At time of writing (early-Oct 2020) it is clear travel and gathering restrictions are going to remain in place well-into 2021, as a result of sustained and/or growing spread of the Coronavirus in all global regions.   This is well-understood and accepted. 

Given that business travel is often a top-5 corporate expense item (flights/accommodations/meetings), leaders have already realized cost-savings in their 2020 budget.  As an advocate of in-person meetings, I believe business leaders should redirect these 2020 savings to planning and hosting fewer – but higher-level/quality – in-person meetings. 

 In the short & medium terms, in-person meetings will involve:

• Fewer people than normal
• Shorter meetings: an historical full-day meeting, moves to two half-day meetings
• Multiple meetings/locations: facilitating smaller groups and keeping people within their general geographic location 
• More venue space(s) than normal: multiple rooms may be needed
• Possible/additional AV link-ins: For the odd speaker, guest or colleague

 Given that meeting and travel budgets have been lighter-than-normal these past 8-months, invest your spend/budgets on fewer meetings executed extremely well.   

I plan to write my November-blog on how corporate meeting-planners (like Summit) – and our venue/catering partners – have adapted to this new style of in-person business meeting. 

* Related Blogs:

• Emerging#1: Lead your industry. In-person events will be back (June 11, 2020)
• Emerging#2: Corporate Meetings/Events: Important to Get Right (June 23, 2020)
• Emerging#3: Trusted/Preferred Venue and Catering Partnerships (July 20, 2020)
• Emerging#4: The Plan and Team (Aug 27, 2020)