Tariffs, travel bans and funding freezes are among the new headwinds facing the meetings and events industry. Here’s a scan of some of what’s happened so far, and how to prepare for potential future impacts.

Whatever you feel about what the ultimate result of the Trump administration’s whirlwind of executive orders and policy changes may be, in the near term, funding cuts, travel restrictions and policy shifts have disrupted at least some meetings and events.

Here are four key policy-driven disruptions meeting and event organizers should prepare for now.

Travel ban expansions. These include a proposed tiered ban affecting more than 40 countries that could make it difficult to impossible for speakers, attendees and exhibitors from some markets to attend U.S.-based meetings. Should the restrictions also extend to H-2B visa holders, hospitality and related employers may face staffing issues for certain roles, such as catering and setup workers.
Contingency planning: Meeting professionals can audit attendee lists for upcoming events to see if they have attendees from proposed Tier 1 (full ban) and Tier 2 (partial ban) countries. If there’s a substantial percentage represented in those categories, you may want to consider providing backup virtual participation options.

Tariff-driven cost increases. The administration has been enthusiastic about instituting a number of tariffs, including the “Liberation Day” tariffs on more than $1 trillion imports that could increase the cost of some common meeting and event products such as electronics, staging materials and branded merchandise. On April 4, the Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance (ECA), an industry advocacy group, pointed out the potential harms to this industry of this executive order, saying, “These tariffs will increase costs for business and professional event organizers, exhibitors, and attendees alike. They also send a signal to international exhibitors and attendees that the U.S. is closed for business. Moreover, these tariffs will particularly harm small businesses, which account for 99% of industry companies and 80% of all exhibitors.”
Contingency planning: Revisit your force majeure clauses to ensure they address tariff-related supplier defaults, and include price escalation riders for multi-year events. Consider developing tariff-surcharge models that can pass at least some of the cost increases to sponsors so you don’t have to price out attendees to make up the difference. Also consider diversifying your supplier base to limit tariff exposure, for example AV rentals from tariff-exempt partners. ECA also  encourages industry leaders and advocates to share their concerns with their policymakers through the ECA Advocacy Network’s email action center. For more information and updates, visit ECA’s new ECA Tariff Resource Center on the ECA website.

Federal hiring and grant freezes. The Department of Health and Human Services, the parent organization of the National Institutes of Health, set a precedent with its indefinite travel and communications ban, which already has caused some cancellations of government meetings, such as the NIH’s abrupt cancellation of grant review panels, training workshops and advisory council meetings. “Future travel requests for any reason are not authorized and should not be approved,” the memo announcing the HHS pause said. The communications order also means that any speaking engagements had to be cancelled, unless approved as an exception through the president’s appointees.
Contingency planning: Be prepared for the possibility that government agencies may abruptly cancel site visits, grant reviews and federally funded and/or employed speakers. Also be prepared for grant-dependent attrition from universities and nonprofits, which may scale back attendance due to frozen research budgets. Consider offering tiered pricing or enhanced scholarship programs to help attendees from those institutions come to your events despite slashed budgets.

Shifting perceptions: America First and inflammatory rhetoric. Some international companies and associations may be deterred from holding their meetings in the U.S. by the expanded travel bans and “America First” rhetoric, instead taking their meetings to nearby easy-international-access hubs such as Toronto or Mexico City. Also, there have been reports of long-time attendees from outside of the U.S. who are taking a pass on attending U.S.-based meetings, citing reasons from tariffs and trade wars to fear about crossing the border into the U.S. Canadians who are unhappy with this administration’s rhetoric about their sovereign nation as the “51^st state” and their leader as “governor” — as well as the onerous new tariffs on Canadian goods — are particularly vocal about signifying their displeasure by cancelling travel to the U.S., both for leisure and to attend conferences. While it’s unclear how much of the reported 70% drop in air travel from Canada to the U.S. is related to meeting attendance, it is clear that at least some Canadians are unhappy about taking their Loonies across the border right now.
Contingency planning: Meeting organizers can emphasize the importance of keeping up to date on the latest breakthroughs to both individual careers and their profession as a whole, and make it clear that all are welcome and will be treated with professionalism and respect while on site.

Shifting perceptions: DEI and climate change. Also, the administration’s backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) — including the passport gender marker ban — may make logistics difficult for international LGBTQ+ attendees, especially for diversity-focused events such as WorldPride 2025. Even domestically, LGBTQ+ events have faced new headwinds. For example, the Greater Houston LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce had its venue cancel its annual THRIVE Small Business Summit with just 30 hours of notice.

Perceptual shifts also are occurring on the sustainability front as the U.S. withdraws from climate agreements. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also has pulled employees out of speaking engagements and panels, including on topics including air quality and environmental justice at Loyola Marymount University, according to a report in NCR.
Contingency planning: Some may take the easier route and just relocate events related to diversity, environmental justice and related content outside of the U.S. Meeting organizers whose organizations’ eco-certification requirements clash with the new U.S. position on climate and the environment may want to find ways to offset carbon costs on their own.

More Mitigation Options

To mitigate financial losses from potential event cancellations — or a large reduction in attendance — organizations are pulling together risk management strategies, operational adjustments and financial safeguards.

For example, some event organizers are revising their contracts to explicitly include government policy changes as a covered cancellation trigger, or at least trying to get that inclusion in the contract as a way to reduce their legal liability. Others are buying specialized event cancellation insurance and exploring parametric insurance models that pay out based on predefined triggers, such as federal travel bans. Many are also reviewing all their vendor agreements to ensure that they include clauses that would, for example, reduce penalties or include a rescheduling option should the meeting be cancelled.

But neither force majeure nor insurance is guaranteed to cover cancelling a meeting that, while its attendance and/or speaker roster could be gutted by recent policy changes, is still not impossible or illegal to move forward with.

The first step, for many, is to conduct a thorough risk assessment that includes loss of government grants, travel bans, a drop in international attendance due to visa issues or general fear of traveling to the U.S. from certain countries, or other policy-related challenges, as well as the usual weather and other risk factors that could lead to cancellation. This also includes a review of the organization’s event cancellation policy to ensure it clearly outlines the necessary terms and conditions for cancellations, including fees and deadlines.

Many, especially in the nonprofit sector, are also hedging their bets by stress-testing their budgets against scenarios such as withdrawals of major sponsors or grant freezes. Some NIH-dependent events are securing multi-year venue agreements with sliding-scale cancellation fees tied to federal budgeting cycles to help minimize the fallout.

But all meeting and event organizers should be ensuring they have a good handle on their cash-flow details, have a sufficient reserve fund to handle contingencies such as cancellation, and are streamlining expenses as much as possible.

It’s also vital to have a recovery plan to follow should a meeting have to be cancelled, for whatever reason, so you can recoup losses as much as possible and learn from experience how to improve processes for future events.