In lieu of hosting its 27th annual IRF Education Invitational in person in early December, the Incentive Research Foundation has announced a new virtual educational event for incentive travel professionals that will run over two half-days. The IRF produces research and tracks best practices around motivation and rewards programs.
UNvitational: an IRF Virtual Experience is set for December 1-2 and will be open to anyone in an incentive-related role, as opposed to the Education Invitational that’s open to the 5,000 program managers, incentive houses, and suppliers who support the foundation. Saying that the online event “will offer unexpected approaches to education and networking,” Stephanie Harris, president of the IRF, notes that session topics will include using incentives to accelerate business recovery, delivering incentives virtually, and legal considerations for new types of incentives. Besides presentations and panel sessions, there will be small-group discussions among attendees as well. Preliminary findings from The Incentive Travel Industry Index will also be presented.
Throughout 2020, the IRF has released research documenting the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on incentive-travel programs and the resulting shift to virtual programs and merchandise rewards. In addition to its two previously released Pulse surveys documenting the disruption in the incentive travel, meetings, and events industry, the foundation published a best-practices guide today that’s titled Incentive Program Design for Crisis Recovery.
The IRF also announced that it will resume the in-person Education Invitational in early June 2021 at the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort.
