Photo by Sasha • Stories on Unsplash
The world is crazy right now. With so much uncertainty surrounding the spread of COVID-19 and a collective charge to practice social distancing, we have all started to navigate what this looks like for us personally and professionally. The goal for me is to keep my life as routine as possible. There is something about keeping things in my control that gives me comfort and I know I’m not alone in this.
My co-workers and I have shared what our new work life looks like at home. Last night we swapped photos of our latest and greatest teleworking spaces and everything is looking good. We’re all set up to continue to operate business as usual, except that nothing is business as usual.
There is so much uncertainty surrounding this pandemic and we only wish we had a crystal ball to find out when we are going to get on the other side of it. Event managers are always listed in Forbes’ Top 5 list of most stressful jobs. (You can view some of my thoughts on this here.) What makes this time so stressful for the event professional is not the physical lives we are saving, because trust me those people are the real heroes, it is the number of balls we already had in the air when all of a sudden we were forced to add fire balls to that juggling act.
Two weeks ago I was reviewing marketing materials, reading hotel agreements, meeting with new clients, ordering catering, prepping materials, working on banquet event orders, paying invoices, and finalizing budgets. During this last week I’ve had to postpone events, reread every clause in our hotel contracts, cancel flights, hotel stays, and catering, communicate alternative dates or coursework options to participants and attempt to look into my crystal ball on when we can reschedule these events.
That control that I thrive on is anything but in the current culture. I keep trying to remind myself that “we’re not saving lives," which is my mantra, and the way I keep calm in times of stress. In so many ways I’m made for this. This is what event planners do. When our keynote speaker’s flight gets delayed we rearrange the conference schedule to accommodate. When the Internet at our venue goes down, we mass print programs and overnight them. When someone forgot to tell us about their gluten allergy, we rush to the rescue to have an alternative meal brought in. There is always something unknown when it comes to planning events. But this… this is an entirely different beast.
As an event planner I try to anticipate all the things that could go wrong and how to troubleshoot to the end. In my ten years of doing this I, like so many of my colleagues, have seen it all. We’ve seen snowstorms, broken down transportation, hurricanes, power outages, and mass shootings. But this pandemic will change the way we do business forever.
Event insurance will be the hot topic this next year. Contracts will be reviewed closely and extra caution will be taken to accommodate a new possibility: pandemic. However, if I know one thing about the event industry it’s that there will always be a value for face to face meetings, trainings, and conferences that an online platform will never be able to replace. While event planners and venues alike are both suffering right now, I know that it will be temporary. We’ve bounced back from power outages, weather, and terrorism. Soon we’ll be able to bounce back from this too. If only my crystal ball could tell us when.