Still haven’t booked your ticket for American Society of Association Executives Annual Meeting & Exposition in Columbus, Ohio, August 10-13? Experience Columbus is sweetening the pot by throwing in even more only-in the “indie arts capital of the world” adventures. Here are the top 10 reasons for registering now—and John Legend and Brad Paisley are only two of them.
1. Location: Columbus is one of the fastest-growing big cities in the country for a reason. The growing economy and much-lauded quality of life lure residents and business travelers alike. Experience Columbus reported a record 551,653 nights booked in 2018 for meetings, conventions, groups and sporting events.
2. Friends: More than 5,000 association industry professionals are expected to attend so everyone you have been trying to meet with all year will be there focused on sharing ideas, networking and celebrating.
3. COSI Views: Columbus is a city of five distinct neighborhoods—University District, Short North Arts District, Arena District, Downtown and Franklinton, and German Village. The opening celebration on Saturday night will be at COSI, a science museum and research center with the perfect vantage point for taking it all in.
4. Power Players: The opening keynote with New Power authors Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms will reveal the secrets for working smarter in a hyperconnected world. Heimans is co-founder and CEO of Purpose and Timms is president and CEO of 92nd Street Y.
5. The Classic: ASAE Foundation’s annual fundraiser has set the bar high as a do-not-miss event and this year is no exception. The floor of Nationwide Arena will transform into a chic soiree with All of Me recording star John Legend, a native of Springfield, Ohio. Plus, it is for a good cause, advancing association and nonprofit leadership.
6. Real Solutions: Whatever your challenge, the thousands of vendors at Association Solutions Marketplace (Expo) have the answer. Wear your walking shoes and find the destination/ event tech company/ [insert resource here] you need to return to the office as a hero.
7. Passion: Closing keynote singer and actor Alton Fitzgerald White will share insights from his autobiography My Pride: Mastering Life’s Daily Performance, for consistently doing your best every day.
8. Express Live!: The closing reception will feature the best of Columbus with a fashion show provided by national retailers based in the area—Abercrombie & Fitch, The Limited and Victoria’s Secret. This stylish crowd will be treated to local food trucks, craft beer and spirits.
9. Celebrity: The parting notes for attendees will be played by local bands covering a juke box of genres with country music singer and songwriter Brad Douglas Paisley sharing notes—and possibly fishing stories—as the headliner.
10. Discounts: Early bird registration ends May 10, so time is ticking.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere these days—from smart assistants, cars and homes to investing, advertising, security and medicine—and it’s evolving rapidly.
The travel industry is not immune to the impact of AI. On the contrary, it is fertile ground for new applications and innovations. Travel management companies are increasing their investments in the technology in order to fine-tune the traveler experience and, in turn, achieve their business goals.
AI is already making business travel less stressful. It can make baggage tracking more seamless, facilitate hotel check-ins, and help minimize the pain of flight cancellations. Travel managers reap the benefits of AI-enabled and automated business-travel bookings in the form of fast access to the most cost-effective and rewarding options for their travel programs.
While the technology has a way to go—and as with any innovation, it has its challenges—AI has started to shape the way we travel and is helping to inform the next generation of travel management.
Flight delays have long been the bane of not only weary travelers, but the airline industry, as well. But companies such as Google have been working on AI to remove this age-old stressor. Just this past December, Google announced proactive flight notifications and airline technology company SITA recently revealed that it was successfully able to predict flight delays up to six hours before their expected arrival.
2. Personalization
Whether it’s a hotel room that feels like home (or better), itineraries that incorporate hotels, transportation services, restaurants and activities as unique as a fingerprint, or pertinent suggestions for alternatives, AI can tailor trips to suit anyone’s tastes and needs.
3. Safety
Safety is an essential factor in travel, especially when going to a new country. It’s difficult to know the reliable services in the area or who to trust for relevant information. But AI provides almost built-in security in the form of ranking or grading, reducing the chance of fraud.
Traveling to a new country with a different first language is a challenge. But now there are many apps available that make it easier than ever to communicate more efficiently with people all over the world. And Google translate works offline, making the language barrier smaller than ever.
Koegelenberg has been named general manager of Fusion Resort Cam Ranh in Vietnam. Koegelenberg has nearly a decade of hospitality experience in Asia. In his most recent position, he was general manager of Paresa Resort & Spa in Phuket, Thailand. He previously held roles at other Thailand-based properties: Six Senses Samui in Koh Samui and Sarojin Resort in Khao Lak.
Karl Kruger
Kruger is the managing director for two Temecula, California, winery resorts: South Coast Winery Resort & Spa and Carter Estate Winery and Resort. Most recently, Kruger served as general manager of Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel. He’s served in management positions at other California-based properties, including Fairmont Newport Beach and Noble House Hotels & Resorts. He had a stint in the cruise industry, as well, at Seattle-based Cruise West, where he served as senior vice president.
David Kingston
Snow King Resort & Condos, based in Jackson, Wyoming, has appointed David Kingston general manager. Before this position, Kingston served as chief operating officer for Averill Hospitality in Whitefish, Montana. He also served as general manager of Brasada Ranch in Bend, Oregon. Kingston was once on the board of directors of Jackson Hole Air and Jackson Hole Central Reservations, and the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce Special Events Committee.
Daryl Montalvo
Montalvo is a new member of Hilton Palacio del Rio in San Antonio, Texas. He is now sales manager of the Northeast region for the property. He started his career with Hilton Hotels, serving as a director of group sales; in his most recent position, he also served as sales manager for Grand Hyatt San Antonio.
Wayne Childs
The Hampton Inn & Suites Gainsville-Downtown has appointed Childs as its new director of sales. Childs most recently worked as sales manager at The Plantation on Crystal River in Crystal River, Florida. He’s served in sales and operational roles at other Gainesville, Florida, properties, such as Hilton University of Florida Hotel and Conference Center, the former Paramount Plaza and University Centre Hotels.
Kevin Rosa
Rosa is the director of sales and marketing at Chateau Elan Winery & Resort in Braselton, Georgia. Previous roles include task force sales and marketing at Strategic Solution Partners and director of sales and marketing at Villas of Grand Cypress in Orlando; The Don Cesar in St. Pete Beach, Florida; and Turnberry Isle Miami in Aventura, Florida, to name a few. He was a member of the Hospitality Partners Committee from 2004 to 2007.
Mary-Catherine Moore
Moore is the director of events and catering at the newly opened Shinola Hotel in Detroit. Moore previously was assistant director of events at The William Vale in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood in New York City. She has been a part of NoHo Hospitality Group—the food and beverage operator for the property—since 2013. She’s held other positions with the company throughout the years, including private events coordinator at Locanda Verde and events manager at Little Park, both in New York City.
Planning an event for 50 people or fewer? You may be able to skip the RFP. A smorgasbord of vendors is now making it possible to DIY the booking process Expedia-style. Each one offers different formats, inventories and support, but all are finding an eager market for planning how—and when—it is convenient for them. After all, these systems are open 24-hours a day and never take a lunch hour. Following are some of the options.
Meetings Express
American Express Meetings and Events, a division of American Express Global Business Travel, is rolling out an online platform that will allow those with simple meetings to line up everything from meeting space to sleeping rooms, instantly. Linda McNairy, vice president of global operations and shared services for American Express Meetings and Events, explains that visitors can choose from thousands of venues in North America, across Europe and Australia. They can also “request to book” (this gives the property time to confirm dates) or submit an RFP to multiple properties. In some instances, planners can even order coffee, tea and meals through the self-serve window before confirming.
Companies can place budget or attendee parameters and approval process steps around the service, similar to travel and expense platforms.
Quick Groups
“The RFP is just friction,” said Brian King, global officer of digital, distribution, revenue management and global sales for Marriott International. For small gatherings of 10-25 rooms, one-button meetings is the future, he said.
Planners can already access Marriott’s Quick Group page, pick a type of travel, search for properties, select an AV package, order breakfast and lunch options, and check availability whenever it is convenient for them. “It saves time for planners,” King says.
Lots of people are taking him up on it. “We already see self-service growing on our site exponentially,” he said. “Many of these are non-professional planners who are booking club meetings and group outings online in their spare time. They just want it to be easy,” he said.
“That will grow as technology grows,” he predicted.
Professional Planners Still a Priority
The idea of Expedia-style meeting booking concerns many in the events world who say there are too many moving parts. When asked about the possibility of meeting procurement going the way of the cruise booking, Jamie Murdock, vice president of sales for Experient, said he would have made that prediction years ago, but finds planners still rely on relationships and negotiations because there are a lot of moving parts.
The Venetian Resort
Another entry into the property-driven booking space is Venetian Meetings Virtual Planner, a tool designed specifically for MICE professionals. This unique application allows prospective customers the ability to customize and research venues prior to contacting a representative at the resort. Planners can design a configuration on the site in two and three dimensions and attach the customized layout to the automated RFP.
“This new tool encourages them to think differently when planning their meeting and allows us to showcase the resort’s offerings by helping professionals visualize the spaces and their configurations,” said Chandra Allison, senior vice president of sales at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas.
SocialTables
Everything from Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. to InterContinental Montreal is at your service at the click of a button through SocialTables (which was recently acquired by Cvent). Planners can see scaled diagrams, read reviews and compare properties using the venue search engine. Once in your cart, an online RFP process kicks in.
Parent company Cvent offers the daddy of all venue databases with 250,000 destinations available for browsing and a system for managing the proposal process. Both also offer resources for planners on best practices.
advertisement
This Open Space
Looking for “one-of-a-kind” spaces? How about a 600-square-foot playground in Vancouver’s Chinatown? You can book it by the day, week or month with access to a support team and $2 million in liability coverage using This Open Space. The Canadian-based company that allows Airbnb-style bookings has entered the U.S. market and recently started promoting pop-up retail spaces.
BCD Meetings & Events
Simple Meetings is the online solution for small events that require space and hotel rooms around the world from full-service planning consultant BCD Meetings & Events. Bonus, it plays well with most travel and expense management systems.
Sure, Caesars Entertainment was drawn to Event Design Collective’s expertise and worldwide success in establishing a partnership that will offer a free certificate program to 1,000 meeting professionals and Caesar’s team members.
But what piqued Caesars’ interest—and what differentiates it from some other event design programs—is the strong emphasis on personal interaction and engagement.
“The human element is the key differentiator with this program,” says Lisa Messina, vice president of sales for Caesars Entertainment. “Many certifications and education that our professionals go through tend to focus on logistics, for obvious reasons. This program takes us outside of the ballroom box of transportation issues and things of that nature.
“It talks about what is the behavior, what are the feelings, that you want your attendees to come to your event with and what are the changes in their behavior, so that when they leave your meeting or event, that’s when the real stuff happens, that’s when the real ROI begins.”
“One of the things that we do is make sure that a group of people design together and figure out who has a stake in the event, and use Empathy Mapping,” Rudd says. “It’s a technique were multiple people and multiple brains, in a very orderly sequence, go through a process to extract what people see, think and feel…hear, say and do—to find out what their pains and gains are before and after an event. We subsequently use the #EventCanvas, which is intended to create a common language around event design.”
Jansen and Frissen conducted a three-day course in Las Vegas earlier this year, marking the beginning of a three-year partnership with Caesars that will provide training and coaching—as well as sponsored summits and industry events—in Las Vegas. The three-day training courses are part of the Event Design Certificate Program, and are followed by six months of coaching on a real-life event. The objective is to use a systematic, 10-step visual approach to teach participants critical skills that will enable them to design events based on stakeholder needs and then prototype event designs using the #EventCanvas.
On the first day of the Las Vegas training, 26 participants first gathered in a circle and then engaged in an interactive activity in which they shared something important about themselves. This helped to establish a familiarity among members. In the afternoon, the group was split into two groups, each of which focused on National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell as a stakeholder in the upcoming player draft.
“We articulate the behavior change of stakeholders,” Jansen says. “There’s a group of people involved in providing input, and they can think of a particular stakeholder and walk a mile in their shoes so that they look at that situation through the lens of that specific stakeholder.
“This allows you to harvest from various brains and various perspectives input to create a story about the pre-event entry behavior; the way people would leave that event as the stakeholder, the exit behavior; and the pains and gains, the expectations, the satisfaction. You then would look at the commitment and the return—the costs and the revenues—and analyze the jobs to be done by that specific person, and the promises that the event delivers for that stakeholder.”
The final two days of the program consisted or participants prototyping event designs based on #EventCanvas. Now, their task is to design a real-life event.
Event Design Collective is based in Switzerland, and is actively present in the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Germany, Italy, France and The Philippines. Currently, there are 7,500 users worldwide, 1,200 trained users and 150 Certified Event Designers. The collective hopes to double these numbers each year. Trainings are delivered in partnership with organizations and universities worldwide.
Foundation Promotes Collective’s Work
The EventCanvas.org Foundation is the organization promoting and supporting innovation in the field of event design. The foundation enables the creation of a common visual language for events. Its objective is to create a global common and visual language for event design based on the #EventCanvas methodology and practice to enable teams to:
consciously design events
apply design thinking and doing
systematically create events worth attending
be engaged and confident with all stakeholder levels and across cultures and languages using visual thinking, based on the #EventCanvas
This past week, San Francisco-based Airbnb acquired HotelTonight, which could dramatically increase the fluidity of travel and get rid of potential hiccups.
As a part of Airbnb’s mission to create an end-to-end travel platform, this move will allow meeting planners and attendees to book hotels last-minute with less hassle—whether it be weeks or days ahead. The booking service HotelTonight was created to make it easy to book last-minute hotels on the fly; the merging of these two brands will expand Airbnb’s reach.
When Airbnb homes aren’t open to guests, people can now book last-minute stays on the quick at boutique and independent hotels. With this acquisition, planners and attendees will be given more options to choose from if they need to book a same-day hotel.
The room-sharing company claims to have seen an increasing number of boutique and independent hotels borrow inspiration from the uniquely personal ethos many of their hosts experience in their home stays. Guests will be able to enjoy that home-like feeling at even more boutique hotels through Airbnb.
“Together, HotelTonight and Airbnb can give guests more choices, and the world’s best boutique and independent hotels a genuine partner to connect them to those guests,” said Sam Shank, co-founder and CEO of HotelTonight.
This acquisition occurred amid speculation about Airbnb and five other San Francisco-based tech companies going public within the next year.
Every event planner wants to deliver outstanding experiences that attract, engage and delight attendees. But to make an event extraordinary, you must think big.
As the experiential marketing trend continues to grow, so do the possibilities for what planners can achieve with big equipment. Some businesses, such as Benefit Cosmetics and Dinner in the Sky, use aerial platforms to create unique experiences that stand out.
Aerial lifts are perfect for large spaces where height is required. There are a variety of aerial lift devices with arms that can stretch anywhere from 30 to 180 feet in the air, so it’s important to pick the right device for your event.
Jim Arabia
There are two key types of aerial lifts: boom lifts—also called cherry pickers—and scissor lifts.
Boom lifts look like cranes with either articulating or telescopic arms on their decks. A small work platform sits at the end of the arm.
Boom lifts are maneuverable and have longer reaches than scissor lifts, so they are better for dramatic aerial photography and filming, where the ability to move around objects and getting as high as possible matters. Camera operators and boom operators work together to determine the best height, angle and depth for the shots they want.
Scissor lifts have accordion-shaped lift mechanisms that raise large platforms to various heights. Scissor lifts do not go as high as boom lifts and they are less maneuverable, but they provide much larger work platforms, making them ideal for accommodating multiple people at one time. Most scissor lifts only move vertically.
Safety First
If your event is indoors, you will want an electric lift, while a gas or diesel lift is more suited to an outdoor venue. And since some aerial lifts can withstand more weight than others, be sure to check the maximum weight requirements and stay within those limits.
Jim Arabia is vice president of marketing at BigRentz, the nation’s largest online construction rental equipment network serving the events and marketing industries.
Cities across the United States are going green this weekend—not of the eco-friendly sort. They will be sporting all shades of green in celebration of the annual St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday. If you find yourself in one of these cities during the holiday, throw on some green, head to a pub, enjoy the festivities and embrace the culture.
Chicago
Line up along the Chicago River at 9 a.m. to watch as it’s dyed an emerald green in celebration of the Irish holiday, followed by a parade—beginning on the corner of Balbo and Columbus—full of bagpipes, Irish dancing and Clydesdales horses. If that isn’t enough, stick around for one of the block parties held around Grant Park and Division Street.
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is getting an early start by beginning its celebration on Friday. Don your green fit and join in on the festival in City Market, lined with St. Paddy’s merchandise, and enjoy live music all over the city. It would be a mistake to miss out on the Savannah parade, ranked the second-largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the world, trailing only New York City.
San Francisco
Hosted by United Irish Societies of San Francisco, the St. Patrick’s Day parade, starting at 10 a.m., will begin on Second and Market streets, and head toward City Hall. Don’t miss out on seeing the Blarney Fire Department’s vehicle. At the day’s end—if you still have the energy for it—get involved in the St. Patrick’s Day PubCrawl, which will feature special green St. Paddy’s Day drinks from various local bars.
New York City
The Big Apple is home to the oldest and largest St. Paddy’s Day Parade in the world—at 11 a.m., join the estimated 2 million people along Fifth Avenue to watch the parade. Run by volunteers, the parade will feature a long list of attractions, including Irish step dancers, fire fighters and school bands. It will be nearly impossible to exhaust the options of things to do and see in the city.
Boston
Following celebrations that began weeks before St. Paddy’s Day weekend, Boston’s parade will take place in the Southside region. Before the parade, there is a lot more to explore, such as Irish band concerts and Irish film festival. While you’re at it, try out some local breweries and bars at the many festivals, including Harpoon St. Patrick’s Festival, hosted by Harpoon Brewery.
Four Seasons Hotel Houston Lobby
Featuring everything from bedtime storybooks to digital books and new titles, library rooms are popping up at high-end properties. Some have transformed a classic room into a book suite, while others have turned the lobby lounge in a literary club or have teamed up with specific companies to offer books for bedroom reading. We have listed 10 of our top libraries, found in hotels across the world.
The Chamberlain West Hollywood, Los Angeles
The Chamberlain West Hollywood, Los Angeles
Recently renovated, the hotel has partnered with Bedside Reading, an exclusive service that provides books to Five Star hotels. By the bedside of the 115 spacious and stylish suites, guests find up to three books, which change every month. In March, they will be engaged by the words and world of A Borrowing of Bones by Paula Munier, The Farm by Joanne Ramos, The Temp by Michelle Francis and Hot Pants in Hollywood by Susan Silver for Kindle.
Dressed up like a living room, the lobby at Four Seasons Hotel Houston has several books that people can read and enjoy while waiting for a meeting to start. The 800 titles are all elegantly placed in refined and minimalist shelves, and arranged in different categories, such as art, culture, architecture, bourbon, Houston and NASA. The books were selected in conjunction with the property’s team and hotel design firm Meyer Davis Studio.
Some of the hospitality-oriented genres can be found at Bayou & Bottle, the chic bar lobby concept. The curated collection includes pages of Four Seasons: The Art of Hospitality by Assouline Publishing, an art book that includes paintings by Ignasi Monreal, a Spanish multidisciplinary artist, that capture staff members at Four Seasons’ worldwide locations.
The Betsy South Beach, Miami
The Betsy South Beach, Miami
When owner Jonathan Plutzik bought this property, his goal was to enhance guests experiences with art and culture programs. A project aimed to honor the memory of his father, Hyam Plutzik, a poet and Pulitzer Prize finalist. In 2016, after an expansion, the property added a new Art Deco wing on the third floor, where the library is now located. The tall shelves showcase more than 100 books, including Last Train to Paradise by Les Standiford, In The Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys by Campbell McGrath and Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.
Some of the titles were donated by authors themselves, all alumni of The Betsy Writers Room Artist in Residence Program. The hotel also has a literature elevator decorated with a digital, plexiglass “bookscape” installation by Max Steven Grossman and the covers of Letter from a Young Poet and Apples from Shinar by poet Hyam Plutzik.
Perry Lane Hotel, Savannah, Georgia
Perry Lane Hotel, Savannah, Georgia
Opened last May, this property has already established an outstanding reputation for its social spaces, such as a rooftop pool bar and a karaoke area. For quieter moments, it designed the library. Attendees can immerse themselves in a cozy environment on comfortable chairs and browse through the wide variety of literary works. The property has partnered with local Savannah bookstores E. Shaver, Bookseller and The Book Lady to offer a series of books, including some about art, cooking, the history of Savannah, new fiction and nonfiction.
A Private, Creative Sanctuary
Library Hotel, London
Library, a small, luxury and eclectic hotel in London, is a literary heaven, for members only. Located just across the street from English National Opera, the seven-floor property is a cultural retreat that can serves as a creative sanctuary.
Each floor includes a series of bookcases that contain a wide range of publications, from classic to a more contemporary literature. The bar, also, has books placed on tables and shelves and the six guest rooms are all named after notable authors, such as Bukowski Terrace, Murakami Room and Bronte Suite. Library also offers several rooms for group events.
Jumeirah Frankfurt
Jumeirah Frankfurt
Right next to the hotel’s signature restaurant (Max on One), Max One Library provides food for the soul. More than 1,500 books in German and English are displayed in an intimate lounge where guests can read and reflect in quiet. Jumeriah also utilizes the library to hosts its annual courses, Wine on One tasting sessions and Literature on One reading events, where small groups are invited to listen to guest authors read passages and share the inspiration for their book.
Andaz 5th Avenue, New York City
Andaz 5th Avenue Library
The classy property is an official partner of the New York Public Library, which is right across the street. Located in the lobby lounge, the intimate library nook features a rotating collection. Staff members from the New York Public Library select several hundred books to fill the shelves, and visiting authors sometimes leave a copy of their book. Guests may also be delighted to discover the discreet passageway that connects the lounge to Apt 2E, a meeting space. The art at the top of the staircase was designed to look like sheaves of paper and the turning pages of books.
The Mandrake Hotel, London
Built as an artsy adobe structure, this luxury property has everything you need to find inspiration for your next event. Along with the diverse, evocative art collection and new works from the hotel’s Artist in Residence Program, the library is a creative platform for excellent literature and photography as well as fashion and design publications. Displayed on the shelves are a series of monographs on artists whose works are exhibited in the property, such as Jonas Burgert, Francis Bacon, Francesco Clemente and Marius Bercea.
The Garden Library overlooks the property’s organic gardens, animated by more than 1,000 species of herbs, vegetables, wildflowers and other plants. It’s a small, freestanding building filled with art and antiques that owner Mike McAdams sourced around the globe. Surrounded by high-end furniture and decor, the vast literature collection includes Bringing It Home: Favorite Recipe from a Life of Adventurous Eating by Top Chef star Gail Simmons, Start with a Laugh by Liz Carpenter, Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams and How to Love Wine by Eric Asimov. The resort also hosts a guest author program, For the Love of Books, a sort of a reading club led by well-known writers.
AC Hotel by Marriott Sunnyvale Cupertino, Sunnyvale, California
AC Hotel, Cupertino, California
The property, with its modern design that celebrates the Spanish roots and the European flairs of the brand, has a reading space where guests can unplug and relax. The signature AC Library features a collection of more than 80 books, ranging from design to lifestyle to creativity, entrepreneurship, drink and food, all topic related to the AC experience. Among the titles are Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails, Morning Noon Night—a Way of Living by Soho House, Peter Lindbergh-Fashion Photography and Annie Leibovitz-Portraits 2005-2016.
The St. Regis New York City
A digital version of the famed Astor Library is now available to the legendary hotel’s guests. The titles, from John Jacob Astor IV’s original collection, have been housed behind glass at the hotel for more than a century, and are available on Kindle devices. Ranging from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to Oliver Twist and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the list was reviewed by Virginia Bartow, one of the nation’s leading rare-book experts who works for the New York Public Library. In conjunction with the release of the Astor digital libraries, guests can arrange a private visit to the original Astor Library.
Update: President Trump announced that the U.S. will ground Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9 planes on Wednesday.
On Sunday morning, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed six minutes after takeoff from Adidas Ababa, Ethiopia, killing all 157 aboard. It is the second of the new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircrafts to crash in the past few months, following Lion Air’s fatal plunge into the sea after departing from Indonesia last October. These twin catastrophes, understandably, have prompted strong reactions.
Coincidence or Correlation?
In the past 48 hours, airlines and entire countries have banned the 737 Max 8 aircraft from flight, including China, France, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Aeromexico, Ethiopian Airlines and more, reports CNN. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency announced today that it has banned the plane from the entire continent, according to Bloomberg.
Although authorities are still investigating the crash and any potential systematic error with the Boeing Max 8 model, a general concern and discomfort shared by the public, flight staff and many political and aviation authority leaders has been enough to ground hundreds of flights around the world until more information is released.
The United States, however, has not moved to ban the plane. Flights continue to operate across Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. Neither Delta Air Lines nor United Airlines operate the aircraft.
Here is a look at what the key players have to say.
What the FAA is Saying
On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced the Boeing 737 Max 8 safe and airworthy until further investigation.
The Association of Flight Attendants is publicly calling on the FAA to temporarily ground the aircraft to maintain safety and address the concerns of passengers and staff.
This is about public confidence in the safety of air travel. The US has the safest aviation system in the world, but Americans are looking for leadership in this time of uncertainty. @FAANews must act decisively to restore the public faith #Boeing737Maxhttps://t.co/bZIL67ryh9
Boeing stands by its aircraft and has sent a team to investigate the crash site in Ethiopia. Stock in the company continues to fall, reports Bloomberg.
There are more than 350 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircrafts operated around the globe. As more countries impose air bans on the aircraft by the hour, flights are being diverted midair and cancellations are consequentially unavoidable.
There are still some 737 MAX airborne en route to Europe. Some of them will probably be forced to divert before the suspension at 19:00 UTC (20:00 CET) pic.twitter.com/jgAIbWaQLT
United States Senators Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and others have called for the FAA to ground the aircraft.
Out of an abundance of caution for the flying public, the @FAANews should ground the 737 MAX 8 until we investigate the causes of recent crashes and ensure the plane’s airworthiness.
Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT. I see it all the time in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further, when often old and simpler is far better. Split second decisions are….
….needed, and the complexity creates danger. All of this for great cost yet very little gain. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!
Hey, Courtney. We remain confident in the Safety of our fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft that are operating as planned today and we plan to operate those aircraft going forward. -Krista
Southwest and American airlines, the biggest U.S. operators of the Boeing 737 Max 8, say they stand by the new plane despite two fatal crashes in less than five months. https://t.co/wSc8ThIfCJ
4. Power Players: The opening keynote with New Power authors Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms will reveal the secrets for working smarter in a hyperconnected world. Heimans is co-founder and CEO of Purpose and Timms is president and CEO of 92nd Street Y.
“We articulate the behavior change of stakeholders,” Jansen says. “There’s a group of people involved in providing input, and they can think of a particular stakeholder and walk a mile in their shoes so that they look at that situation through the lens of that specific stakeholder.
