EDITOR’S LETTER
Touching distance I can almost taste it, can’t you? e return of in-person events is a tangible reality rather than the hopeless pipe dream it seemed
That’s why you’ll find this issue themed around the subject; from the latest on M&IT’s Sustainability Now! campaign to expert pieces on incorporating sustainable ideas into your event design, incentives, marketing and more. There’s never been a more important time to connect the dots on sustainability – and whether you’re a novice or veteran on green issues, we’ve got something to help you on your journey. Elsewhere in the mag we’ve got all the usual content for curious-minded event professionals. In this month’s Strictly Corporate I caught up with a planner who has seen Covid-19 bring into focus the value of events for her company, while for Agency Pitch I discovered how pivoting with purpose has propelled one rm through the pandemic. We’ve also got exclusive case studies from the British Travel Awards and the British oracic Society, both of whom took their annual events online for the rst time. Dr Virtual is on hand to cure your online networking woes, while our destination features onMilan, Malaysia andMelbourne will have you itching to get back – responsibly – to overseas travel. We also found time to catch up with the newly-minted Institute of Event Management, to discover its plans for greater professional recognition for eventprofs. It’s a real bumper edition, at the beginning of what promises to be a bumper few months for the sector. Dive in!
a fewmonths ago. We’re not out of the Covid woods yet, but we’ve got our map the right way up, we’re con dent we’re on the right path and we’re striding purposefully ahead. Here at M&IT we even got to go to a real-life in-person event, as senior journalist Holly Patrick ventured up to Liverpool to join 400 mask-free, freshly- tested attendees at government pilot event Change Business for Good, the UK’s first large-scale business event in more than a year. The massive response on social media showed the sheer scale of pent-up demand and appetite for the return of face-to-face. As I write this, the long-heralded June 21 date for reopening in England is under There’s never been a more important time to connect the dots on sustainability threat thanks to the newly-emerging Indian variant. But regardless of whether it happens precisely on the summer solstice or not, what is clear is that vaccines will provide us with our route out of this crisis very soon. And beyond that is the promised land of a packed domestic schedule for the rest of the year, where we will gure out what it means to be a post-Covid event professional in the UK. As we engage with the next normal, there seems little doubt that sustainability is going to be at the centre of our thinking.
pharvey@ntmllc.com
@meetpie
M&IT Magazine
mitmagazine
mitmagazine.co.uk MAY 2021 5
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