HYBRID MEETING CASE STUDY A firsthand account of how one meeting planning company successfully adjusted its processes By Stacey Jackson
A
s the meetings, events, convention and hospitality industries entered 2020, no one had an inkling of what would occur in terms of facing the ever-changing process of conducting a live, in-person meeting. We could not even fathom that there would be a day when this may be a question mark for our clients, nor how it would affect jobs and the industry as a whole. As a leading end-to-end meetings logistics company focusing primarily on live face-to-face meetings, Global Meetings & Incentives (GMI) recognized the need to adapt to the way meetings would operate in a COVID-19 era. We also recognized the need to collaborate with customers on processes that would allow them to return to live in-person meetings. In July 2020, we began working with one of our key accounts on a series of district-level meetings around the country, including eight manager-level meetings and 40 sales meetings — replacing the national leadership and national sales meeting we would operate under normal circumstances. Below are the steps that we put in place to make this a success for all, as well as lessons we learned throughout the planning, execution and onsite process. As a first step, GMI partnered with our client to create a Back to Live Meetings task force comprised of the GMI team and the following departments from our client’s company: security, human resources, meetings and events, and sourcing. Through weekly calls, we discussed each process and created checklists to be used during execution.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
Keeping attendees safe was our first and foremost concern. We needed to determine which corporate policies to establish in order to ensure health and safety at live meetings. First, we understood that each individual and team had their own comfort levels when it came to traveling to and attending a live meeting. Before we moved forward with planning the in-person meetings, we conducted a survey of the entire sales force and leadership to determine the percentage of individuals who would attend virtually vs. in person. We learned that approximately 80 percent of the attendees were ready to travel and get back to live meetings. Next, we created a health and safety checklist to be used during planning, onsite and post-conference stages.
SOURCING AND HOTEL SERVICES
It became apparent that we needed a more detailed sourcing FACILITIES & DESTINATIONS 2020 FALL
process providing additional information in order to make an informed decision based on the new environment. •H ealth and Safety: Each property, city and state has its own set of recommendations and/or requirements during the pandemic. We required each property to provide us with their health and safety protocols and an outline of what steps they were taking to ensure their facilities were adhering to the CDC guidelines as well as local guidelines. •M eeting Space and Meeting Sets: Our task force required that all attendee meeting sets be at least six feet from one another. To meet that requirement, we needed medium-sized to large ballrooms, as we used a separate table for each attendee. Because we offered our attendees the option to participate virtually, an extensive production component was added to our onsite requirements. Each meeting had a production team of four to six people in the back of the room running the show, Zoom meetings, cameras and presentations. • Hotel Services: We learned that most of the hotels were operating with a limited staff. This greatly impacted the hotel’s ability to provide services that we were accustomed to, as well as the planning process. • Sales and Catering: Sales departments have been reduced to one or two managers in some cases, causing hotel responses to be slightly delayed. • Housekeeping: Hotels are taking strict precautions when it comes to entering guestrooms. Housekeeping services were not being provided unless a guest made a specific request. • In-Room Amenities: Some properties have removed all in-room amenities, including hotel directories, hair dryers, irons and even some bathroom amenities. In many cases, remote controls are in plastic casings and then changed after each guest’s stay. • Room Service and Dining Outlets: Most properties have discontinued room service during the pandemic or, if they do provide it, it is contactless, with orders being placed via guests’ cellphones and then delivered outside the guestroom in an individual bag. We also found that some properties had only one or two dining outlets open, which became challenging during planning. 47
