Event Security Trends in the New Year

Happy new year and welcome back. I spent my New Year's Eve celebration at a rocking concert with 500 of my closest friends, another reminder of the power of events when compared to sitting at home and watching the ball drop while eating a bag of chips.

Right off the bat this year, we have an analysis of the latest trends in safety and security for events. Planning is crucial, especially in conjunction with collaboration with hotels and local stakeholders. Check out the story below.

We've also got a few interesting collaborative pieces from the Skift team, including our most outlandish predictions for travel in 2019 and the buzzwords that irritated us the most in 2018.

Heading to PCMA Convening Leaders in Pittsburgh next week? I'll be there. Shoot me a message if you want to meet up and chat.

If you have any feedback about the newsletter or news tips, feel free to reach out to me via email at as@skift.com or tweet me @sheivach.

— Andrew Sheivachman, Senior Editor

The Future of Events and Meetings

New Safety Concerns Present Complicated Challenge for Event Organizers: Agencies and venues have stepped up to the plate to meet rising safety and security concerns among meetings organizers. The challenge is to fulfill duty of care obligations without impacting the delegate experience.

Hotels Finally Embrace Homesharing: Now What? Just as challenging as it is for Airbnb to offer more hotel-like options, it seems in some ways even more daunting for hotel companies to start offering more Airbnb-like accommodations.

Bold Predictions for the Travel Industry in 2019: Lately the improbable keeps happening. Exhibit A: Donald Trump. So we’ve ventured some bold forecasts on everything from cruise ship dining to the acquisition plans of Airbnb, Oyo, Microsoft, and Sabre.

Around the Industry

Germany Makes Strides to Become ‘Europe’s Silicon Valley’ for Travel Startups: Germany’s travel startup scene used to be barely breathing. But with the fundings of HomeToGo, GoEuro, and Tourlane this year, the country’s day in the sun has arrived thanks to a few factors, including more funding, bolder thinking, and better mentorship.

The Travel Buzzwords Skift Loves to Hate: We’re not mad, but we are tired of buzzwords being used by travel companies to obscure what is really going on, which tends to be either a strategic erosion of quality for consumers, or a slow process of change to become more competitive in a certain marketplace.

Museums Face Overtourism Problems as They Tilt Toward Blockbuster Exhibitions: It’s true — going to MoMA, the Louvre, or the Prado isn’t enough anymore. The existence of blockbuster exhibitions is old news, but now it’s easier than ever to discover and book these tours and activities.

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Skift Senior Editor Andrew Sheivachman [as@skift.com] curates the Skift Meetings Innovation Report. Skift emails the newsletter every Wednesday.

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