Unprecedented times. Pivoting. Navigating the New Normal. Wear a Mask.

I know I am nowhere near the first, nor unfortunately, the last person to give you the terms above. We knew that 2020 had an impact on our community – an impact that would be felt beyond the time of herd immunity and 100% capacity events. I appreciate the nearly 100 AMCs that took the time out of a very dynamic time for all of our businesses to give us data about both the impact on their business as well as where the AMC Institute is hitting the mark or has opportunities to develop.

Dear AMCI Membership,

Many of us have watched as our industry wrestles with when and how to meet safely again. When the AMC Institute staff team worked with our industry partners to suggest shifting the Annual Meeting to June 2021, I know that the members of the Board took a collective deep breath and agreed to move forward. At the time we needed to make that decision, a relative handful of U.S. residents had received the vaccine, with no clear path forward for mass vaccination.

During the selection process, your association’s board of directors will ask a lot of questions about a new association management company (AMC). The questions will probably focus heavily on costs, staffing levels, past successes, and how the AMC has performed with similar associations.

Knowing how your AMC develops its cost structure and understanding how they’ve guided associations through the same obstacles to success is important—but many boards often fail to ask about an AMC’s culture.

The transition from one association management company (AMC) to another can be one of the biggest challenges an association’s board of directors will ever face. Even when the transition goes smoothly, replacing one staff team and headquarters with an entirely different one in a relatively short timeframe is always going to be difficult.

But while transitioning to another AMC may be challenging, it is often necessary. A board of directors and their AMC can become strategically misaligned. The association and/or the AMC may outgrow one another. There can be a need for new perspectives and new capacities.

When your board selects a new association management company (AMC), it isn’t like firing an employee.

It is like firing several employees, all at once.

As 2021 progresses, we are all feeling the collective desire for things to go “back to normal.” The COVID vaccine is quickly being distributed around the globe, and many are hoping that we’ll soon be returning to all the things we did pre-pandemic. For some, this includes hosting and attending in-person conferences and events.

We’ve fielded a myriad of questions from clients and prospects about what the rest of 2021 is going to look like, and the truth is, we really don’t know. None of us has a crystal ball, but what we can do is give insight into 6 areas we’ve been tracking when it comes to education for the remainder of 2021. 

The Palm Beaches is open for meetings and events, as we lead the way to re-envisioned face-to-face events with an enhanced focus on wellness, connection, and safety. In January, in partnership with the Palm Beach County Convention Center, we hosted a live event as an Official Network Partner of PCMA Convening Leaders.  By focusing on mental wellness and leveraging community partnerships to create engaging and creative experiences, we’re able to help our clients wow attendees without compromising safety. 

As we all know, these are incredibly stressful times as people are working remotely while caring for children or elders, feeling isolated and lonely, worrying about their finances and job security, dealing with political divide and racial injustice, trying to stay physically healthy, and more. That’s a lot! The good news is that if you’re reading this article, it’s likely because you care about your employees’ mental wellbeing and want to learn how you can help them.

With everchanging restrictions on gatherings and travel globally, the pandemic brought business as usual to an abrupt halt – significantly so in the world of events. But disruptions can also be fertile ground for innovation, and the meetings industry is ready to meet this challenge. In this spirit, Marriott International set out to plan, conduct, and learn from our series of hybrid virtual and in-person events. We call our series Connect with Confidence and introduced it as an extension of our Marriott Bonvoy™ Events initiative. While more events are planned around the world, our first two hybrid events were:

For the seventh year, Omnipress has surveyed over 150 association and meeting professionals to track the role conference content plays before, during, and after the event. This year’s survey measures the impact of 2020 on conference delivery, conference performance, and the resulting implications for 2021 and beyond.

COVID-19 has tested our ability to flex how and where we work. Employers’ next challenge is to design and implement flexible working strategies inclusive of all employees at all life stages, harnessing the many different forms flexibility can take.  

Many employers say they will increase flexible working at a grander scale than before the coronavirus pandemic to deliver value — such as sustained engagement, productivity increases, and greater access to expanded talent pools. One in three companies — compared to one in 30 previously — anticipate making half or more of their workforce remote following COVID-19. Still, engaging a blended workforce with differing employee experiences will be challenging to managers and teams. It will affect everything from hiring to learning and development and performance management.