Meetings Move Us Beyond Our Isolationist Bubbles — Meetings Innovation Report
Photo Credit: Opening in January, Hamburg's new Elbphilharmonie concert hall and hotel is elevating the city's brand for meeting planners worldwide. Elbphilharmonie
Skift Take
The results of the U.S. presidential election showed us unequivocally that we all tend to default into our own professional and personal bubbles in different ways. Meetings and events have always been a platform to bust out of those, and that's something the industry needs to trumpet more.
The Future of Meetings & Events
Skift CEO and Founder Rafat Ali summed up our company's collective philosophy in this post last night following the U.S. presidential election results, stating that travel — the literal movement of humans — is now the geopolitical center of the world:
"The geopolitical realities of our world are worth embracing by the travel industry, instead of ignoring them or, worse still, wishing them away. And even more so, travelers will reward the industry for it by traveling more, by being more aware of the world and travel’s key place in it, rather than staying in isolationist bubbles for people to indulge in when they need an escape once in a while.”
Business events play a pivitol role in that movement. According to Don Welsh, CEO of Destination Marketing Association International, quoted in the story below, the meetings industry accounts for as much as 40 percent of overall travel spend in some markets. Moving
