Welcome to Travel Again Presents, the weekly travel roundup covering the headwinds and tailwinds impacting the business of travel. Please welcome our hosts, Mike McCormick and Ed Silver. How you doing, Mike? Nice to see you. Good to see you, Ed. Season three. Here we go. Welcome to season three. It's our first episode of the season. And man, do we have a great season shaping up for the podcast this year. I know a lot has happened, Mike, since our last podcast. Too much news to cover everything. But I chose a few special news articles this week to kick us off.
Into the new season and of course we have a very special guest an announcement to make on the pod today what do you think mike but I'm I'm excited man and I'm looking forward to uh I'm certainly another dynamic year I'm sure with a whole lot that we haven't even uh contemplated will come our way but uh part of why we're here is to not only uh talk about it and get good dialogue among our whole uh industry and and all the influencers in it but also uh you know hopefully as travel again we can advisory we can help some of the companies and people uh in the industry you know navigate through it so uh I'm excited about you know coming back for another season and keep it all rolling all right mike with that let's bust right into the news The first set of articles, Mike, I'm going to bring up cover the airplane crashes in Washington, D.C.
Two Aviation Tragedies
And Philadelphia, which happened over the past couple of weeks. I'll start with Um, some coverage of the one in DC. Uh, obviously there is an awful lot, Mike, that we still don't know about what happened between this black Hawk helicopter and its collision, um, with the PSA airlines, uh, American airlines, uh, jet. And so a lot more to come in terms of what happened here. Um, and before we cover the, uh, articles in general. Shortly following that, Mike, there was a crash in Philadelphia, in northeast Philadelphia area. Actually had some relatives not far from the crash site.
These are not related to each other, Mike, as far as we know, in terms of anything that the news has covered. But it is unusual. We've got a long time without a crash. So for our guests, why don't you talk a little bit about the context here and anything you might know about it, being in DC, and just get us up to speed. Well, I mean, you know, obviously, you know, tragic and, you know, gains national, international attention immediately. People, you know, it shows, again, how much we rely on air travel.
And so even no matter what happens when there's, you know, a tragedy like this, you know, it gets, you know, appropriately gets kind of attention. I mean, it always is worth saying, though, that, you know, air travel is incredibly safe. And, you know, this is, you know, clearly, at least from every indication, these are clearly accidents, right, that have happened. Nothing more than that. But, you know... Also, I'll say in the Philadelphia case, it's probably a small miracle that there wasn't more ground casualties and impact. I mean, as devastating as that scene was, the fact that it resulted in injuries and that was all, and a lot of property damage, but that's- On the ground, the injuries just on the ground.
On the ground, yeah. And clearly- It landed right near that mall, Roosevelt Mall, which you and I both know well, so- yeah that's uh so again you know again circumstances you know and and certainly obviously still tragic for those who died and and and all that right um but I think um to me Again, I think the comment you made about patience and waiting and letting the professionals do their job, and certainly when you saw in the media the National Transportation Safety Board representatives were basically pleading for that kind of time and respect to see through the process that they need to go through to recover the evidence and really do the work that's required to really understand what truly did happen and why.
But while we wait for that, I think one of the things that came to me and really made me reflect on was the fact that we do have, and whether this was related to these specific incidents at all, but we do have a very antiquated air traffic control system. And I think that came out in some of the news articles about staffing and systems and process. But it's something that you and I, when I was in my role at GBTA, the Global Business Travel Association, we worked on these issues. And one of the things that we were working hard towards was trying to lobby for funding for a modernization and overhaul of the air traffic control system here in the states we are woefully behind the rest of the world I mean systems in europe systems canada etc are on you know more modern systems that don't require you know basically use of old radar manual handoffs it's it's a very manual uh system that that basically requires um You know, literal handoffs between air traffic control towers and staff when planes are going from one airspace to the next to the next.
It is a, you know, again, something that, unfortunately, I mean, I had become not more knowledgeable of and study as part of the role of what we were playing. We had gotten to a point in President Trump's first administration, his first term, where we had a ceremonial signing of his support for that air traffic toll reform initiative, which we were pushing and trying to move through Congress for funding. The issue I don't think is, I think we would have, we do have very widespread out of like basically support for the fact that we need to be it need to be done the realities are it's about funding I mean it is a big undertaking given the complexities of our um you know air traffic control and like just the new york and washington areas alone um and what would would require what it required to do it and to cut over to these systems etc over time we there was testing done at the time I think in alaska um if I'm going from memory and you know it works I mean the the technology is there the the capabilities exist they're tested they they work the issue is cost and and prioritize prioritizing it what the benefits though are tremendous I mean aside from being able to manage you know air traffic much more efficiently um better routings um you know just safer overall in terms of the ability to process the number of planes and flights um and you know coordinate all of the air activity would it be you know vastly improved but you know again it it where does it fall versus you know other funding issues priorities etc um so I I bring this up more just to point it you know point to the fact that like Again, this isn't like it's not a partisan thing.
It's not a poke at any administration. I mean, you saw that, you know, the president at the time, he was doing his best to try to put support behind a key initiative. But, you know, this is, you know, again, a lot of competing priorities around funding. And I get it. I understand. But something like this happens. It does bring it to light, you know, again. And, you know, maybe one benefit that could come from all this is, does it put it back on to, excuse the pun, but back in the radar of Congress and funding to try to look at this and how do we, you know, advance some of these initiatives for this initiative for it.
But again... I think we have to wait and see. Obviously, related to crashes itself, and again, tragic, tragic event, and it touches everybody because, again, we all rely so much on our air systems here in the States and globally. OK, Mike, thanks for that. And obviously our best wishes to the victims of both crashes, the families of those. And we look forward to hearing more about what happened there. Mike, I'm going to radically change the discussion and move on to the second article of the day. Look, since it's been a few days since we've spoken, the world of AI has changed radically once again, as OpenAI has announced a new tool called Operator.
OpenAI's Operator
Operator allows you and AI to work together to actually manipulate and move around the web and around applications. Conversing with AI to tell it what you want it to do, and it will go off and use that website. And I will tell you, some of the demos I've seen, some of the folks who have access to it have done demos. This development is, for me, really incredible. I'll put up an article from our friends at Focuswire that talks about the impact on travel search and marketing. I think, look, some of the brands that are playing with this right now are really showing off some very interesting technology around actually moving from just chatting to actually enabling a user to interact with the travel ecosystem.
Mike, a lot baked in there. Any thoughts for our listeners? Well, no more. I had a question for you, like an example. What does it do? Why is it so powerful? In a travel context, what might be a user case of how this works? Yeah, so look, what makes this step more interesting for me than just the chat systems that have come out so far is its ability to go out and manipulate and use a web-based form to actually go and show you the search it's doing, to personalize that search in many ways.
The AI's ability to interact with the web directly and you can watch it while it does that and correct it if it makes mistakes or alter it, take it all the way through the purchase path. That is not something that it could do a week ago. Having the ability to go and manipulate the actual user interfaces of these travel platforms is really fascinating. By the way, I would argue coming soon, With this new technology and there's also an API that is accessible for power users of this or developers for brands to use this, I think it could lead to having three versions of a website for every single platform.
One is for a user just to use, The other is for search to consume, which in the background already exists in something called robots.txt. And the third would be for AI to use, which would simplify its ability to actually use these websites. And from a travel perspective, that's pretty powerful. Um you know in terms of what this operator technology can do others are going to duplicate this I assure you claude and perplexity and gemini will all come out with their versions of it but open ai continues to lead the marketplace uh with these tools and so I felt like our users our listeners you know should learn about this and uh it's a little expensive to use right now because it only shows up in the two hundred dollar uh per month version But I think they will lower the barrier there.
And it's definitely one to watch, I would argue. Well, and like you said, as soon as competitive versions roll out, the price points will keep dropping because competition will drive that ultimately. Yep. And so more to come on that one. And obviously, as I like to remind our listeners, all these articles that we talk about are available on our website. We list them for people to go and check out. All right, Mike, I have one more article for us. This one is again about technology, sorry for that, but it also leads nicely into our guest today, as well as into the segment that we want to talk quite a bit about.
Apple Launches an Invitation App
So the next article is that Apple has launched an invitation app that allows members who have iCloud, where you pay for the upgraded iCloud version, they now have a digital invitation app with built-in event management functionality. And apparently, especially if you're within the Apple ecosystem, which many of us are, this apparently works very well. I haven't personally tried it out, but as this article talks about, when you do have that iCloud Plus subscription, it really is a pretty cool new event management slash invitation tool that allows for quite a bit of event management functionality.
When I say event management, it's obviously on a very low scale. This is more like inviting people to a birthday party or to some party of some sort. But I can see, use cases where you know this could grow and where pictures and other application functionality you know could come into play so um thoughts on this one mike well I just think I mean I think you could get right into as the article does like start to think about you know business applications like you said I mean planning you know like informal team meetings uh organizing around you know days you're in the office where like how to do like I mean anything that makes that process better easier you know more user friendly is good and I I think correct me wrong but I think they also this is this app is designed where it yes it works great in the apple ecosystem but it is not limited to just the apple apple ecosystem it does for um you know, any device type, you know, any system, it is an app that could be used other places as well.
They didn't just, you know, it's not just for Apple users, which, you know, is a very real part of the bigger business ecosystem as well, right? So I think it looks like, you know, these, and again, it's just more innovation, more focused and to your point, great setup for our guests today. And as we're delving more into meetings and events in our business as well, this is just interesting trends to follow. And as we know, like a lot of stuff, a lot of innovations like this start in one sector and maybe have an impact.
But then eventually could ultimately have even a bigger impact, let's say, in a business setting, et cetera, because it's just, you know, people find it and the, you know, the users find the tools that fit their needs, right, ultimately, and people gravitate towards it. And the speed at which that happens can be pretty quick, you know, as you're, But I think appropriately, again, you say you're laughing about technology. I'm sorry. Here's another tech article. But I think maybe that's a point of two thousand twenty five. And certainly it's been that way.
But going even more so, I think we're going to spend a lot of time this year covering these kinds of innovations changes on a really frequent basis because the speed at which stuff happens now is just rapid fire. I mean, you wake up one day And you have a whole new set of tools, capabilities, whatever. Again, now it's two weeks later, something else, a month later, something else. So we'll be covering a lot of this, I think, in the near future. Yeah, look, the speed of innovation here is, to a technologist, is really remarkable.
The amount of technology that's being pumped out, features, products around this area is really incredible. Mike, let's slightly move on to broaden this topic because meeting in events as our last article showed is really a big marketplace. And while Apple's innovation isn't likely to encroach on sort of the broader, I think, event tech, like the deep event tech space, I do think there is an awful lot going on in the meetings and events area. And so I thought for our listeners, maybe give a little context about how do meeting events fit into the travel ecosystem and why are we excited about meeting events?
Why Meetings Recovered Last
Well, yeah, because I think, you know, a little context. So I'll go back to the banking crisis, you know, two thousand eight, two thousand nine. You know, the the what that did to travel and business. And we had a big decline, certainly not as big as COVID, but a significant decline in in the marketplace. And the recovery from that a lot at that point was driven by international outbound business travel because companies were looking for growth. We were globalizing very much in terms of business. That was the major trend was breaking down barriers, business being done everywhere.
And so that travel kind of fueled growth and recovery in the travel industry. And then from behind that came more domestic travel and then leisure really followed as the economy rebuilt and people had more discretionary income. Fast forward to COVID and the recovery from COVID, completely different. And the dynamics were different because we had all this recovery in terms of personal travel. People just needed to get out. They finally could leave their homes, maybe venture out and get on an airplane. So leisure travel was the impetus for recovery, a lot of it domestic, but it was a big boom in travel that kind of started the recovery process.
But the other part that kind of followed that next was meetings and events because people are now in home office. You know, many people, you know, businesses were, you know, downsizing their office space, people working from home, people had gone to, you know, the pendulum had swung completely the other way in terms of remote working. And so the need to get together was still there. So meeting and events, you know, conferences started booming, right? And so it became even more important because those were the times when you could be together as a team you know try to foster your collaboration innovation in a way that you know you can never do virtually and so it took out a bigger importance and it actually was spearheaded business recovery the business travel recovery Now, and then, you know, then kind of, you know, the rest of business travel, the just the regular, you know, single business traveler.
And then from there, you know, kind of felt the industry overall is kind of recovered and normalized. But it was a whole different recovery path. We're still at a point where the pendulum is still very much remote working. We see all the indicators both in government here with the initiatives that the president is putting forth, as well as some larger companies are really pushing a back to work, back to office mode. Or at least trying to bring the pendulum back to the middle somewhere right and with that though again meetings corporate meetings events conferences are still really really vital um interaction because we're social beings you know work collaboration you know again only so much can get done on the screen yeah it I mean it's vitally important to get people together so you know for us and you know lead into our guests and our announcements because we think this is a really really important sector that has been largely in the past it's kind of been more isolated from the rest of the travel effort community except it's been kind of in its own industry in a sense yeah and now It isn't.
It's that it's in the mainstream. It is a vital part of any travel plans, any expenditures, budgets, etc. And we just think there's going to be more innovation coming here, more change coming here and a really, really important sector of travel in the coming next couple of years, particularly. All right, Mike, with that, I appreciate all that context. So Look, it's clearly a very dynamic environment. And because it's so dynamic, it has helped us to decide to begin digging even deeper into the meetings and events space. And so with that, we are excited to announce that we are forming a new practice within our advisory.
Introducing Linda McNairy
And we're bringing on a new practice head, the head of meetings and events practice. And her name is Linda McNary. So let me introduce our guest. And the new head of our meetings and events practice, Linda. Linda has an amazing background. She has extensive experience that includes key leadership roles at American Express meetings and events and StarSite, which was bought by Cvent, where she built a reputation for inspiring teams, creating and growing client relationships, driving growth through industry partnerships, and delivering results for all stakeholders. From crafting strategic event solutions to cultivating technology solutions that drive the industry forward to managing key acquisitions and integrations, Linda's work has always centered on bringing people together in memorable and effective ways while simultaneously creating meaningful transformations for the meetings industry.
Now, please welcome to the stage and welcome to the Travel Again Advisory Practice, Linda McNary. Linda, welcome to the podcast and to the firm. Thank you. It's nice to be here. Glad to have you aboard. So I take it you agree basically with our sentiment about the the industry and where it's going I mean you've kind of seen you've seen the progression over the years I mean I I you know I always felt like uh it was uh it was very interesting but very separate part of the of the travel industry in a sense it had its own kind of own uh Everything.
I mean, technology, resources, people, even within businesses and even companies that, you know, were involved in providing products and services. Oftentimes, really, it was a whole very segmented from, you know, a lot of the let's say traditional corporate travel, et cetera. And even within companies, the way they bought travel. Right. I mean, but is that coming back together again? I mean, are we are we going to see a change in that mentality? And have we? I absolutely, Mike, and I believe it's the momentum will continue. You know, one thing that was really interesting and you touched on the impact that meetings had in the recovery from COVID, you know, from the isolation that was experienced, organizations realized a couple of things.
First of all, you've got to bring your teams together. As you say, there's only so much you can accomplish on a screen. You need to have people together. I had a quote from a former customer who just said, I cannot not have quarterly team meetings because the acceleration of progress against objectives, the dynamics, he said during, you know, when everybody was divided and, you know, we had our Zoom calls or, you know, we did what we did, but there were negative energies that were forming in that environment that were immediately eliminated when you bring people together and you're in the meeting room together, then you go out and have a nice dinner together you learn a little bit about each other, you have some fun, you have some laughs, and suddenly you're moving at a pace that didn't exist before.
The second thing that I found really interesting within the corporation is suddenly, you know, one of the challenges to the maturity of getting the respect of, I always said, meetings and events is kind of the Johnny Dangerfield of the corporate world. It's got no respect. Everybody just party planners and, you know, all of that. It became apparent as organizations were emerging from the pandemic that they needed the leaders of their meetings and events teams to fit at the table in conversations about how they were emerging and bringing people back, right?
So suddenly that head of meetings and events who had fought and fought and fought to get someone to even listen to them was suddenly had the opportunity to be in the room, to be part of the conversation. And it was realized that meetings and events indeed drive corporate culture and help you achieve objectives. That's right. I mean, it's back to like, you build trust, you drive innovation, like you, in a way that you, you know, it's like, you just can't, you can't remotely. I mean, it's just, it's just not possible, you know, to me, not, not fully.
Designing the Agenda Like an Executive Producer
I mean, it's like, it makes a difference. It does. Well, so let's, we're going to put you on the spot a little here. We, you know, you, you joined us because of your, you know, we certainly want to, and value, you know, your insight and expertise, but, you know certainly for clients and as we look forward it's like okay you know what's coming let's talk about twenty twenty five what are some of the things you're seeing what are some of the trends you're seeing you know give us you know maybe two or three to think about but you know let's talk about that a little bit like what what what what should we be looking forward in this space uh in twenty twenty five sure one of the things that um one of the first things that I think about is the need no matter what your role is in planning events whether um you're the actual meeting planner whether you're sponsoring the meeting whatever it is is really becoming a content master and what do I mean by that there's a real need to produce and leverage great content in more ways um and I look at that through two different lenses one is how you deliver your content so You know, the old days of designing the traditional agenda with breakfast and then a bunch of meetings and then a break and then lunch and all that.
Everybody's everybody's done with that. And nobody wants to attend a meeting in that format. Right. So how you design your agenda, micro sizing your content, because the world has. We can't sit through. I have the patience of a toddler. I can't sit through a forty five minute PowerPoint presentation. I'm like turning upside down in my chair. I can't. It needs to be impactful. It has to punch and you need to need to hold my attention and creating an experience around your content. You know, when I hosted my first customer meeting following COVID, I renamed the group.
To be change makers because I really saw the opportunity for the heads of meetings and events within my client companies to be change makers within their organization. And my theme was thinking differently. And then I quickly realized it's hard to make yourself think differently. So I actually went to an external resource and hired a great facilitator who was trained in improv, but also very well studied in brain science and how our bodies learn and how we consume content. And we threw away the PowerPoint. I mean, imagine having a meeting with American Express with no PowerPoint.
But we got up and we moved around. We used the principles of improv and we really had a highly impactful event. So that's just one example of how you truly need to do things differently and leverage resources that you have to make that happen. Hey, Linda. Go ahead. Sorry, Mike. With the content component, it also seems to me there's a huge space open for event planners to leverage the content that is created during the event in new and unique ways following the event. To me, the onset of AI and other technology and short form video, To be able to cut that up, to be able to personalize the feed, to be able to transcribe everything, to be able to summarize it using AI tools.
And, you know, everybody learns differently, right? And so I might pick up some stuff during the event. I love the micro-sizing thing. You know, of the content, but I, I might want it even micro micro sized. I want it summarized and I want it highlighted. And I want what's important to me in the way in which I learn best. Do you see opportunities there for people to rethink the technology around kind of post event learning? Absolutely. And that was my second lens is like, how do you make it enduring? How do you make it memorable?
Yeah. Again, don't just, I'm going to keep picking on PowerPoint. It's a great tool. I do use it, but, You know, no longer do you say, send me a copy of the deck that ends up in your inbox. And do you ever reference it? Do you ever use it? Is that ever used? So you're exactly right. I mean, looking at how you recap that information, make it consumable. And again, and you were giving Mike and I a little group beforehand because Mike and I printed out our scripts. We use our paper.
You don't people learn in different ways, right? So think about your content and make sure it's available for different people. Who learn and retain differently. So don't assume one size fits all. Well, my, and the, for me, the, the take on it was, as I'm listening to all this, it's like, you, you need to think like an executive producer where you're, you know, producing the initial activity meeting event, you know, and, and then you're thinking about, well, what's my distribution strategy? You know, what are my, what forms I'm going to put it in?
It's like, you know, it just the same way you would, if you were, you know, doing a new show or a new movie and, and you know all that goes into funding it and producing it and then taking the content and then doing a distribution plan for how I put it out which audiences and which languages and it's like you should think the same way about meetings and events because ultimately that's how you get the real return on investment like how many times do people have like these even people have They'll say, oh, I'm doing this like great meeting.
I'm going to have like it's work we do. Like we go in and facilitate, you know, meetings and strategy sessions on behalf of clients. Like, well, you say, okay. And you feel like, oh, that's internal. It's like, maybe not. Like, what if you think differently and say, okay, yeah, we did that. We recorded elements of it. Or maybe we did. You know, interviews with some of the attendees and then use that to put out content to our prospects and customers. Like you don't think about it. Like, you know, what, what, what, what secrets are you keeping?
Like you're like, why? Like, you know, putting up all these traditional barriers around. And if you step back from it and go, wait a minute, I'm investing, you know, a chunk of money into like, you know, an event and, and which involves these people. And now I want to leverage it every possible way I can. And that's where I get excited about, you know, where this goes. And again, you know the tools that are available now the ways you you don't have to go hire you know a production team to like no you can you can probably you might get some help but it doesn't mean like it it doesn't require the same investment for that is you know to do professional have professional looking outcomes you know yeah the the roi on the content you generate during the event has it really, I think, has exploded quite a bit with these new tools.
So absolutely. Absolutely. I love that executive producer metaphor. Yeah, it's, you know, you think about it. And then also like just for the people actually doing it, it's like it makes it more fun for them too. Like it's like you're thinking, well, you know, you kind of take on a, you know, it makes it fun. Like how do I make the content more fun and interesting? And, you know, like you said, and relying on, and then when you're bringing outside talent capabilities in, it's like, it's really, it's impactful, you know, it's great.
Rethinking Food, Waste and Wellness
But okay, so I like that one a lot. That's a good one. Um next trend another one got another one in there you know there's one that um I've we've coined the phrase here of waste not want not and and what does that mean um it goes beyond sustainability sustainability there's a huge opportunity in meeting in events to be more thoughtful and to to treat our earth better um but it's I would challenge people to think in a different way around that. Again, we've talked a little bit about audiences and tailoring to your audience.
So let's think about that as it comes to food and beverage. We've all seen, and I'm going to over-stereotype to make a point, but we've all seen those big buffets, the big breakfast buffet. There's a bunch of danishes that are sitting over there that nobody touches. There's eggs that you know, let's talk about it. But there's all this that's there. And, you know, it does that make sense? Is that a thoughtful way to approach the world right now? You know, look at the large percentage of our population that's on one form of semi-glutides or another, right?
And there, people are not eating in the same way. There's also a lot more focus on wellness and keto or higher protein and what are you doing? And it's not just a matter of asking the questions during the registration process. Do you have any dietary restrictions, right? It's really thinking about going back to that. Everybody has dietary restrictions, self-imposed or otherwise, right? Exactly. There's a million different things you can, you can check. But it's designing something again to create the experience, but also is more thoughtful both for the attendee and also from a waste perspective.
So that's where it gets to the way to not want not. Well, and even down to, you know, again, people, you know, have even just not just the food and, you know, beverage, but like when it's served, like this whole thing of like, well, from twelve to one. We're going to roll out a buffet and at one, one Oh one PM, we're going to start ripping it down and take it away. And people are like, well, what if I'm somebody that like, you know, I'm on a certain schedule or, you know, I want to grab something.
I mean, it's like the same thing. It's like not breaking out of those modes and being more thoughtful about having just a lot of easy, easy stuff to consume, easy things to, you know, timing things are available. It, you know, there's a lot of thoughtfulness that can go into it. And at the same time from it, you know, put my CFO hat on for a minute. It's like, and actually like could save a lot of money. I mean, like again, and for the venues to have being more thoughtful about breaking out of those kind of even, even smaller means like the, the minimums it's like, well, you know, I mean, all that kind of stuff really does matter.
And I think it's changing very much with, well, and then the, you know, like the jokes about, you know, at the, what was it? The Emmys about, you know, the, you know, the Ozembic, you know, jokes and everything about the, you know, the whole room being on Ozembic. But like, you know, that's a very real part of what's happening today right now. I mean, people are very much more in tune about, What they, how they, what they're, you know, it's, it matters very much. And for people's health, I mean, very, again, very different, right.
Different environment, but you can come at it very thoughtfully, I think, and manage and also manage the cost of the event. It's like, yeah. Yeah. And two things to that, um, to, to build to that, I, you know, I have a lot of very good friends and people that I've worked with in the hotel industry and hotels are really tuning into this. And they want to work with you. They're tired of the same old, same old, right? So they've got teams, they're focusing on it. They want somebody that sits down and says, this is my audience.
These are my attendees. This is the experience. And they'll blow your mind. Like you can have a lot of fun with it. So make sure you do that. And then you mentioned cost. Obviously, you know, hotels have bottom line P&L that they need to hit, right? But I've worked with some customers, some of my clients where, you sit down up front, you negotiate the food and beverage minimums or what have you. And if, if for whatever reason it doesn't fit. And again, this is where being a thoughtful citizen of the universe is saying, all right, we know that we don't need that amount.
So rather than going ahead and preparing it and throwing it away, can I take a portion of that? And can we donate to a local food bank or to a local being thoughtful? Yeah. Yeah. And saying, all right. And then, you know, it's, it's a feel good for all involved. Right. And you're, and you're avoiding that waste. So just an idea. Waste not, want not. All right. Any, maybe one more trend, anything else on your list? Yeah. The last thing, you know, and that's really in the last couple of weeks reading some of the things that are happening in our world, especially here in North America or in the, in the U S to be specific, you know, the, the threat of, you know, how are tariffs going to impact how we plan things?
Crossing Borders, Risk and Duty of Care
And what about crossing borders? And as you're trying to plan complex meetings, you know, what are these new rules of engagement that you need to think about? And how do you plan for that? Right. Also looking at, and, you know, there's a huge event and in the hotel industry, it's called ALIS Design Plus. It's where all the top hoteliers and architects and designers and everybody, and it was in LA. And, you know, You would think early in January in LA, you're fine. That's a great destination, right? You think everything's good.
And then who knows that the worst wildfires that, um, you know, have ever been experienced are going to happen over the States. And the good news is, you know, that was an event for our industry. So people knew how to get out and then evangelize and talk about it. But there was some very proactive, um, messaging. The event went on, it went, it proceeded very, very well. But, you know, our world is more complex. Things are changing quickly. There's chaos. Every day. Every day. Every day. And, you know, you guys started off talking about plane crashes.
When was the last time? You know, that's the first thing when I heard about the crash in D.C. Of course, you worry about the people in the camp. And then I'm like, what does that do to the people that are flying in for meetings or trying to get out for meetings and whatnot? You know, there's just so much going on. So it's kind of the new rules of engagement again is the tagline putting on that. But how do you think in that world and how do you operate? Yeah, I mean, you know, I just think the practical realities of your planning a meeting six, nine, twelve months out, it's like, you know, you have to use like when you're doing a stock offering and you have all the, you know, risk disclaimers, like you could have a, you know, a ten page document outlining the major risks and possible disruption.
And you still won't think of everything. And so in that respect, right, how do you stay, you know, great communication tools, you know, processes, you know, and maybe those two, like I even think of when you're planning a meeting, you go through and kind of document out, you know, you need to like think about what are the major, what are the risks that could happen that could, you know, some of them environmental, whatever. What do we do in those situations, like scenario planning, thinking those things through? What tools are going to help me do that?
Again, and back to how do we leverage technology capabilities in a whole new way to be able to address those risks and those needs? And almost accepting like, yeah, like things are going to be different by the time we get to that meeting date. Yeah. A lot of things could have changed. And I'm going to do my best to mitigate all the ones I can think of. And that's really the best you can do. I mean, that's reality, right? Yeah. I agree. And what I would add, I agree with everything you said.
What I would add to that is training your mind. Listen, I am a planner and in my in my personal life, I've had a couple of weeks here where no matter what I plan, it all goes up in smoke like in two minutes. And it kind of makes me a little nutso. But it's the the analogy here is you plan for everything you can, but then give yourself a mindset to be nimble, to be willing to take in information to develop the right partnerships with the other people that are in that scenario with you so that you can say, all right, well, we planned for this, and then that happened, and what do we do now, right?
And you can't lose your mind over it. You need to just stop and breathe and think through and thoughtfully react. Well, so needless to say, Linda, welcome to the Travel Again Advisory Practice. I mean, we're really excited to have you on board, excited about all the work we can do on behalf of our clients. I mean, I think there's a lot of, I think from the, not just all the issues, things we were just talking about in tackling, but I also think there's a whole element of you know investment that will come to space you know potentially a lot of merger and acquisition type of activity in the coming you know a couple years I I think there's a lot of areas where you know I know for our firm we're that's what we do and we you know but we're excited about this sector um really you know really developing evolving uh you know and with your help uh we'll we'll go right along with it so Welcome aboard.
And to what we were just talking about, we don't know what we'll be working on exactly. Linda, it is great to have you with us. Linda McNary is now head of meetings and events for Travel Again Advisory. Thank you, Linda, for your time today. Thank you. Well, it's going to be great to have her on board, Mike. Absolutely. Yep. This is going to do a terrific job of that practice. So excited to have her. All right, Mike. Hey, that is our show today. Remember, if you have a challenge in your business or you want to better understand the chaotic world of travel.
Reach out to us at travelagainadvisory.com and find out how we can help bring clarity to your business. Mike, that's all for today. Our listeners, we will see you back here again during our next show. Thanks, everybody.
