NGALA Wildlife Preserve, located on a private, wooded 42-acre property outside Naples, Florida, caters to corporate events and is a home for a variety of rescued animals that cannot be reintroduced back to the wild. NGALA, which translates from Swahili to “Place of the Lion,” was founded by Donovan Smith nearly 20 years ago and is currently home to about 45 animals in addition to over 100 venomous reptiles introduced to the preserve by Smith’s “better half,” Khara Geders.

The Washington State Court of Appeals blocked a so-called “panic button” law for hotels in Seattle on Monday, December 24, 2018. According to the unanimous ruling, Seattle Initiative Measure 124 violated the “single subject condition,” which stops disparate rules being combined into a single law.

The Meetings Today editors skimmed through the analytics, grabbed the top 20 videos and then watched each one to pick our personal favorite Meetings in a Minute (MIAM) planner tips we showcased in 2018.

Although heat mapping visual representations have been around for a century or more in various forms, the digital revolution and data analytics have made this tool extremely useful and utilized in the last decade. A frequent use of heat maps in the events industry is to track attendee behavior.

Even the best laid plans for a meeting or event can be thrown asunder in the blink of an eye, or the pop of a circuit, if the on-site internet or power source suddenly goes bust. The December 27, 2018 report that internet and phone service from CenturyLink suddenly went out throughout much of its system undoubtedly caught many unawares. What should meeting and event planners do on-site if the internet goes out?

In September 2018, Hurricane Florence deluged parts of the Carolinas. Hardest hit was North Carolina, with an estimated $17 billion in crop, infrastructure and other losses. Florence went easier on South Carolina, which reportedly saw some $607 million in damages. Experiencing varying impacts, from minimal to destructive, the region’s coastal destinations have made significant recovery efforts.

The issue of cybersecurity came back to the fore in November 2018 with the revelation of a massive data breach of Marriott’s Starwood-branded hotels. The information of up to 500 million guests was compromised in the data breach. And let's not forget the whole 2018 Facebook data fiasco.

October 2018 marked a year since actress Alyssa Milano reignited the #MeToo movement. It has become clear that no industry is immune to sexual harassment, including meetings and conventions.

The specter of active shooters carrying out mass shootings has fallen on the meetings industry after a drumbeat of such horrific incidents in 2018 and before. Sadly, this realization that a violent attack could occur has become part of our lives, and the “new normal” is to have a heightened sense of awareness and risk management preparation in order to protect attendees at events.

There were a number of notable hotel strikes and labor actions in major meetings and conventions destinations across the U.S. in 2018, with actions against Marriott International by the UNITE HERE labor union grabbing headlines throughout the back half of 2018.