What It’s Going To Take- Part II

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We track all of our blogs to see what topics appear to be resonating with our audience and without surprise, my heartfelt post from December 28, 2020 on What It’s Going to Take took off, and we got more than our usual number of visitors, comments, re-shares, etc.

Now that more US residents are getting vaccinated and more US states are relaxing their pandemic restrictions, I wanted to revisit this topic. Especially after reading this article from Event Manager MB. It states that some businesses in our sector are still going to fail within Australia despite Australia being fully reopened, having no new COVID cases, and they (even) have multiple large examples of successful live, in-person events. So it’s made me wonder: what’s it really going to take for the US to rebound in the hospitality sector?

REALISTIC BUDGETS

Corporations are going to have to adapt to spending more money on in-person events, whether that be in the form of cost per head or in general. Looking back at 2020, there was ONLY ONE industry that did not cancel its events and that was the sporting industry. I asked myself why and I realized it came back to money. Sports teams had owners and sponsors that did not want to lose on the revenue stream so they did what they needed which was to keep investing to keep their fans, players and sponsors happy and safe. Did it work? I would say yes! Was it worth the extra investment? Yes! Because sports are leading the pack in terms of coming back to “normal” and there is profit to be had once again (not to mention happy fans!). We now need this to happen on the corporate level, because we all win in this scenario.

So if corporations are not yet willing to spend the money, what exactly will it take? 

ADOPTION OF “THE HYBRID SANDWICH”

Let’s start with something companies control: their own events and budgets. Since budget seems to be the limiting factor right now, I have a theory on how to stretch these dollars. Marketers will need to create buzz prior to the in-person event (just like before) BUT the in-person event should NOT have a live streaming component. Instead, all of the content will be recorded and edited down to be reused for a virtual event a few weeks after the in-person event takes place. The pricing model will be that the in-person event costs more to attend but is also limited in attendance whereas the digital experience will be far-reaching and more affordable to attend. Attending companies may decide that they only send their top decision maker to the in-person event and allow the supporting team members to attend the digital online-only event. So in the end, the corporation (i.e., the host) is still spending the same amount of money as originally quoted when they got their hybrid quote BUT it’s stretched across multiple weeks now instead of just the in-person event days, which will improve reach and help justify the cost per reach to the Controller/CFO. Remember, NO ONE said Hybrid for Corporate Meetings had to match the sports world (live streaming during the actual event). 

As I’ve been sharing this concept of The Hybrid Sandwich, a few non-profits have come to me saying this won’t work for them since they typically have a single day LARGE in person fundraiser to meet their goals.  Fair enough, but since the live streaming is the most costly item, why not go old school and do the digital piece like a telethon? Have your in-person event but set aside an area where you have volunteers lined up to take live calls/emails/texts to help contribute towards the cause. The goal is to build momentum with the in-person audience so you can raise as much money as possible for the beneficiary. And one thing we can’t ignore is that the virtual gala format has seen an increase in donations from outside contributors. 

But it isn’t all on corporations to make the reopening work for the hospitality business, there is much that we can do as individuals and teams:

VACCINATIONS FOR ALL

I am not trying to take a political stance on this topic rather a scientific and economic point of view. A lot of economic activity depends upon consumer and company confidence - and vaccinations are one of the key ways to increase confidence in being able to participate fully in the economy and to drive up demand for all kinds of goods and services. No one wants to hold a super spreader event. Companies want to hold safe events for their team and their clients, and to have that confidence, we need to have 85% or more of our population vaccinated. The increase in vaccinations will also help us get back to a more normal setup where masks and physical distancing don’t have to be enforced at all times. 

SUPPORT THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

I am afraid that if organizations (especially the ones that did NOT suffer as much from the shutdown) don’t start to turn on the faucet of spending again (B2B), many more small to medium size businesses will forever be lost in our hospitality industry followed by hotels that cater to group meetings because they were not built to last this long without recurring revenue. My hope is that enough decision-makers see and understand this issue and can proactively do something about it NOW, before it’s too late. 

We have been doing our small part with each new contract. We not only keep our team employed, but we also hire out other small business owners that have had to evolve during this period.

What do you think it will take to see a recovery?

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