Latest / PCMA Convene Podcast / Talk: How Geopolitics, Travel Disruptions, and Rising Costs Are Reshaping Global Meetings
Transcript
- Convene Talk, ep. 93/April 24, 2026 *Note: the transcript is AI generated, excuse typos and inaccuracies Magdalina Atanassova: This is the Convene Podcast. Welcome to another Convene Talk. It's been a little while since we've done one of those as we've been diving into very interesting conversations with speakers from different PCMA events. So we have a very good excuse, but we are back at it with our convenient talks. So, Jen, do you want to go ahead and share what we're going to talk about today? Jennifer N. Dienst: Sure. Thanks, Maggie. And it has been a while, so welcome back, everyone. So I thought it would be interesting to just kind of talk about some of the current events that are affecting travel right now. There's a lot going on in the world, as we all know, and travel, specifically air travel, really seems to be bearing the brunt of that, just making things really difficult domestically and abroad. So we know that, for example, airlines are hiking prices due to availability of oil and gas and that's going to continue to happen. Specifically American and Canadian Airlines. So they are adding new bag fees and surcharges. That's already on top of higher fares. I saw that. Qantas, according to Skift, this was a recent article from Skiff said that rising fuel costs linked to the Middle east conflict is going to add another half billion dollars to its fuel bill. And as a result, they are cutting flights to some markets. So I think, you know, that could have a big impact on meetings with international attendance. So we're also just seeing some continued issues here domestically when it comes to TSA and security. We saw last month some of the air that got hit the hardest, like Austin headlines upwards of five, six hours. And the U.S. travel association called on Congress to provide three years of funding for the TSA to help avoid future impacts to TSA paychecks. So that comes right ahead of some big events that are going to be taking place in the United States. That includes the World Cup. And we also are expected to see an increase in travel and visitation for America's 250 50th anniversary. So hopefully Congress will pass a bill to avoid future impacts to tsa. And then we also, there's still talk about, you know, a potential decrease in visitors coming to the US because of visa restrictions, making it difficult for visitors coming from countries all over the world. That could also make it tough on meetings held here in the US that have a sizable international attendance. So, yeah, lots going on, lots of, lots of things impacting or having a potential to impact meetings this year, whether it's at home or abroad. So I'm, I'm curious, you know, what you guys are seeing and paying attention to in the media. Something that I thought was interesting that popped up, I think, last week in our news feed, this was Brandon, News junkie is that Rotary has announced it will move its 2027 meeting from Dubai. Let me double check that because I'm blinking on whether it was Dubai or the UAE. But, yes, they originally had scheduled for their 2027 annual meeting, which is a pretty large event. They typically attract up to 20,000 participants from over 140 countries. So this is a, you know, very large international contingency. It was supposed to take place in Dubai and they've moved it to Barcelona for next June. So they attribute that directly to the ongoing Middle east turmoil. So, yeah, Curious to know what you guys are seeing and thinking about all of this. Michelle, Michelle Russell: I'll go. I'll jump in. So I think there are some other things that are also troubling on the horizon. One is the proposal by the U.S. customs and Border Protections that suggests travelers coming from countries that are part of a visa waiver program would need to give additional personal information as part of an electronic application. And that is as well as the proposed changes, also showing their social media from the last five years, which would be a huge deterrent. And then I think last week the idea was floated by the Department of Homeland Security that the international what are they, the cities that are asylum cities would no longer have, possibly no longer have agents who are processing international travelers as kind of like, well, if you're not going to be hard on immigrants who are here illegally, then why should we allow agents to process international travelers? Just a crazy, crazy situation we are finding ourselves in. And then I think in addition to that, we have been writing a lot about how science conferences in particular are seeing a slump in attendance here in the United States from other parts of the world. There's a large math conference and there is an objection about having it here in the United States because people abroad object to the current administration's policies. So I think we're seeing attacks on all sides. There was a story in Science magazine at the end of January. It was called Trump Slump. Attendance plummets at some science meetings, but others hold steady. And it talked about travel bans, a government shutdown in 2025. And then, of course, Jen, you referred to the most recent partial government shutdown, which affected TSA agents paychecks and then funding crunches. So said 2025 was a turbulent year for the United States scientific societies, and it doesn't seem like it's gotten much better this year. So, Barbara? Barbara Palmer: Yeah, you know, I just wanted to bring in. PCMA just published an Outlook report and I just wanted to bring in some data from that. And I think one thing to note is that this data is not going to have been collected before the war in Iran. It is prior to that. So I would imagine that all of these numbers could very good bet that they've gone up. But corporate planners, 50% of them in the survey had said that geopolitics has changed how they plan events. They have fewer events, and they also are planning differently, keeping backup options. Associations were less than that. It was the third. But they said that geopolitics and the economy and those are very much linked. I think, you know, we've demonstrated that, like talking about the price of the oil and then just the general. The ability to spend money and travel and the people who are most worried about it. This is not really a big surprise. But are the destinations destinations? 62% said that geopolitics was their biggest headache. And that makes sense because if you're a destination, your flexibility is. It's less. You can't really move. Can't move meanings from where you are. I was just thinking about this. I mean, this is kind of a mundane example compared to what the events that people are traveling to and the stakes there. But I traveled to a wedding, and it was in Austin. It was when those long lines and my flight was canceled. And I thought about, like, what were the things that kind of happened that week? And one of them was I was, you know, I was going to a wedding, my nephew's wedding. So very high value in getting there. Like, if it wasn't such an important event, I wouldn't have gone. And I think that that's probably true for people coming to events. Like, it just depends on the value that they're going to get there. So I feel like if, you know, people can express that or make sure that people are getting the value, that's going to help people kind of make that decision to go. But the other thing was just the trust and the network that I had. The big issue was like, how early should we get there? And we were all flying out of some of the same airport. So the people who went and you just didn't know whether you could trust what you were seeing online. And so the people who went to the airport earlier went back from their gate and said, okay, yeah, it's still good. And I feel like. I feel like that's really comparable to what destinations can do. And I think that's a point that Kelly sailing at Visit Seattle made that just transparency for planners, like transparency about what's going on. Try and keep people updated. Like, I just feel like trying to get information about what's going on without having like specific sources that you know and you can trust. I think that's, that's like kind of a key factor. Jennifer N. Dienst: I feel like the airports and the destinations that are really on top of social media if they're being, if they're really affected, like the places that had the four and the five and the six hour plus wait just for security, the ones that really were on top of it and communicated via social media on their website, you know, like, yes, you're always going to have someone who somehow got in line and waited forever. But it's not, that's not always a consistent experience right across the board. It could be that they just like Atlanta Airport. I always see people being like, oh my gosh, I got there and it was five hours. And it's like, well, if you'd gone to this terminal and you didn't get there at this particular time, it would have been totally fine just knowing. Like I know Atlanta Airport really well and I know that it's not always like that. So I think that you're right. Like it comes down to the airport and the DMO and other destination partners getting ahead of the conversation, having the clocks that show how long the waits are or just like continuously putting updates out via social media and not all of them do that. Magdalina Atanassova: I wanted to touch on the same thing and the perception factor. And it's the same with Visa wait times. In some countries it's better than it was before. In some countries it's worse than it was before. So it really depends and you really need to check. But it's also when you want to go to an event and you have a perception now about the price because really it matters on the route, right? It depends where you're traveling from and where you're going to. Because I've been checking just out of curiosity, flights for our upcoming OT meeting in Chicago. So my route hasn't changed so far. May change, may not, I don't know. So far I don't see any change. And you know, I've been just seeing the. If there would be price changes because I bought it right before the war in Iran started. So I was curious to see if there will be any effects. Of course I was expecting an immediate rise, but I don't see it at least until now. So all these will make the Job of planners very hard because of how. How can you predict? Before, we were relying on stable data. You knew international people would come, how they would come. And now it's like we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow in one week, in one month. How can you plan an event? So, and I think the Rotary event that you gave as an example, it's planned for 27, and still they decided to change the location. So it shows that this balance and how event planners are starting to think about volatility is changing. And I think it will change how we plan events in the future. Also for destinations, how are you selling? And this factor of what people think about you would matter more than ever. So if you don't jump ahead and really be the mainstream or the main conversation that's online, you're really going to lose potential business. So it's. It's interesting and I wonder if this will be another pickup for Hybrid now. So it will become again, not the backup option, but something that planners are using more strategically just to have it in their pocket and make sure that they have the option to reach their audiences no matter what. Barbara Palmer: I think that's a great point. I was thinking also just about political violence and not just, not just wars, but the AI, the big Human Exchange AI conference was here in San Francisco last week, and Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, his house was attacked twice. And I just think when you think about safety and when you're thinking about going someplace, just the perception of how safe it is, I think it's gotten very difficult to kind of manage those expectations. And it's certainly not a problem that an event planner can solve on their own. But as you said, like just having a lot of flexibility and backup plans, and that was one of the strategies that was mentioned in the Outlook report is like thinking about Hybrid as a way of continuing to deliver in those contingencies when people aren't coming. Magdalina Atanassova: And just imagine about budget planning on top of everything. How are you negotiating clauses now with everything being everywhere? Pretty much it's totally not stable. And how are you going to plan when planners are planning now, probably 20, 30, 31 even, and so forth for bigger events. I really am happy that I'm not in their shoes trying to negotiate and find deals and think location, because it seems is a very, very difficult conversation to have now. Barbara Palmer: And I would think contracts are also. There's, you know, probably getting lots of more flexibility built into some of those. And there might be definitely just some new clauses. Michelle Russell: Yeah, because I Don't think any of these qualify as like acts of God that would enable you to back out. Jennifer N. Dienst: This is specifically an act of war. Yeah. Barbara Palmer: So it's a little bit different. Michelle Russell: It's a very uncertain environment to plan events for sure. Maggie. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah. Anything else to add just to make people more worried about the current state of events? Jennifer N. Dienst: It's a lot going on. Yeah. It's just. Yeah. Barbara Palmer: I guess the thing to add to kind of the counter argument is that these are really big problems and that that is when people need to get together. Like if everybody stays home, if they don't talk to each other, then, you know, the possibility of having the kinds of solutions and relationships and coalitions that can create change, that diminishes too. So there's, you know, a great incentive to get together. So I think that's a. That's a very positive thing. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, I agree. I think we may see more regional events as a solution and just bring in international voices in a different way, not necessarily face to face, which is not necessarily something we haven't seen before. We started during COVID so I'm sure we will find ways to connect the global communities in different industries again. But maybe seeing face to face more people in your region, which again is not, it sounds the worst thing. It's good to have connections close by. Michelle Russell: It certainly does complicate the process. To your point, Maggie, the planning process to then create these regional events. Magdalina Atanassova: Well, you know, I'm thinking of medical and scientific associations. So they usually have these big global bodies and then they have the original one. So maybe we'll see more collaboration between those two layers and they'll be finding new ways to kind of work together and streamline their programs and their findings. So why not? Why not? Maybe there is a lot of opportunity there that we are currently not seeing just because we first get a bit worried and then we start to see the solutions and opportunities. Barbara Palmer: I think you're really right about that. And I think we know that that trend of planning meetings closer to the event was already there. So that demand now to be really flexible and be able to make decisions closer to an event is demanded by this current situation. So it may be that there'll be some. Some really sturdy changes that come out of that that make it possible to have better meetings. Magdalina Atanassova: I like the sound of that. And just a reminder really that it's. I think that has always been the underlying thinking events. You don't wait for stable times to design your events. You try to design for volatility just to be on the safe side. And I think it's just a little bit more highlighted now, how you navigate it. But yeah, let's focus on the positive side and the opportunities there. Let's not forget that there are opportunities there. Michelle Russell: Just reminded of a story that I wrote for the June issue is on Points of Light, which is a nonprofit, that their mission is to bring together social impact professionals and to continue to build the spirit of volunteerism in the United States and in other parts of the world. And so one of the things they're doing, which I thought was really cool, is this year for the first time, because they've been seeing a decline in volunteerism overall. Like, people are not volunteering as much over the last few decades as they. As they used to. So one of the things they're doing is they are. They're calling it, I wouldn't call it a co location, but they are conjoining the National Youth Leadership Council with the Points of Light conference. And they're trying to solve for having youth invested in volunteering and understanding what kinds of things they're interested in engaging with and having them be part of the conference. So I do think that when you are struggling, it enables you to think of other ways to bolster your attendance and to further your mission. If you think about bringing in different audiences to your event, I. That's just a really good example of that. Magdalina Atanassova: I was looking for this quote or saying, never let the crisis go to waste. Yeah, that's often attributed to Churchill. Apparently, he never said that. I wanted to wrap with that, but when you did he really say it? And sources are like, well, maybe no. Barbara Palmer: Yeah, you know, and I, I have talked to people who've repeated that in the context of the DEI crackdown. Like, okay, well, let's rethink how we're doing this. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, yeah, I think that's a better way to say it. So let's wrap up with that and a reminder that there will be a lot of links in the show notes. Thanks, everyone. Remember to subscribe to the Convene Podcast on your favorite listening platform to stay updated with our latest episodes. For further industry insights from the Convene team, head over to PCMA.org/convene. My name is Maggie. Stay inspired. Keep inspiring. And until next time.