These past few months have not been easy. The phrase “we’re all in the same boat” keeps surfacing, but the reality is that we are not, in fact, in the same boat, rather, we are all in the same storm but in different boats. Some associations are sailing these seas in well-prepared ships, able to dip into their reserves while others are sending out their SOS signals.
As the uncertainty around coronavirus continues, associations are facing difficult decisions about their upcoming events. There are a lot of tough, unanswered questions being faced – can we go virtual? Should we postpone the event? At what point do we decide to cancel the event?
While many associations are in the “wait and see” period, there are actions that leaders and staff can take now to prepare themselves:
- Review the hotel contract language and force majeure clause (Force majeure is a common clause in contracts that basically frees both parties from liability when an extraordinary event or circumstance occurs that is beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, crime, epidemic.)
Start the conversation with the hotel early – they are more likely to work with you on mitigating damages or postponing the event if you start a dialogue. Remember, they are in this storm, too.
- Have an attorney review the contract language and provide insight on your options.
- Understand your event cancellation policy – does it include a communicable disease rider?
- Analyze the budget
- Have your staff run through the various scenarios and financial projections to better understand what the implications will be if the event is ultimately canceled, if certain percentages of the attendance expectations are met, and what is the tipping point for canceling.
- Set benchmarks to help guide the decision-making process
- If we are two months out and only have “x” number of registrants, should we decide to cancel or postpone?
- Review policies for sponsors and exhibitors
- How will their contributions be handled if the event goes virtual? Or if the event is canceled, will their funds be returned or pushed to next year?
- Can a percentage of these funds be recouped for previously executed deliverables?
- Get creative – see what other value-add you can provide to sponsors or exhibitors such as virtual demos or dedicated email blasts
- Survey key stakeholders
- Engage a small group to guide the decision-making process. This may be the executive committee or a sub-set of the planning committee. The key is to keep these decisions to a smaller group that is laser focused on the details while also seeing the bigger picture
- Consider reputation – will the industry applaud the efforts to bring the community together in-person after this? Or will they applaud the association for providing much needed virtual education as their community is not in a place to attend in-person?
- Review all the options and potential scenarios and what makes the most sense for your members. Here are a few examples of how some of our clients have handled their meetings decisions.
- Several clients have moved their meetings to later in 2020.
- The Minnesota Academy of Physician Assistants (MAPA) and the Wisconsin Academy of Physician Assistants (WAPA) decided to hold their meetings virtually and were very successful in terms of registration and attendee feedback. Here’s a link to the webinar that was held with MAPA and WAPA leaders and staff discussing how they quickly pivoted from in-person to a virtual meeting platform.
While there are still many unknowns in the association community, sharing experiences will help us all come out of this storm much, much stronger.