by Nick Merry

It is clear that the world as we know it has changed dramatically over the past 12 months and the global pandemic has left the travel industry reeling. What’s also clear is that when the world gradually opens up again, the incentive travel events industry will be stepping onto a very unfamiliar path. 

As far as events go, the face to face conferences and incentive travel trips booked for 2021 have been postponed or cancelled and replaced by Zoom virtual conferences or experiences, which, whilst novel at first, are now running out of exciting ways to keep people engaged. Zoom fatigue has truly set in particularly for those who have been working from home and been on video meetings throughout the day. 

But as we mentioned in a previous blog, incentive travel and corporate face to face events will be back; however typical event destinations may still not be available due to travel or government policies. Delegates may still be reticent about travel due to their own personal safety concerns, or companies may have stricter protocols in their corporate travel policy.

But how do you prepare for the time when travel and events do resume again? Here are our thoughts:

Get planning now

With vaccination programs rolling out across the globe, there is now light at the end of the tunnel. Whilst the dates are uncertain, our money is on a Q3 2021 timeline for when borders will slowly start to open up again and in Q4 2021 the floodgates will open for business looking to book conferences and incentive trips, either domestically or internationally. Demand is likely to outstrip supply particularly in areas where recovery and vaccine roll outs are completed and effective in minimizing the risk. So our tip is to get planning your first face to face event now. 

Competition with Leisure Travel

There isn’t just pent up demand for business travel, most of the world’s population wants to travel again and that means there will be demand from leisure travel for hotel and flight space outside of the usual school holidays. This will be particularly prevalent on flights where capacity from most airlines will be limited in the beginning. So get planning and booking to ensure you get the flights, destination, type of accommodation that you want rather than whatever is left available. Otherwise you may end up with a mediocre or disappointing experience that won’t engage or motivate anyone.

Look for flexibility

Whilst it will be great news to find availability at the perfect venue for your trip, the question needs to be asked, “are they willing to be flexible with your booking?” Venues need to understand the requirement for flexibility with bookings particularly around government Covid-19 restrictions. We at Motivforce have had huge success with our supplier relationships in getting flexibility for our clients, including credits and even refunds for events booked in 2020 that had to be postponed or cancelled. It is this sort of flexibility that will make our clients and ourselves more loyal to those supplier brands who understood the situation and worked with us to be as flexible as possible. So plan for 2021, 2022 and 2023 now but look for the flexibility that a good event agency can secure for you.

Focus on the personal not the virtual

Listen to what your target audience wants. The vast majority of us have ‘Zoom fatigue’ as internal and external meetings, conferences and events have been predominantly virtual for almost a year. Even though here at Motivforce we have had success with our virtual incentive experiences, does your audience really want to sit in front of the screen again and have a cocktail making class or listen to a guest speaker from another part of the globe? So rather than choose a destination or an event that management thinks is a good option or where they themselves would prefer to go, why not survey your target audience on what they want out of the next face to face meeting. What destination, how long, what activities etc? After all there is going to be some readjustment to the post Covid-19 vaccine world and not everyone may be willing to jump straight back into group travel, so tread carefully and plan for something that will inspire and incentivise your team and be inclusive for all attending.

SME businesses will lead the charge but Enterprise will be close behind

With vaccines and the easing of restrictions this will motivate recovery and whilst almost all corporates will start to plan events and travel in the latter half of 2021, we believe SMEs will lead the way with more personal, smaller, higher end venues and hotels rather than those aligned or situated near typical convention centres. Due to the very nature of exhibitions, and large scale conferences, it is unlikely that these will be booked until early to mid 2022 but do expect a large amount of activity at the beginning of 2022 when typical annual “kick off” events will emerge and this will be the beginning of larger business events moving forward.

Stay local in 2021 but book 2022 and beyond

In Australia, Business Events Australia (BEA) has created an initiative aimed at Australian businesses to #Eventherethisyear. This is a great initiative by the BEA, in that Australia has many world class venues for events to take place. There is also a safety net in holding an event on your home turf in that you are not susceptible to other countries quarantine restrictions or pandemic lockdown measures. However, as is the case in Australia, state government policies of internal border closures are also making this hard to plan effectively. These policies should ease when the vaccines are rolled out and therefore it will be easier to plan an event in the latter half of 2021 in your home country. So why not look at your first post Covid event in your home country and then look to 2022 and beyond for larger more international events. If you have senior executives based in other countries why not beam them in virtually to give a keynote or address your incentive winners.

Humans love face to face interaction and it is important to recognise that every person will deal with this new normal in their own way. So whilst it is important to get planning and booking it is better to plan small and build up to larger scale or bigger budget events rather than rush to host a big event because you did that in the past. Now is the perfect time to research what your target audience would like and then talk with an event management company to make sure your first post Covid event matches not only the purpose for hosting the event but the attendees expectation of the event itself.