With the prospect of recovery from the devastating economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic looming, this year’s Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID) takes on an added sense of urgency and hope.

The annual daylong, worldwide event on April 8 will focus on the meeting and event industry’s efforts to rebuild the business in the aftermath of the pandemic while stressing the economic impact of the meeting and hospitality business and the importance of face-to-face business exchanges. It is also intended to instill confidence in the return of healthy and safe meetings.

MPI will be at the forefront of GMID with a 12-hour virtual event beginning at 6 a.m. CDT (13:00 Central European Time). MPI, the world’s largest association for meeting and event professionals, is partnering with the National Coalition of Black Meeting Professionals (NCBMP), Destinations International (DI), the International Association of Conference Centers (IACC), the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE), the Events Industry Council (EIC) and Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) to provide content throughout the event.

“GMID 2021 takes on special significance this year as we look back on, by any standard, what was a challenging and devastating year for our industry,” said Darren Temple, chief operations officer for MPI. “As I opened the GMID broadcast in April 2020, I had no idea the tremendous impact the pandemic would wreak on our community. This year, GMID offers a message of hope and recovery, and that our brighter days are still ahead of us. Our program will provide relevant research, trends and valuable tools to make sure that our community is well-served and ready as we get back to work in 2021.”

“This year, GMID offers a message of hope and recovery, and that our brighter days are still ahead of us.”

Face-to-face meetings have been a staple of the global economy. The 2017 Global Economic Significance of Business Events report showed that face-to-face meetings resulted in US$1.03 trillion in direct spend to the economy. The study also showed that in 2017, more than 1.4 billion participants from more than 180 countries attended meetings and events.

The $1.03 trillion reflects the direct spending from planning, producing, attending and/or hosting business events that include meetings, conferences, conventions, exhibitions and incentive travel.

But the pandemic brought this critical industry to a halt. The U.S. Travel Association reported that travel’s economic footprint in the United States shrank a staggering 42% last year, from $2.6 trillion to $1.5 trillion. Employment devastation was similarly massive: travel-supported jobs fell by 5.6 million in 2020 (16.7 million to 11.1 million). Travel and tourism had supported employment for 11% of the U.S. workforce prior to the onset of COVID.

But signs of recovery are starting to show, albeit at different stages across the globe. While Europe continues to face lockdowns and places like Brazil are working to control the pandemic, U.S. states have begun to relax capacity restrictions for gatherings. And with vaccines now available, confidence and trust are returning. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration recently reported more than 1 million daily passengers in U.S. airports for two consecutive weeks, the longest stretch since the lockdowns began in 2020.

MPI’s Global Meetings Industry Day: Virtual. April 8, 2021.

“Now more than ever, our community needs to stand united and galvanized around the fundamental belief that there are best practices, standards and research that will allow our meetings industry to fully recover in the months ahead,” Temple said. “MPI is the leading global authority and the best resource for understanding a changing and complex industry landscape. We know how to do this. We have done it before, and we will do it again.”

GMID was created in 2016 to raise the profile of the meeting and event industry. Last year, nearly 11,000 people participated in MPI’s broadcast, and organizers for this year’s event have again planned an agenda featuring speakers discussing a range of topics. One of the more anticipated panel discussions is the “State of the Industry Leadership Panel” scheduled for 1:45 p.m. CDT. The panel includes Michael Massari, chief sales officer at Caesars Entertainment and co-chair of the Meetings Mean Business Coalition; Julie Coker, president and CEO of the San Diego Tourism Authority; Carina Bauer, CEO of the IMEX Group; Paul Van Deventer, president and CEO of MPI; and Annette Gregg, senior vice president of experience at MPI.

“Since its inception, GMID has galvanized partners globally and empowered advocates to communicate our industry’s ability to support businesses and local communities,” Massari said. “This year’s GMID is a testament to the incredibly resilient meetings and events professionals and our dedication to securing much-needed relief and recovery for the industry.”

The MPI broadcast is being coordinated by Lori Pugh Marcum, head of meeting innovation at MPI. Education sessions throughout the broadcast will be led by industry professionals from around the global and will cover topics such as hybrid event design; diversity, equity and inclusion; reimagining conference dining; trade show recovery; managing contracts; new hotel sales structures; and a session on emotional intelligence led Rich Bracken, who is also a keynote speaker at MPI’s World Education Congress in June in Las Vegas (a hybrid event with live attendance). Attendees can earn up to 12 education clock hours.

“My mission for this year is to create the same atmosphere of community while finding new ways for participants to engage and create new connections.”

“Last year we all rallied together on GMID when the world was so unsure of what impact COVID-19 would have on our industry,” Marcum said. “This year there is light at the end of the tunnel as hybrid events are beginning to happen and recovery is on the horizon. Over the last year, we have challenged ourselves to learn how to produce digital events to sustain us and we are now embracing the tools we have learned as we forge the path to hybrid events and making our events as inclusive as possible.”

She added that this year’s event will “be all about making our future and reshaping our industry in ways that make it better than it ever was before.”

New engagement activities for MPI’s broadcast include:

·      PixiWeb Virtual Photo Booth, a virtual photo booth experience that helps keep everyone connected through shared event photo galleries and experiences.

·      Twine will have a virtual networking event towards the end of the broadcast where attendees can chose to listen to a speaker or try a new, cutting-edge twine deep networking system developed by Lawrence Coburn, who formerly founded DoubleDutch. Unlike other video chat platforms, twine focuses exclusively on the quality and depth of the conversation between partners. More than a match, twine creates networking magic. twine’s web-based technology makes for an easy, seamless extension of any existing event technology solution, including Zoom.

·      SongDivision will be creating a customized song for the GMID: Virtual broadcast with that captures the spirit and energy of the event. The song will. be completed IN REAL TIME and performed live for our audience to close out the broadcast.

·      The platform will include gamification to encourage participation during the broadcast. This feature keeps the audience engaged by rewarding badges and points in a Virtual Challenge for actions completed throughout an event for their participation in the chats, Q&A feature and polls.  

·      Video Peel will capture video from our attendees that we will show a few during the broadcast. Attendees will be asked to send in videos of how they have innovated over the last year, of their experience if they have received a scholarship or membership assistance through the MPI foundation and how they intend to “Make Their Future” in 2021 and beyond.

“I poured my heart and soul into the broadcast last year in hopes that our industry could come together as a community that cares for each other in times of need,” Marcum said. “The result far exceeded any of my expectations. Over 11,000 event professionals rallied together, supported one another and gained valuable insight into how to make the most out of this difficult time. My mission for this year is to create the same atmosphere of community while finding new ways for participants to engage and create new connections.”

Title sponsors for Global Meetings Industry Day: Virtual include Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) and Socio; Production Partners include Grit Productions and Foster & Fathom; Partners include Pixilated, Discover Puerto Rico, Encore Group (USA), ENIT Italia National Tourist Board, Hilton Hotels, Los Cabos Tourism Board, VisitBritain, Destination Colorado, Galveston CVB, Song Division and Twine.