The emphasis on cleaning and disinfecting venues in the age of COVID-19 is missing a larger point: Reliably healthy and safe environments depend on clean air and a more holistic approach.

AIM Meetings and Events has teamed up with Inspire Diagnostics and Unisys Corporation to offer a new test — at no charge to attendees — to assist the business events industry in returning to safe, in-person events. 

The Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO) and UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry, produced a case study detailing how three independent show organizers joined forces to bring a safe in-person marketplace to the fashion industry in Orlando in early February. Here are highlights.

Do capacity limits for indoor meetings include event staff? A handful of event professionals recently shared their knowledge on PCMA’s Catalyst forum.

In the summer of 2020, three CMPs came together to create the Pandemic Compliance Advisor course, which offers continuing education credits and a new designation for meeting professionals.

The digital tools that make it possible to conduct all or part of site visits remotely have come to the forefront over the last year, in ways that may change how planners book meetings in the future. Planners and destinations share their strategies.

Emerald shared lessons learned from hosting Surf Expo in Orlando in January in a new case study published by SISO and UFI.

The in-person component of PCMA Convening Leaders 2021 held in Singapore demonstrated what it takes — including a rapid testing program — to safely gather a group of 300 during the pandemic.

Trends expert Daniel Levine sees the near future of live events as “nothing less than spectacular.” For special events company owner Kevin Molesworth, the picture is less rosy.

When the Global Wellness Summit hosted a four-day hybrid event in Palm Beach, Florida, serving as an example for how in-person events can be conducted safely was a key goal.

With travel curbed by the pandemic, two very different events — one in the U.S. and one in Italy — were reinvented as outdoor road shows.

The editors of Convene looked back over 2020, asking this question: What’s one meeting and event trend on my radar in 2021?