byline: Katherine Schulte

Flexibility is once again the name of the game for meeting planners in 2021.

In 2020, most planners’ clients postponed or canceled conferences, while others decided to go virtual instead of meeting in person. This time around, it’s somewhat safer to meet due to COVID-19 vaccines, but outbreaks are still occurring in Virginia because of the delta variant of the coronavirus.

Still, says Marty Malloy, principal and co-founder of Henrico County-based Convention Connections Inc., “We’re creatures of wanting to interact and meet. All of our clients want to meet and get back together, so that’s extremely encouraging.”

Since April, CCI has organized events in Orlando, Florida; Austin, Texas; New Orleans and Nashville, with 10 more events scheduled for the rest of 2021 and about 50 more next year.

Laurie Campbell, president of Meeting Professionals International’s Virginia chapter, echoes Malloy’s opinion.

“People are ready to get back together,” she says. “I think moving forward most people want to see a relaxation of any kind of restrictions, but they’re still respectful of those people who are timid or still concerned about exposure or anything like that.” 

Also, companies and organizations have to consider costs when planning hybrid meetings, she notes. Virtual meetings have the potential to increase attendance, but for now, the technology required increases the expense of conferences, says Campbell, senior director of sales and marketing of Newport Hospitality Group, a Williamsburg-based hotel management company. However, she does predict that virtual meetings will eventually become standard and less expensive to produce.

Today, notes Malloy, the tricky part of planning is keeping up with varying state and city ordinances regarding pandemic safety measures. One event that CCI had planned for July in New Orleans originally had a capacity limit of 250, but when the city increased capacity limits, CCI had to rapidly plan for more people. “The ball moves pretty quickly,” he says.

Campbell echoes that need for flexibility. “As we get a new announcement from every governor, then you have to be ready to bend,” she says. “As the hotel or the venue comes up with a situation that they need you to work with them on, then you’ve got to be able to bend.”

Individual venues are operating differently within the rules as well, so meeting planners need to be ready to adapt to new requirements. Conference and meeting host organizations also have differing guidelines, such as requiring masks or social distancing.

Another issue is the pent-up demand for meeting spaces. Everybody wants to have the conferences that they couldn’t hold last year and to get back to their normal meeting schedules, Malloy says. So, booking is competitive.

One of Malloy’s biggest clients, CrimeCon, a convention for true crime aficionados, was originally booked at the Orlando World Center Marriott in 2020. Although the organizers were able to hold this year’s CrimeCon as scheduled in Austin, Malloy was not able to book the Orlando center again until 2023.

The ongoing national labor shortage also has limited availability and services at some conference hotels. Joblist, a workplace website, released the results of a survey in July finding that 69% of former hospitality workers responded that they had no intention of returning to the industry.

Campbell says she didn’t see the labor shortage having a direct effect on MPI’s conference at the Richmond Marriott earlier this year but adds that it took an “all hands on deck” attitude, with all staff — including hotel managers — stepping in to help. 

“It’s a bit like the duck on the water — you don’t know what the legs are doing, but it looks so smooth up top, which is what our industry is all about,” she says.

And although some hotels are seeing cancellations or slowing demand in response to the delta-related spike in COVID cases late this summer, Campbell and Malloy say plenty of organizations and businesses are still resolved to meet in person as planned.

People seem to have accepted that some risk is part of the deal, the planners agree. Malloy points to fans who have returned to attending sporting events and concerts.

“As a meeting planner, you’ve got to roll with the punches,” Campbell says. “What we do have to realize is that [COVID] is going to be with us probably forever. We just have to learn how to work with it and work around it, like we do everything else.”♣

Related: Despite pandemic, hotels press forward

Virginia’s largest conference hotels

It’s no secret that the hospitality industry is hurting from the ongoing pandemic. Although widespread shutdowns are in the past, hotel executives are now challenged by the sector’s labor shortage and the slow recovery of business travel. In July, hotel revenues were down 3% compared with the same month in 2019, according to data from STR Inc., a CoStar Group division that provides market data on the U.S. hospitality industry.

Although tourism travel returned to pre-pandemic levels in Virginia Beach this summer, business and government travel continues to lag, notes Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association President Eric Terry.

Hotels continue to adapt, though, adding technology to enable hybrid meetings and updating safety protocols, with many hotels and conference centers focusing on outdoor meeting areas that are considered safer by public health officials. Many also have continued with renovations and grand openings despite the current challenges.

Here’s the latest around the state:

Central Virginia

The 18-story downtown Richmond Marriott’s multimillion-dollar renovations were finished in December. The 410-room hotel has a skywalk to the Greater Richmond Convention Center and offers six event rooms and 24 breakout rooms. Its meeting space totals 26,700 square feet, and the largest space holds 2,000 people. The ballroom can be set up for virtual meetings. On Sept. 23, comfort food restaurant Fall Line Kitchen & Bar opened in the hotel.

In eastern Albemarle County, Keswick Hall was set to reopen in October following extensive renovations. The hotel has 80 guest rooms and suites, a golf course, a new spa and a new restaurant, Marigold, from French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The resort’s boardroom can accommodate 20 people and teleconferences, and the ballroom can be divided to hold a general session and breakout space for up to 200 people.

Hampton Roads

The $125 million Marriott Virginia Beach Oceanfront opened in June 2020 as part of Gold Key | PHR’s Cavalier Resort, an expansion of the Historic Cavalier Hotel & Beach Club. With 305 guest rooms, 11 meeting rooms and a total of 20,300 square feet of event space, including a ballroom overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the hotel is a prominent addition to the Oceanfront area. The hotel’s amenities include a business center, boardroom and breakout room. The resort’s outdoor spaces — seven lawns and the beach — have grown in popularity, Gold Key CEO Bruce Thompson says, as have team-building exercises.

“They do everything from different athletic-type events to scavenger hunts to meetings on the lawns to all types of activities,” Thompson says. “We give them little metal detectors and they go out and try to find things on the beach that we plant or coins or something like that.”

Gold Key’s properties — the two hotels at The Cavalier Resort and Hilton Norfolk The Main — offer three conference options, a mixture of in-person and virtual meetings. Both locations require employees to either have proof of vaccination or wear masks.

Northern Virginia

The six-story Sheraton Reston reopened Aug. 6 after completing renovations to its nine event rooms and 12 breakout rooms that total 18,600 square feet. The largest space can hold 550 people. Additions include a courtyard, a new 1,800-square-foot gym and a media room and studio.

Located 12 miles from Washington Dulles International Airport, the Landsdowne Resort and Spa in Leesburg recently renovated its ballroom and meeting spaces. The resort offers 55,000 square feet of meeting space, including an outdoor pavilion, and leisure activities like golf and spa treatments.

Shenandoah Valley

The 483-room Omni Homestead Resort in Bath County reopened in June 2020 after closing for three months due to the pandemic. One of the state’s oldest businesses, The Homestead has been open since 1766 and was purchased by Omni in 2013. After a couple of years’ delay and following extensive renovations, the hotel’s former Jefferson Pools — now known as the Warm Springs Pools — owned by the Homestead are expected to reopen in late 2022.

The 2,300-acre resort offers 23 meeting rooms with a total of 72,000 square feet, although John Hess, Homestead’s director of marketing and sales, says that its outdoor venues have become more popular in the past year, as have team-building activities. Hotel staff also worked with organizers to host virtual meetings.

“It seems that the desire to get out and travel is currently outweighing any fears that are out there of holding a meeting during this pandemic,” Hess says, “but I think that dynamic is starting to shift,” as cases rise due to the coronavirus’ delta variant.

Roanoke/Southwest Virginia

The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center, part of the Curio Collection by Hilton, completed the $3.6 million renovation of its Pine Room Pub and 1882 Lobby Bar in September 2020. The hotel has 63,000 square feet of meeting space composed of 34 meeting areas and a 14,400-square-foot ballroom. A significant chunk of the budget — $480,000 — went into updated infrastructure and equipment to allow hybrid meetings.

In Bristol, the Nicewonder Inn is expected to open in late fall at the Nicewonder Farm & Vineyards. A 28-room lakefront boutique inn, the property is focused on fine dining (with James Beard-nominated Chef Travis Milton opening a restaurant, Hickory, on premises) and can host 300 or more guests inside or outdoors.

Southern Virginia

The Bee, a boutique hotel, opened to guests last December in the former Danville Register & Bee newspaper office. The conversion preserved features such as the original wood floors and the spiral staircase that led from the pressroom to the editor’s office. With 47 guest rooms and a rooftop veranda, The Bee offers a mix of old and new in downtown Danville.  

Related: Virginia’s largest conference hotels

Meeting planners roll with the punches