2 DAYS AGO - RX (Reed Exhibitions), the organiser behind IGTM (International Golf Travel Market), hosted the first international face to face meeting of the golf travel industry for the past two years, and for the first time in the UK, at the ICC Wales and Celtic Manor Resort, 18-21 October. Approximately 200 tour operators, travel agents and concierge companies were in attendance from 30 countries including Golfbreaks (UK), Leadingcourses.com (Netherlands) and Women on Fairways (US). Attendees met with a similar number of golf courses, resorts, hotels, tourist boards and DMCs showcasing destinations such as Wales, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Catalonia, France, and Italy, Portugal, Spain and Qatar. Over 7,000 meetings took place and attendees took part in networking events including the official IGTM golf tournament at Celtic Manor’s Twenty Ten, Royal Porthcawl, The Vale and St Pierre Marriott Hotel & Country Club. Ian Edwards, chief executive, Celtic Manor Resort and ICC Wales, said: “It has Collapse

3 DAYS AGO - Wizme, the meetings and groups management platform based in London, UK, has announced the release of Wizme v3.0. From the buyer, supplier and intermediary perspectives, Wizme v3.0 will look to address poor productivity. Nour Mouakke, Wizme’s CEO and founder, said: “Our new solution is almost three times faster, has a slicker look and feel than previous versions and most importantly has in-built system stability and robustness for our anticipated scale.” Mouakke believed that Wizme v3.0 will assist bookings during this challenging period of delays and staffing issues owing to the ongoing pandemic: “Our unique booking technology is what the market needs right now. We can help the world meet efficiently. Wizme empowers anyone to book the most complex conference like a pro, thanks to the vastly revamped booking experience and simplified enquiry proposal process.” Ethan Field, from Blue Cube Travel, commented: “Wizme is great tool that we have been using for Collapse

3 DAYS AGO - Event tech company, HeadBox, has finalised a £2m (US$2.75m) fundraise led by Deepbridge Capital, bringing its total funding to £13.2m. This investment aims to help HeadBox launch in the USA and support its recovery following the pandemic. The company has also doubled its team from 28 to 52 people during the past three months. Adrian Neilan, COO and investment director at Deepbridge Capital, commented: “We have been impressed by the HeadBox management team, their business model, their market-leading software products, Lead Feed and Smart Book, and their strong, growing customer base. We believe the Company, with our capital and support, has significant growth potential as it continues to disrupt the events sector. It is innovative and growth-focused companies, like HeadBox, which the Enterprise Investment Scheme is designed to support.” Andrew Needham, CEO and founder, HeadBox, said: “HeadBox is on a mission to reinvent the global events industry through technology. The global Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Business Events Industry Aotearoa (BEIA) has welcomed the New Zealand National Party’s ‘Back to Business’ plan, which would see the government fund the premium for events industry insurance cover. Lisa Hopkins, the chief executive of BEIA, said that the Government rejected an industry-led proposal to support the $1.5m (US$1.1m) premium cost, either directly or through the Regional Events fund, for a $20m policy cover. Hopkins stated: “I am pleased to see National’s wider plan today, which acknowledges the devastation this sector has felt. National’s proposal would see a $50m fund to allow major events, such as festivals and concerts going ahead with confidence, avoiding the significant financial losses incurred by organisers, customers and suppliers.” “Ultimately, we want to see the events industry supported in a way which offers confidence. Our proposal was about postponing events, not cancelling them, to give suppliers, attendees and communities certainty, and to enable Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - The SwissTech Convention Center in Lausanne, Switzerland has been hosting a conference, 17-19 October, bringing together 300 event professionals. The annual summit, organised by the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), brings together it’s members to exchange ideas, network and discuss the future of business event management in the tourism sector. The conference is one of the first face-to-face international events of this kind to be held in Switzerland since the start of the pandemic. The event offers an opportunity to showcase the assets of Lausanne, the canton of Vaud and Switzerland for the organisation of conferences and business events. Switzerland Tourism (ST), represented by the Switzerland Convention and Incentive Bureau (SCIB), the International Olympic Committee, and Lausanne Montreux Congress all worked together on Lausanne’s bid to host the conference. Barbra Albrecht, head of SCIB and a member of the executive board of Switzerland Tourism, said: “The Collapse

5 DAYS AGO - Michael Jones breaks down the differing and fast-changing approaches to professional training and advancement in the events industry: Event management education whether through university courses, on-the-job apprenticeship-style training, or upskilling, offers an avenue for individuals to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to flourish in the meetings industry.  Many professionals have tried to make the best of the pandemic to upgrade their skills, although, sadly, many trained professionals have also fallen out of the industry, leading to a possible future talent shortage. Indeed, the very nature of how we train our event professionals is being profoundly changed by the rapid march of event tech, new demands, and new hybrid approaches to event delivery.  The competitive nature of attracting prospective students to event management courses has probably been only heightened by Covid and the uncertain future for parts of the industry, at least in the short term.     One of the main Collapse

5 DAYS AGO - GL events, Live Nation and Oak View Group have entered into negotiations to build and operate a 20,000-seat arena in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The investment will be assured in its entirety by Live Nation and Oak View Group, with work set to start in the second half of 2022 for an inauguration scheduled in 2024. The ‘Sao Paulo Arena’ has been designed to respect the principles of responsible construction and sustainable development. The venue will be equipped with the latest technology to host concerts, sports events and shows. This announcement marks the beginning of the redevelopment of the Anhembi area, for which GL events was awarded a 30-year management concession by the city of Sao Paulo, which will include a vast building programme, a convention centre and a cultural boulevard. The signature of the contract is expected by the end of 2021. These developments will aim to transform Anhembi into a new innovative district of Sao Paulo and contribute to the city’s economic vitality and Collapse

15/10/2021 - Global integrated marketing company MMGY Hills Balfour and MMGY Travel Intelligence Europe are collaborating with the IMEX Group on a new 2021/22 survey titled ‘A Portrait of European Meetings and Convention Travel: Perspectives from travellers and planning professionals’. the survey is designed to investigate beyond existing parameters, examining not only meeting planner sentiment but also the intentions and preferences of attendees. The survey will help guide destinations’ decisions on investments, marketing budgets, overall growth and development strategies by providing a comprehensive understanding of what European meetings and conventions look like now and in the future. As highlighted in MMGY Travel Intelligence’s recent US survey, there can be profound differences between perceptions and behaviours among planners and attendees. Europe is home to the headquarters of some of the most significant global business event organisers who can benefit from such survey insights. Carina Collapse

15/10/2021 - The International Association of Professional Conference Organisers (IAPCO) has launched a Covid-19 factsheet of national guidelines from different countries in a new publication from its Strategic global task force. In June 2020, IAPCO assembled a small group of national PCO associations from around the globe into a strategic task force. The objective was to facilitate the communication and dissemination of information related to the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic was having on the meetings industry. The task force has since grown into a strategic global group of 14 national PCO associations representing companies directly involved in delivering meetings and events. The factsheet reflects the Covid-related protocols and procedures in place within each of the task force members’ destinations at time of publishing. In September 2020, in collaboration with the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC), the IAPCO task force released advocacy guide: The PCO Perspective: Business events Collapse