Convene editors gathered ideas and insights from a variety of sources to examine what the metaverse is and how business events professionals are and will be using it in the future. This is one in a series of stories (see list at bottom) from the March/April issue of Convene.

The metaverse is simply the natural next step in our evolution, a progression of the ancient human act of worldbuilding, argues Herman Narula in his book Virtual Society: The Metaverse and the New Frontiers of Human Experience. “From the Egyptians, whose conception of death inspired them to construct the pyramids,” writes Narula, “to modern sports fans, whose passion for a game inspires ritualistic devotion, humans have long sought to supplement their day-to-day lives with a rich diversity of alternative experiences.”

As much as Narula, cofounder and CEO of London-based tech company Improbable World Limited, believes in the promise of the metaverse, there is, he writes, a great deal of confusion over what it actually is. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Narula notes, defines the metaverse as an “even more immersive and embodied internet,” while Matthew Ball, author of The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything, describes it as a “massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds which can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data.”

These definitions fall short for Narula, who sees the metaverse as “a collection of realities, including the real world or a ‘home reality’ and a series of other worlds that society imbues with meaning. … The utility of the metaverse lies in its ability to facilitate meaningful, fulfilling experiences in its constituent worlds. Value is transferred between worlds in many ways, including through increased social cohesion, the creation of valuable artifacts of culture, and direct commerce.”

Narula is convinced that the metaverse has the potential to “make our physical world a better place and improve our lives,” he writes, “primarily by freeing us to do more, know more, be more, and experience more.”

Analog First

Not so fast, says journalist David Sax, whose book, The Future Is Analog: How to Create a More Human World, takes a more tempered approach to all things digital. While no future is inevitable, Sax writes, he is “fairly certain about two things.” One is that digital technology will continue to advance and have an impact on many aspects of our lives. The other is that the analog world — “the realm of emotion and relationships, real community, human friendships, and love” — will remain the one that matters most.

The Future Is Analog was inspired by the real-world experiments brought about by the pandemic, a time when lockdowns meant the whole world could “road test the digital future we were building,” Sax wrote. And instead of leaving us wanting more of that digital world, the experience left us “desperate for something more real.”

Sax doesn’t argue that we should live without technology, but rather that we are at a crossroads: We can continue to build a future where technology is the driver, or “we can pause, absorb the hard-learned lessons of the digital immersion that we experienced during the pandemic, and build a future where digital technology actually elevates the most valuable parts of the analog world, rather than replacing them.”

Sax interviewed academics, designers, business leaders, and others who described what’s lost when we trade face-to-face connections for digital ones. Our work suffers without the sensory information we get from moving around the world, designer Joseph White, director of workplace futures for Herman Miller, told Sax. “Our minds connect to the world around us,” White said, “and by the process of moving around it, we get information that we’re not consciously aware of.”

Sax also talked with education historian Larry Cuban, an emeritus professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, who is skeptical of claims that technology can be transformational in the classroom. Relationships are “what turns information into knowledge,” Cuban told Sax. “It turns something empty into something caring. You can’t get that from a screen. It’s impossible.”

“If we want our human needs to come before digital technology’s creators and investors, then we have to prioritize analog,” Sax concludes. “To build a more human future, we need to invest in analog reality, in all its messy glory.”

The general consensus in the business events industry is that this is the year we return full-steam ahead to in-person gatherings — putting us squarely in the Sax analog camp. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep an open mind about how the metaverse — which is still in its early stages and surely will evolve to provide a better user experience — can shape the future of events. Come along with us for a quick tour of the ways our industry is currently approaching the metaverse. No bulky VR headsets required.

Illustration by Chiara Vercesi

The Complete March/April CMP Series

• The Metaverse and Events, According to ChatGPT
• What Does an Event in the Metaverse Look Like?
• What Exactly Is the Metaverse? Here’s One Expert’s Take.
• A Virtual Tour Through Atlanta’s Convention Offerings
• Un-Remote Work in the Metaverse
• How the Metaverse Can Solve the Limitations of Physical Events

Earn one clock hour of CMP certification by visiting the Convene CMP Series page to answer questions about these stories. The Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) is a registered trademark of the Events Industry Council. 

For the CMP Series/cover story in our January/February issue, Convene examines how a handful of organizations are incorporating lessons learned from the ways the pandemic affected their audiences, stakeholders, and members into their go-forward strategies — and how they continue to transform (or at least tweak) themselves and their events. Find links to our series of stories below.

After reading these stories, you can earn one clock hour of CMP certification by visiting the Convene CMP Series page to answer questions about them. If the questions are not yet posted, please be patient and return at another time.

The Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) is a registered trademark of the Events Industry Council. 

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AMDA’s Journey to Meeting Back In Person

The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine’s annual conference has undergone several transformations since 2020. Here’s what the society’s meetings manager, Kristin Pichon, has learned about her members as a result. READ MORE

Medical Society Finds Success by Getting Uncomfortable

After taking a chance on a new format during the pandemic, The Aesthetic Society is reaping the rewards of taking more risks with its annual conference in 2023. READ MORE

How Short-Term Activations Can Create Lasting Positive Change

A growing number of destinations seeking to create community experiences since the pandemic are looking at Better Block’s neighborhood pop-up projects. READ MORE

Breaking Through the Mindset of Digital vs. In-person Events

It’s time to experiment more with hybrid meeting formats, says Annalisa Ponchia Baccara, director of international congress development at AIM Group International. READ MORE

Finding the ‘Sweet Spot’ for Anesthesiologist Group’s Annual Meeting

In November 2020, the American Society of Anesthesiologists took its annual meeting entirely online. Here’s what its digital event strategy looks like now. READ MORE

Science Group’s Hybrid Meetings Improve Access, Affordability 

The Genetics Society of America’s hybrid format, pricing structure, and content strategy gives global participants a chance to share the science. READ MORE

Acquisition of a Fan Expo Opens Doors for Nonprofit

When Pop Culture Classroom’s main fundraising event, Denver Comic Con, was acquired by Informa Connect in 2021, it freed up the organization to focus on its primary mission. READ MORE

The pandemic exacerbated our need for feeling connected with one another. And now that in-person events have resumed, organizers can reignite among participants the sense that a common purpose bonds them together. But that doesn’t always happen organically. For the December CMP Series and cover story, Convene editors asked experts across different fields how to intentionally design events that create a genuine sense of belonging. Find links to the stories below, or read in our December digital replica edition.

Illustrations by Jasu Hu 

The Psychologist’s Perspective 

Psychologist Geoffrey L. Cohen, author of Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides, offers insight into why belonging is vital to our wellbeing — and how to cultivate it at events so attendees keep coming back. Read “How to Help Attendees Feel Like They Belong.”

The Designer’s Viewpoint 

“Belonging is the thing that matters most,” writes designer Susie Wise in her book, Design for Belonging: How to Build Inclusion and Collaboration in Your Communities. Here’s a look at her “moments of belonging” and how to weave them into the fabric of events. Read “Designing Events That Build Communities.”

Insights From a Pair of Pros

A networking expert and a meeting organizer share their ideas about networking at events, and how to make everyone comfortable while doing it. Read “How to Cultivate Connection at Events.”

Understanding ‘How Belonging Can Be Built’

Event personalization helps create inclusive spaces built for everybody where “all roads lead to belonging,” says Naomi Clare Crellin, founder of Storycraft Lab.

Be a Croissant, Not a Bagel

Open body language is the key to successfully broadening your network, says networking expert Robbie Samuels. All it takes is a simple switch of your stance.

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Learn and Earn CMP Credit

Earn one clock hour of CMP certification by visiting the Convene CMP Series page to answer questions about these stories and those from past CMP Series stories. If the questions are not yet posted, please be patient and return at another time.

The Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) is a registered trademark of the Events Industry Council.

After a two-year COVID-induced break, Convene editors have brought back our Annual Industry Forecast as our November cover and CMP Series story, scouring through a wide variety of sources to offer the latest data and trends research on the travel, lodging, exhibitions, and event tech sectors. New this year, for obvious reasons, we’ve added the hybrid work environment to the mix.

It’s not a crystal ball by a long shot, but our hope is that whatever insights you glean from these pages will help in your calculus for near-future events. Here’s to training our eyes on what may come in 2023.

Below are links to some of the stories from the forecast. You will find the full Events Industry Forecast in our digital edition.

All illustrations by Jamie Cullen

EXHIBITIONS

5 Business Trends in 2023 That Will Impact Events

The business events industry will continue to face challenges in 2023. Here are five business trends to watch.

TECHNOLOGY

Top Social Media Channels for Event Organizers 

Sara Fellows, director of social media at mdg, shares her thoughts on the top social media sites to promote events.

TRAVEL

3 Travel Trends to Watch in 2023

Here are three trends we believe will impact travel — and the events and hospitality industries — in the near future.

LODGING

Staffing Shortage in Travel and Hospitality Sectors Remains an Issue

The average number of open positions at hotels dropped in the fall, but improvements are coming slowly, report shows.

HYBRID WORK

Managers and Employees Don’t See Eye-to-Eye on a Return to the Office 

Study shows almost half of managers polled want to bring remote workers back to the office, but more than 60 percent of employees don’t like the idea.

Learn and Earn

Earn one clock hour of certification by visiting the CMP Series page to answer questions about the forecast. You will find the full Events Industry Forecast in our digital edition.

The Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) is a registered trademark of the Events Industry Council.

While the pandemic was in full swing and in-person events were not taking place, we felt it would be tone deaf to continue conducting Convene’s Annual Salary Survey — that by asking our usual benchmarking survey questions, we wouldn’t be recognizing how the profession had been turned on its head.

But now in-person events have largely resumed, although differently than before, and it seems like the right time to take stock of how event organizers have navigated major shifts in their work — to see how you are faring, work- and salary-wise. We dusted off the Salary Survey after more than two years and added some new questions to help shed light on the ways your role and worklife have changed. In late July, nearly 350 event planners participated in our survey.

The good news is on the financial front: Respondents are earning significantly more than the group of planners who responded to the last survey in late February and early March of 2020, right before COVID lockdowns. The average salary for all meeting professional respondents is nearly six figures: $98,089, more than $10,000 higher than the average overall 2020 annual compensation. And we seem to be closer to closing the gender-pay equity imbalance. In our 2020 survey, women averaged $14,000 less than their male counterparts; in this survey, men out- earned women by around $5,000.

As a result of the pandemic-forced move to online events, one-quarter of respondents said they earned the DES (Digital Event Strategist) designation, compared to just 7 percent who had a DES in the 2020 survey. Those with the DES earned $8,000 more than those without the designation: $104,290 vs. $95,934. Those with a CMP earned $11,000 more than those without a CMP. And those planners who had earned the CMP and DES designations were earning $18,000 more than their colleagues with neither designation.

But these financial gains have come at a cost. For an industry that was already high stress pre-pandemic, with planners putting in long workweeks and sacrificing their accrued PTO days, there has been no relief. Half of respondents said they work more than 40 hours a week and nearly one-quarter are still at it more than 50 hours a week. One-third of planners said they took the minimal number of PTO days in 2021 and 8 percent took zero days off, compared to 3 percent who said in our 2020 survey that they took none of their personal and vacation days in 2019.

Nearly eight out of 10 planners said they have had more responsibilities added to their job description in 2022, compared to 67 percent who said the same in 2020.

More than half of the respondents to this survey said their employment remained unchanged by the pandemic, but one out of five found another job in the events industry; 15 percent were furloughed; and one out of 10 were let go and their previous position remains unfilled. One out of five respondents said members of their staff had been furloughed or let go.

And with all of the fresh challenges planners face in the new environment in addition to staffing shortages on their teams and among their supplier partners — higher costs due to inflation, lower in-person attendance, financial and logistical concerns with hybrid events, and a charged political/social reality in nearly half of U.S. states due to the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, to name a few — it’s no wonder a larger percentage of them say they are dissatisfied with the events industry as a whole. In 2020, nearly nine out of 10 respondents said they were satisfied with the meetings profession; in 2022, only 65 percent said the same — a decrease of 22 percent.

While there is a significant salary disparity — more than $16,000 — between those who are very dissatisfied and those who very satisfied with the overall profession ($84,162 vs. $100,439), money doesn’t seem an adequate salve when it comes to satisfaction with their actual roles. Those who said they were very dissatisfied with their jobs made only $2,000 less than those who said they were very satisfied with their roles ($102,996 vs. $104,803).

One thing planners have told us in past surveys is that they prize flexibility for a better work/life balance, and a hybrid work environment has been the silver lining for many white-collar workers in the wake of the pandemic, including business events professionals. In our 2020 survey, only 14 percent worked from home full-time and one-third part-time. In 2022, 85 percent said they work for employers with flexible hybrid work policies.

Find more about this survey’s respondents and what they said has changed about their jobs after the box below.

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Salary Survey 2022

The 2022 Salary Survey, conducted in late July with nearly 350 planners participating, is Convene’s September issue cover and CMP Series story. Find links to all the articles from the story package below.

• Salary Transparency: One Way to Combat Gender Pay Inequity
• Planners Speak: What Do You Like Best, And Least, About Your Job?
• How One Events Industry Professional Created Balance in Her Work Week
• Is Work Flexibility a Bittersweet Benefit?

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More Findings From the 2022 Salary Survey

Age + experience. The average respondent is 45 years old with 16 years of experience. Eighty-two percent are female; 16 percent are male; and less than 2 percent did not — or preferred not — to answer. Eight out of 10 respondents are white; 8 percent are African American or Black; 5 percent are Hispanic or Latinx; and 3 percent are Asian or Pacific Islander.

Pay + experience. The average salary for all meeting professionals is $98,089 — the median is $92,500. This is significantly higher than the average salary reported in the 2020 Salary Survey of $87,924. The average salary for meeting professionals with 1–3 years of experience is $57,343; 4–5 years, $65,042; 6–8 years, $71,041; 9–10 years, $88,050; and 10-plus years, $105,610.

Credentials. More than two out of five respondents have earned the CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) designation; and one-quarter have earned the DES (Digital Event Strategist) credential — not surprisingly, a huge jump from the 7 percent who had earned a DES in the pre-pandemic 2020 survey. Respondents with a CMP earned on average nearly $11,000 more a year than their colleagues without the designation: $104,262 vs. $93,506. Respondents with a DES earned $8,000 more than those without one — $104,290 with a DES vs. $95,934 without one. And those who earned both a CMP and DES were $18,000 ahead, earning $95,363 with neither designation and $113,451 with both.

Roles. The average salary for an association executive is $121,479; association meeting professional, $92,078; corporate meeting professional, $100,416; government meeting professional, $72,499; and independent meeting professional, $98,622; medical meeting professional, $89,996.

Senior-level. Twenty-six percent are managers, followed by directors (22 percent). Four percent are at the VP level. More than half (54 percent)
of respondents supervise a meetings staff. On average, they supervised six staff members.

Long weeks. Half of respondents put in between 41 and 50 hours a week and one-quarter have 30–40-hour workweeks. Fifteen percent are on the job 51 to 60 hours; and 8 percent burn the midnight oil, working 60-plus hours each week. One-third of planners said they took only one–10 PTO days in 2021; 20 percent took 11–15; and 8 percent took zero PTO days, compared to 3 percent who said they took none of their personal and vacation days in 2019 in our 2020 survey.

More work. Nearly eight out of 10 respondents said that they have had more responsibilities added to their job description this year, compared to 67 percent who said the same in 2020.

Less than three out of four. Sixty-eight percent received an increase in pay within the last 12 months; 23 percent said it has remained the same; 8 percent (vs. 2 percent in 2020) have seen their salaries decrease. Of those who received a salary increase, 17 percent said it was due to a promotion and three out of 10 said it was part of a regular increase. Thirteen percent said they had changed employers. Fifty-eight percent expect to receive a raise in the next year, but 16 percent do not, and one-quarter said they don’t know. Thirty-one percent reported that their salary increased by less than 5 percent; 27 percent said it increased by 5 to 9.9 percent; and 42 percent received increases of more than 10 percent. The average increase for those receiving a raise is 12 percent, vs. 7 percent in the 2020 survey.

Salary ranges. More than half (64 percent) of planners earn $70,000 or more annually. Annual compensation ranges: $40,000–$49,999, 2 percent; $50,000–$59,999, 6 percent; $60,000–$69,999, 12 percent; $70,000–$84,999, 17 percent; $85,000 to $99,999, 20 percent; $100,000–$124,999, 16 per- cent; $125,000 to $149,900, 5 percent; $150,000 to $174,900, 3 percent; $175,000 and above, 3 percent.

Satisfaction. Forty-seven percent report that they are satisfied with their current salary; nearly 40 percent expressed dissatisfaction. Sixty-two percent of respondents are satisfied with their specific jobs; nearly one-quarter expressed dis- satisfaction. And perhaps most striking of all, whereas more than eight out of 10 said in 2020 that they are satisfied with the meetings profession as a whole, only 65 percent — nearly 20 percent fewer — said the same in 2022.

Office locations. Four percent of respondents work for organizations located in Europe/U.K.; less than 2 percent in Asia; and five percent in Canada. The remainder work for organizations based around the U.S. — one-quarter in Washington, D.C., 11 percent in Chicago, 3 percent in New York, and nearly half in other locations around the U.S.

Silver lining. When we surveyed meeting planners in February and early March of 2020 before the pandemic lockdowns, one-third said they worked from home part-time and 14 percent full-time. Nearly one-third said they did not work remotely — and 22 percent said that they would like to. Wish fulfilled: 85 percent of respondents to this survey said their employer has a flexible hybrid work policy; only 14 percent work for organizations that do not.

Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene. The Salary Survey was conducted in late July and nearly 350 planners participated. All material © 2022 by PCMA.

Please download a PDF of findings — in charts and graphs — from the 2022 Salary Survey below.

By 2030, there will be a global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people. That prediction, based on research conducted by global management consulting company Korn Ferry, isn’t some dry, far-off statistic. Leaders who participated in the 2022 Fortune 500 CEO survey said they viewed a talent shortage as the No. 1 threat to their business — not in the future, but today.

It seems no industry has escaped the talent crunch, but for the events industry, hit particularly hard by the pandemic, the severe lack of people to get the job done as business returns really stings. To get a better sense of what we are up against, Convene spoke with leaders at an association, venues, and staffing solutions companies, as well as faculty teaching the next generation of event professionals, and culled comments from a recent Convene survey. Here is a sampling:

“We lost some good people in this part of the [events] profession as a result of how they put their heart and soul into all they did, only to be furloughed and/or laid off,” ASIS International CEO Peter O’Neil told Convene — and they aren’t coming back.

Those who have remained in the industry are stretched thin, working with reduced staff on their teams. “I now find myself doing the work of three full-time staff,” wrote one planner respondent in Convene’s April Dashboard survey. “It’s unsustainable.” On top of that, planners are trying to cobble together face-to-face events with partners who are also struggling with staffing issues — leaders at convention centers and AV companies also told us they are having difficulty attracting talent.

“Things are coming back so fast at a time when we don’t have the infrastructure to support it,” said Tracy Judge, MS, CMP, founder of staff sourcing company Soundings. “And there’s so much pressure internally” on planners, she told us, “to put on this awesome event.”

According to a U.S. Travel report summary, “A widespread trend of individual introspection and a re-evaluation of long-term career goals combined with a new generation of workforce that has a different value system is having an impact.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Michelle Holm, a Rosen College of Hospitality Management lecturer at the University of Central Florida: “I think students are continuing on with their education as they originally planned, but the students who were [particularly] affected [by the pandemic] are looking at it a lot differently than they used to.”

Which means the events industry itself has to change in order to attract talent and remain both viable and vital. We explore what that may look like in the ‘Hire Education’ articles listed below.

THE CEO PERSPECTIVE 

How One Association is Restaffing the Events Team

What does the leader of a large professional association look for as he restaffs his events team? Digital capabilities, for sure, but soft skills — and the ability to ‘see the landscape’ — are equally important. READ MORE

THE STAFFING SOLUTIONS AGENCY PERSPECTIVE 

It’s Time to ‘Think About Talent Differently’ 

Tracy Judge expanded the business model of her staffing solutions agency and as a result attracted more independent meeting and event organizers. READ MORE

THE RECRUITER PERSPECTIVE 

Stopping the ‘War on Talent’

Fixing employee burnout requires industry leaders to change their perspectives on what it means to value their workers by fostering an environment of wellbeing that allows employees to thrive. READ MORE

THE VENUE PERSPECTIVE 

‘Everybody Is Having a Difficult Time Attracting Talent’ 

Four women who lead operations at global convention centers share their thoughts about how they and their venues are handling the talent challenge. READ MORE

THE ACADEMIC PERSPECTIVE 

Expanding the Talent Pipeline 

While the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment in the events industry to grow much faster than the average for all occupations, some faculty at hospitality schools are seeing a decline in interest. They have some suggestions to reverse this trend. READ MORE

THE PLANNER AND SUPPLIER PERSPECTIVE 

The New Events Staffing Landscape is ‘Unsustainable’ 

Events planners and suppliers say staff reductions have created additional responsibilities for those still on the job — and many are at the breaking point. READ MORE

Editor’s note: This article is part of the Convene July 2022 cover & CMP Series story package. Find links to the other stories at the bottom of this page.

Event organizers were swimming in data before the pandemic. From information collected at their in-person events through their registration systems to their mobile apps, from social-media tools to web analytics, and from RFID badges to chatbots, there were abundant opportunities for event organizers to analyze how attendees experienced their events.

But when in-person events moved online during the pandemic, the volume of data available to organizers probably jumped tenfold, estimates Joe Colangelo, founder and CEO of Arlington, Virginia–based events analytics company Bear Analytics. And interestingly, he told Convene, the fidelity or quality of that data became higher.

Which means the stakes are higher for planners, and the pressure for them to develop data skills compared to before the pandemic has definitely increased, Colangelo said.

What we’ve set out to do in this article is not to provide a roadmap — what kinds of data to collect and how — as much as a lens, a way of looking at the data you collect to communicate to your stakeholders the way forward.

It’s important to remember, Colangelo said, that “data collection is not analytics. And analytics are not insights. You can have a treasure trove of data, and what typically happens with it? It gets exported into Excel, and then into charts, and maybe rolled up, like sessions attended over time, to get to answers to very specific questions. And then that’s often presented to someone else. Now that’s analytics, right? It’s not fun because it has to be done repeatedly, regularly, and probably feels like painful analytics. But it’s better than nothing, and it’s more impactful than just collection alone.”

Where you want to go from there, Colangelo said, is insights. “‘Insights’ is a fancy word because people can’t quantify it. What does that mean? Is it a metric?” For Colangelo, what truly “unlocks” data is going from insights to “enablement. The second you go, ‘This happened. I learned this, and then I or my team did something because of it and we improved our outcome’ — man, that’s the stickiest stuff I’ve ever seen. When our clients do that, and they go in and they see impact — like, ‘We targeted this specific group or persona from this location because the data from using Bear’s IQ told us we were deficient in that. And during our two-week campaign, we netted 25-percent more results.’ — that’s better than any training video I can record. That’s better than me explaining to them what the heck to do. Because they’re empowered and they’re enabled.

“And until you get to that point, you may always look at data as a four-letter word, frankly, because you’re either spending too much time on it or you feel like what you want is locked in a spreadsheet.”

Wrapping Data Around a Story

It’s one thing for the results to enable you to make improvements. It’s another to create a compelling case — a story — for what the data tells you what your path forward should be. “In a business world drowning in data, the most valuable employees will be the storytellers who have the skills to explain and inspire with data,” Nancy Duarte, principal of communications agency Duarte Inc., wrote in a LinkedIn post. “If you can understand data, give it meaning, and make actionable recommendations, you make yourself an invaluable asset to your workplace and industry. Data doesn’t speak for itself; it needs a storyteller.”

When Convene Deputy Editor Barbara Palmer spoke with Duarte after she had published her fourth book, DataStory: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story in 2019, she echoed those sentiments. People, Duarte told Convene, are often “nervous to take a point of view on the data. They tend to want to be able to say things like ‘Let the data speak for itself.’ Then they can hide — they don’t have to take a stance on the data.”

When you decide to say, “‘You know what, I have a point of view about what I found in the data,’” Duarte said, “that’s a real career-defining moment. That’s like moving from individual contributor to a trusted advisor” because you can recommend what action needs to be taken as a result.

“Data is kind of cold and factual and objective and we use it to prove a point,” Duarte says in an on-demand webinar at duarte.com. “Story is more warm and emotional and subjective, and we use that to make meaning.” Duarte went on to illustrate the impact of wrapping data in a story, taken from a study in Dan and Chip Heath’s book Made to Stick, in which students were given data and told they had to re-present the data back to the class. Some of the students chose only to state the statistics and others chose to tell a story. Only 5 percent of the class remembered the statistics when only data was shared, but 63 percent of the class remembered them when they were shared through a story.

“Story is a very powerful communication device,” Duarte says in the webinar. “Our brain fires in certain ways when a story is being told”compared to any other form of communication. “If you take data and wrap it in the shape of a story, people will recall it more.”

Michelle Russell is editor in chief and Barbara Palmer is deputy editor of Convene.

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Convene July 2022 Cover & CMP Series Package

Following are links to other articles from the July cover story:

• Event Data: Translating Numbers Into Concrete Ideas
• Making Emotions Count in Your Event Data
• Where to Start on Your Event Data Journey 
• 3 Steps to Impactful Data Storytelling

RELATED CONTENT

• Nancy Duarte’s “3 Ways to Help People Understand What Your Data Means” in the Harvard Business Review
• A five-minute HBR video, “Telling Stories with Data in 3 Steps”

Learn and Earn

Earn one clock hour of certification by visiting the Convene CMP Series page to answer questions about this story and the stories listed above.

The Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) is a registered trademark of the Events Industry Council.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has been conducting an annual survey measuring stress levels felt by Americans for 15 years; its most recent “Stress in America” survey was released in March and looked at the impact the combined weight of the pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and rising inflation has had on our collective wellbeing.

“The number of people who say they’re significantly stressed about these most recent events is stunning,” said APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr. “Americans have been doing their best to persevere over these past two tumultuous years, but these data suggest that we’re now reaching unprecedented levels of stress that will challenge our ability to cope.”

Included in that data was a snapshot of the role that work stress plays, relative to other factors, including health concerns, family responsibilities, and relationships. Work was listed as one of the top three stressors for Gen Z, Millenials, and Boomers, and in the top four for Gen X.

Fast Company devoted its summer issue cover story to mental health at work in response to how burnout, anxiety, and depression among workers are hitting record levels. It’s time, Fast Company staff write, to lift the stigma of having mental health conversations at work.

Consider the following pieces in the May/June Convene cover package our contribution to a healthy conversation about wellness in the business events industry — how we foster it for each other in our workplaces and for participants at our events.

Connection and Community in Minneapolis

Meet Minneapolis’s CEO Melvin Tennant shares how the DMO is addressing stress from the pandemic, George Floyd’s murder, and other world events with strategies and policies designed to support employees and the community. READ MORE

Workplace Mental Health: ‘A Collective Priority’

It is commonly understood that our emotional wellbeing was challenged during the pandemic. A study conducted last year bears that out. READ MORE

Survey on Mental Health and the Business Events Industry

In Convene’s latest COVID-19 Recovery Dashboard Survey, we asked planners and suppliers to share how two-plus years of working during the uncertainties of the pandemic has affected their wellbeing. READ MORE

What Planners and Suppliers Are Saying

In our recent Recovery Dashboard survey, we asked banners and suppliers about workplace culture, the need for flexibility, social connection, and other issues facing organizations. They had a lot to say. READ MORE

A Safe Space to Talk About Work and Mental Health

Why event entrepreneur Janice Cardinale is leading conversations about boundaries and burnout for meeting professionals. READ MORE

How a Walking Break Can Help You Think

Wellness entrepreneur Rebecca Thomas says walking outdoors during work hours is not only good exercise, but can help us unlock problem-solving powers. And science backs her up. READ MORE

Embracing Mental Health in the Workplace

How HR professionals are addressing post-pandemic mental health issues and supporting the wellbeing of employees — and themselves. READ MORE

Scroll down or click the links below to read each convention center’s story.

• Washington State Convention Center
• Overland Park Convention Center
• BMO Centre
• Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center
• Oklahoma City Convention Center
• Caesars Forum
• Monterey Convention Center
• 5 Ways Convention Centers Will Respond to the Pandemic

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Seattle’s ‘Places-Where-People-Actually-Connect Spaces’

When planning began in 2015 for an expansion of the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle, the assignment given to the project’s designers, LMN Architects Seattle, was to build the convention center of the future, said Kelly Saling, Visit Seattle’s senior vice president and chief sales officer. Construction on the center began in 2018.

And then in 2020, the future changed.

Now, as Visit Seattle prepares for the expansion to open in 2023, Saling said, “we get to see if [the convention center design] is pandemic proof.” In other words, would the projections architects made about what the building’s users would want in the future hold up amid the changes brought by the last two years? “I give [LMN Architects Seattle] a lot of credit for their vision,” Saling said. Because in general, the things they predicted would be important in the future, she said, “are some of the themes that I think we’re all eager to lean into post pandemic.”

One of the trends Saling noted is the heightened importance of flexible space for collaboration. During months of the forced cancellation of in-person meetings, we’ve been forced to “sort of distill things down to what matters, to what we can do in different ways and what we can’t accomplish in those ways,” Saling said. “I think that all of our eyes are opened to what we can accomplish in the digital sphere, in a way that we wouldn’t have gotten to as quickly had it not been accelerated by need. And we’ve also learned what’s missing online — the sense of human connection and inspiration, and the ideation that comes from being together.”

One of the primary architectural features of the new building naturally lends itself to such collaboration, Saling said. It’s called the Hill Climb, a broad, oversized wooden staircase, accessible from all six levels of the building, which rises diagonally on one side of the building alongside a glass wall with a view of Puget Sound. “It’s a place to sit and mingle or to plug in your devices and get your work done,” Saling said. Like the stairwell, the center’s foyers and hallways offer more than just a way to travel from one place to another, she said. The emphasis is on “the places-where-people- actually-connect spaces and the what-happens-outside-the-class spaces.” Customers are thinking about space in new, more flexible ways, she added. “They’ll say, ‘We need three large spaces, and we need two breakouts and the rest of the space — people will use it however they use it.’”

And after two years of working from home and enduring travel restrictions, people are yearning for an authentic sense of place, she said. “People don’t want to go somewhere and feel like they haven’t been there,” Saling said. Convention centers often are built away from the center cities, where there’s space for development to be built around them. That’s not the case in Seattle. The convention center addition — which is a separate building a block-and-a-half away from the existing center — has been built in the middle of a thriving, compact downtown, she said.

It was a challenge to find a way to put the pieces together, Saling said, but the new building’s perch overlooking the Pike Place Market is one of its chief advantages, she said. The façade’s acres of glass “let in light and give you the feeling that you’re getting out into the world,” she said. The pandemic also has taught us that it’s important to “get out and breathe a little bit — you can’t just stay hunkered down in one space.” Every level in the building has natural light, and the center is surrounded by public spaces, restaurants, and retail. Plus, it’s only a seven-minute walk to the market, she said.

Saling said she sees a lot of hope on the horizon, “in the form of all we’ve learned from the pandemic about the ability to do things differently, including digitally,” she said. And we’ve learned a lot about “our yearning for connection and not just treating that as an ancillary thing,” she said. Meeting agendas in the past, by and large, have been all about content, she said. “But it’s not just content that rounds out the experience in a meaningful way.” — Barbara Palmer

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Making Event Spaces Sensory Inclusive

Perhaps the silver lining in the pause on face- to-face events caused by COVID-19 has been that it has given venues a chance to think about welcoming returning visitors through a lens of inclusivity. While the COVID break might not have been what prompted the Overland Park Convention Center to focus on this, nevertheless, last year, the Overland Park, Kansas, facility decided to specifically accommodate individuals with sensory needs, such as those with autism, anxiety, dementia, and PTSD.

The center partnered with nonprofit KultureCity to become sensory-inclusive certified and the first convention center to open a KultureCity-approved sensory room for guests who are neurodivergent or have a disability. The room is in a secluded area of the building to give those experiencing sensory overload space for peace and quiet.

KultureCity, an organization that helps destigmatize conditions with sensory needs, helps venues and attractions become more welcoming and inclusive to all. The program trains venue employees on how to work with guests with sensory needs, finds appropriate “quiet zones” venues can create for guests feeling overstimulated, and provides “sensory bags” complete with noise-canceling headphones, fidget tools, and verbal cue cards to comfort guests who require them, as well as weighted lap pads. — Casey Gale

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Gathering Around the Fire in Calgary

Because of the pandemic, much of the collaborative design work for the expansion of the BMO Centre in Calgary, Canada, scheduled to open in 2024, has taken place over Zoom. Which is a little ironic, given the fact that one of its signature elements, a 25,000-square-foot space called The Exchange, represents what Michael Lockwood, senior principal at Populous, the project’s architectural firm, called “a doubling down” on human connection.

The Exchange, conceived as a vibrant, buzzing hub for the center, is anchored by a two-story fireplace — the largest in the Canadian province. There’s also a bar and plentiful seating, “all of the ingredients to let humans come in and just be themselves — to be the creatures they are,” Lockwood said. “We’re designing a place for people to come to gather, to allow magic to happen.

“I think that the building answers questions that we’ve had over the last two years about the pandemic and what does the future of meetings look like,” Lockwood said. That conversation “always comes back to that type of space. I think it’s compelling to many people for many reasons, but it’s really doubling down on the human condition of gathering around a giant fireplace, letting conversations happen, meeting people that you didn’t expect to meet — you know, bumping into somebody. That’s why you go to conferences in the first place, to have that face-to-face interaction and human experience.”

The 560,000-square-foot expansion will double the convention center’s size, and designers have focused on stacking convention center space vertically to make room for community space around the center where visitors and locals will gather. Their design team has been inspired, Lockwood said, “by the feeling you get in a European train station, with people coming and going to a place that has a certain spirit about it.”

The building’s outlines are intentionally bold, and designed to reflect the city’s Western heritage, Lockwood said. “People don’t love buildings that are anonymous,” he said. “They love them because they can connect with them emotionally. And we’ve gone all in on the iconic design of both the exterior and interior spaces.”

Creating a sense of place is meaningful, not just for those who are at the center in person, but also for those who might be connecting to meetings remotely. “Even if I’m watching on the computer, I feel connected because there’s a place there — it’s not just an anonymous studio,” Lockwood said. “I think again, understanding the human condition and why people gather, even if you can’t be there, you want to feel like you’re there.

“Hybrid models are really hard,” Lockwood said. “Don’t make it harder by making them high-tech — make them more human by making them more meaningful.” — Barbara Palmer

Related: Our Relationship with Public Spaces Changed During the Pandemic

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Making the Connection in Long Beach

When considering the changes to convention centers brought about by COVID, what comes to mind first for Bob McClintock, executive vice president, convention centers, for the Los Angeles–based venue and event management company ASM Global, is the need for them to enable digital extensions of live events that have high-production value.

Convention centers “fundamentally have to look at their ability to be connected to the outside world,” McClintock said. “I think we are reevaluating both our capabilities and our business model because it’s going to be so integral to the success of shows. It’s no longer just, ‘Let me do a handheld and just shoot it. And that’s what people will look at.’ It’s really a production now.”

McClintock pointed to Long Beach Convention Center, which is managed by ASM Global, as “a perfect example” of a destination and venue that has embraced this approach. “They actually have a production person who works with the show organizers to turn it into something that people want to engage with,” he said. “I think that’s a great example of a center and a destination that are looking ahead to what may be the next gen of our business.”

That doesn’t mean that he is “walking away from the concept of face-to-face,” he said. “We look at the two things that drive the convention and trade-show industry: the need to be face-to-face to transact business and the need to be face-to-face to become educated. Those are the two reasons we gather.”

What we’ve learned during COVID, he said, is “the importance of our children learning in a face-to-face environment. I think educators, parents — everyone — realizes that kids learn better when they’re engaged face-to-face. Adults are no different.”

McClintock thinks the addition of broadcast studios at convention centers doesn’t cannibalize the in-person event — “they’re not replacing, they’re additive,” he said. “They’re expanding the scope and reach. This could very well end up being a positive for our industry in as much as we’re not changing to be something different, we’re learning to add things to what we already are. I think it is a very exciting time, a little scary, but a very exciting time.” — Michelle Russell

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Five Ways Convention Centers Will Respond to the Pandemic

In a new book, Rethinking the Way We Gather: Designing the Convention Center of the Future, Kansas City–based architectural firm Populous outlines the results of its research into how convention centers can respond to the current pandemic, as well as future health crises. Populous identified five top trends, including:

1. Public-space enhancement

• Enhanced circulation
• Additional space in lobbies

2. New spaces

• Flexible outdoor space
• Spaces designed for wellness
• Spaces designed for working away from the office
• Unique and recognizable design elements in spaces that host hybrid events

3. Improvement to touchpoints

• Antimicrobial materials
• Hands-free fixtures
• Operational response

4. Technology enhancements

• Holistic event apps
• Online registration
• Enhanced Wi-Fi
• Cashless payments
• Mobile tickets

5. Improved air quality

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Getting Outside in Las Vegas

Construction for the 550,000-square-foot Caesars Forum conference facility in Las Vegas began in 2017 and wrapped up in October 2020 — in the midst of COVID. Even though it was a planned feature from the beginning, the facility’s outdoor space — the 100,000-square-foot Forum Plaza — has ended up being a big selling point in COVID times.

“That was something that customers were looking for even before COVID,” said Lisa Messina, senior vice president of sales, Caesars Entertainment. “But,” she added, “COVID amplified the request for alternative outdoor spaces that they could use for large-scale group events. Outdoor space has been very beneficial and was originally part of our plans, but I think you’re going to see that even more as a footprint [for event venues] going forward.”

Messina shared that planner requests for functions held outdoors have grown since COVID, including receptions poolside and takeovers of the LINQ Promenade, an open-air shopping, dining, and entertainment district adjacent to the Forum that is closed off to vehicular traffic.

Another trend that Messina sees as becoming even more pronounced after COVID is an event venue environment “that feels like home.” For example, the initial, pre-COVID plan to incorporate succulent walls in the Forum’s boardrooms was part of its efforts to achieve Silver LEED status. Messina said that live indoor plants featured throughout the property have become even more appreciated by groups as it’s understood that they help contribute to better air quality — something COVID has made us even more aware of.

In addition, she points out, the need for increased bandwidth at event venues — as hybrid events or digital extensions of an in-person event become more common — has become more critical. The online audience, Messina said, is “now four to five times the size of audience that it was. So, anybody who is investing in technology is going to be doing it with the mindset of not what the needs are today but anticipating those virtual extensions to be high-production quality, which is going to require that you are outfitted with the right bandwidth and the right service providers.” — Michelle Russell

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Ready for a Close-up in Monterey

When Doug Phillips, the general manager for the Monterey Convention Center on California’s Central Coast, went looking for a way to provide the facility’s customers with a solution for hybrid and virtual meetings, he didn’t take any half measures.

Last summer, a 6,000-square-foot immersive studio with a wrap-around, 360-degree video wall was installed in a ballroom at the center. The studio was a leap made at the nadir of the pandemic lockdown, Phillips said, after he found himself virtually alone in the convention center. Doing something that could help customers more easily produce virtual and hybrid events was better than walking around an empty building by himself, he said. “I’m a risk-taker.”

Phillips brokered a deal with the Montreal-based Immersive Design Studio, creators of the state-of-the-art technology developed for use in esports and gaming applications, as well as events. Monterey’s studio has two screens, each with 1,100 “tiles,” which means that the images of 2,200 remote participants can be displayed at the same time. “That in and of itself is unique,” Phillips said, but the technology “also gives presenters the opportunity to spotlight a member or members of the remote audience and have a conversation with them.” The technology is easy to use, and reduces some of the costs of doing hybrid, because the backbone is already installed, Phillips said. “And the quality is comparable to a live television broadcast.”

Phillips has encouraged Convention Center staff to look at the studio as a living laboratory, where they can “try different things and see what works,” he said. One recent and successful experiment was a breakfast for past presidents that was hosted by a state human resources association. There was a table set up on the stage, where breakfast was served to 12 in-person participants. Remote participants joined via the screen.

“It was really fascinating,” Phillips said. It took a little time to educate the people who were in the studio on how to communicate with on- screen participants, “but by the end of breakfast, you had this great dialogue going on between the people that were in studio and the people who were virtual.”

Phillips plans to keep the studio experiment going, with one change. He plans to move the studio into space near, but not inside, the convention center. With in-person meetings returning to the convention center, space is at a premium. It’s a priority, he said, to regain full access to the ballroom where the studio currently is installed. — Barbara Palmer