ECA Advocacy Update: October 11, 2024
1. Visa wait times down 60% in Mexico 📉 |
Earlier this year, ECA helped secure $50 million in supplemental funding for the State Department to support bringing down visa wait times around the world.
Since then, average B-1/B-2 visa interview wait times in Mexico have dropped 60%, from 768 days to 303 days.
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- Advocacy works! This is an important example of the real-world impact that advocacy can have on the business events industry.
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Zoom out: That said, wait times still remain far too high in Mexico and other key inbound markets including India, Columbia, and Turkey.
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- For example, the average wait time for a visa interview in India is 448 days.
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That's why ECA continues to support visitor visa reform efforts on Capitol Hill to increase flexibility, transparency, and accountability at the State Department.
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In other visa news, as of December 1, international exhibitors and attendees from Qatar will no longer need a visa to come to events in the United States.
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2. ECA gets industry ready for election day |
With election day drawing closer, ECA is helping the business events industry get ready for November 5.
Why it matters: What happens at the ballot box next month will significantly impact the industry in (at least) 4 key policy areas:
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- Tax reform 💸
- International travel 🌍
- Workforce 👷
- Sustainability ♻️
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ECA Votes, ECA's new voter registration and education resource, is hosting a free multi-part webinar series on the election and its implications. Sign up here.
In addition, ECA's first column for Exhibit City News focuses on why how the election will impact meetings, events, and trade shows. Read all about it here.
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- Thanks to Prevue Meetings + Incentives for its recent coverage of ECA Votes and the 2024 election.
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3. ECA to be part of 63rd ICCA Congress |
Later this month, ECA will take part in the 63rd ICCA Congress in Abu Dhabi.
The big picture: Sustainability will be front and center, including as part of a session ECA's Tommy Goodwin will be facilitating on preparing CEOs for the future (and the role that working effectively with government can play).
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- Read more about this event from ECA's newest alliance partner here.
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In addition, ECA is pleased to formally welcome ICCA's new Regional Director for North America, Shawn (Yih-Hsiang) Cheng!
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- Learn more about how ICCA and ECA are working together in this recent column from Senthil Gopinath in from Conference & Meetings World.
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4. In case you missed it... |
- Skift Meetings quoted ECA as part of its recent article on the dockworkers' strike and how it would have impacted the industry.
- IAEE released a new toolkit, the How to Guide to Sustainable Exhibitions, to help organizers reduce the environmental impact of their events.
- UFI announced the appointment of Chris Skeith OBE as its new CEO, effective January 1, 2025. Welcome, Chris!
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The Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance (ECA) is a coalition of leading professional, industry, and labor associations that comprise the unified advocacy voice of the business events industry.
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ECA Advocacy Update is ECA's biweekly newsletter with public policy updates impacting the business events industry.
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