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: Lauren Swenson, CMP and DES
Job Title: Manager, Meetings and Events, Tech Planning
Years of Experience: 13
How were you able to adapt during COVID-19 when the meeting and events industry got disrupted?
We took an annual in-person meeting and shifted to a hybrid meeting with less than 3 months to plan. Our team brainstormed to ensure the event was just as exciting and interactive as the live event would have been. With the assistance of some incredible new event technology, we had recording breaking attendance and the opportunity to open the event to a global audience for the first time ever!
As a planner, what was the number one thing you learned over the past year?
This year came with a lot of learning, so I can't list just one! I learned to be incredibly resilient and adaptable in an ever-changing meetings and events landscape. From a skill standpoint, the biggest takeaway from the last year was the incredible amount of knowledge I acquired in the event technology space, so much so that I've now transitioned to a new job that entirely supports event tech. This was a direct result of the pandemic and a new skill set I never would have developed otherwise.
Is there anything you are changing in your planning process moving forward as a result of the pandemic?
As planners we have always had contingency plans for any meeting and event, but it wasn't until recently we had to really put these plans into place and develop them more robustly through a strategic lens. Moving forward, plotting out various scenarios for how best to proceed with an event (virtual, hybrid or in-person) will definitely be part of any planning process moving forward.
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.