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: LaKesha Moore
Company Name: Chiefs for Change
Job Title: Events Coordinator
Years of Experience: 20+
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 think I am in a great place to take advantage of the new landscape. The disruption has definitely caused me to think outside the box in regards to meeting and event planning and how to keep our attendees safe. I am excited about learning about all of the new technology available to make not only my job easier but to really focus on the attendee experience from the time they leave their homes until the time they return.
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?
I am looking at possibly utilizing a travel management system for our events. In this new landscape, disruptions are going to come and I want our organization to be poised to provide the best duty of care as possible. Also, I am looking at event management systems to replace some of the systems we have in place. This will provide real time data to all of our team and will allow us to be more nimble if and when we need to pivot.
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 think there is extreme value in holding in person meetings and our attendees felt the same. However, I am not opposed to a hybrid meeting and have been researching what options are available for our group.
In your opinion, what do you think the biggest value for your attendees is in regards to returning to live events?
In my opinion, being able to see each other face to face and network. We have all been on lock down for almost 2 years and have extreme video fatigue. We recently held an in-person event, and the looks of joy on our attendees faces was amazing! The smiles, the laughter, the relief of being able to get back to a sense of normalcy, it was great.
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 that we all remember to breathe and take a break when necessary. If the pandemic has taught me anything, it was to slow down. The world completely stopped, which means that we all did as well. There were some many things that were out of our control and we are all learning as we go. I would like to continue to see us to be flexible with each other and continue to extend grace when we have to pivot quickly due to unforeseen circumstances.
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.