January 30th, 2020, COVID-19 is declared a Global Health Emergency by the World Health Organization. At the time, I breathed a huge sigh of relief because the timing felt fortuitous. We had just finished our largest event of the year, The Grow Retreat, less than two weeks earlier. As a company that puts on events for a living, a pandemic curtailing all events seemed disastrous for us but I was confident that everything would be back to normal by our next event in May.
In March 2020, when the coronavirus was declared a pandemic, we moved our in-person event in May to a virtual event and truncated attendance to less than 10 for our next event in August. At the time, I was still convinced we had plenty of time for this thing to wrap up before the 2021 Retreat in January.
Facing the Reality Of The Situation
We all know how this story plays out. By the end of the summer, it was obvious that, if we were going to return to hosting in-person events and preserve the company, we were going to have to adapt. At the time, we started seriously looking at what we needed to put in place to host our largest annual event, The Grow Retreat, live in a pandemic world. I consulted with event health & safety experts, doctors, attorneys, and event insurance experts and we held countless team meetings to pioneer a plan to adapt an industry that had, largely, given up and gone almost 100% virtual.
How We Adapted The Un-Adaptable Industry
Our first step was to identify areas that potential viral spread could occur at a live event and develop a Health and Safety Protocol Manual. Particularly areas where lines would accrue or where there would be a variety of contacts occurring. Interviewing the experts we spoke with, we realized that not only would we need a plan for how to handle those areas, we would also need to equip our event staff with scripts to deal with potential problems gracefully.
We made the decision early-on to rent a venue for the upcoming retreat that could easily accommodate 4x our projected attendance. We agreed to set out social distancing markers at all areas that might accrue lines (registration, meal lines, bathroom lines, autograph lines, etc) and venue-staff were tasked to clean all highly-trafficked areas every fifteen minutes throughout the day. We wrote scripts for and trained the staff on how to uphold the county’s mandatory mask mandate, including escalation procedures, which were (fortunately) unneeded. We also provided masks, face shields and a plethora of personal protective equipment to all attendees.
Recognizing that registration with the added health screening we implemented (temperature checks, verbal screening and an O2 sensor) was a potential challenge, we took inspiration from Chick-Fil-A’s drive-thru lane. In addition to opening the doors earlier than normal, our stations moved attendees efficiently and effectively through the process and into the main room.
In addition to that, as numbers spiked in the fall, we made the decision to curtail live attendance to 60% of initial expectations which allowed us to set only four people across from each other at an 8’ table. We also extended our breaks to a minimum of half-an-hour apiece so attendees had plenty of time to take care of themselves without rushing & crowding. To accommodate the individuals wanting to attend after we closed live registration and provide an option for individuals who could not pass the health screening, we built an entire virtual experience.
Our online experience included a fully immersive swag box that we stuffed with everything from instructions to curl up with a cup of the coffee or tea we provided, snacks, handouts, books, and happy-hour supplies to celebrate the end of the day! Virtual attendees received access to an event-app that provided them with the ability to converse with the speakers as if they were onsite and dedicated staff monitored the chat to answer questions and guide masterminding and workshops.
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A Remarkable Outcome
In December 2020, I got the first call from one of my speaker-agents asking if we were still planning on hosting The Grow Retreat. Nearly every other event was cancelling and as numbers continued to rise, everyone was waiting for the announcement that the retreat had been pushed. By mid-December, with extensive preparations in place, I made the decision to forge ahead and trust the criteria that we had put in place to safeguard our attendees and our speakers. The result? We hosted a live event with absolutely no viral spread among attendees, staff, vendors, or speakers and re-wrote an industry and closed out our largest revenue-year ever.
Nearly every industry has been impacted by the pandemic – if you get creative, how can you limit the impact on your business?
By Stephanie Scheller
Stephanie Scheller is The Impact Authority. After studying human psychology for more than a decade and working with more than 2500+ companies, she’s now dedicated herself to helping small business owners understand how to create their greatest impact.
Using the violin to tap into the human subconscious, Stephanie breaks down the psychology behind sales, marketing and people management to simplify implementation and accelerate growth. She is also the founder of Grow Disrupt, a company that designs and produces application-focused educational and inspirational events for small business owners. In her downtime, you’ll find Stephanie playing on the violin, out in the Texas Hill Country with her horse, or in the garage painting endlessly.
