One of the things I love about the meeting community is that we come together in good times and bad. For many of our readers and partners, a series of natural disasters has made this a challenging time—from hurricanes to earthquakes, the infrastructure that hosts our events has been threatened, and the industry has reacted heroically.
This has affected me deeply on a personal level, as I have dear friends and some of our team members who were caught up in the rush to evacuate and nervous waiting that followed. My heart is with them and their loved ones now and in the recovery that is to come.
As a company, we will be contributing to The Red Cross to support immediate relief efforts and will work with local charities as they take on the long-term rebuilding that will be required in some communities. We encourage our readers to show their support in whatever way makes sense for their groups. As we have seen so many times in the past, we succeed when we work together and everyone has something to contribute.
As always, we will continue to share the stories of bravery and kindness shown by the hospitality industry as they threw open the doors to convention centers and hotels for evacuated residents. We would like to commend the groups that donated to host cities after they were forced to cancel or postpone meetings. Many of the properties were unharmed or only required minimal cleanup to get back in business, but many will need our support as they invest in recreating the places we bring our groups. We will share these updates with you in the weeks and months ahead.
The event community is, by definition, resilient. We at Smart Meetings are dedicated to bringing you the latest information as it becomes available and supporting a return to transformative meeting experiences as soon as possible.
Warmest thoughts,
Marin Bright
