Virtual attendee

On 7 April, Meetings attended the Hospitality Tomorrow virtual event. We deliver the highlights, lowlights, ins and outs of attending a unique virtual event experience.

The year 2020 will go down in history as one in which the world was forever changed. By April, many countries had responded to the novel coronavirus pandemic by limiting the movement of their citizens, with all but essential workers and frontline staff retreating indoors. In South Africa, a national state of disaster was declared within a matter of weeks following the confirmation of the first local case of

THE ‘ADVERSITY QUOTIENT’

“Every person has an AQ, a learned response to adversity, which is also often referred to as resilience or grit,” according to Dr Paul Stoltz, who spoke during the Hospitality Tomorrow event on 7 April. 1. CONTROL: To what extent can you influence whatever happens next? What facets of the situation are ones that you can influence, so that you can improve your chances to come out of this better? 2. OWNERSHIP: How likely are you to step up to do anything to improve the situation? Where can you step up and start to take action? 3. REACH: How far will it reach into and affect everything else? Where and how can you minimise the downside and fallout from this crisis? You cannot damage- or cost-control your way to greatness, but what can you do to maximise any upsides to this adversity? 4. ENDURANCE: How long will it take to get past this situation/adversity? What can you do now to get through this as quickly and brilliantly as possible? (Remember that faster is better.)

TEAM BUILDING DURING LOCKDOWN

What an impact the Covid-19 lockdown had on our business! Can’t really have a team build with ‘social distancing’ and ‘lockdown’… or can we? Steven Ingram, managing director at Beyond Teambuilding, asks the question. This became our new challenge and, on 1 April (this is no prank), we ran our very first lockdown team build for a progressive pharmaceutical company of 120 people, all confined at home but connected virtually. The objective was to bring people together by completing the same tasks but in a way that challenges the norm. We succeeded in allowing every delegate to be connected to the theme throughout, doing activities, posting their results, asking questions of each other through the chat, completing opinion-based surveys, performing video dances and acts of ‘silliness’, and learning about the new future of interacting with ‘lockdown’ customers. The best part is how customisable the tasks are. We can input videos from the CEO, questions based on the client’s product, ask the staff to give reviews or create their own adverts. All the pictures, videos and answers are stored and a feedback report is given to management to review afterwards. The real challenge was to convince the client that this would work. Years of paradigms and habitual behaviours have taught most of us to accept only what we are comfortable with. This team build has changed all that and, as I can see, will change the way we operate even after lockdown. In the future, we will partially revert to and still run the traditional team builds – with the fun outdoor activities, the physical and interactive challenges – but this new virtual concept will allow for some amazing opportunities with the ability to connect with more delegates, more often, more meaningfully and even globally. Get in touch with Steven on steven@teambuild.co.za.

Covid-19 in early March, and a total lockdown to curb the virus and #flattenthecurve was put in place.

While these measures have been imperative to saving the lives of millions globally, the impact that the lockdown has had on industries encompassing business events, hospitality, and travel and tourism, in particular, will be widely felt for some time yet. With the full extent of the pandemic still peaking in many countries, the future remains uncertain but these challenging times have driven industry players to come together to discuss the way forward.

EVENTS OF THE FUTURE, TODAY In early April, Bench Events hosted the Hospitality Tomorrow event online. With a line-up of speakers from all corners of the globe, the event was fully interactive, and the numbers show impressive results – with 5 343 participants from 128 countries joining the six-hour event.

“To be honest, we didn’t know if it was going to work. We rehearsed like crazy with speakers, buying a laptop for one, testing mics and mute buttons, and panic set in when our first speaker was defeated by tech. There was a huge sigh of relief from Stephen Sackur and myself when Dr Paul Stoltz came back with grit and resilience for one of the most appropriate and inspiring speeches I have ever heard at a time like this,” states Jonathan Worsley, chairman and founder of Bench Events.

ALL YOU NEED To create an immersive experience for attendees, Bench Events made use of the Hop In platform that streamed all sessions in real time. Breakaway sessions were hosted off the main stage in their own separate space and all included functionality such as instant messaging, where all participants could pose questions to the panel and engage with one another, with event organisers also acting as moderators to keep the event flowing smoothly.

The content coming out of Hospitality Tomorrow was engaging and relevant to the situation faced by many businesses linked to the hospitality industry, which has been directly and rather adversely impacted by the pandemic, as many have had to resort to extreme measures to ensure their survival.

While there are a few scenarios that are likely, overall, predictions for economic recovery remain uncertain; however, many experts seem to think that, plotted on a graph, recovery would be V-shaped – with a sharp drop and an equally sharp incline as business starts to return to previous levels. Moreover, the event provided an ideal platform on which robust discussions could take place and was a stellar example of the rich experience a virtual conference can provide.

Note: Streaming just one hour of something like a virtual event consumes between 1 GB to 1.5 GB of data, so make sure you are using a high-speed, stable and uncapped connection.