Originally scheduled for May 27 and postponed due to the pandemic, Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum (ECEF) will now be held Nov. 18 as a retooled virtual experience. 

Last week PCMA announced the next steps in its global business events industry recovery plan, Recovery Discovery, at a series of digital broadcasts in Asia Pacific, EMEA and the Americas late last week. The announcements provide PCMA members, partners and business event stakeholders all over the world with new opportunities to gain actionable insights and community connections that will help them be successful through the pandemic and beyond.

IBTM World 2020, part of Reed Travel Exhibitions, will transition to a virtual event this year. Originally scheduled for Dec. 1-3 in Barcelona, the in-person component of the event will not take place as planned. This decision was made by show officials in close consultation with partners as a result of the unpredictable travel restrictions that continue to be in place across the globe because of COVID-19.

Event Leadership Institute (ELI) and McVeigh Global Meetings and Events have partnered to launch the Business Owner Mentorship Program, providing coaching and consulting to event professionals who’ve been negatively impacted by the pandemic.

Event producers wanting to know the most important issues they’ll be facing over the next six months will want to check out the fall season schedule for Digital Summit, a live virtual information exchange series kicking off Sept. 11.

While live events continue to be overwhelmingly preferred, digital event elements have a role to play going forward, according to data from the ongoing Global Recovery Project conducted by event research company Explori in partnership with UFI.

If events are held responsibly through strict implementation of health and safety guidelines, will people feel safe to attend in-person trade shows and events during a pandemic? That’s the question event organizers continue to struggle with, yet new data from event marketing and planning company GES sheds some light on the answer.

On Aug. 27, the Events Industry Council issued the Health and Safety for Hotels Accepted Practices Guide, the second release from the APEX Covid-19 Business Recovery Task Force.

To showcase measures being taken to support the safe return of in-person meetings and events, the Meetings Mean Business Coalition (MMBC) is enlisting corporate executives, policymakers and meetings industry leadership to engage in critical conversations in ongoing virtual discussions. The series, which premiered in July, will continue through this fall. Here are five highlights of conversations thus far:

With a new report showing nearly one out of every four hotel commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans are delinquent, industry leaders continue to press Congress to enact the HOPE Act. This bipartisan piece of legislation was introduced by Representatives Van Taylor (R-Texas), Al Lawson (D-Fla.), and Andy Barr (R-Ky.) to provide assistance to small businesses operating in the commercial real estate market.