The European Meetings & Events Conference (EMEC), MPI’s signature event in Europe, has been postponed, the association announced Tuesday. Concerns related to travel restrictions and the overall health and safety of event attendees due to the COVID-19 omicron variant led to the postponement.
EMEC, designed by Europeans for Europeans, has served as an industry incubator for innovative thinking. The 25th edition was scheduled for Feb. 27-March 1, 2022, in Brighton, England.
“After discussion with our partners and Host Committee members, we’ve determined that continuing to plan for EMEC Brighton would not be a responsible action to take amidst the uncertain landscape unfolding largely due to the omicron variant,” said Annette Gregg, MPI senior vice president of experience. “The pandemic has underscored the need to review and assess each event fluidly, adapting plans to ensure the wellbeing, health and safety of all involved in our events.”
“EMEC is the industry’s premier European event, and above all, its intent is to provide fertile learning and innovation grounds for this international community.”
MPI has demonstrated success in planning safe in-person experiences around COVID-19 through duty of care protocols at its last two North American events: the 2020 and 2021 iterations of the World Education Congress. However, MPI and the EMEC Brighton Host Committee have continued to monitor the rapid global proliferation of the omicron variant, as well as the trends in the UK and across Europe to tighten travel restrictions, the association said.
“Based on discussions concerning the increase in travel restrictions and the overall health and safety of event attendees due to the omicron variant, named by the World Health Organization as a ‘variant of concern,’ it was determined that the in-person event should be postponed,” MPI said in its announcement.
MPI also said the organization is exploring options to bring its European community together in 2022 and 2023, working with the EMEC Host Committee, MPI’s European Advisory Council and local partners for EMEC.
“While we are disappointed to postpone EMEC Brighton, each member among our Host Committee felt it was the right thing to do given the circumstances,” said Richard Allchild, head of sales, North America for the IMEX Group and EMEC Brighton Host Committee co-chair. “EMEC is the industry’s premier European event, and above all, its intent is to provide fertile learning and innovation grounds for this international community. This current scenario would simply undermine our ability to deliver the experience so many have come to expect.”
This marks the second year that EMEC has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The last in-person EMEC was held in February 2020 in Sevilla, Spain. The 2021 event was originally scheduled to take place in February 2021 in Brighton. As the pandemic continued to impact the meeting industry, EMEC was later moved to May 2021 to co-locate with IMEX Frankfurt as a hybrid conference, featuring in-person and digital experiences utilizing a hub-and-spoke format, with Frankfurt serving as the hub while the association’s 11 European chapters would provide regional in-person and digital engagement. IMEX Frankfurt, however, would be cancelled, also due to the pandemic—though MPI did host a virtual EMEC in connection with the 2021 WEC hybrid event. MPI and IMEX announced at the time that an in-person EMEC would return to Brighton, home of the IMEX Group, in 2022
MPI, the largest meeting and event industry association worldwide, had demonstrated the ability to safely conduct in-person meetings. WEC Grapevine in November 2020 resulted in a 99% satisfaction rate with its duty of care procedures and zero attributed positive COVID-19 cases, while WEC Vegas in June 2021 received 97% satisfaction rate with its duty of care procedures, with only two positive COVID-19 tests, each “breakthroughs” reported after the event.
