During a webinar today (7 October), IAADFS President and CEO Michael Payne revealed that a physical Summit of the Americas event will take place next year on 10-13 April at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, West Palm Beach, Florida.

The last in-person Summit of the Americas, a collaboration between IAADFS and ASUTIL, took place at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando in 2019 and was due to return to the same venue in 2020 but the event was cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Having planned to move to Palm Beach, Florida this year, the event was instead hosted virtually.

Asked by TRBusiness whether next year’s Summit of Americas would be a collaboration between IAADFS and ASUTIL as before, Steven Antolick, Associate Executive Director, IAADFS told this title directly: “We are planning on that engagement and will be finalising with ASUTIL just how that will be implemented.”

Payne revealed that executive learning sessions will be offered once again in addition to ‘ample face-to-face opportunities’. However, he did say that there will be substantially less exhibitors this time round.

‘INCLUSIVE, COST EFFECTIVE AND USER-FRIENDLY’

“There will be limited public space for creative exhibits; some social events and cocktails before delegates head out to their dinner events,” he said.

He added that the aim of the event was to create an ‘inclusive, cost effective and user friendly experience’.

In an opening address, IAADFS Chairman, Rene Riedi, said that the journey for its members has been ‘much longer, and the road much bumpier than initially anticipated’ over the last 18 months.

During the webinar, one of the attendees said that ‘it would be critical’ for the event next year to facilitate meetings with key global travel retail operators.

“That is one of our primary goals for 2022, planning more time for that interaction between suppliers and retailers, [we are] already well underway securing commitments from top retailers to participate,” said Antolick answering on behalf of the association.

More to follow…