Time to shine
By Beckie Towle, Marketing Director of HBAA, soon to be known as beam
As many of you will have seen, HBAA is transitioning with a new name, identity, and a revived focus, which will be officially launched in January. Why? Our acronym stands for Hotel Booking Agents Association and our clients are no longer looking for us to only be a Hotel Booking Agent. The name does not represent our industry today and neither does it represent our membership. HBAA has needed a revised and refreshed look and feel. As we approach our 25th anniversary next year, our association must lead into the next 25 years at the forefront of the business events, accommodation, and meetings industry.
The association will strive to be future fit in a plethora of ways. This includes championing change as a supporting line, creating leaders of tomorrow’s future, and creating outward, as well as inward-facing, communities to shine a light on our industry and our members, with a stronger and united voice into government. We will also lead and debate on key issues that will impact our industry, with macro-environmental issues at the heart. Collaboration across the sector will also be a core focus. We will continue to work for our members as we widen the membership, make our voice louder, ensure that the code of practice represents new ways of working and promote best practices in the new world. Together we will navigate the future together as our industry unfolds in a new world. A brave new world.
Our new name from 14 January will be ‘beam’. What does it stand for? Well, it stands for beam. If you would like words, it is business events, accommodation, and meetings. It truly represents the membership of today and helps us to create a wider membership for the future and bigger a voice, a wider community, and takes us into the next stages of our planning of sustainable growth and longevity. It enables the association to be future-fit and to be repositioned for the future.
As my colleague, Sian Sayward, HBAA/beam Governance Director, said at our launch meeting in October: “We need to be clear on one thing – this isn’t a rebrand. This is a re-imagining of the association.” This period of transition will lead to an exciting and ambitious strategy for the association. We are looking forward to further developing this with our members as we move through the remainder of 2021 and into 2022. or the association. We are looking forward to further developing this with our members as we move through the remainder of 2021 and into 2022.