This post is part of the HopSkip Planner Spotlight Series where HopSkip spotlight's planners across the industry to bring awareness of how they adapted to COVID-19, communicating and lessons learned and sharing how they are viewing the meetings and events industry in a post-pandemic world.
Name: Angela Carruthers
Company Name: Victory Church
Job Title: Event Director
Years of Experience: 30 years
How were you able to adapt during COVID-19 when the meeting and events industry got disrupted?
Fortunately, many of the tools needed to engage and communicate with our members were already in place before the pandemic. Victory Church is a multicultural, non-denominational megachurch that reaches more than 20,000 people every week, via 3 campuses and social media platforms. Although COVID-19 interrupted our normal activities like conferences, weekly ministry gatherings, and special events, we're a church first. That means Sunday service is going to happen. I think the expectation of its members is that during times of trial and uneasiness churches should be able to provide some level of support and comfort to people. At the beginning of the shelter-in-place order, during the week, a very small team would assemble at the church to pre-record our pastor's messages which were streamed to all of our social media platforms.
To engage our members, each staff person was instructed to lead a small group using the Zoom platform. We have about 200 paid staff, therefore, this allowed our church to have more intimate weekly gatherings with at least 2,000 people. The most impactful way we adapted during COVID-19 was when our pastor introduced the initiative, "Call the Church." Our membership list of more than 20,000 people was divided among our staff of just under 200 and we contacted every individual.
As a planner, what was the number one thing you learned over the past year?
Interestingly enough, I'm an introvert. Considering my occupation, that puzzles most people who know me. I didn't mind working remotely, during the pandemic, and planning meetings from my home office space. However, I learned more about managing relationships with co-workers and team members who are extroverts. Not everyone thrives without face-to-face interaction. Meetings still happen. Planning still gets done. I learned that I had to be more intentional about interpersonal engagement with those who needed more than just the facts and figures.
Is there anything you are changing in your planning process moving forward as a result of the pandemic?
For my planning meetings, I will always provide the option to virtually meet. As a church with 3 campuses, it's more important to have all the stakeholders present. If that means that it is easier for them to use Teams or Zoom to participate than to drive in traffic for 20 minutes, each way, then save gas and time, and jump on the call.
This post is part of the HopSkip Planner Spotlight Series where HopSkip spotlight's planners across the industry to bring awareness of how they adapted to COVID-19, communicating and lessons learned and sharing how they are viewing the meetings and events industry in a post-pandemic world.
