Dear Guest, 

Welcome to Meeting Escrow's monthly newsletter featuring articles related to financial & risk management solutions for meetings and events: advance deposit escrow accounts, foreign currency exchange protection, single vendor payment management, event insurance and VAT recovery.

We thought we would lead our 2022 newsletter with an article that forecasts the meetings industry by Michael Shapiro of Northstar Meetings Group. Michael outlines the factors driving uncertainty and shares how experts predict things will unfold in 2022 and beyond.  Uncertainty is here to stay and our financial risk management solutions continue to help our clients and vendors forge ahead.

3 Hotel contract trends for 2022

Northstar - December 8, 2021 -  "Legal expert Jonathan Howe discusses issues meeting planners should keep their eyes on while negotiating in the new year."

The top business travel risks for 2022

M&IT - December 2021 - "Natural disasters, extremism, elections and social unrest are among the major threats to travellers in 2022, according to a new report from travel risk intelligence company Riskline."

EIC releases quarterly research on the recovery of group meetings business

Northstar - December 17, 2021 - “Activity levels certainly have improved relative to a year ago, when group hotel room nights and RFP activities were just 31 percent and 22 percent of 2019 Q3 levels, respectively. Gains have come as public health conditions improve in many regions and as organizations and individuals return to in-person events”.

We remind planners who are considering financial risk management solutions such as bank guarantees, letters of credit or escrow accounts for advance deposits, to do so early in the planning stages and definitely before signing vendor contracts.

SITE - December 2021 - by Eugenia Solano – SITE’s 2021 David Riddell Memorial Scholarship winner. Eugenia shares her perspective on the post-pandemic trends, two of which caught our eye: Health & safety and contingency planning. We feel the industry is doing a great job addressing health and safety requirements and contract flexibility. For clients that are focused on financial risk management, looking for transparency, accountability, and flexibility for contingency planning, clients and suppliers can work with financial event solutions companies like Meeting Escrow.

Covid variants cause event cancellations

Northstar - January 7, 2022 - "During the summer and fall, in-person meetings and events were being cancelled due to the Delta variant. Now with cases of the Covid-19 Omicron variant surging globally, conferences, exhibitions and trade shows are once again being cancelled, postponed or held virtually."

At Meeting Escrow, our clients are reassured by the fact that their advance deposits are held in escrow trust accounts. Visit our website to read case studies of how we help clients protect their organizations from financial risk.