Oct. 28, 2020

This paid piece is sponsored by Experience Sioux Falls.

Rewind to the start of 2020 and the travel landscape in Sioux Falls looked a lot different.

“The calendar was looking quite full in Sioux Falls for meetings, conventions, tournaments and more,” said Teri Schmidt, executive director of Experience Sioux Falls.

“And then everything changed.”

Few industries were impacted as significantly and severely as travel and hospitality.

But, in true Sioux Falls form, the industry persevered locally and is starting to see signs of a rebound.

“The Experience Sioux Falls sales team is back to conducting business as usual, just slightly different. While some organizations have opted for either a virtual meeting or a cancellation altogether, many have chosen to postpone to a future date,” Schmidt said.

“The team has learned that many planners are eager to get back to work and are excited about planning future events again.”

The meetings industry is finding ways to adapt to keep business optimistically moving forward.

Connnect, one of the nation’s largest players in the meetings industry, is a go-to resource for connecting with meeting planners and destinations.

The organization recently held a hybrid trade show in Orlando where faith-based meeting planners and association/corporate meeting planners met with destinations around the country in a mix of virtual and in-person appointments.

Two sales team members from Experience Sioux Falls met with a total of 77 planners over the course of two days to discuss Sioux Falls as a potential host city for a future event.

“This is not the first time Experience Sioux Falls has participated in a virtual sales event,” Schmidt said. “Members of the sales team also attended a virtual trade show in September in which they met with planners who are specifically looking to book a future event in the Midwest region. While it’s not our normal way of conducting business, it is leading to business opportunities for us, which says a lot about how planners view coming to Sioux Falls.”

The Experience Sioux Falls sales team also is planning to hold its own virtual trade show in November. They have invited select planners to connect virtually to discuss all that Sioux Falls has to offer and to see if there is a potential fit for an event.

“Planning for the future has been the name of the game this year, but that is nothing new to the Experience Sioux Falls sales team because the meetings industry is typically booking events two to four years out anyway,” Schmidt said. “Things might be moving a little slower than a standard year, but they are progressing forward nonetheless.”

While most planners are just beginning the planning process, some are further along and have visited Sioux Falls for an in-person site visit to get a better understanding of the city and the facilities.

“That shows they’re serious,” Schmidt said. “They like what they’re seeing in our community, they appreciate the success our market has seen this year despite all the disruption, and we feel confident we are going to see them – and their events – here in the future.”