Planner Resilience: Rhonda Brewer, Motivation Excellence
Read how meeting and event planner Rhonda Brewer of Motivation Excellence became innovative in surviving and succeeding during the Covid-19 pandemic.
How were you able to adapt during COVID-19 when the meeting and events industry got disrupted?
Just about a year ago, I switched companies and began working with Motivation Excellence. 3 weeks after I started, we were all locked down due to the pandemic. We had group travel programs beginning to cancel and knew we needed to come up with alternatives for our clients to recognize their guests in lieu of the trip. Fortunately, we were able to offer award points in place of the group travel trip. While the winners weren’t able to be together, they were recognized for their outstanding efforts with a very generous amount of award points. The winners used their points in very creative ways but more than 80% of them took advantage of our concierge shopper. We were able to offer a private shopper to find items that are not on our website. While we have thousands of items, events, individual travel and gift cards, many spent their points on other items such as solar panels, education and patio furniture just to name a few. Our team also put together lifestyle packages that made shopping even easier based on your preferences. Some of those were whole house sound system, fitness equipment package and road trip package. Options were key and all attendees were thrilled with their award!
This post is part of the HopSkip Planner Spotlight Series where we celebrate the positivity and optimism shown by planners across the industry when navigating the turbulent waters that COVID-19 has brought the meetings and events industry. Keep an eye out as we release more stories like this over the next few months.