Where were you when you began to get the initial subconscious warnings that ‘this was going to be bad’? In January 2020, I was in Vancouver at the SITE conference. The conference was amazing however it is a time and place that I will remember forever. Interestingly, over the next several weeks it took all of us significant time to process the implications and how all of ‘this’ would impact the globe and in particular our beloved industry of business events.
Over the past several months, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about the mental process it took for the subconscious warning signs to become piercing alarm bells.
And here we are with a fresh new year ahead with many unrealized dreams, hopes and realities to create. How to move forward?
Small steps.
To say that I am grateful for the future business we are currently working on is an understatement. Just this week I had a group confirm that they want to move to contract for a meeting in October 2021. Yes it is a smaller group of 100 ppl however even if this meeting does eventually need to ‘find higher ground’, right now I’LL TAKE IT as a sign that this year we will climb out of the depths of this deep crevasse.
Balancing that optimism, we are also moving future programs and helping groups lower their performance expectations for signed contracts in 2022 and 2023. To that I say to all the hoteliers, partners and venues….THANK YOU.
Yes we will rise back however in the meantime we will celebrate the tiny steps forward – TOGETHER.
Timely yours,
Brenda
