From Crisis to Opportunity: Why you need an event strategy, now more than ever.

The pandemic crisis has had a devastating impact on the meetings and events industry. No one has escaped unscathed and the repercussions will last for years.

When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters. One represents danger; the other represents opportunity.

When faced with a crisis, you have three options

1. Do nothing (no change or substantive actions)
2. Incremental change
3. Exponential change

Logic dictates that the greater the crisis – the greater the disruption to public safety, economic activity or social norms, for example – the greater the need for change.

That, however, is not how our industry has responded in times of crisis.

Here are some recent examples:

• There have been a number of epidemics and pandemics in our lifetime, the most recent in 2009 (H1N1). 
• The Great Recession of 2008 is an example of tremendous economic upheaval.
• The outright fear and ambivalence toward online events paralyzed the industry for years and has contributed to a new crisis of our own making that’s caught us flat-footed. The desperate rush to put content online only compounds the problem. It may be years before we address that issue, if ever.

In these cases and others, what was the industry response? What plans were put in place since 2009 to prepare for the pandemic that’s unfolding today? What plans were put in place since 2008 to prepare for the next economic crisis, like the one that’s upon us now? Why are our events struggling to enter the digital world that other industries so willingly embraced over a decade ago?

The fact is that very few plans resulted from these crisis.

Why?

Because we’ve always been more of a reactive industry than a proactive one. There are plenty of other examples besides the last pandemic or the last economic meltdown or even our own biases that prove that.

But more importantly, you can’t plan your way out of a crisis.

Planning is about responding to the past – to the last crisis – and assumes you’ve learned lessons from that crisis and adjusted your plans for the future accordingly.

Strategy is about looking toward the future. Strategy assumes you’ve assessed your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, for example, and developed strategies, along with specific plans, that align with these.

An event plan works well if you’re pretty much doing the same thing over and over again.

An event strategy is only important for when things change and adjustments are necessary.

In other words, most of the time.

Strategy precedes planning because it informs and guides the details of your plan.

Most organizations that host events have an event plan, often developed by an event planner. And most of those organizations think of their event plan as their event strategy. But these two things are not the same. In fact, most event “strategies” are simply event budgets with a lot of explanatory words attached.

If you want to develop an event strategy, you’re going to have to do things differently.

Strategist and planners have different knowledge, skills, and abilities (competencies). They use different tools and techniques. They both provide real value to their organizations. But they provide different value.

And now more than ever, in a time of real crisis, the value of strategy is far greater than the value of planning.

Now more than ever, the opportunity in the current crisis is to develop a real, proactive event strategy that will help you and your organization navigate your way through this crisis and better position your event for the future.

Now more than ever, your event strategy has to address the exponential change taking place today and the exponential consequences for the future.

This is not a time to stick your head in the sand and wait for the crisis to pass, as many have done in the past. This is also not the time for incremental change, though many will try to get away with that. It won’t be enough.

Do you and your organization have what it takes to strategize your way out of this crisis? Do you have the competencies? Are you familiar with the required tools and techniques?

If not, you may not be around for the next one. There’s no time to waste.

Summary: Event planning and event strategy are not the same. They require different competencies, tools and techniques. This crisis represents an opportunity to finally develop an event strategy that will help you navigate the current crisis and better prepare for the next, provided you act now and act boldly.

To get started on your event strategy, visit www.event-strategy.net