Two-and-a-half years after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, I’m still feeling its effects, albeit in a whole new way…

March 11th, 2020: I still remember it like it was yesterday, even though it was exactly two-and-a-half years ago to the day. It was the moment the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a “pandemic”. I have no doubt everyone in the events industry has that date cemented in their minds as it was a monumental moment on the calendar – a turning point when everything changed.

I remember so clearly the day the pandemic was announced; my phone rang off the hook. I didn’t stop answering calls from client after client. They were all concerned about the future of their events, deposits and cancellations. They all wanted their questions answered immediately, but the problem was, back then, there weren’t any answers. It didn’t matter who you spoke to, people were all in shock. No one had navigated this situation before. We couldn’t go and check the ‘pandemic clause’ in a client’s contract; there weren’t any contingency plans in place for an event like this.

I just remembered constantly answering that phone. I’d take a deep breath before every call, and there was nothing but fear in people’s voices. My natural reaction as an event manager when something goes wrong is to find a solution – it’s what we do on site, it’s what we do for a job. But this time we couldn’t fix the problem.

THE NAVIGATION BEGINS

After the initial shock of it all, we started to slowly navigate our way out of it, and I had to put on a (fake) brave face to my staff and clients. I tried to remain as positive as possible and do all the research I could. Then I reached out to those people I trusted for support. We spent the next few months transferring event dates, cancelling suppliers, rescheduling and renegotiating… They were the most intense months I’ve experienced in my entire 18-year career.

Every client wants to feel like the most important client, and they all said, “Kelly, What are we going to do?” When you have 10 or 12 clients ringing you in a five-day period, it gets very overwhelming. But I tried to put myself in their shoes and manage their money like it was mine. I negotiated so hard for each and every one of them. But I soon realised I was so busy focusing on how to help them that I almost forgot about my own business. I had to hold off a little bit and start asking myself, ‘How am I going to survive?’

And then, of course, there was that other big question – the biggest question that no one in the world had the answer to: “How long is this going to last?” People had their theories that ranged from weeks to months, but here we are two-and-a-half years later and it still hasn’t disappeared.

As organisers, we like to see things go from vision to fruition. We develop and execute, and there’s always something to show for it after all the hard work – the amazing event. However, with the pandemic, we did all the hard work but we never got the end result. The event would be rescheduled and rescheduled and then eventually cancelled. It was like baking the most complicated cake over and over again but never getting to eat it. We’re logistically minded, we want to tick things off the list – as organisers that’s what we thrive on. I think that’s where people lost their love of the industry.

A PIVOTAL MOMENT

Personally, I needed to take a step back and figure out how I was going to navigate it all but I knew I couldn’t do it alone. Sure, I had my brave face on and was supporting everyone around me – because that’s what I do – I’m naturally optimistic and positive. But it became too much so I did something I never normally do: I asked for help. I reached out to a couple of key people and it was a pivotal moment in how I started to see everything.

The former CEO of Sportsgirl Group, Colleen Callander was my first step, and boy was she amazing. I asked her for some mentorship and she taught me how to navigate some of the harder decisions, like letting staff go. John Karagounis was also incredible, showing me different views of the bigger picture and understanding my options – the man is a walking ray of sunshine. I tried to surround myself with positive people who were going through similar experiences, but on a different level. They provided me with these little nuggets of gold that were invaluable.

I’ve been in the industry for quite a long time and I have a lot of really close long-term supplier relationships. And these relationships really got me through that first year too. We would ring each and ask for advice and provide strategies because we were all in the same boat. We formed even closer relationships and together we rode this wave of the ‘new normal’ that changed constantly and was full of uncertainty.

I’m not going to lie, it became quite hard to be in love with my job – a feeling I’d never experienced before. There were many times in the office when we would throw our hands in the air in surrender, joke about how much we hated events and how this industry wasn’t for us, and that maybe we should re-train and become a baker or a florist. We laughed so we didn’t cry.

WHEN THINGS GOT PERSONAL

I’ll never forget the day that I came home and they’d announced that my daughter’s school had shut and we had to start home-schooling. It was the very same day my husband Marcus lost his job – he’s also in the events industry – and I had cancelled three events. It was the first time my personal life and my professional life were impacted at the same time.

At my lowest point I started what I called “The 50-week Challenge”, where I decided on a challenge each week. It was a way of gaining back control when everything around me felt so out of control. It helped me focus on one thing a week – a small, simple, family or friend-orientated goal that was, most importantly, achievable. I was under enough pressure; I didn’t need to create any more stress by choosing goals that I’d fail at! I needed to feel a sense of productivity and success. It reminded me that to do one little thing for myself or my family, to plan for it and get it done was so important. Especially when you run your own business, it’s very easy to lose sight of that balance and what’s important.

We also did something else that was really fun in the office. It was a social campaign we called “A Month Of Positivity” and each day we shouted out local businesses and their deals. We did random things like showcase a local pizzeria’s vodka pasta recipe, an online cocktail class, jewellery discounts and a shout-out to local artists. It was so fun. It took the focus off the problems at hand and made us feel like we were doing something right.

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PANDEMIC

We eventually got through it. With resilience, a little humour (okay, a lot) and a great support network. Now that it looks like we’re on the other side, we’re so grateful that we’re still standing as a company. The only problem now is the events industry has returned in a big way and we almost have too much work. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining – not by a long shot! But it’s just a new way of working that we need to try and navigate.

Just like the rest of the world, staffing issues are a huge problem. We no longer have those freelancers we’d call on when we had a lot of work because they found other careers during lockdown. As a result, everyone who’s still in the industry is utterly exhausted.

Also, events have changed completely. What we need to do for one now, post-COVID, is completely different to what we would have considered previously. The risk side of everything has, not surprisingly, completely transformed and when we review the risks of an event these days, we must have plans in place for if/when there’s another outbreak or lockdown and you need backups for MCs, entertainers and staff.

CLOSER THAN EVER

The upside to all this is that the events industry is definitely closer than ever, and there’s a lot of work out there for everyone. There isn’t so much competitiveness now as there is camaraderie. We need to stick together to bring the industry out of this; it’s more important than getting the next job or trying to make the most money. Everyone has been through a different version of a similar story and that’s what unifies us. What the pandemic did was make us realise that there’s more to life than the race to the finish line – because lockdown removed that finish line.

What does the future look like? Who knows. The pandemic changed the events industry forever and COVID’s clearly here to stay. I guess the only way to manage this ‘new normal’ going forward is to create that support system around you, build and nurture those important relationships and never take them for granted. During tough times you need people, more than anything. Whether it’s a pandemic or a recession, or whatever, when you’re running a business, you can’t take it all on yourself. The funny thing is, it’s only taken me 11 years and a pandemic to work that one out!