SPECIAL EDITION
For events, HR and L&D professionals; line managers and leaders
This month’s newsletter is a special call out to anyone involved in preparing, hosting or staging events. This includes both external conferences and internal staff meetings.
Hi,
While many cities around the world are starting to relax restrictions to allow mass gatherings, many more are still in various stages of lockdown. This raises all sorts of challenges for events professionals and those involved in communicating to staff – from HR teams, to line managers, to business owners. It’s impossible to predict what will happen next, but as always, we can control what’s within our control, and that is to provide some support and leadership to our people. Don’t wait to pull together an event for your people, they need you right now. It’s the perfect time to re-group, re-define and re-calibrate.
Latest Research
Restrictions are starting to ease in some parts of the country and with that comes a lot of excitement… and a lot of hesitation! Research is showing that 80% of businesses will cut travel and entertainment costs and cancel leadership events and offsite conferences in June and beyond, if they haven’t already.
We now have the option of planning larger events, with some borders opening and larger groups being allowed to congregate. However, we need to consider this from the perspective of the individuals attending the conference or meeting and their level or comfort, or anxiety, in turning up. Our research shows:
Associations and franchisors won’t risk staging a large live event for their highly dispersed members knowing a single case of Covid 19 will shut down the entire event.
Companies are willing to send 30 to 50 of their staff off to a conference or event knowing a single Covid 19 case at the event could be diabolical for their business.
The data overwhelmingly shows there will be no travel spend, so only local events are on the radar.
It is difficult for event organisers obtain insurance for an event.
Complexities around networking with social distancing at large events remains.
Gartner research suggests a similar issue with product launches as part of conferences & trade shows and is steering people into developing different strategies for launches. https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/create-contingency-plans-for-events-canceled-due-to-covid-19/
In the past 4 weeks my team and I have been researching the issue of meetings and events and we have identified some key learnings.
With large, live events on hold until at least the end of the year, we’ve noticed that planning for internal events is big right now and provides a great opportunity to get our teams together. This is especially true for the teams already physically working side-by-side along with colleagues working from home such as call centres, many government departments, banking & financial services, essential services, some local government areas, hospitals and schools and many more.
Town Halls, Sales kick-offs, Division/Department/Region "all staff" meetings are the priority for July to September as we slowly move back to work from offices.
Mid-size hybrid events will be the norm for the medium, if not long term, as companies cater to dispersed teams in an inclusive manner. It is anticipated that organisations will be looking at approximately 30 to 70 people per virtual event.
Hot Topics for Leadership
3 trends to navigate the next 6 months
Leaders are looking for advice and ideas about bringing the teams back together; acknowledging they made it through the tough stuff; and working out where to from here. They want a celebration or ‘marker’ event. The next few months present a great opportunity to re-set, re-define and re-prioritise.
July to September: “Leadership legacy”
How will you lead your team though this critical phase and leave a lasting impression that inspires and ensures optimism?
What tools do you need to help bring your team through the next phase?
With some people still working from home for the long term, how do you bring them together with the people in the office as "one team"
October: Worksafe month
It is anticipated that there will be a far greater focus on mental health this year. There needs to be an understanding that there will be a spectrum of responses to returning from isolation, from huge excitement to anxiety and stress, with most people falling somewhere in the middle.
November and December: Christmas and End Of Year
These events will have a much greater focus on "thank you" to staff, suppliers, customers - everyone who helped us get through this tough time.
In the Media!
I have recently had the opportunity to share my experience of returning from Antarctica with Shonda Rhimes’ website and media hub; Shondaland. Shonda is the creator behind award-winning series "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal," "How to Get Away with Murder," "For The People" and "Station 19."
In this article I share my story and my experience of coming out of isolation. It was definitely a shock to the system for me, and I expect that many of us will experience similar feelings as we slowly emerge from lockdown. Click on the link below to read more and learn about some of the strategies that I used during my time down south!