The UN Geneva multi-track initiative Conferencing Today and Tomorrow was launched by the Division of Conference Management (DCM) in November 2018 as part of ongoing efforts to build on our relationship and engagement with client organisations, to identify how major external trends (economic, technological, social, environmental etc.), as well as internal trends within the UN may lead to changes in the conferencing support requirements of clients. 

The phase one of the initiative aimed to visualize and identify how DCM can adapt, plan and innovate to respond to these changing needs.

Since the COVID-19 crisis, working remotely, attending meetings online has become routine. Phase two of the project, Conferencing Today and Tomorrow 2 (CTT-2) aims to collect feedback from our clients’ experiences to understand how COVID-19 changed their participation in conferences, how it changed their activities in terms of organising conferences, and how they envisage future meeting experiences post-COVID-19.  What did we learn during this time and how could we take advantage from this experience?

This new initiative includes a survey, and a series of events, one-to-one interviews, focus groups, aimed to facilitate a deeper understanding of our client’s priorities today and in the post-COVID-19 world. The findings have been published in a project report (PDF file).