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: Tori Martinez
Company Name: Bold Group
Job Title: Events/Marketing Manager
Years of Experience: 7
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?
Our industry has shown enthusiasm towards returning to in-person events, which prompted our decision to return to tradeshows and reinstate our annual customer event for 2022. Aside from following the protocols in place at our event site, making sure we have additional sanitizer options, and making some adjustments to our seating for better social distancing, we have not had to make a lot of adjustments.
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 evaluated hybrid technology from the same provider we use for in-person events, though we ultimately decided not to offer a hybrid option for now at our upcoming customer conference. We do plan to record select sessions during our event for possible future digital on-demand access. We are also implementing a new networking platform in order to give attendees a better opportunity to meet and network with more like-minded peers.
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 with the proper resources, a hybrid meeting can be implemented with success, but it takes a lot of individuals to make sure that all of the elements are being managed properly! After all, you are technically running two complete meeting types, each with its own idiosyncrasies. As mentioned, we explored the idea of hybrid and determined that our audience was pretty much over virtual attendance, which drove our decision to go fully in person.
In your opinion, what do you think the biggest value for your attendees is in regards to returning to live events?
Definitely the networking. Year after year our customers have told us it is one of the most valuable things they get from our conference. Our attendees come for training but leave with new friends that they can reach out to for advice and information. And they love meeting up with each other every year at our event!
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?
As terrible as I suppose this sounds, I don't know that the pandemic will truly "fade away?" I think there will always be some sort of version of COVID from here on out, it's just how it will be managed in the future. But in-person events are already returning, even in the face of variants and rising cases. As for what I hope for, in our case, the entire RFP process has faced delayed decision-making due to uncertainty around the pandemic, setbacks booking site tours, staff overturns in the middle of negotiations, and other hindrances. I would hope that as the management of COVID levels out and becomes more reliable in the future, our ability to make informed decisions and faster turnarounds will enable us to move forward with our RFP and proposal process easier.
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.