What does an event agency to do in lockdown?

You can imagine that the current pandemic affecting travel and social interaction has had quite an impact on the events industry.

Large-scale events worldwide, from Glastonbury to the Tokyo 2020 Games, have been canceled or postponed due to the lockdown. Some events have already been transformed into entirely virtual ones using virtual conference technology, and many more companies will be switching to virtual events in the coming months.

As a corporate event and travel company, our duty is to help our clients quickly adapt to a new way of working to meet their business needs.

Events that fall in the next couple of months may have been altered to deal with Government Coronavirus restrictions, but that doesn’t mean we’re not still busy working on many great events to come!

Here’s what we’ve been doing as an event agency during lockdown:

Expecting the best and preparing for the worst

Luckily with our team of experienced event planners, planning ahead and for times of crisis is our strong-suit.

We take it as inevitable that unforeseen issues will occur when delivering an event, because of the range of people, organisations, schedules, and deliverables involved to make everything come together.

Contingency planning is always a big part of the first steps of any event plan. From bad weather to natural disasters, lost luggage, or airline bankruptcy - it’s important to prepare for the worst. By assessing any potential risks as early as possible we can ensure the smooth running of the event.

We also have a designated Crisis Gold Team which consists of key decision-makers and experts within the business. The team is prepared to coordinate any crisis management procedures from the UK and on-site should a crisis occur during an event. To do this they run regular training sessions to pressure test different situations and have a 24hr phone line that connects all their phones at once - meaning one call guarantees a response.

Though the Coronavirus outbreak has been a rapidly developing circumstance prohibiting travel and events, we have the contingency plans in place to ensure that our clients’ upcoming events can still run and drive the same results.

Driving employee engagement and communications with virtual events

Now more than ever, it will be important for businesses to connect with their teams, partners, and customers, to collaborate together and share information.

A lot of industries will be going through major changes as a result of COVID-19, especially with regards to remote working. We see that virtual events are a key way to help organisations maintain a strong network and motivate their remote workforces through shared connections.

We have been helping our clients implement virtual event experiences for a while, and understand that there are many things to consider when running a virtual event for the first time or transforming a physical event.

Whether you’re planning a conference or an engaging team building event, this Virtual Event Guide can help you create an immersive virtual experience for your remote audiences.

Building an integrated communications agency

Events are an immense tool for increasing engagement, and can/should be used as part of a wider communications plan.

Our in-house event operations, marketing, and design teams work collaboratively on strategy, creative and delivery. We aim not only to deliver the success of an event but its campaign targets and long-term business benefits as a whole.

Though we are primarily known as an events agency, we also have a marketing, digital and design offering that helps brands evolve, even during challenging times.

Final thoughts

Whilst we are working from home and COVID-19 has definitely disrupted our day-to-day event planning, we are looking at how we can best adapt to national changes and client needs.

We know that this won’t be forever, so we’re working on ways to bring global events back even stronger once travel is back to normal.

For now, you can follow us on social media to see what the team is up to in the coming weeks. You can also see our resources for managing your events during this time.