On My Agenda: Northstar Pride

Are We There Yet?

Yesterday I wrote about our latest Pulse Survey, which shows a positive shift in meeting planners' confidence in the future of live events. More are booking business, not just looking, among other encouraging signs. But recovery won't be easy, and it won't be quick. While sentiment is improving, two-thirds of planners don't intend to hold new events until 2021, and a growing number will wait until 2022, our research shows.

Widespread uncertainty is unnerving. Among comments from respondents, one lamented: "With each state in the U.S. determining its own plans for allowing meetings and events, it's difficult for meeting planners to know where and when meetings will be permitted. Who is going to keep track, so we know if we are complying with all state regulations?"

That's one question I can answer definitively: Northstar is on it. See our daily updates for the latest state and country regulations. You can help us, too: Please continue to complete our Pulse Survey every two weeks. Your input allows us to provide the meetings industry with the only source of accurate information and insights on meeting planners' expectations and concerns as we work through this time of crisis together.

Northstar Pride

It is my hope that the rainbow-colored brand logos we're using for Pride Month, celebrating LGBTQ+ rights, will serve as visual reminders to celebrate diversity in all its forms. The meetings industry is ideally positioned to send a message of tolerance; we're in the business of bringing people together.

It's a particularly poignant message now, as racial injustice has sparked unrest across the country. The death of George Floyd, the unarmed African American man who was killed on May 25 by a Minneapolis police officer, brings fresh anguish to a troubling year, as reported this week by Northstar's Elise Schoening.

Jason Dunn, chair of the National Coalition of Black Meeting Professionals, brought that message home in a video message to members: "History has an unsettling way of repeating itself, particularly if one chooses to turn a blind eye. We must not ignore the challenge we face as a nation and, to be more direct, as an industry. It is the challenge of diversity and inclusion, race and equity."

We need to be more vocal about the inequity within our ranks, says Elliott Ferguson, president and CEO of Destination DC. "Some of my peers will say that this is a truly diverse industry." But at the leadership level, he says, "it's marginal at best."

We all need to do better. At Northstar, CEO Tom Kemp reinforced this imperative in an internal memo to employees: "An important part of Northstar Travel Group's mission is to foster transformation, inclusion and sustainability through global travel…and to celebrate the diversity of our world.

I don't have the answers, but I hope to be part of the solution. Meetings serve a much broader purpose than their stated business goals; they expose individuals to the broad spectrum of humanity. For all our differences, we need to work harder on efforts that unite, not divide us, as we look to overcome the challenges ahead.

How are you coping? How can we help? Please let me know.