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With more people getting vaccinated and more clarity on what the return to business travel might look like, a growing number of companies are ready to reopen their travel programs. To demonstrate how in-person meetings and business travel can resume safely and responsibly, American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) teamed up with American Airlines and Hyatt to orchestrate a three-day hybrid event in American Airlines’ new headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.
The well-being of in-person attendees was a top priority for us. During the planning phase, we solicited participants’ feedback to confirm they were comfortable with traveling and engaged our legal, compliance, and HR units to make sure all the proper safety protocols were being followed. At the event, American Airlines and Hyatt helped to make sure temperature checks were taken, release forms were signed, social distancing was practiced, and masks were worn in public spaces.
By successfully bringing together 40 people traveling from across the United States, we achieved our primary objective: to show that, when planned properly, you can have safe business travel and meeting experiences in this current environment. On top of that, the feedback we received was tremendous. According to a survey GBT conducted, 100% of attendees were either “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the overall event.
With more people getting vaccinated and more clarity on what the return to business travel might look like, a growing number of companies are ready to reopen their travel programs. To demonstrate how in-person meetings and business travel can resume safely and responsibly, American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) teamed up with American Airlines and Hyatt to orchestrate a three-day hybrid event in American Airlines’ new headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.
Initially, we had planned to conduct a small internal meeting for our Global Travel Program Management team, a practice within GBT’s Global Business Consulting (GBC). However, because there was so much excitement from other internal teams and our suppliers, the scope expanded into a larger commercial partnership event comprised of 40 in-person and 30 virtual attendees – making the meeting planning and execution a more complex undertaking.
In planning a hybrid event of this magnitude during COVID, we set out to achieve several goals, including:
The well-being of in-person attendees was a top priority for us. During the planning phase, we solicited participants’ feedback to confirm they were comfortable with traveling and engaged our legal, compliance, and HR units to make sure all the proper safety protocols were being followed. At the event, American Airlines and Hyatt helped to make sure temperature checks were taken, release forms were signed, social distancing was practiced, and masks were worn in public spaces.
With the M&E team facilitating the planning and management, we purposefully created an inclusive event to spark moments and memories among the live and online participants. We utilized the app Attendify as well as Zoom to produce an interactive chat experience where the two groups could socialize, send photos, and connect personally. American Airlines also set up two screens in the conference room: one that featured the presentation content and a second that displayed a gallery of those joining virtually, so it felt like they were actually in the room with the others.
By successfully bringing together 40 people traveling from across the United States, we achieved our primary objective: to show that, when planned properly, you can have safe business travel and meeting experiences in this current environment. On top of that, the feedback we received was tremendous. According to a survey GBT conducted, 100% of attendees were either “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the overall event.
Here are some top takeaways from this experience: