Planners have whole new suite of services as live business events resume

The hotel industry last year watched the pandemic wipe out business travel and corporate events that help fill its guest rooms and banquet halls, turning 2020 from a boom year to a historic bust.

Now, amid signs of an economic rebound as vaccines drive down COVID-19 infections and governments lift restrictions, hotels are eyeing a rebound of their own.

To help nurture the recovery, Marriott Hotels is rolling out "learning labs" to give corporations and event planners practical tips on ways to safely host meetings, conferences and trade shows again.

Some 400 event planners from Ameriprise Financial, 3M, Medtronic, Target, Ecolab, Boston Scientific, Mayo Clinic, Best Buy, and other Minnesota companies recently toured Marriott's massive Connect with Confidence Learning Lab in downtown Minneapolis.

It was the program's first stop in Minnesota and followed similar programs in Denver, Chicago and several other U.S. cities. The hospitality giant plans a global launch of the program soon.

Groups of corporate and event planners recently spent two days visiting 17 staged rooms inside the Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel. The rooms showcased technologies, touchless registration kiosks, rental equipment options and ways for companies to safely screen, separate, host and feed hundreds of conference guests during a waning pandemic.

Marriott and the hospitality industry in general saw business crumble in 2020. In Minneapolis alone, corporations cancelled 400 conventions and conferences last year, according to Meet Minneapolis. Now some are slowly trickling back.

"There is such pent-up demand for everyone to reconnect physically. Through the Learning Lab, we are able to show companies how those connections can happen again safely," said Michael Clarke, the director of Marriott International B2B Marketing and Events.

Matthew Trettel, president of Minneapolis-based Chrom Expo Services , said Minnesota corporations are just beginning to reschedule postponed conventions and trade shows. The coronavirus pandemic disrupted the meeting industry so badly that two of three large Twin Cities conference planning firms folded.

"COVID put a big dent in the market just because of the fact there were no trade shows going on," Trettel said. But with vaccines on the rise, "we are swamped going into the fall," he added.

Chrom installs its first major trade show since the pandemic began — the Minneapolis Remodeling Expo — this weekend at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Trettel plans to use similar washable tablecloths, anti-microbial coatings and the touchless check-in stations he displayed at last week's Learning Lab.

Down the hall from his exhibit last week, event planners visited the Food and Beverage lab to see options for well-distanced seating and touchless buffet, bar and coffee stations. Cocktail tables were covered with cloths made with 3M anti-microbial coatings. Large tables had chairs for just three guests instead of 10.

Nearby, a convention hall showed six different seating options, including "sanctuary seating" in which each well-spaced cocktail table was paired with a single chair.

Joe Korte, from Fridley-based Avex Audio-Visual, demonstrated equipment for hosting "hybrid" meetings. His large video screens showed the in-person presenter along with remote attendees.

Hybrid meetings will become standard for companies, so event planners must navigate the technology, Korte said.

One of the best ways to signal safety to guests may involve wellness checks. It's why last week's Learning Lab started with Marriott's rapid on-site COVID-19 testing lab.

Using a partner like Eurofins, event planners can screen registrants on site and only allow people into their conference after they've tested negative for the coronavirus, said Robert Payne, area director of sales and marketing at the Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, the Depot.

In an adjacent conference hall, stanchions, signs and dividers split up the visitors into zones, funneling them into separate wellness check stations outfitted with touchless thermometers, hand sanitizers, wipes, extra masks and a billboard reminding them to wear a mask, keep their distance, wash hands and walk in the direction shown by floor stickers.

Cort Events Accounts Manager Adrienne Fitzgerald offered event planners furniture rental options for their meetings. Sturdy plexiglass walls, room dividers, banker and bar screens, 7-foot tall hedges and even stanchions with customized signage joined Cort's offerings when the pandemic forced it to quickly pivot beyond its usual furniture rental offerings, Fitzgerald said.

The new options are popular in Phoenix, Dallas and Florida which have been a "crazy hot market for us because they have been open" longer, she said. With COVID-19 vaccines on the rise and more businesses reopening, let's hope "the Twin Cities are next," she said.