There is no doubt that we are living in unprecedented times and Coronavirus (Covid-19) is the battle of our generation. However, in my opinion, it is just the first battle in the war. The potential global economic impact following the pandemic is likely to provide many more battles ahead.
But that’s all rather miserable, gloomy and glass half empty, and our media will no doubt be painting an even worse picture for us. Don’t get me wrong, I can whinge and moan with the best of them. However I do like to think I’m more of a glass half full type of person.
As I’m sure many of you have, over the last few weeks I’ve been immersing myself in industry news, live streams, webinars and virtual events. There has been a plethora of choice, across multiple platforms and a whole bunch of opinions and ideas shared. Through this maelstrom, it can sometime be hard to see the wood from the trees. So I have tried to come up with a small list of what I’ve learnt or taken away.
- Hybrid events
In my view technology (software, hardware, mobile apps, etc) will play an increased part in our industry. And whilst it has always been a growing part, this crisis will without doubt expedite the situation. Think about things that mean we could avoid direct contact (e.g. menus), however within events…
Possibly one of my favourite moments recently during a webinar. A keynote speaker used an analogy that ‘if you ask a load of turkeys what they think of Christmas you are going to get a very similar answer, in the same way if you ask a load of event planners about the event industry’. In the group chat a delegate then asked – ‘did he just call us all turkeys? - Welcome to the world of virtual events!
But using that analogy and the view of the events industry, most believe that live (face to face) events will be back, and I agree. Unfortunately no one can tell you when at the moment (but somewhere between 3 months and 3 years, apparently). Most people also believe ‘virtual only events’ are not great, although everyone is ‘pivoting’ in this direction. But we have only recently been thrust into this world. Both the technology and experience of running these events (including the virtual delegate experience) will improve, and as a comment I saw said - ‘these things take time, just ask any TV broadcaster’.
Which leads us to the supposed new kid in the class, the Hybrid event (a combination of a live face-to-face and virtually streamed event). Let’s be honest, it’s not really the new kid, these events have been happening for years. It’s just the name we’ve given to events we hope to hold in the interim between lock-down easing and the end of the pandemic. I share a similar view to Martin Fullard, Editor of Conference News, who stated on a webinar that ‘most events in the future will be hybrid events’.
The hard part for event planners is going to be planning and deciding what elements of their event are virtual and what still needs to be face to face. You have two different audiences, with different expectations, to manage at the same time. It is expected that international business travel is likely to be slow to return, so international keynote speakers are an obvious virtual option. Virtual also offers up a vast new audience and the ability to gain lots more customer intelligence/data. Networking, although likely to be slightly different is an obvious face-to-face preference, but most #eventprofs will tell you engagement and content are key!
What am I taking away? In my view it means, we as #eventprofs (clients, event planners and venues) need to be aware and have an understanding (not necessarily be experts) of managing virtual/streaming technology. And have to manage delegate engagement and content. And, importantly, collaborate to deliver these events successfully. However, currently we still face the challenge of the face-to-face aspect.
- Social Distancing
I think this is the biggest challenge facing the hospitality and events industry, because if we didn’t have this challenge, we wouldn’t need to change. This is particularly true for venues (of all types and sizes). There is a lot to think about, and again lots of businesses and consultants pivoting to help you with this. Of course, whilst it’s being called social distancing, it’s actually physical distancing, as we can all still be social from a distance! And the amount of creative ideas to keep us apart has been inspiring, my favourite being 'bumper tables' rubber rings on wheels with tables.
However, current lock-down measures involve keeping 2 metres apart. Other suggestions of 4sqm of space per person. But even these two seemingly similar calculations produce very different capacities. From a floor-plan, I calculated a space which had a normal capacity of 250 theatre style, with 2m separation this would reduce the capacity to 55 theatre style. If you use the 4sqm rule, this increased slightly to 79 people. Hence, the commentary around this not being commercially viable, particularly for smaller bars and restaurants. There have also been suggestions of 1 metre separation, however mathematically this increases the chance of spreading the virus by at least 8 fold compared to 2m. Not exactly a customer confidence booster. Maybe 1.5 metres is the answer?
As well as capacities, there are considerations even before visitors arrive around registration, ranging from self-declaration forms and liability waivers (with liability and responsibility bringing booking conditions and legal/insurance cover into the equation). Then on arrival talk of visitor/delegate screening, from 20 minute swab testing; disinfectant mist tunnels, to thermal body temperature camera monitoring. Combined with track and trace applications, PPE (face-masks for everyone), additional cleaning and sterilising, staffing training and policy. The list goes on. And now there are a number of organisations looking at accreditation schemes (Hire Space - Safe Events and Quality in Tourism – Safe, Clean & Legal). We’ve not even thought/talked about registration, cloakroom, refreshments/food and drink preparation and service, but one thing we seems to be sure, the buffet is dead!
What I’ve learnt, is we need to receive clear and concise guidance from the Government. Safe and realistic social distancing based on scientific evidence, and supported with an understanding of liability and legislation. And with a plan to ease and change restrictions over time, again based on the evidence. However, as venue operators, this is just an extension of managing our Health & Safety, or any other changes and challenges, like GDPR for example. It looks daunting, there will be a lot of scaremongering, but ultimately we’ll find a way.
- Customers
So, lets image we’ve managed to open our venues; safely with whatever restrictions are in place; with a socially/physically distanced capacity; that is commercially viable to do so. Hold on, did we forget something, oh yes, customers. Are they actually going to come?
At the moment, research suggests that confidence of the general populations is split with approximately a third that can’t wait to get out, a third unsure and a third unwilling to go out (FoGo suffers). There has been no real evidence of demographic break-down of who wants to get out (but we could probably expected this to be under 45), or those that don’t (but probably vulnerable people and over 45s who seem to be the highest risk). With safety measures or if asked to attend an event by work slightly alters these figures.
There has been quite a bit of talking within the events sector about pricing. With venues having reduced capacities due to social distancing, will their prices reflect this? Venue will have their usual costs and direct overheads, and probably even more with the extra safety aspects required. If Hybrid events are the interim way forward, there are the additional Technology/Audio Visual considerations/costs. But venues will suffer from reduced delegate numbers and secondary spend, namely catering.
Ultimately costs will need to be covered (passed to the customer) in order for venue operators to break-even or even make a small profit.
The other aspect being talked about a lot is adjustments to terms and conditions. I think most venues that I have spoken with, have been supportive of customers such as offering to postpone events. That needs to continue, to maintain and win future business, but should not be to the absolute detriment to venues. It will be about flexibility.
What I’ve learnt is, as in the past, customers are key. We should be engaging with them continuously. Some tough decisions are going to have to be made around the operations of our venues and businesses. But we absolutely need to build customer confidence, which should increase exponentially. We need to be completely flexible, adapting/changing, and work more collaboratively than ever before. And, ultimately hope that we can survive until we see the economic recovery (which will happen).
Which pretty much brings me full circle. We have many challenges (battles) ahead, but through resilience, flexibility and a lot of hard work, we can win (the war).
