Last week PCMA announced the next steps in its global business events industry recovery plan, Recovery Discovery, at a series of digital broadcasts in Asia Pacific, EMEA and the Americas late last week. The announcements provide PCMA members, partners and business event stakeholders all over the world with new opportunities to gain actionable insights and community connections that will help them be successful through the pandemic and beyond.

"PCMA is making bold moves to help our audiences — from business event strategists to destination marketing organizations to premier venues around the world — design strategies to regain lost ground and gain new footholds,” said PCMA President and CEO Sherrif Karamat. "We are in the business of human connections, and today we are needed more than ever. Regardless of the channel, no one is better equipped than our industry to ensure that people with ideas and perspectives can safely connect."

Among the announcements shared on the PCMA Digital Broadcasts:

Convening Asia Pacific 2020 – the Global Recovery Forum

An all-new, omnichannel event, CAP will take place digitally around the world and face-to-face at the International Convention Centre Sydney in Australia on Nov. 10, offering the practical knowledge, strategies and solutions needed to help the APAC business events community navigate its recovery. "Our audiences crave new ideas to set themselves up for career advancement and business success," said Melbourne-based PCMA APAC Managing Director Karen Bolinger. "Convening Asia Pacific 2020 will stimulate creative thinking across the pillars of participant engagement, business model and reskilling, based on the research foundation established by Business Events Compass."

Convening Leaders 2021

A new omnichannel approach will give audiences the flexibility to participate how and where they choose on Jan. 11-15, 2021. (Registration is now open.) Through digital, participants will form cohorts and micro-communities that stick together throughout the CL21 experience. Face-to-face, participants will attend chapter gatherings in North America, as well as events at locations across the globe. Houston, the intended host city, will be part of CL21 and will be awarded a future Convening Leaders event. 

Rethink, Reskill, Recover

As part of its Accelerating Reskilling workforce development campaign with a goal to reskill 1,000 professionals, the PCMA Foundation will host a digital fundraiser on Sept. 23 with a live and silent auction, giveaway of five Digital Event Strategist courses, and live musical entertainment. “My hope is that we raise more money, we’ll be able to reskill more than 1,000,” said Karamat in a digital press conference. 

New EMEA Business Leader

Jaimé Bennett was introduced as business director of EMEA to lead PCMA’s EMEA business operations. Her focus will be on the development of a new PCMA EMEA regional business plan in conjunction with PCMA’s EMEA Regional Advisory Board. 

"The recovery of business events in EMEA will be varied and complex, and PCMA plays a vital role,” said Bennett, who is based in Ireland. “Collaboration with business event leaders throughout the region will be my top priority to ensure PCMA is developing products and services to serve the unique needs of the EMEA region.”

Together these initiatives provide a range of strategies to help PCMA audiences reestablish their communities, careers and businesses in the next normal. "While there is a long road ahead to full recovery, we must learn from our collective experiences and emerge with new value propositions that tap technology to reach new audiences," said Karamat. "Business events are not only a powerful catalyst for driving organizational success, but a key platform for economic and social transformation.”