Planners Moving Forward Series- Lauren Stroud, MCI USA
Lauren Stroud, of MCI USA, brings 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.
Luke Whalin
Jun 29, 2022
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 Stroud
Company Name: MCI USA
Job Title: Manager, Association Events
Years of Experience: 6+
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?
We have the advantage to take "seamless" to a higher level. After seeing how much individuals value in-person meetings/events, I believe it is going to be a greater duty of mine to be an advocate for attendees having the easiest experience possible. While we now know in-person is preferred by the majority, we also know the chances for physical presence to be required have been reduced a bit. We need to continue to build on our audiences "onsite appetite." We don't want to diminish the time and effort our attendees put in to attend our events, when reality is they always have the chance to be doing something different.
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?
MCI Group hosted our Global Academy 2022 in March and one of our sessions discussed the power of customer segmentation and personalization. We discussed how to define specific characteristics that drive associations engagement and really learn what their looking for. We learned how to look at personas and better align them with product offerings and business models. I loved learning about this because its very hard in our industry to please our entire audience. But moving forward I'm very pleased and intrigued to find out how we at least try to do so.
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?
Honestly, it was probably inevitable to incorporate more hybrid meetings. I think the circumstances just played the biggest role in when it happened. I like that hybrid meetings have a way to capture the attendee who may have really wanted to be there but just couldn't make it. I love that they open up a new set of wonders for flexibility. However, I can't help but think of the "what-ifs" that come with it. What if a virtual attendee is missing out on a huge networking opportunity? What if the speaker doesn't feel as welcomed on stage because the physical audience size is smaller? What if you miss a chance to visit a city you've never seen before? All thoughts that don't necessarily make or break an event, but certainly will always make me choose fully in-person each and every time!
In your opinion, what do you think the biggest value for your attendees is in regards to returning to live events?
Connecting and networking! I can't say those two words enough. Live events bring individuals from different locations, different backgrounds, different positions, different personas, etc. And yet they are all in the same place for something they have in common. Attendees should use that setting to their advantage. You can use your voice and learn so much all at the same time. There aren't too many other circumstances where that happens.
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?
Tough question here! In this regard, I would hope that there could be more transparency regarding how many dedicated team members are available and can support the event. Even though the pandemic can fade, I think there are serve pain points that will have a lasting result. This transparency doesn't necessarily has to be highlighted as a negative, simply as an expectation for planners and clients. Yet on the other hand an opportunity for hoteliers to spotlight the efforts of talent on board.
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.