Shannon Licygiewicz, RFPs in the COVID-19 Era

RFPs IN THE COVID-19 ERA

New questions to include, and familiar ones that have become more critical By Shannon Licygiewicz

It’s hard to believe, but it’s that time of year again. Time to plan year-end meetings, holiday parties and start mapping out what your 2021 event strategy sessions might look like. While we all are working on different checklists, there is one thing we all have in common — meetings are not and will not look the same moving forward. This means you cannot just dust off last year’s RFP and solicit a venue using the same questions and criteria. There is a whole new world of requests you should be asking your prospective venues to ensure the health and safety of your team and attendees, and the overall success of your event.

Sales teams have been listening to their clients’ concerns and questions over the last six months and have developed ways to help streamline this new normal for events

The good news is that many venues have worked tirelessly over the last few months of “down time” to put policies and procedures in place to ensure their clients’ safe return. Not only have they implemented operational upgrades and cleaning measures, but they have also come up with innovative ways to host events. In most cases, they will probably already have answers to your event-planning questions. In addition, sales teams have been listening to their clients’ concerns and questions over the last six months and have developed ways to help streamline this “new normal” for events. So, before you send out your RFPs for year-end events and beyond, here are some of the questions our team at the Albany Capital Center has been getting that you may want to include:

Health and Safety • Will I be responsible for contract tracing in the event of an exposure? • Will you be doing temperature checks for everyone in the building? • What is your current capacity and how could it change? • Who will enforce social distancing? • Can you provide a blurb on your cleaning and sanitizing procedures that I can pass along to attendees? • Do attendees need to bring their own masks? • How will food service be “touchless” or safe? • Do you have contactless check-in and registration processes?

Cancellation • Has your cancellation policy changed? • What if we have attendees coming from a state with a mandatory quarantine? • What if your venue’s state bans all gatherings? • What happens if we cannot get enough in-person participants and decide to go virtual?

VIRTUAL AND HYBRID BECOME MORE PROMINENT AV and IT, while always an important part of an RFP, may now need to be moved to the forefront of your line of questions. Planners need to make sure venues are equipped to stream live, record sessions, support higher levels of Internet speed and provide tech assistance. These areas are more important than ever in this new virtual and hybrid world. Even more important is coming up with creative ways of using virtual meeting tools, such as broadcasting a keynote from one room of a venue to other meeting rooms, and offering virtual tradeshow booths.

Technology • Would it be possible to have a panel discussion with half the participants in one room, some in a second room and some joining remotely? • Can we record presentations to show at a later date or prerecord for the live event? • What streaming services do you offer? • What security measures are taken with your Wi-Fi system to ensure a safe connection? • If we have to make the event hybrid or virtual at the last minute, can you accommodate?

WALKTHROUGHS ARE CRITICAL Another important aspect to consider is a walkthrough of the facility. While you might have been at the same location for years, planners now need to look at things with another set of eyes. Safety, cleanliness and technology are at the Continued on inside back cover