Companies all over the world are working to minimize the negative impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on their business. Companies are asking employees to work from home and taking steps to deliver their offering through an online environment.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how organizations are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll also go over some tools and actionable tips you can implement to mitigate the negative effects it has on your event business and measures you can take to ensure the safety of your staff members and event attendees.
How Companies Are Handling Events Amid COVID-19 Concerns
The increase in COVID-19 cases reported worldwide has led many companies to withdraw from events worldwide. Global events, including Mobile World Congress, Adobe Summit, Facebook F8, Google I/O, and IBM Think, have been canceled due to concerns regarding the COVID-19 outbreak.
This global pandemic has presented itself as a threat to businesses around the globe, and event businesses are at the forefront of the battle. However, there are a number of ways event planners and organizers are coping with this challenge.
As people everywhere are avoiding going to mass gatherings, many companies have decided to postpone events, especially those that require attendees to travel. Additionally, companies like Twitter, Salesforce, Facebook, and Google are instituting mandatory telecommuting policies and have asked their employees to work from home.
What to do now in this time of social distancing.
Here, we’ll step through some of the ways you can keep attendees safe amidst COVID-concerns:
#1: Use Modern Collaborative Tools to Manage Event-Related Tasks
As an event organizer, you can use collaborative tools to plan, manage, and communicate event-related tasks in an effective way. These apps offer a centralized platform for communication and allow staff members and volunteers to work remotely (i.e. work from home).
For example, you can use project management tools like Trello or Basecamp to assign event-related tasks to staff and volunteers. Start by adding event staff and volunteers as members to the tool. Next, assign tasks and mark them complete as you progress through them.
Learn more helpful tips for event planners and check out this sample event Trello board for inspiration.
In addition to this, there are tools that offer real-time chat features such as Slack and Discord. They let you make voice and video calls and offer screen sharing features that make it easy to communicate with staff members, remotely.
Pro tip: You can create an etiquette policy or rules so your event staff isn’t chained to these tools around the clock. For example, you might set working hours between 9 am to 3 pm.
#2: Organize Virtual Events
Amidst COVID-19 concerns, the only way companies can safely organize events is by turning to virtual events.
Taking events online is hugely beneficial both to event organizers and attendees. It reduces travel expenses, minimizes environmental pollution, and improves accessibility. Reducing the in-person expenses also means you can reduce the cost of registration and instead spend more of your event budget on the speaker lineup.
By allowing event attendees to attend events virtually, event organizers can bypass travel restrictions while still making it possible for attendees to attend the event. You can host virtual events (conferences, training workshops, and webinars) using tools like Google Hangouts or Zoom.
Moving events online allows you to record the virtual event and publish it on your event website later. You can then use this content to encourage site visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter or share it as members-only content on your business site.
You can also share downloadable resources (PDFs, worksheets, and guides) with your attendees. This allows attendees to follow along with the speakers and encourages in-event participation.
#3: Facilitate Virtual Networking Opportunities
The problem with most virtual events is the inability to meet other people face-to-face. Networking opportunities in between coffee breaks or lunch breaks are invaluable. This is one of the main reasons why people prefer to attend live events – particularly business events like conferences and seminars.
You need to make it easier for event participants to interact with one another after the event. You can achieve this by putting some sort of setup in place that facilitates one-on-one communication among attendees as well as with event speakers. This way, they can connect with like-minded folks and exchange contact information, similar to how they would do at a live event.
Start by setting up a Facebook Group or Twitter profile for your event and encouraging attendees and speakers to network on these social platforms. This is great for post-event Q&As, AMAs, and surveys and feedback, and also helps you easily share resources.
Another way you can facilitate communication between attendees and speakers is by setting up a Slack channel or Discord channel. This way, you can offer real-time chat features while allowing attendees to share files and send direct messages to other attendees.
#4: Set Up Online Event Registration and Ticketing
You need to make it easy for attendees to register for events and purchase tickets online because the old-fashioned paper registration processes are outdated. Transitioning to online registration lets you utilize online payment systems and ensures that the data you collect from your registrants is accurate.
An event management solution helps you automate event-related tasks such as creating and selling tickets, collecting payments, and gathering attendee feedback.
Event Smart is an online event registration tool that lets you:
- Sell tickets and event registrations. With Event Smart, you can accept registrations and sell tickets to your events through your event website. It lets you create registration forms that collect necessary attendee information such as their name, email address, and billing details.
- Accept payments. Event Smart allows you to accept online payments through Stripe, PayPal, credit cards, or offline methods. This way, you can receive payments as people register for your event without having to work with paper checks.
- Set up a branded event website with an event calendar. Event Smart lets you quickly set up your event website by choosing and customizing its theme. You can easily change its color schemes, background pattern, or header image. It also lets you display your events on an events calendar for your attendees making it easy for them to browse and select the dates that fit their schedule.
- Let attendees comment on events. As an event management tool, Event Smart lets you connect with your audience and gather feedback by letting them post comments on your event website. This allows you to easily respond to their queries and offer assistance. You’ll have complete control of the comments posted on your site which means you can edit or turn them off whenever you need to.
- Bulk register attendees and set up waitlists (for on-site events). Event Smart lets you bulk register event-goers by importing a guest list of attendees as a CSV file into your event website. You can also set up a waitlist for your events after tickets sell out. This way, you can still sell out your event even if some attendees cancel their registrations.
Lastly: Create a Refund Policy
But what do you do if people have already registered for your in-person event that you now have to cancel?
You should have a refund policy published on your event website that lets attendees know how you handle refunds and what they need to do, and who to contact in order to get a refund. Unlike event ticketing platforms like Eventbrite, Event Smart doesn’t have access to your funds and doesn’t hold onto any funds that are paid by registered attendees.
If you find that you need to cancel your live event and provide registered attendees a refund, Event Smart lets you cancel the transaction and process the refund by going through your payment gateway.
Conclusion
The spread of COVID-19 has certainly impacted the way we work, communicate, and network.
As an event organizer, it’s important to take steps to prevent it from spreading and minimize its negative impact on your business while being mindful of the safety concerns of your attendees and staff members.
To recap:
- You should allow staff and volunteers to work remotely and set up a centralized platform for communication such as Trello or Discord.
- Organizing virtual events can help you reduce accessibility concerns and keep attendees safe.
- You can make it easier for event-goers to interact with one another after the event by setting up a Facebook Group or Twitter profile for your event.
- Setting up an online event registration and ticketing system makes it easy for attendees to easily register for events and purchase tickets online.
Do you agree that event planners should organize virtual events amidst COVID-19 concerns? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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