On September 1, over 1,500 businesses across the country illuminated their buildings with red lights to draw attention to the devastation that the live events and performance art industries have faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a survey commissioned by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), frequent travelers feel safer when hotels adhere to AHLA's Stay Safe guidelines, which detail cleaning protocols for hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic.
So far, webcams and Zoom meetings have been an essential part of 2020. While digital options are functional placeholders for meetings, chatting with a coworker over Skype doesn’t always set up a team for success. Human connection is vital to team building, and hosting safe, small meetings is a great way to revitalize teams after months of working from home.
Through responses to bi-weekly surveys, Global Business Travel Association members have indicated that domestic busines travel is ramping up after months of struggle.
Over the years, any corporate event planner can admit to spending countless hours researching the perfect venue or vendors for their gatherings. After attending or hosting hundreds of events, New York-based Daphne Hoppenot was no stranger to this research and was frustrated by its repetitive nature. However, it was planning her wedding in 2018 that pushed her to realize the lack of resources in the corporate events market compared to the wedding industry, and set out to see if other meetings and events professionals were struggling with the same problem.
Freelancing has become a new ball game since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as many companies cannot afford to keep full-time positions, but still need those tasks completed. Although many more professionals have had to join the freelancing community since March, Tracy Judge had the passion for the freelancing community two years ago–long before the pandemic hit–and founded her company Soundings Connect in order to directly connect meetings and events industry freelancers with customers.
