BRINGING BACK EVENTS SAFELY

Hello, this is Les Goldberg, and welcome to The Road Ahead. The Road Ahead podcast is dedicated to the future of the live events business, bringing together industry experts. Hello, production world, this is Les Goldberg and The Road Ahead. Today we have two amazing guests. We have Nancy Shaffer, who is the founder and CEO of BRAVO! Events. But Nancy is also the president of the Live Events Coalition. And then we also have Cathy Breden, who is the Vice President and CEO of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, commonly referred to as IAEE. Ladies, welcome to the show today. Thank you. Hi, Les. Thank you for having me. You're very welcome and I'm glad you both could join. So today's topic is going to be what can be done to assist in the return of live events. And our world is all about live events. And I'm going to kind of throw you some questions and we're going to have fun today. So this question right away goes to Nancy. What is the business community doing to get us back to work? What could you give us some insight, especially from the Live Events Coalition side. So it's a really good question. So, you know, like all of us, six months ago, this was not what we thought our lives were going to be like. And so in March, the Live Events Coalition was born. And we are actively lobbying on behalf of our industry, which we say goes from entertainment and sporting events to bar and bat mitzvahs and everything in between. And what we're doing is engaging people at all levels to speak directly to their elected officials on a state by state level, as well as on a national level. And in addition to that, we are beginning to engage our members and our state coalitions in helping us understand from their specific states and counties some of the challenges to reopening policies and procedures, which is, you know, the hot topic and what we all want. But at the Live Events Coalition, the thing that we say is we're not going back until it's safe. Safe not only for our clients and their attendees, but truly safe for our own workforce, which is off of mind to make sure that they are well taken care of. Well, that's very interesting. So it sounds like the we all have a voice, and we need our elected officials to join in and helping us return to the live events business that we know and love for so many years. And I agree with you. Six months ago we could not have dreamed this up. Well, let's throw this to Kathy, because I know I is doing a lot in the idea of helping people go back to to work. And Kathy, maybe you could touch base on and share with everyone what is doing and maybe how others can share and join in. Yeah, thank you very much, Les. IAEE has had the exhibitions mean business campaign back to 2011, and every year we have Exhibitions Day on the Hill. It's normally held in June, the first Wednesday of June every year. And this year we took it virtual and had over 600 people register. It was a full day event where we took all of the attendees through contacting their legislators, both in DC and locally, teaching them how to go about doing that with the type of messages as well as the issues that we're really focused on in Washington, DC, we collaborate very closely with the Go Live Together a coalition, as well as the Events Industry Council that represents 30 plus organizations, International Association of Venue Managers, because there are, of course, a very, very important partner of ours, AC the mayor of the City of Association executives, really helping them, along with Destinations International on the Paycheck Protection Program, because many associations who produce trade shows are a 500 and 1C6 tax classification and they were not eligible for PGP, as well as many of the destination marketing organizations or CVs were not eligible for it. And then, of course, we're also very engaged with meetings mean business in the US Travel Association and all of their initiatives. So, you know, a really great collaborative effort on the part of many different organizations to get in our world, the business events industry, back up and running again. So, Cathy, I know that the IEEE has put together kind of a program which is like a safety protocol. Maybe. Could you touch base on kind of what they have done, and how could that assist on in conveying that knowledge and information so people feel comfortable getting back to the exhibition, the ballroom, the convention center, etc.? Sure. Well, you know, very quickly after we realized that the exhibition industry, both B2B and B2C events, were going, you know, they would just shut down almost overnight. And we had many of our members asking, you know what? What do we do now? And you know, how to what are the considerations that we need to take in order to get our events back up and running again? So we very quickly organized a task force that started working on some essential considerations for safely reopening exhibitions and events. And again, it was a great collaboration between the International Association of Venue Managers, as well as the Exhibition Services and Contractors Association, labor, as well as the Experiential Designers and Producers Association, the Stand Builders. So really working all together in in putting out some considerations that exhibition organizers need to take when producing their events. And it goes it covers everything from their communication strategy to, you know, the event operations. You know, some of the things that are commonly known, you know, put out by the CDC and the World Health Organization. You know, certainly the the social distancing guidelines. In addition, we work very closely with the Global Bio Risk Advisory Council, who is a subsidiary of the International Sanitizing and Supply Association. And IAEE has just signed a contract with G back to offer training on something called the global I'm sorry, the back technician program, so individuals can sign up and now be trained in proper sanitizing and cleansing, which is really important when you're conducting site visits, right? So that you understand the questions to ask. And you have a working knowledge, because I believe that events moving into the future or going to need to have safety officers that are working with the venue and making sure that people are following the proper, proper guidance during an event. So. So, Cathy, what I've got from you is safety is becoming like one of the key elements that people have to have to embrace so that the audience feels comfortable. So I'm going to throw this question to Nancy. And this is what do you see as the greatest hurdle for people getting back to doing live events? Take me into the live events business and how do we get back? What are those hurdles? We have to jump over the hoops. So I think that there are a couple of things. First of all, I think what I do I is doing is wonderful, and I think that those are really in depth policies and procedures for those B2B and B2C activities. One of the challenges that we're facing on our side is the fact that there are so many different types of live events. They're outdoors, they're indoors, their social, their corporate, their nonprofit. And so we're battling two things. We're battling a misunderstanding, I believe, of what we as an industry do. So to say you can have 50 people does not do Cathy's world or my world. Any, you know, benefit whatsoever. 50 is at all, 50 is small, 50 is small. But in addition to that, it's getting to educate the attendees, because I think that that's part of what this is. So, you know, we've talked a lot about people are carefully going back to restaurants because they know there's only 50% or they're sitting outside and it's a really small group. When we talk about the industries that Kathy and I are in, it becomes a much, much larger entity. And when you get away from a social event, you're also talking about an entity where you're technically with a group of strangers. And so we battle two things we're going to battle, making sure that the policies for safety and the procedures that you must follow are in place and work. We have those safety officers in place, but that then the consumer understands that we have done that. And so the challenge of making sure that our messaging and when I say our messaging, I mean whether it is exhibits and large events such as IEEE works on to the smaller events, that they understand that this is an industry of highly trained professionals that we are not. We're taking this seriously and that we will implement these types of rules. We have talked with our groups about making a commitment that if you are going to be a part of any of our state coalitions or the Live Events Coalition on a national level, that there will be a commitment to follow a specific set of protocols that you agree you will do. And if you do that, then you are in this almost self-certification. So there's so it gets so complicated. And I think that no different than there's fear, there's a lack of understanding of what goes into create any of these experiences and the safety that we're doing behind the scenes. So it's really going to be education. It's going to be making sure that we as an industry are very clear in what we're doing. We're very transparent. I think that's the other part that's really critical is the transparency of what we're doing, whether it is temperature checks when you walk in the door or how do we wipe down everything or what what's the distances required? What happens if something does happen? What are the tracing needs? All of those things to give our consumers and our attendees and our clients a sense of comfort that this is an industry of highly trained individuals that is not going to put anybody in harm's way. But some of that's not figured out yet. And that's part of the challenge. It keeps moving. Got it. So so let's throw this to Cathy. Cathy, do you see our industry coming back in in phases and sections. How do you see the the the worth or of the live events business. How do you see that happening? Speaking from the trade show perspective and the consumer event perspective? You know, I do see it coming back. I think that for a while and maybe, you know, even moving on into the future, that that there will be a hybrid component to trade shows and perhaps consumer events. Also moving it perhaps to a year round marketplace. The the market has been asking for that for several years. Those meaning the exhibitors have been asking that they've been wanted more, more year round engagement with with the attendees. So and that's what I think the industry is moving toward. I think it just took a good crisis to get us going there. And, you know, certainly I think that, you know, there's a lot of challenges, you know, as as Nancy and we have talked about, you know, in terms of, you know, what I see with the consumer sentiment surveys that I look at a lot of different ones, the differentiator is going to be either an effective treatment or a vaccine. So I think that once that happens, you know, certainly will begin seeing events really coming back. I think also we're going to see smaller events, more regionalized events where it's more controllable. I think it's important to also note that, you know, trade shows especially we don't consider the mass gatherings of some of the governors have in some of the states. We consider them controlled environments because there are things that we can do physically distance people and make sure that everyone is safe. Everything from I think we're going to see testing on site, rapid, rapid testing, I think is going to be something that we're probably going to begin saying here in the next several months. So lots of different things to get events back up and running. But yes, I'm optimistic. I just think that it's going to it's going to take a couple of years. Sears economists the center for Exhibition Industry Research, is forecasting by the year of 2022. Based on the information that we have now and the COVID cases, because that can always change based on what the what the virus does. But as of right now, he is looking at the end of 2022 and early 2024 for recovery. Wow, I that just seems like that's not going to be anytime soon. But but hey, the word is recovery. So Nancy, take me into the future. Take me. What will our landscape look a year from now? So it's August 14th, 2021 and it's 365 days from today. And I'm asking you to bring out your crystal ball and for you to tell me what is the event business look like a year from now? I think that they're going to be some positives, and unfortunately, I think that they're going to be some negatives. And I think unfortunately, on our side of the industry, the negatives is that I think that we're going to lose a lot of companies. Our companies are primarily the small and mid-sized companies, and then a lot of our workers are 1099 gig workers. And unfortunately, I don't think when Kathy says 2022 to 2024 that that who, who those players are today will be who those players are 365 days from now. It is painful, it is heartbreaking, but it is the reality of what's happening. I think for them to survive, the federal government is going to have to step up and kind of recognize who we are as an industry and the economic impact. That's the part that's hard for me. So the the industry has to shrink, and a lot of companies will go into hibernation right now till the we kind of get to the other side of this. And as we start to come out of it, and I agree with you, there will be fewer companies, and I will think that many of the employees or people that work in the industry, they may end up having to shift and go to other industries because, you know, there's no demand for what we do, at least for live. Kathy, do you have any thoughts on that? What what a year from now looks like it's August 14th, 2021, and I got you your crystal ball. It's a different crystal ball than Nancy's. Nancy. Her crystal ball already spoke. So what is your crystal ball have for us a year from now? What does the temperature look like? I think that that hybrid is still going to be here. I believe that show organizers need to really, and those that are unemployed need to really brush up on their skills as it relates to technology. You know, look at look at what the learning opportunities are for learning about virtual events and how to produce virtual events, because I think that's going to be really important. I also think that associations, you know, the ones who like I, who is a 501 C6 and wasn't eligible for the program this last round, you know, in their shows who are certainly, you know, all of our shows are going to have much lower attendance and live attendance. And I think that, you know, are going to create partnerships, perhaps with the for profit organizers like the read and the Informa type of companies, that there may be buyouts of shows. You know, associations generally get anywhere between 50 and 90% of their annual revenue from that one trade show that they might produce or, you know, several trade shows throughout the year, and many of them did not have communicable disease coverage under their event cancellation policies, if they even had event cancellation policies. So for those associations that did not have sufficient reserves, you know, we could lose a lot of those and a lot of those shows or those shows might be up for sale or other collaborative partnerships. Do you know the thing that you've kind of spoke about is the you got to get on the virtual bandwagon, and that is becoming the tool that that people need to use right now. And then a year from now, the live event might be a little smaller than we used to have, because you might not get the attendance that you had previously, especially international attendance, where you have people that are flying from, whether it's Australia or Asia, to come into these events or Europe. But ultimately the virtual component right now, and there's lots of virtual solutions out there. I know as a company we have about a dozen virtual solutions, and I think it's important to vet people from the ones that are actually working for the ones that say, oh, I can do your show virtually. There's so much more to virtual technology than just being able to stream and send out a signal. Everything from creating an environment where you create registration and you have networking and exhibits and, and we have a program called hive, which is our solution. But but it's interesting, you know, the general theme, what I'm getting from you, Kathy, is, is that live events will come back. It's just going to be a slow, long road. And the economics of an exhibit trade show are questionable, based on the association members paying their dues and then having the financial ability to continue operating based on your cost basis. So let me shift gears. I'm going to throw this to Nancy. Nancy, what's the one thing you miss from putting together live events from our industry? Tell me what you miss. You've you've not been able to do it at least since March, because the world has kind of shut itself off. And I know there's something you missed because you wouldn't do this if you didn't love it. And to be in our business, you have to love it to do what we do. It's passion. This is not about let's get rich. This is passion. This is long hours. It's hard work. And if you're not passionate about it, don't bother. What do I miss most? I miss being with people. I miss being with my amazing partners. As you know, taking off my president Les hat and putting on my Nancy planner hand. I miss being with my amazing partners who make sure that what we produce is seamless, that we understand how to light that speaker so they look brilliant and make sure that the audio is perfect so that nobody goes. I couldn't hear them that, you know, all of these creative, passionate human beings come together. That's what I miss. I miss being with my event family, which are all of these people who over the past 30 years, I've created these remarkable relationships with. We did last week, the Live Events Coalition has empty events, activations that are popping up around the country, and last week was the one on the National Mall. Now I represent the Live Events Coalition for all 50 states. I live in Washington DC. My people are in Washington, D.C. when I got out of the car and walked towards what took the team in D.C. literally less than a week to pull off and I walked towards that installation. Full disclosure I cried. It was so emotional. And to see all of our our people, from production companies to the caterers to the decor companies to everybody in between, coming together to say this is what we do, because this is what we love, and we understand the impact that it makes on people. Was it hard? Yeah, it was kind of a stark reality of what what we're sitting at. But to to see what was able to be produced. And even though you couldn't hug and squeeze all of your people, we're a very friendly group of people, as we all know. It was so nice to just be with people and to remember that our common mission is to be invisible and to produce experiences for our clients that make an impact and have a long term impact, no matter what area it's in, whether it's a trade show or a wedding or a nonprofit gala or a roundtable CEO conference, it just doesn't matter. It's about human interaction. And I think that's what all of us miss, is being able to be together and get creative and build these amazing things in our heads that we then bring to life. Nancy, I want you to know, I feel the emotion from how you conveyed this and and I just want you to know I would cry with you because the idea is we we love what we do, and we do it not necessarily just for money and and in our in our vision statement, we ourselves, we create extraordinary experiences. And and whether it's a show or a tour or something. And the idea is by not having the ability to create those experiences, we, we then are, are dealing with, you know, almost like withdrawal, show withdrawal. We're experiencing that. And then with the limitations of COVID and not being able to get out of the house and interface with people on somewhat of a regular basis. Oh my goodness, that's even worse. So let me throw this to Cathy. Cathy, do you think there will be a lot of pent up demand for live events? I do, I think, you know, for many of the reasons that you and Nancy just talked about. Right? I mean, it's just people were still human beings and and we want to get together and, you know, business is conducted at these live events either through, you know, planned meetings or matchmaking or those serendipitous moments when you just happen to meet someone in the hallway or at a reception or an education session. You know, I know from, again, those consumer sentiment surveys that I watched so closely that, you know, the exhibitors are saying that they, you know, they've lost out on leaves. Many, many new products are launched into the marketplace at a trade show. Just think of the show Shark Tank. Right. And, you know, they'll ask a question and the guy says, yeah, I was that, you know, X, Y, Z trade show. So that those types of opportunities are not happening now. And if they are, you know, certainly those corporate marketers are trying to find, you know, how do they shift, how do you how do they shift. And so they're shifting into producing their own virtual events. So I think that, you know, everybody is really missing seeing one another. You know I miss the hugs when I know someone, you know, I go in for a hug rather than a handshake. And what we're doing elbow rubbing now in Japan, they're doing the foot thing, you know. Yeah. The only person I have now is my husband, which is wonderful. But, you know, I'd like to be able to hug some friends, too. You know, I share the the message. I will tell you when we had the event in Orlando, the get together again, it was a little bit bizarre being in a trade show where everyone had masks and someone came up to me and said, hi Les. And I looked at them and I went, I don't know who that is. And I said, who's hiding behind the mask? And then they had to take their mask off to to kind of uncover the I'm like, oh my goodness, I couldn't tell. And I think that that exhibition world where you're in a room with people in mask is kind of a challenge. It's just a challenge because you want to be politically correct. I think handshakes are gone for quite some time. I think we're going to do more like the Japanese, where we hand business cards out and we we do more of the the bowels or the whatever, the communication things are. So, so back to Nancy and this is my final question. And see why do you think our industry, Cathy gave us some, some statistics that were we're back about when the world's coming back in law and order here, so to speak. I think it was 22, 24. There was some days when do you think we're going to be back in full swing? And I when I say full swing, I mean, we're just working, doing shows. They may not be the biggest shows we used to do, but we're still doing shows. So can you give me a date and time so I can put it on my calendar? Oh God, how I wish I could give you a date and time, but I will tell you this. And this is not part of this question, but it just struck me with the masks at events and particularly at trade shows, I think they might become the new name tag. So somebody's going to come up with a way that those masks can have somebody name on it, so that when I walk up, I'm like, Cathy because I can't see a face. But that was just as you were saying that I was like, because it is, it's very hard. You don't know who's behind the mask. When do I think that they will be back in full swing? Unfortunately, I think it's going to take a cure or a vaccine to see back in full swing as we know it. And I'm not sure that as we know it is ever going to be as we know it again. I think that that where we're going to. I want to believe because I believe it's who we are across the board is going to be better, is going to be stronger, is going to be. In many respects, maybe more thoughtful. You know, this has disrupted our industry, which has made us begin to think a little bit differently that, you know, we did it all the time. And so you thought about some things that you might change. But this is a disruptor, and this is going to make us all take a step back, which we're all doing right now. We, we talk about this on my side of the industry, and we talk about it with all of those small businesses and, and independents. We're hoping that, if not in full swing, at least in partial swing of some sort on our end of this industry, we're looking at, we're hoping spring early summer of 21 to begin to see something that feels similar or familiar. As Cathy said, I think that there are hybrids, but for our side of the industry, while that works for many, it doesn't work for a lot of the other types of live experiences. You know, you can't have a festival in a virtual reality. You can't have a fundraising race. You can't have. I mean, people are doing it. You can have weddings that are virtual. You can do all of these things. You can do galas and meetings and have impact. But it's different. And as Cathy said, we kind of all want to get back together and be able to hug. And we're we're hoping through that very foggy crystal ball that we're all looking at. And if you close your eyes or blink and you open it, it has a whole new perspective. But we are hoping that we're looking at spring to early summer of 2021 to have a sense, okay, I'm going to take that as the gospel spring of 2021 because it's a little earlier than 2022 or 24. But Nancy, if people want to get involved in the Live Event Coalition, could you just do a plug for it so everyone knows and and I'll ask Cathy to give a if they want to join or learn more about i.e. could you give us Nancy, where to go, a website, etc.? Absolutely. So the Live Events Coalition is live events plural coalition. And you can go there and you'll you'll learn all about who we are and what we're doing. We are a membership organization. But full disclosure and individual membership is going to put you back a whopping $25. And part of that is, is that our members, unlike some of us or members, are these much, much smaller organizations or independents just are looking for some support. Our mission is to be the front liners voice, and to make sure that it can be helped and align ourselves with organizations like IAEE, who is one of our aligned partners. So it's to bring the voice to everybody and make sure that the knowledge and brilliance that is in this industry is utilized. And there's, you know, there's cross conversations. So I encourage anybody and if they want to ask me a question. Feel free to reach me at my email, which is on there. But it's n Shaffer a f f e r at Live Events Coalition. Thank you. And, Cathy, could you just tell us a little bit about if someone wanted to check out IAEE? Yeah. Thank you. It's just go to the website I and it's an association a trade association that represents the industry. So we have advocacy you know and certainly communities and engagement and you know different marketplaces within within the site. So also a certification program certified in exhibition management. It's a global certification in, I don't know, 26, 27 different countries. And in there is a on the on the top nav bar there's a there's a tab for advocacy. You can go in there and look at what our issues are that we're advocating for in Washington DC. And you know, certainly the Go Live Together coalition as well is another, you know, that we're all working very closely with on making sure that we're all supporting one another's issues, amplifying the messages across all of these different organizations with our with our elected officials. Well, I want to thank Cathy from IAEE and Nancy Shaffer from Live Events Coalition. I want to thank you both. It's the work that you're doing on behalf of the people in the live events. Business is very, very awesome, and we're thankful that you all represent us and we appreciate it, and we look forward to getting back to live events. And whether it's a vaccine, a medical solution, a safer work environment where we can continue to do what we love, I think that's the key to moving forward. And this is Les Goldberg and The Road Ahead. Thank you. Thank you very much.