6 HRS AGO - Germany’s second city, Hamburg has launched a set of locally devised business support initiatives in response to Covid-19. Hamburg Convention Bureau has gathered a series of these positive stories and initiatives from the meetings and events industry. First is the forum #wirstehenzusammen – or ‘we stand together’, launched by Hamburg Tourism Board, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Transport and Innovation of Hamburg, DEHOGA Hamburg, the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce and the Hamburg Tourismusverband. The forum is designed to provide a platform for tourism service providers to exchange ideas, advice and experience and support each other through collaboration. Topics discussed include how to deal with reductions in working hours and drastic cuts in business. Nivea’s parent company Beiersdorf, which is based in the city, has produced 500 tons of disinfectant used to fight the coronavirus. Beiersdorf is working closely with clinics and hospitals, medical and nursing staff as well as police Collapse

9 HRS AGO - From 15 April, Dr Ulf Santjer will be the Executive Director of Corporate Communications and Corporate Marketing at NürnbergMesse. Santjer comes to Exhibition Centre Nuremberg following his work for sporting goods company Puma in Herzogenaurach. As executive director of corporate communications and corporate marketing, he will be responsible for both the company’s brand strategy in addition to its internal and external communications. NürnbergMesse CEO, Peter Ottmann, said: “As a seasoned marketing and PR professional who has previously proven his capabilities on the international stage at Puma, Ulf Santjer will be a valuable addition to our team.” Fellow CEO Dr Roland Fleck added: “The coronavirus crisis in particular is underlining just how valuable professional communication is. Ulf Santjer will be an outstanding reinforcement for our successful team led by Thomas Koch.” Dr Santjer said: “NürnbergMesse plays in the ‘Champions League’ of European exhibition companies. I would like Collapse

12 HRS AGO - Etihad Airways is the first airline to trial contactless technology for monitoring temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate of travellers. The UAE flag carrier will partner with Australian company Elenium Automation to trial the new technology which allows self-service devices at airports to be used to help identify travellers with medical conditions, potentially including the early stages of Covid-19. The technology will provide the monitoring via an airport touchpoint such as a check-in or information kiosk, a bag drop facility, a security point or immigration gate. The Elenium system will automatically suspend the self-service check-in or bag drop process if a passenger’s vital signs indicate potential symptoms of illness. It will then divert to a teleconference or alert qualified staff on site, who can make further assessments and manage travellers as appropriate. In partnership with Amazon Web Services, Elenium has also developed ‘hands free’ technologies that enable Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Adelaide Venue Management (AVM)– one of Australia’s largest venue management organisations – is helping local community catering organisations and repurposing its commercial kitchens at the Adelaide Convention Centre and Adelaide Entertainment Centre to make healthy meals for organisations, including Meals on Wheels South Australia. AVM is helping the effort to deliver food for the State’s most vulnerable, while also providing work to keep 60 of its full-time staff engaged. AVM is gearing up to produce up to 10,000 meals a day from its kitchen teams. Foodbank SA is using its refrigerated vehicles to collect meals from AVM and transport them to Meals on Wheels SA’s main distribution points. SA’s Minister for Human Services Michelle Lensink described the initiative as “a fantastic example of a South Australian organisation stepping up to help the community at this unprecedented time. “Not only is Adelaide Venue Management contributing tens of thousands of meals to the community at this Collapse

1 DAY AGO - New Zealand’s business events industry association, CINZ is launching a new event, BE Reconnected, for December 2020. BE Reconnected will focus on ‘re-engaging and reconnecting’ industry relationships to help businesses recover in a post-Covid-19 world. The event will be hosted at Vodafone Events Centre in Auckland on 1 December, and will replace its traditional MEETINGS exhibition that was due to be held this month. The CINZ 2020 Conference and Annual General Meeting will follow on 2 December. CINZ Chief Executive, Lisa Hopkins, said: “We have been looking at different ways to reconnect our members with customers, channels and each other, as part of the industry’s overall business recovery strategy. “BE Reconnected will be a vital step in helping to secure business leads and super-charging the sector’s recovery. We want to engage buyers in multiple face-to-face opportunities over a short time, building new relationships and rekindling old ones. “Business events are the Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - Owners of ExCeL London, Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company (ADNEC) Group, have issued a statement confirming the East London venue has been offered to the NHS rent-free. Chief Executive of ExCeL London, Jeremy Rees said that the initial agreement between the 100,000sqm venue and the UK National Health Service included a contribution to some of the fixed costs involved with keeping the large facility operational, however these costs were now being covered by ExCeL London. The Sunday Times UK newspaper had reported, 5 April, that ADNEC were charging the NHS £2-3m per month for use of the facility. ExCeL London has officially opened as NHS Nightingale, a 4,000-bed hospital to offer extra capacity for critical care to the UK National Health Service. Rees said: “The use of ExCeL for NHS Nightingale London has always been provided to the NHS rent-free. We joined the national effort to combat coronavirus [Covid-19] immediately and worked in close partnership with the NHS to ensure this Collapse

3 DAYS AGO - The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank on Tuesday approved  $2 million in emergency assistance for the World Health Organization (WHO) to reinforce its capacity to help African countries contain the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate its impacts. The grant, which is in response to an international appeal by the WHO, will be used... The post African Development Bank approves $2 million emergency assistance for WHO-led measures to curb COVID-19 in Africa appeared first on Event Africa. Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Not our usual meetings news fare I grant you, but this tale of innovation success from Denmark provides a welcome uplift in these difficult times. And, let’s not forget, all good inventions inevitably spring from conferences and meetings. It is often in times of crisis that we see new and innovative ideas come to fruition. Copenhagen-based company, O2matic, has – in collaboration with one of the city’s hospitals – developed an oxygen robot that can improve the supply of oxygen to patients infected with Covid-19. With science, medicine and innovation sectors to the fore in the Danish capital and its conference programmes, it is, perhaps, not surprising that such a product has emerged in Copenhagen and even, now, is being exported. The robot, which is already in use at Copenhagen’s Hvidovre Hospital, can deliver the correct amount of oxygen to patients who have difficulties breathing and require oxygen treatment as a result of serious respiratory infections. Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Meetings and Events Australia (MEA) will be teaming up with its international partner the Sustainable Event Alliance (SEA) to promote the Re-Imagine Events hack-a-thon on 15 April. The SEA is inviting people within the event industry to unite for “supportive and therapeutic sessions” to discuss and imagine what the future for events could be. During the free, two-hour hack-a-thon, hosted by the SEA and its partners, attendees will be able to meet with people across the event industry from around the world to re-imagine what the next six months, the next two years and beyond will be like for the event industry. Register for the hack-a-thon here. The post MEA supports Re-Imagine Events hack-a-thon appeared first on CMW. Collapse