News

Is a six-hour workday the future of work? Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has floated the idea as a way to improve employees’ work-life balance. Swedish researchers have found that a six-hour working day can improve productivity and reduce sick pay costs, but critics argue that shorter working hours can be too costly, hinder entrepreneurialism, and only suits shift work.

For full article - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/news/the-case-for-a-six-hour-workday-4206521/

The results are in: Registration reached an all-time high for the 2020 ASAE Virtual Annual Meeting & Exposition, with the most registrants ever in the organization’s 100-year history. Held Aug. 10-12, the online event registered 14,108 association professionals, consultants and industry partners, 71 percent of which were first-time attendees. The event’s final attendance breakdown included 12,813 executives; 544 exhibitors; 207 industry partners; 433 consultants and 111 others including press, vendors and staff. The ratio of buyer to sellers was 95 percent to 5 percent, respectively.

The fact that ASAE decided to offer the event free or at a discounted rate allowed more than 10,000 event industry individuals – who had previously not been able to attend due to travel or budget restrictions – the opportunity to participate for the first time, according to ASAE officials.

For Full Article - https://www.tsnn.com/news/asae-sets-new-registration-record-virtual-annual-meeting-exposition

By Tyler Davidson (August 11, 2020) COVID-19 has cut a path of destruction through the meetings industry, and among the hardest hit are DMOs/CVBs, which are cutting staff as much of their revenue stream from hotel bed taxes and tourism improvement districts has dried up.

According to Don Welsh, president and CEO of Destinations International (DI), the association that represents DMOs/CVBs, the lingering pandemic and dire news about a resurgence in infection rates has added extra urgency for relief that the federal government has yet to offer through the CARES Act. 

Welsh emphasized that DI is working with US Travel Association to apply pressure on the federal government to expand the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to include 501(c)(6) tax-exempt organizations, which comprise about 97% of DI’s membership.

“Clearly business conditions have not improved,” Welsh said. “I think many organizations are not able to bring back very important furloughed employees, and in some cases they’re having to now lay off additional people. 

For full article - https://www.meetingstoday.com/magazines/article-details/articleid/34423/title/cvbs-staff-reductions

Link - https://cbre.ent.box.com/s/drq5ivxz08l6sgibponysoshupvqb5pr?utm_source=Members&utm_campaign=c491a39e95-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_cvupdate_aug7&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e12cf0b7b-c491a39e95-69005103

When our country and economy began shutting down in March of this year, a terrifying reality quickly set in among live event professionals across the United States: We are not only the first industry to shut down, but we will by far be the last to reopen. What will this mean for our livelihoods?

It was under this reality that the Live Events Coalition was founded. The Coalition is a completely volunteer-run 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization, created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating impact on the live events industry. The coalition exists to provide advocacy, resources, and a network that connects and supports all the businesses, contractors, and individual members of our workforce of 12 million people—the lifeblood of every event. 

The live events industry contributed roughly $1 trillion to the U.S. economy prior to COVID-19, and now is expected to lose up to 80% of overall revenue. It is imperative that legislators, policymakers, and those who influence them understand the extent of the damage to our industry and the need for assistance, as the competition for government relief dollars will only intensify in the weeks and months to come. This is why the Coalition has engaged an advocacy firm to develop a coordinated communications and government relations strategy. 

For Full Article - https://www.bizbash.com/sponsored/article/21141662/how-the-live-events-coalition-is-uniting-the-events-industry-during-a-pandemic

When planning a hybrid and digital event, your content is the key to its success, panelists agreed during The Hague Convention Bureau’s first hybrid webinar. The panel members — a corporate planner, two association planners, a meeting-design expert, and a hotel executive — discussed the viability of hybrid events.

The July 2 event at the World Forum in The Hague welcomed 65 attendees in the venue and more than 160 online viewers.

Host Tadeja Pivc-Coudyser, international sales manager at The Hague Convention Bureau, welcomed moderator Vincent Pahlplatz, general manager at The Hague Marriott, and panelist Carin Smand, executive director of the European Hematology Association (EHA), to the live venue stage. Three other panelists — Kim Myhre, CEO and managing partner at Experience Designed; Frank Yang, director of marketing & business development at KINTEX; and Guillem Torres, executive director and professional congress organizer for Torres Pardo SL— attended virtually, their images appearing on a large screen behind the stage.

While the session covered a variety of areas, including the logistical challenges of conducting hybrid meetings and who should pay for health and safety costs at live venues, panelists often returned to a key point in their discussion — that content, how you conceive it, present it, and collect data about it — will do the most to maximize attendance and revenue, and deliver ROI to attendees and sponsors.....

For full article - https://www.pcma.org/content-compelling-participants-will-pay-virtual-events/

Event and tourism industry professionals aren’t about to sit out this pandemic, as evidenced by the number of meetings, webinars and conventions taking place virtually these past few months. Among these key industry events is Destinations International’s Annual Convention, which was held virtually for the first time July 14-15. 

With a record attendance of 3,024 attendees from 14 countries, the global destinations industry gathering featured a packed agenda offering more than 20 educational sessions designed to inform and inspire. Keynote presentations were made by Author Mitch Albom, U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat Fighter Pilot Carey Lohrenz and the Global All-Stars Innovators Showcase, during which a panel of five tourism industry executives reimagined the future of travel post-COVID-19.

For Full Article - https://www.tsnn.com/news/recordbreaking-attendance-destinations-international%E2%80%99s-first-virtual-annual-convention

The European Union extended its travel ban on Americans on Thursday, as coronavirus infections continued to rise across the United States.

The EU first started lifting international travel restrictions on July 1, welcoming visitors from 14 countries, including Canada, South Korea and Australia. The U.S. was left off that initial list and Americans remain barred from visiting the bloc for at least another two weeks under Thursday's decision, announced by the European Council. 

The announcement came after EU officials conducted their first biweekly review of travel restrictions, examining coronavirus trends and containment measures in each country to determine whether to add or narrow the list of permitted travelers. 

The key measurement: The pandemic outbreak in a given country needs to be equally contained – or better – than in the EU.

For the full article - https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2020/07/16/eu-extends-travel-ban-americans-amid-spike-us-coronavirus-cases/5450198002/

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the death of George Floyd and the overwhelming response nationwide, seven Black executives from destination marketing organizations across the country partnered on a video to share their experiences and encourage an open dialogue about race and racism throughout their lives and in the tourism industry. Running 8 minutes and 38 seconds, "5 Questions About Race" takes less time to view than the 8 minutes and 46 seconds that George Floyd had a knee on his neck when he was murdered on May 25, 2020.

According to data from The Washington Post, Black Americans are killed by police at a rate of more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans. Since 2015, 96 percent of Black Americans killed by the police have been male. This video is intended to share the male perspective.

For full article - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/black-travel-leaders-address-systemic-160000558.html

Technology may connect us physically, but much remains to be learned about its ability to create emotional connections.

Author: Barbara Palmer       

We’ve long talked about how technology connects us, points out designer and researcher Pamela Pavliscak, a panelist at the technology conference Collision@Home, held online June 21-24. “But what we’ve meant by connecting,” Pavliscak told Convene, “is that technology reduces physical distance, or just that technology puts us in contact with somebody else.”

Now, with the widespread move to digital platforms in response to the pandemic, “it’s as if we’re a big experiment,” she added, one that’s demonstrating how technology can bring us together, but also highlighting its weaknesses. To really connect, “we need to be able to read nonverbal signals — the sensorial aspect of our connection, where we are part of a larger context,” said Pavliscak, author of Emotionally Intelligent Design. “We’re in an awkward phase. We have this technology, but it doesn’t really facilitate intimacy, emotions, or vulnerability. Maybe it doesn’t even facilitate empathy in the way we want it to. And how will we get it to that point?”

For full article - https://www.pcma.org/digital-events-awkward-phase-collisionhome/