Planner Resilience: Meeting Sites Pro

How were you able to adapt during COVID-19 when the meeting and events industry got disrupted?

Michelle Harty, CEO of Meeting Sites Pro:

This year is my company’s 20th anniversary and while I have seen a lot of change over the years, I could have never imagined the events of 2020. I am proud of the resilience, collaboration, and innovation within our industry that is propelling so many of us forward. When the travel and meetings/events industry came to a standstill in March 2020, my team and I worked to reschedule many of our in-person meetings. Like most of my colleagues, I was hoping for a quick bounce back, but in May of 2020 we began rescheduling more as well as cancelling, and I realized that this was not going away as quickly as I had hoped.

In seeing the industry I love overwhelmed with negativity, I made it my mission to spread positivity and motivation. Specifically, I wanted to address what few were talking about, and begin discussing how we could get back to business in our new normal. I started a brainstorming initiative with thought leaders country-wide for a Virtual Think Tank to address best practices for in person meetings. These Think Tanks turned into Live Meetings Updates 2020 & Beyond where we showcased venues and vendors getting back to in-person meetings and events with safety top of mind.

While this whole year has been a challenge and a paradigm shift, we have made this an opportunity to innovate, collaborate, and create solutions for our industry and I am excited to be at the forefront of this discussion.

Stay tuned for the next planner resilience story in our HopSkip Planner Resilience Series, where we spotlight meeting and event planners who have demonstrated great resilience to adapt to the uncertainty that Covid-19 has brought to the events industry.