Planners Moving Forward Series- Meagan Keller, Conference Managers
Meagan Keller, of Conference Managers, 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
Sep 11, 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: Meagan Keller
Company Name: Conference Managers
Job Title: Conference Director
Years of Experience: 12
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?
Between myself and the company I work for I think we are positioned well. The Events Industry is ever evolving and so are we as a company, and so am I as an individual.
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 are continually considering new technologies for our clients and staff to utilize to help improve the events we do. We work closely with Cadmium to extend virtual offerings for our clients knowing that virtual is here to stay, to an extent. We have also worked with Cadmium to offer contactless badge printing at our events to improve health and safety measures onsite.
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 Hybrid meetings are here to stay whether we like it or not. Don't get me wrong there is nothing like an in person event and the connections and experiences that are made in person, but there have been great advantages to hosting virtual meetings as well. By hosting virtual meetings many events have increased attendance significantly reaching a large audience because there is less cost associated for travel. Another great bonus has been offering sessions on demand attendees to view education as their schedules allowed. From the exhibitors side, this is an area we as planners are still trying to develop as we understand exhibitors want and need more than what virtual has to offer. One great offering a recent show that I worked on had was allowing exhibitors to receive a complimentary virtual resource center with their purchase of an in-person booth. This at least offered them the chance to expand their brand's visibility by uploading documents or adding web links that reached not only in person attendees but also to the virtual attendees that could not make it to the show in person.
In your opinion, what do you think the biggest value for your attendees is in regards to returning to live events?
Making connections and reconnecting with friends and colleagues. There is something about connecting with others in person and experiencing all the event has to offer from move-in to move-out.
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 really do hope the partnerships and comradery that has been build over the last two years sticks around. We all went through a pandemic together and we came out together, so I hope that shows how much stronger we are as an industry if we continue to work together. We all know there is a bottom line and companies like hotels are looking to earn back revenue that they couldn't have made in the pandemic, but by pushing away the event planners that are trying to bring Meetings and Events back is not helpful. The same applies across the industry when it comes to pricing and I really do hope this levels out. Currently F&B rates, Internet, Venue rates, etc. are costing literally an arm and leg to secure. By raising rates this is a discouragement for event planners, some companies can't afford these higher rates as they too are still bouncing back from the pandemic while others are down or losing attendance because they raised their rates to cover the price gouging on the backend
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.