Today marks the end of Q1 2021. So where are we now? Having this year also vaporize due to COVID has put us all back on our heels. Will Q4 see some sort of return to perhaps – small regional meetings? As we have come to learn in the last year, remaining fluid is the ‘new normal’.
What does your next ‘nearly normal’ meeting look like? For many, it may be some form of hybrid. That being said the additional costs proposed for audio visual has many keeping their options open. To receive a $49,000 quote for a small meeting of 150 people (75% Virtual:/ 25% IRL), when you still have onsite costs, may require groups to adjust expectations.
For months we have been in a holding pattern: waiting for health agency updates, waiting for data and curating survey results. One thing for certain, no one wants to host an unsafe meeting.
With vaccinations starting to be administered globally, this progress was to mark the building of social confidence. However as it stands today (maybe not next week), we continue to be in a holding pattern.
Venues around the globe have created ‘cleaning standard protocols’ to demonstrate the importance of guest safety. Is this going to be enough to raise the confidence of meeting hosts and the delegates? As our friends in the legal world like to say, ‘it depends’. It will depend on the post event data of those ‘going first’.
Every organization has their personal ‘risk level’ and this is reflected in the clauses that we are including in their future agreements. While there does seem to be some flicker of hope based on the future business we are booking, there are a number of factors that still need to be in place before confidence is fully restored.
And so in the meantime, we continue to look for risk factors, practice patient and look forward to the data we need to proceed with caution and optimism!
Timely yours,
Brenda
