The Accor group has collaborated with Microsoft to launch the All Connect offer, a new concept of hybrid meetings based on Microsoft Teams. This concept will allow customers around the world to adapt to new working methods, born of the Covid-19 pandemic and destined to be perpetuated.
55 per cent of Accor hotels currently have meeting rooms offering hybrid solutions. Following its launch next April, the All Connect concept will be the guarantee for Accor establishments to offer an enriched experience, constituting the benchmark in terms of hybrid meetings. The group’s ambition, by 2022, is to ensure compliance with these new standards for 100% of its addresses, belonging to all of the group’s brands, ranging from economy to ultra-luxury.
By associating the brands of the Accor group, and their culture of service, with the power of meeting and collaboration technology embodied by Microsoft Teams, this new offer will allow companies and organizers to plan physical meetings at the hotel, while ensuring remote and simultaneous interaction with multiple entry panels. These meetings will be held on the Microsoft Teams platform, to which participants can connect to discuss remotely. In the Accor meeting spaces, equipped with Microsoft Teams Rooms and Surface Hub 2S technologies, face-to-face people will be connected to those who will join them remotely using these cutting-edge audio and video tools. The presentation of content will be very simple and remote speakers will interact as if they were in the same room. Thanks to this solution, Accor customers and participants will be able to meet in a professional and inclusive manner, anywhere in the world.
The ALL CONNECT concept will mainly focus on small meetings (from 8 to 50 physical participants). Customers will benefit from the expertise of dedicated teams, the experience of the Accor group in terms of meetings and events, and an integrated digital reservation platform. Specific and tailor-made meeting offers will be offered to participants, who will also benefit from the most rigorous health and safety measures in the sector, defined as part of the ALLSAFE protocol, co-developed with Bureau Veritas and validated by external experts.
Studies carried out by Accor show that 50 per cent of the physical meetings initially planned for 2021 by the clients of its Meetings & Events division will evolve into virtual formats, and that 70 per cent of those questioned consider hybrid meetings to be an essential offer in the future. .
In addition, sector analysis shows that the trend for remote events and meetings is expected to continue beyond the pandemic, even if corporate budgets return to pre-crisis levels. This hybrid meeting offer will be a new source of revenue for the group, as corporate clients will prioritize more sustainable business travel, continuing to prioritize health and safety, while striving to maintain their business relations.
Patrick Mendes, Group Chief Commercial Officer, in charge of sales, marketing, distribution and loyalty activities, Accor, said, “The Covid-19 pandemic has caused business travelers and meeting planners to review their working methods. Virtual and hybrid formats have imposed themselves in the daily life of companies. The new All Connect concept , created in collaboration with Microsoft Teams, will be a major tool for our customers that will offer them the possibility of organizing secure and qualitative hybrid meetings, while allowing them to continue to prioritize health, safety and sustainable development. All Connect is a new example of the Accor group’s responsiveness to the current crisis, and follows the launch of the AllSafe protocoland the deployment of office and co-working concepts in hotels. We are delighted to initiate this collaboration with Microsoft, at a time when the Teams solution has already been adopted by 115 million daily users, who come together in the course of their work to exchange, call, discuss and collaborate.”
Jean-Philippe Courtois, Executive Vice President and President of Microsoft International Sales, Marketing and Operations, said, “The future of work will be hybrid: the services and experiences that companies offer their customers will reflect this. We want each person, each company, to benefit from this new working environment in order to guarantee the continuity of their activities. This is why we are proud to collaborate with Accor to offer All Connect, an offer that will allow the group’s customers to stay connected, everywhere in the world.”
