EDITOR’S COMMENT
NAVIGATING THE NEW NORMAL
s the pandemic recedes and borders reopen, international associations
EASL, urges associations not to be complacent about the future, or nostalgic about the past, where the resumption of international meetings is concerned. Indeed, lanyard manufacturers could enjoy a short-lived recovery unless associations can redefine why physical meetings, as opposed to virtual ones, matter – and transform their event programmes accordingly (p.32) .
Host cities How the criteria changed Sustainability Your questions answered Legacy A blu er’s guide
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2022 ISSUE #1 | AMIMAGAZINE.GLOBAL
have started planning in-person meetings with more confidence, after two years of enervating, stamina-testing uncertainty. How long the economic and emotional scars of lockdown will last remains to be seen, of course. But international association executives are unlikely to forget
JAMES LANCASTER EDITOR, AMI
GOOD?
BEN HAINSWORTH ON THE RETURN OF IN-PERSON MEETINGS
William Thomson The event tech bubble has burst/ Marjorie Anderson Associations get stuck at ‘diversity’/ Marc Mekki on the metaverse/ New beginnings with meeting designers Eric & Mike/ Plus Face to Face with Irving Washington, ONA / A Day in the Life with Benita Lipps, Interel Group
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the last two years in a hurry. Irving Washington, executive director of the Online News Association, likened the experience of dealing with never-ending pressure to gaining a new ‘muscle reflex’ (p.20) .
Hainsworth cites climate change, and the pressure on organisations to reduce their carbon emissions, as one of the headwinds facing associations as the world recovers from Covid-19. But on this most existential of questions, associations can have a profoundly positive impact. Associations linked to the meetings and events industry used lockdown to launch various net zero initiatives to help ensure the planet is a hospitable place for our children and grandchildren. Should (can?) your association join one of these schemes? Or should you look to your own sector for inspiration? We answer that – and 19 other pressing questions on sustainability – in Now or Never (p.10) . War in Eastern Europe – and the potential for the conflagration to spread – is another factor cited by Hainsworth to have changed the socio- political outlook for associations and meeting planners. How associations have responded to Putin’s grotesque invasion of Ukraine is explored in Upfront . Elsewhere we explore what the future holds for event tech, why inclusion is the tricky part of DEI, how to open your meetings, and how Covid changed the criteria for host city selection.
The upheaval Irving, and other association leaders, experienced was profound and sweeping. Business models were upended, riskmanagement scenarios rendered useless, and office life dispersed into the digital ether. Meanwhile the cancellation of in-person meetings made once robust member value propositions look alarmingly weak. Tempting, then, to think of the pandemic as a temporary aberration. A ghoulish blip. In many ways, the world that is emerging from the fever dream of Covid-19 doesn’t look too dissimilar to the world that came before it. From a distance, you might struggle to tell the difference. But Ben Hainsworth, executive director of recovery unless associations can redefine why physical meetings matter Lanyardmanufacturers could enjoy a short-lived
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