Event planners continue to look to hospitality industry leaders for solutions that help simplify the complex task of organizing in-person or hybrid events in the current environment—particularly as it relates to COVID-19 testing and health screenings. Throughout the pandemic, Hilton says it has been listening and responding to the needs of its customers, and now it is providing event planners with COVID-19 testing and health screening resources for their event attendees.

Frustrated officials and union leaders representing California’s business travel, events and conventions industry are calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to issue statewide guidelines clarifying under what conditions business meetings, events and conventions in California can resume someday.

A new survey by APCO Insight affirms that Americans working from home are eager to return to in-person meetings and conventions. The survey found that even after adapting to the new digital workplace, 81 percent of professionals who attended in-person meetings and conventions before the pandemic miss doing so and would be just as likely—if not more likely—to attend in-person conferences, conventions, trade shows and other business events in the future. 

Benchmark, a global hospitality company, has shared its "Ten Top Trends" that are impacting and transforming meetings in 2021. The trends were observed by Benchmark’s portfolio of 80 meeting hotels, resorts and conference centers (including  Benchmark Resorts & Hotels, Gemstone Collection and Benchmark Conference Centers). 

Omni Hotels' new "Ready, Set, Go Hybrid with Omni" program brings a new level of production quality and support for its customers’ presentations, small meetings and/or full-scale hybrid events. 

For meeting and event professionals who have been looking to plan hybrid virtual/in-person meetings and events, Marriott International is offering new solutions to help "Connect with Confidence" and streamline the current planning process. New resources for hybrid meetings and events, including providers and pricing, will be available next month at Marriott hotels across the United States and Canada, and are slated to be available globally in the near future.

Nashville has been named a "Safe Travels" destination by the World Travel & Tourism Council, making it one of only two destinations in the United States to achieve the designation, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. (NCVC) announced. Nashville businesses that are members of the NCVC’s "Good to Go" program will soon be displaying the "Safe Travels" logo to give added confidence of their health and safety measures to residents and visitors.

With only three months to go until FITUR Tourism Recovery Special, it says there has already been a tremendously positive business response to the FITUR MICE section, the B2B meeting point for the supply and demand of meetings, conferences and congress tourism and business travel. This response testifies to the need to renew contacts, find business opportunities and boost business activity in this vital segment for tourism and countries’ economies.

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has announced the hiring of Suzanne Neufang as its next executive director, leading the combined GBTA and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE).

Accor announced it is collaborating with Microsoft to launch “All Connect,” a new hybrid meetings concept supported by Microsoft Teams. This new concept will enable guests around the world to adapt to the new ways of working that are expected to be an enduring legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic.