Beyond Covid: Current Challenges for Associations

Eventful: The Podcast for Meeting Professionals

Omicron will subside soon, believes Gregg Talley, but organizations should prepare for longer-term effects of the pandemic

For associations worldwide, the new year started with an unexpected wave of cancellations and postponements, but Gregg Talley, president and CEO of Talley Management Group, believes membership organizations are facing greater challenges to the live-event business model. In this episode of Eventful, the podcast for meeting professionals, Talley talks with Northstar’s Loren Edelstein about other factors hampering in-person events — and possible solutions.

Among the topics discussed are:

• Current realities for association meetings and unknowns about the longer-term impact of the pandemic (1:20)

• How the lack of critical services such as childcare directly impacts in-person attendance (3:00)

• The effect of staff shortages in service industries, and the imperative to pay front-line workers a living wage (5:00)

• What international meetings industry associations can and should be doing to support business events (6:00)

• The elusive goal of monetizing a digital meeting (7:30)

• How some associations obtained IATA numbers to receive commissions from airlines and hotels (8:20)

• The opportunity — and imperative — to reconsider the varied needs of members, and find new ways to engage and serve them (12:20)

• Why collaborating with sister organizations and other creative ideas are essential (13:45)

• How consolidation of meetings industry associations would serve planners and suppliers better (15:45)

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