Natalie Simmons, General Manager, cievents

In January, we started seeing the first impact coming out of China and our Asian markets.We realized that this would have a serious effect and were preparing ourselves but the domestic piece hit much faster than we expected. So while we started preparing six weeks ago, were still seeing significant shifts by the hour.

Events are always the first area to see an impact.There are significant movements, big spends and many people and stakeholders involved. Its an easy part of the strategy piece to look at and think is this business-critical? With meetings and conferences, theres a certain level of need in the business with events theres time to be flexible and the distance for people to rationalise.

Ive been with cievents for going on 21 years.In that time weve seen some major external disruptors: weve weathered recessions, we saw SAARS. And there has been technological pressure as well I was around when video conferences came out, and there were questions about whether that would fundamentally shift the events industry.

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None of these phenomena affected the events industry in the way we anticipated they might. I think thats attributable to the want of the events industry to disrupt itself. There is an ever-present notion in this industry of how do we do things differently? How do we think outside the box?

In recent years corporates have responded to this by shifting their thinking and seeing events as a critical marketing activity and part of their business strategy. Brands, increasingly, see events as a crucial platform rather than just a moment in time that type of thinking is the biggest disruption and the most significant opportunity within our business.

People and diversity of product are what makes the events industry successful, theyre the same things that have kept me working in events for so long.Were doing something different every day because consumers change constantly. One thing has remained the same though, even though we live in a world where we are connected by device where we can work from anywhere, learn from anywhere human beings still have the drive to connect person to person. We arent built to be alone weve seen this in the escalation of mental health issues centred around social media and feelings of isolation. We also process information and make decisions differently online than we do in face-to-face interactions. We are social creatures and social factors still influence our decision making face-to-face will always have more of an impact.

There are two options when something like this happens: we can go into doom and gloom mode, or we can think about how were going to come out the other end in a positive way.One of the ways we are going to come out the other end is technology. Its been exciting to see companies and brands testing it and using it to different degrees in recent years. But its not a fully integrated part of the strategy piece and it needs to be. Companies need to stop seeing technology as a superficial way to differentiate themselves in the market, instead, they need to see it as an integral component of the way they strategise and do business. When people come to us to start planning an event, well sit down and say what are we going to be doing 6 weeks pre-event, what are we going to be doing six weeks post? because we dont want events to be just a moment in time. When you come off the high of an event you need to be thinking, how are people going to be engaging with the content in three weeks? Thats where technology can help extend the tail-end of these kinds of activations.

Now, with COVID19 we have an enforced opportunity to look at what technologies we can use and how we can use them to give customers a better return on their investment. Because when we use that technology properly and we continuously engage with people we can continue to improve. Generally, that doesnt happen, you might have a survey and a couple of content pieces. And thats as far as it goes. Whereas now, if we flip it on its head and integrate the strategy from the outset we can see a much longer return on investment and far greater investment. Hopefully, that will enable us to think outside those parameters and think about the longevity and resilience of our events. Thats why were releasing our campaign business as un usual because its still business as usual. It just has to be business done differently. And we have to keep changing and evolving.

COVID19 will prompt companies to review the way they do events, and they should be doing this.Its a large spend category for many of our customers. It involves a lot of resources. Our customers change and our people change and we need to be communicating that constantly. If you view events as what they are, which is a marketing platform, marketing is forever evolving, it cant be stagnant. You wouldnt see the same ad on television for ten years so you shouldnt see the same events.

We have all the means at our disposal but its about opening that conversation and approaching it with an open mind.Its about saying this is what we still need to do, this is how were going to do it. We need to talk to as many people as possible, and as many of our clients as possible, about how we can use what weve got to engage people. Its not just cievents, its the whole industry. That is how were going to find our way forward. I believe the industry can and should rally together. I have had clients at cievents who have been with us since I started. Year in, year out weve worked with those clients on different content and strategies. You go on their business journey with them and see them evolve and adapt. This is the next stage of that evolution. Right now we need open communication about what companies want to achieve and we need to be breaking it down quarter by quarter. Were predicting that we will see a pick up in the next quarter. In the meantime, we have the resources to flex up or flex down and make changes quickly, constantly adapting to the evolving needs of our customers and the market.

Register to join a webinar with Natalie Simmons on Friday 20th March at 9am (SYD time) to talk Business as (un) Usual.

Originally posted here:
Business as "un"usual: Running an events business in the COVID-19 era - MuMbrella