming to events, knowing that we're putting more restrictions and more safety and security into place. I think events coming back, what's going to also be more exciting is that it will be more safe, it's going to be more clean, and people are going to be more purposeful about about attending, and they're going to appreciate it more. Just like when you when something gets taken away and you take it for granted, you're going to be so much more excited and engaged when it comes back. So it's going to set us up for success long term, I truly believe. I want you to know that the thing that I love about what we do is we create a lot of different types of forms of spectacle, and we engage the senses, whether it's sound, it's smell, whether it's taste, whether it's your, your sight. And all of these things create these incredible experiences. And at the end of the day, we haven't been able to do that. And we've done a lot of virtual experiences, but they're different. And and we're trying to keep people connected, like you said. And it's a challenge. And I think on a two dimensional screen, it's just a challenge to get the same level of engagement and when. And also it's tougher to do the networking, you know, the networking when you're at a conference. I think a lot of people go to conferences just for the networking opportunities, the people they're going to see every year, whether it's their professional associations or or competitors, they're sizing them up. So I think this is an interesting road going forward. I am I am encouraged by I think both of you share the idea that we're coming back, and if you give it another time, we're going to be back to the whatever the glory days, and we're going to get to going back to having fun. I very much appreciate both of you joining Amy from Maritz and Martin from Kellen. I want you to know you all are rock stars, and I appreciate your point of view today, and I look forward to seeing you in a ballroom, in a conference center and a convention center. Any environment where where there's people. And I think that would be awesome. Thank you again for joining. And this is Les Goldberg and The Road Ahead.