Besides the obvious, primary fallout of a worldwide pandemic on lives and livelihoods across the globe, the secondary effects are just as impactful. With restrictions and regulations varying widely from state to state and nation to nation, getting on with regular life is challenging and sometimes exhausting. And the marketing industry is no different. The trade show industry, in particular, faces challenges like:

• Keeping teams updated about ever-changing policies at venues
• Overseeing restrictions from trade show to trade show
• Managing people's fears and emotions about the health and safety of an event
• Unavailability of supplies, materials, and manufacturing needs
• Dreaded cancellations
• Marrying virtual and face-to-face events to reach people

The cost is high, both budgetary and in terms of morale. The past year has taken its toll, for sure; however, hope still abides!

Enter Meetings Mean Business. Meetings Mean Business (MMB) is a platform whose sole purpose is to ensure that in-person meetings and hybrid meetings can take place safely now and in the future.

With an understanding of the current cultural climate of eagerness to return to normal and an ambivalence about the risks of doing just that, MMB prides itself on finding the best practices (beyond social distancing, handwashing, cleaning and sanitizing) in each industry to ensure safety and, equally important, growing a strong business.

MMB has partnered with Simpleview, a leading travel and tourism industry provider of DSM, CMS, digital marketing, and mobile technologies.

MMB asks various organizations and their event planners who have held an event during the last 18 months to share their experiences – event size, protocols, tweaks to their previous methods, what worked and what didn’t. Gathering this information and sharing it with event hosts, venue operators, suppliers, and marketing planners and professionals encourages and teaches everyone how to come back safely and begin to envision future events.

On their website, MMB showcases some of its success stories, organizations that have met with confidence during these shaky times. Among them are:

• Super Pet Expo in August hosted over 5,000 attendees who were safely able to gather while adhering to Virginia’s masking and social distancing mandates. By simply adding 5 feet of space between each booth, event planners were able to provide the 14-foot aisles required.
• The World of Concrete opened the convention season in Las Vegas, the first major convention since the pandemic. With the new and improved (and ENLARGED!) Las Vegas convention center, this particular convention hosted 10s of thousands of attendees.

• Connect 2020 Marketplace tweaked its previous practices to safely host its annual trade show. Moving its meetings from small hotel meeting rooms to larger ballrooms, requiring appointments for one-on-ones, and spacing food stations out creatively to avoid lines enabled them to have an excellent event.

MMB’s website boasts a splash page where a strong list of organizations have already shared their event success stories. Visit them to be inspired by this impactful option to help all of us get excited about the future of trade shows!

This article was inspired by "A New Platform To Help Event Holders Find Encouragement In Returning In-Person" by Briquelle Neyens