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: Ralph Robinson
Company Name: Florida Apartment Association
Job Title: Director of Meetings & Affiliate Relations
Years of Experience: 15+
How were you able to adapt during COVID-19 when the meeting and events industry got disrupted?
I was grateful for the strong partnerships that I had with my suppliers to the industry (such as Hilton, Freeman, OPAV, Edge Factory, Kleertech, Core Apps, Loganmania, to name a few) who were quick to be flexible and understanding with me through resolving the situation by pushing agreements to future years and other creative ways that helped out the association tremendously and in the end avoided us losing tons of money.
The pandemic forced all meeting/conference planners including myself to become overnight experts in digital meetings and events. I tried to attend as many webinars as I could (through PCMA, MPI, ASAE, and others) to absorb all the knowledge surrounding digital meetings. I studied countless digital platforms and then started planning and hosting my own webinars and two virtual conferences for the Florida Apartment Association (one pre-recorded and one broadcasted live). I came out stronger from the pandemic having not ever planned a virtual meeting to becoming a Certified Digital Event Strategist.
As a planner, what was the number one thing you learned over the past year?
The power of your relationships with your supplier partners and member associations. We came together as an industry to support one another. The associations (PCMA, MPI, ASAE, etc...) offering complimentary education offerings to get an entire industry up to speed overnight. Planners and Suppliers working hand in hand to survive together through this worldwide pandemic by coming up with solutions that would keep both sides afloat. The ability to still meet safely in person through social distancing and reimagined experiences. Having a strong support system of problem solvers in our industry allowed us to keep meeting safely.
Is there anything you are changing in your planning process moving forward as a result of the pandemic?
Although threatened by COVID-19, in-person meetings and events are still always going to be more desirable, there is no comparison to the live experience. However, there are some meetings that when forced to move virtually made more sense to remain as virtual experiences post-pandemic.
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.
