When I first moved to the beaches of Southern California from North Carolina, I had never heard of ‘June Gloom’. It made no sense to me why the start of summer was shrouded in depressing gray clouds, brisk winds, and cooler temperatures. But over the past 10 years, June consistently has required scarves, layers, and the hopeful reminder that the sun will shine again in July.

Much like the June’s of the past, this June began with a dark cloud hanging over the entire nation. But the sun is starting to shine again as evidenced by some very exciting data shared by our friends over at CVENT. Much of the industry has been looking toward some of the world’s largest facilities and it’s an extremely encouraging step to see many are now open, such as MGM resorts (June 4th), Universal Studios Orlando (June 5th) and all Las Vegas properties are scheduled to be open by mid-July. 

Additionally, we are seeing large scale events being planned and confirmed throughout the US, such as Bonnaroo (Sept. 24-27) anticipating 80,000 attendees; Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon (Nov 5-8) anticipating 12,500 runners, and a convention many of you are familiar with, Wedding MBA (Nov 17-19) anticipating 6,000 attendees again this year! 

With hotels and venues opening and large scale events confirming, the trend is showing planners’ confidence is increasing and summer events are being booked as early as July and August. In fact, over the last 3 weeks, requests for proposals have increased by 35%! Overall we are seeing the average booking window increasing sharply, which means your event calendars for Fall 2020 into 2021 should begin filling up very soon!

That is my message to Director’s today, we are almost through this June Gloom and soon the sun will shine on our industry again. #StayStrong. We will get through this together.