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: Patrick Reilly
Company Name: Pulmonary Hypertension Association
Job Title: Meeting Planner
Years of Experience: 10
How were you able to adapt during COVID-19 when the meeting and events industry got disrupted?
When the pandemic disrupted the meeting and events industry, we had to cancel our Biannual Conference. In order to supplement the education our members would have received at the conference we provided monthly free webinars. We took what would have been breakout sessions and turned them into interactive webinars they could participate in from home.
As a planner, what was the number one thing you learned over the past year?
That you can never truly replace in person networking and collaboration. As helpful and useful as technology is, it can never replace the interactions in-person meetings create. Our attendance was lower or equal to what would have been in-person.
Is there anything you are changing in your planning process moving forward as a result of the pandemic?
More in-depth force majure contract clauses
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.