Coronavirus: How We're Adapting
There is no escaping it, no avoiding it, no point in denying it.
These are challenging times.
Apart from the handful of the world's population that can remember the Spanish Flu over 100 years ago, it is fair to say that nobody across the world has ever experienced a time as disconcerting as this.
We understand the impact this is having on your employees and customers.
We are the same. We all have families, friends and loved ones who we want to keep safe and secure and as the economy re-boots we, like most businesses, are prioritising employee and client safety.
The past week has seen exhibitions start to re-open in China and the announcement in Germany that exhibitions fall outside of the restrictions on mass gatherings. But we can’t avoid the reality that even if there is an exhibition calendar in Autumn, that doesn’t mean that employees and visitors are going to be comfortable attending.
Nicole Kastner, Global Head of Event Marketing Strategy for SAP has said recently that audience acquisition is going to be a challenge for them. She says it typically takes 12 weeks for an individual to commit and plan to attend a big event. That means that they need to be comfortable with the new world order in June in order to attend an Autumn event.
Given the ever-changing picture it’s unlikely that visitors will be prepared to make that commitment in the next few weeks. I think that also applies to employees being asked to attend off site meetings and events.
With individuals reluctant to travel and be around large groups of people, we’ve spent a lot of time looking at best practice across the industry to understand how we can make our roadshows Covid-secure. Ensuring they are a viable solution for brands wanting to go directly to their customers with a consistently branded environment that, more crucially, is clean, safe and hygienic.
I’d say that the shift we’ve had to make isn’t as great as others in the events and exhibitions industry, as we’re used to targeting small groups of people in a controlled environment, so the adjustments have been less stark.
We’ve introduced a Covid protocol that applies to our office, our factory and to our roadshow trucks.
It centres around three key pillars – a cleaning regime, PPE and social distancing and at its very core is the desire to make people comfortable in each of those environments.
Each one of our roadshow trucks has a dedicated Roadshow Manager that continually monitors and sanitises the space before and after each client group has been onboard; we offer a variety of PPE to all visitors and can factor social distancing into the customer journey planning that we undertake.
In addition to these measures, the joy of a roadshow truck is that we can instantly change the route if we need to avoid a particular city or country. This gives you the peace of mind that you can flexibly respond to any recurrences that may well be a reality for the rest of this year.
At the moment, we are all finding and working our way through 2020 together, discovering unique ways to overcome some of the incredible challenges that the business world currently faces.
With a new tour launching in June and our current clients looking to get back on the road in the near future, we will be constantly learning and adapting over the next few weeks and months. What remains a constant though is that a safe, secure, resilient and flexible sales and marketing tool is available for you and our team are committed to providing that with the same dedication and diligence as always.
