With the suddenly renewed uncertainty once again lifting it's ugly head after the terrorist attacks in Paris, meeting and event organizers should be developing contingency plans to assure the safety and well being of their attendees. After all, even with uncertain conditions, "the show must go on."
When catastrophe strikes in other parts of the world that curtail travel, do you postpone events? Or just shrug your shoulders and hope that attendees can make it next time? Planners need to be proactive in developing a Plan B if and when that happens and be ready to put that plan in place at a moments notice.
Technology can and should play an increasingly important role as planners develop their strategies. Sometimes the best alternative is to connect attendees virtually - whether through videoconferencing, webcasting, webinars, archived footage, audioconferencing, or full on hybrid events combining all of these elements.
There are plenty of providers that do a great job for many of these services at reasonable prices - WebEx, Citrix (GoToMeeting), On24, join.me, Google hangouts, etc. There's also producers that can pull all of the pieces together for you for a nominal cost (like our Partners at V2/Virtual Venues). The point is, planners should develop a strategy and partnerships before their meeting or event so that when the need arises - and we all hope it doesn't - help will be standing by.
