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: Kelsey Packer
Company Name: Farm Credit Services of America/Frontier Farm Credit
Job Title: Event Planner
Years of Experience: 10+
How do you think you are positioned, after months of persevering with the pandemic, to take advantage of our new and disrupted meetings/events landscape?
I have been extremely lucky to have landed in a secure planner position coming from the supplier side as a hotelier. FCS America was fortunately a high performing business that was not very affected by the pandemic due to the types of customers and operations within agriculture that we serve. So there was stability surrounding events and providing services to our internal and external customers.
As our community moves forward with planning in-person meetings, what new technologies or processes are you implementing that you may have not looked at before?
We have adapted greatly (as most of us have) to utilizing teleconferencing and multimedia streaming options for events. Some of our standard practices for executing events have stayed the same, but we are integrating more technologies to reach a virtual or hybrid audience as the best way of providing value to attendees.
As we see virtual meetings transition back to face to face, hybrid meetings are beginning to be the vehicle to return to normalcy. What are your thoughts on hybrid meetings versus traditional fully in-person meetings?
I believe there are pros and cons to both, but ultimately it comes down to what the event objectives are. We all must strip it back down and determine if the hybrid model vs in person attendance is going to accomplish the needs of the program or not. We must be mindful of the attendees' overall experience.
In your opinion, what do you think the biggest value for your attendees is in regards to returning to live events?
The networking you achieve with live events is critical to the success of the program. You can stream all types of educational content, but what you cannot accomplish in a virtual landscape is the relationship building. Without my network and relationships established, I would not have been able to stay in the events industry or find stability amidst the uncertainty of the pandemic.
As the pandemic fades away and we return to face-to-face events what do you hope changes, either for planners or hoteliers, in the traditional RFP and proposal process as a result of all of the learnings from the last 20+ months?
I hope the relationships are able to foster more understanding, compassion and empathy in order to work together for the best outcome of the event. We need to leverage and lean upon one another to allow the industry to bounce back and even flourish again. Flexibility and willingness to ask questions will bring success to both the planner or the hotelier. Having been on both sides, that will always be the foundation of a good relationship.
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.