Case Study: Cornett's Store Managers Meeting 2021 - Pivot to HYBRID

Date: 20-24 March 2021

Venue: Seaworld Gold Coast

Number of delegates: 53 delegates in real life, 45 Virtual trade display presentations

Type of Conference: Corporate HYBRID

Biggest Challenge: COVID! Flooding!

The Cornetts Store Manager Meeting for 2020 was cancelled 7 days out due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Pivot:

1.    Client wanted to have a live event but needed to restrict the number of people attending, trade display organisations predominately had restrictions around travel in place, the decision was made to have the trade organisations present virtually and the store managers who are all based in QLD attended live.

2.    Trade organisations needed to be prepped on how to present virtually to delegates, tech checks occurred in the weeks prior to the event to ensure that the trade suppliers were presented in the best light

3.    In order to maximise delegates experience with trade, they were encouraged to send samples of their products which were distributed during their presentations This meant delegates had something to touch, feel and taste while hearing about their products

4.    Trade organisations that had local representatives were encouraged to attend the gala dinner which was scheduled to be held at MovieWorld where COVID capacities were higher and social distancing could occur.

COVID Restrictions

1.    The venue required the group to arrive together in order to be treated as a group under COVID regulations;

2.    The group however were partially self-driving and partially arriving on a coach from the airport.

3.    The solution to this was to put them all on a boat for a cruise around the Broadwater so that they could arrive together to the venue and then be treated as a group thereafter

Flooding

1.    Unfortunately, a severe weather event occurred on the evening of the gala dinner which was suppose to be held at MovieWorld in an open air space

2.    The dinner had to be moved to an enclosed space at Sea World and as there were trade representatives attending who had not attended the conference previously (they had presented virtually), the venue no longer considered them a cohesive group and wanted social distancing measures to be in place. An exemption was sought and granted from Queensland Health.

Feedback

Delegates were highly satisfied with the virtual trade show format.

#conference #eventprofs #pivot #virtual #hybrid #trade

Trade suppliers stated that they generally preferred a face-to-face format over the virtual format.

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