The Impact of the Pandemic – Interview with Select Business Members
Our world continues to evolve at both a dizzyingly fast and painfully slow pace. Our economy in general, and industry in particular, have been deeply impacted by the pandemic. The FORUM Committee reached out to a few of our business members to get their perspective on how the pandemic has impacted their business and their thoughts and feedback on lessons learned and what we might expect to see in the future.
We spoke with members from 4 business pillars: an event planning company (Joe Nishi, Managing Partner at Meeting Encore Ltd), a destination (Miranda Ji, Vice President Sales at the Victoria Conference Centre & Business Events Victoria), a hotel (Susan Saganski, Global Account Executive with The Marriott International), and an AV company (Krista Cameron, Director of Business Development & Industry Relations, Encore Canada). Read on to hear about the impact on their business, what they are doing to stay positive during this difficult time, and where they see things going.
What has been the impact on your business?
Joe Nishi, Managing Partner, Meeting Encore Ltd
The biggest impact of COVID-19 on Meeting Encore has been two-fold, financial and on our emotional well-being. Financially, like many companies that rely heavily on F2F meetings for revenue, the result of rescheduling most of our 2020 groups to late 2021 and 2022 has been incredibly sobering. 2021 is going to be a very challenging year for groups as it remains impossible to forecast when gathering restrictions are going to increase. Fortunately, the industry is working on a number of initiatives to make it easier for planners to commit to booking 2021 meetings. Through flexibility in performance clauses and pricing as well as a greater understanding of hybrid meetings and “hub and spoke” types of events, we will eventually recover from this. Secondly, the emotional toll that this pandemic has taken on our business is hard to put into words. Seeing friends and colleagues in all areas of this industry having to leave to new sectors or not be able to do the job they love is truly heartbreaking.
Miranda Ji, Vice President Sales at the Victoria Conference Centre & Business Events Victoria
As a DMO, Destination Greater Victoria has experienced significant loss in revenue and have also had to reduce our workforce. As a Destination, we forecast the impacts of COVID to affect 2020 with a $1.4 billion loss in visitor spending, approximately 20,000 job losses, and $375 million in lost revenue to governments.
At the Victoria Conference Centre, due to the restrictions on gatherings, the Centre has been closed as we have experienced a number of cancellations on Conference and Event bookings. This has had a significant economic impact on the Destination as Conference attendees contribute significant economic impact to our Destination and its local businesses.
Susan Saganski, Global Account Executive with The Marriott International
The impact on the hotel sector has been one we’ve never seen or experienced in our lifetime. Everyone has heard by now that even events like 9/11 and the market downturn in 2008-2009 were not this disturbing to the industry – by comparison, we bounced back fairly quickly. This time, business travel and group meetings ceased virtually overnight and with each passing month we are working on bringing it back all the while working around government regulations and travel restrictions.
One bright spot we saw over the summer months, is leisure travel and this likely will continue to be a focus as people are social and want to be with other people. This has been a win for the industry and not just at properties that are in unique destinations. I think the work we have done in building consumer confidence has helped. Hotels have all adopted Marriott’s Commitment to Clean standards and our guests feel safe and secure coming to our properties for a much needed get away.
Considering that my role at Marriott is booking conferences and gathering, the very thing that we cannot do at this time, has made it challenging but my intent is to make sure that our customers are well supported as they navigate lifting and shifting their conferences to a future date. My focus right now is building the future and there have been some great wins along the way – including new business for future years and helping professionals obtain their certifications through writing their exams in our hotels.
Krista Cameron, Director of Business Development & Industry Relations, Encore Canada
The impact has affected all of us greatly. Our top line revenue has been dramatically impacted just like it has for many in the industry. As a result, we have had to look at our business and find innovative ways to help our customers meet their business objectives during these trying times. We’ve been learning with our customers and taking their feedback into consideration as we continue to build out virtual and hybrid solutions. We’ve also found this has impacted our focus on safety more than ever before. For instance, working alongside our venue partners, Encore Canada has designed our MeetSAFE guidelines, which includes a series of meeting formats, equipment packages, and recommendations that address how to reduce risk, increase confidence, and promote health within the meeting space.
What are you doing to stay positive during this difficult time?
Joe Nishi, Managing Partner, Meeting Encore Ltd
Talking with the team and others in our industry is what really makes keeps me balanced. Discussing anything else but work and being able to vent, share a laugh and just being present in the moment is what keeps me positive. I have also been reading way more than ever. I like to switch between something fun and light to something deeper and more educational. Just finished The Institute by Stephen King and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood and working on Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio which I am really enjoying. Plus, I am tackling a truly Canadian goal of trying to make the perfect Caesar!
Miranda Ji, Vice President Sales at the Victoria Conference Centre & Business Events Victoria
Engaging and staying connected with people in the industry to share experiences and support each other. Creating fun ways to connect virtually such as hosting Virtual Cooking Events, Social Meet-ups and in general finding ways to create memorable moments together.
During these times when we are inundated with a lot of negative news, it is important to focus and share positive news. We should celebrate that we have vaccines rolling out already and that Meetings are happening around the world safely and with the proper protocols. Sometimes with all the negative news we forget the strides we have made and improved on and these stories need to be shared.
My team also helps me stay positive. I am grateful to work with an amazingly driven, positive and resilient team that continually uplifts my spirits and motivates me to keep doing what we do!
Susan Saganski, Global Account Executive with The Marriott International
COVID has caused me to pause and slow down – almost a reset button in some odd way. Take stock of what is important and allowed me spend more time with my family. The fact that I am able to embrace this time with my family makes me happy which keeps me going and therefore stay positive. I also make sure that I continue to stay active to keep my mind in that positive space. I have an incredible support system both at home and at work – a fabulous sales leader and a team that continually motivates me to not lose sight of what is important as we continue to navigate these uncertain times.
Krista Cameron, Director of Business Development & Industry Relations, Encore Canada
This time allowed us to step back and look at the marketplace for ways to adapt, innovate and be creative. It afforded us the opportunity to look for new ways to help our customers so that they continue to have ways to communicate with their teams and clients. Customers are adapting to the new reality and this allowed us to build new product offerings and expand our existing offerings. A silver lining may be that we created a new product set that won’t go away because of its effectiveness and extension of reach.
Overall, our goal during this time has been to impact customers positively and to bring back to work as many people as possible, luckily we do still continue to employ over 500 Canadians.
Where do you see things going?
Joe Nishi, Managing Partner, Meeting Encore Ltd
Until the perception of the rewards of meeting face to face outweigh the risks, contracting meetings in 2021 is going to be a challenge. I also see that meetings will be confirmed with much less lead time and venues are showing a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to performance clauses, Force Majeure and Cancellation for any groups willing to meet in 2021. Availability in 2022 is already at a premium as many groups have moved from 2020 and 2021 into 2022. For groups that are looking to potentially cancel or reschedule definite contracts for 2021 that were signed pre-COVID, this will continue to be a challenging time as well. There is definitely a right and a wrong way to have those difficult conversations with hotels when they are running single digit occupancies, unable to bring back talented staff and invest in capital projects. Both parties need to come away feeling good about the outcome and the process it took to get to a fair resolution.
Miranda Ji, Vice President Sales at the Victoria Conference Centre & Business Events Victoria
As we have all heard and seen, it is inevitable that we will see more virtual/hybrid events for the next while and we are all adapting to these changes. The importance of safety and adhering to current guidelines are of such importance to everyone and as a Destination and Conference Venue, we have to keep this top of mind and ensure we are implementing these guidelines and actively communicating these messages. I predict that leisure travel as well as visits to leisure and resort locations will recover faster than business travel and visits to urban markets.
I did recently read an interesting article that noted with more people working remotely there will be an increased desire to connect in person with colleagues, clients and others through attending Conferences and will therefore drive the demand for Conferences and Business Travel as these are allowed again. Here’s to hoping we will see recovery starting in 2021!
Susan Saganski, Global Account Executive with The Marriott International
The announcement of vaccination plans for roll out in 2021 is very positive and encouraging news. We are hopeful that travel and gathering restrictions will quickly lift and borders will once again be open. This will help lead to increased business travel and a return to face to face meetings. I see them coming back gradually at first and in a hybrid format by the fall of 2021. So many people are missing the face to face networking interaction that goes with meeting at a conference. I’m very optimistic that this will be the trajectory and that we will be in a space of renewal and hope by the end of 2021 with a brighter future for our hotels by 2022.
Krista Cameron, Director of Business Development & Industry Relations, Encore Canada
With 2020 behind us, there’s still a long road ahead when it comes to the meeting and event industry’s recovery. In November, we surveyed over 2,000 event professionals about the future of their events and we found that for many, hybrid is an emerging trend. In fact, when we asked planners about how they plan to allocate their budget when it comes to types of events (i.e. in-person, virtual and hybrid), hybrid spend steadily increases over the next four years. Furthermore, 62% of event professionals said they would continue to deploy a digital strategy, even after we make the return to physical events, as a way to maintain their virtual audience.
While the demand for in-person events will return, today, the demand for hybrid events is currently on the rise. This has shown us that we simply can’t ignore the fact that today, hybrid meetings matter. The good news is – while the event landscape has changed, those key tenets for planning have remained the same. Whether your event is in-person, virtual or hybrid, setting event objectives, understanding your audience, determining how they want to be communicated with, and finding ways to safely engage your audience remain integral to the design of your event.
