When the Coronavirus eventually passes and people start looking at booking events, what will be the key changes to the industry and what will be the new norm? We asked our Operations Director, Anna Snoep for her expert view.
Will COVID -19 revolutionise the way we run and attend events?
Most conferences will offer a hybrid option, where content will be delivered from a physical venue but the content of the conference will be streamed to delegates who cannot attend for a variety of reasons (not possible to travel to location, vulnerable delegate, venue too small as a result of social distancing). The quality of virtual attendance is evolving very quickly in terms of making this as close as interactive and engaging as actually attending the conference. There are many established and emerging solutions in the market place and Inntel has strong connections with the best. If our clients are keen to explore hybrid or virtual conferencing solutions, please contact you Client Relationship Manager
Will people adopt virtual meetings as the new norm?
Small meetings such as 121’s, appraisals, small team meetings and some training are more likely to take place virtually (through Zoom/Skype/MS Teams or similar platforms) for a while still and possibly become the new norm. However, there is already some conversation starting around ‘virtual fatigue’ and some meetings are not as fruitful when being held virtually such as strategy meetings, creative thinking, development meetings etc. Networking is also a challenge and a satisfactory virtual solution has not been developed as yet.
When face to face meetings return, what do you think this will look like?
Practically speaking, face to face meetings will look differently in terms of health and safety. There are lots of considerations around this such as social distancing in venues, what will happen to pricing do as venues can accommodate less delegates, increased hygiene standards in venues, technology offered by the venue to enable virtual meetings, food delivery (death of the buffet). Inntel is working together tirelessly with our venue suppliers and industry associations to establish a recognised benchmark. This means that Inntel will be able to recommend ‘safe’ venues on our clients behalf. Inntel is also able to offer delegate tracking through our WeMeet registration tool which is going to be invaluable in terms of duty of care.