When COVID-19 hit the U.S., the federal government imposed measures aimed at minimizing the spread of the virus, including urging people to work from home. For this reason, about 33% of businesses adopted telecommuting during the height of the pandemic. Moreover, even with the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine, not everyone is confident enough to attend gatherings, such as in-person business meetings. To solve this problem, hotels are now implementing hybrid meeting programs that enable people to attend meetings both virtually and in-person.
Here are three essential facts that you need to know about hybrid meetings.While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not specify numbers that define small and large gatherings, it urges people to avoid large gatherings. More specifically, it defines large gatherings as those that need professional planning and often happen in private or public spaces. On the other hand, small gatherings are those that happen in someone's home and do not involve people traveling to attend or event planners taking part. This means that even those doing weddings will most likely have only a few people in attendance. As such, hybrid meeting technology will come in handy for those who want to have both in-person and virtual attendants in their weddings and other social events until the pandemic ends.
From the experts' point of view, the hybrid meeting program will come in handy for business travelers and those working from home. Even so, considering this is a new technology, there are several things to learn and adapt to. For instance, your team ought to know how to join the hybrid meeting, navigate through it, and troubleshoot if they encounter technical hitches. This will contribute a great deal to the success of hybrid meetings in your organization. Hotels should also offer a technical team that will see to it that hybrid meetings run smoothly. That said, you should ensure that your team receives adequate training to adapt to the hybrid meeting technology.
Although it has gained popularity during the pandemic, the hybrid meeting program was still operational in some companies pre-COVID. Now that more companies have tested and proved its feasibility, expert projections indicate that the hybrid meeting technology will remain popular even in the post-COVID era. This is mainly because at least 16% of American employees intend to continue working remotely even after the end of the pandemic, according to the Harvard Business School (HBS). Additionally, people will still travel for business, which means that hybrid meetings will still be useful.
These are some of the things you should know about hybrid meetings. That said, hotels should implement such programs through modern technology and design changes to accommodate the various interests of their guests. Does your property need modernization? Contact Nikki Fox, Nikki@ParkwestGC.com, at Parkwest General Contractors to learn more about cutting hotel costs and maximizing guest satisfaction.
