The Business of Events in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The last few weeks of work have been intensely focused on COVID-19. The kids call my office the ‘war room’. The business of live events has taken a hit on an unprecedented level, as many industries have.

We have been marching forward and preparing contingency plans. But those plans changed weekly, then daily - and the past 6 days EVERYTHING changed hourly. Lots of coffee. No sleep. The emotional toll cannot be put into words; planning for our large-scale events started a year ago.

​We work closely with suppliers and they become our partners, and our work family. I cannot express how gut-wrenching my phone calls have been the last 48 hours. So many are having to lay off entire teams. So many organizers having to pull the plug at the 11th hour. There is no cost-recovery. It’s difficult to put it all into words and hope we can all remember it costs nothing to be kind. And in the words of Scott Stratten "How we treat people in a short term crisis has a long term effect'.