Staying relevant in a time of crisis
Covid-19 hit UK businesses hard when a lockdown was put into place in mid-March to stop the spread of the virus.
In this blog, we interview some of our local partners to see how they have adjusted their work plans in order to continue running their businesses. It’s taken a positive attitude, a tenacious approach, original thinking plus a healthy scoop of luck!
Abi Ross, Goldcrest Events
Goldrest Events is an event and venue sourcing agency. Owner Abi has a small team and was able to temporarily downsize in order to keep running on her own for the interim.
“Compared to my usual workdays, the last few weeks have been very structured. I set myself a daily goal of calls to make, take my dog for a long walk in the middle of the day, then back to work for the rest of the afternoon following up on the calls with emailed presentations. It’s been extremely uplifting!”
Abi’s background has been sales management at hotels and after starting up Goldcrest Events a couple of years ago, says she found she was too busy at the start of the business to focus on sales calls the way she would have at the start of her career. “Going back to reconnecting has been wonderful and reminds me of my original career passion.”
On the outlook for the future, Abi says “I think it’s really important to be laying the groundwork now for conversations in the future. Once businesses start to open up again, you want to be first in your potential client’s mind. Put the work in now to make sure you’re the first person they want to speak to when it’s time to start booking venues and making plans. Keep positive!”
Abi Ross, Goldcrest Events http://goldcrestevents.co.uk/ 07842 510 524
Michelle Rees Eventprofs Live
Eventprofs Live is a networking group connecting corporate event professionals. Michelle also works as Head of Events for a corporate.
Taking the lead from her corporate role, Michelle with her co-owner Kate, have pivoted to virtual quite quickly, both bringing in their vast corporate and virtual event skillset to the networking group.
“I was already entirely comfortable with online working – a lot of online promotion and publicity for our EventProfs Live brand goes into the event preparation. I was doing podcasts, sharing blogs and promoting events regularly alongside real-life networking events,” says Michelle. “Going entirely online has been a revelation,” she adds, “allowing us to reach a bigger audience. It can be isolating when a crisis like this comes about and I love our EventProfs Live network for being able to connect with like-minded professionals in our industry. We can talk openly about the challenges we face, how companies are reacting and what’s working for us.”
EventProfs Live is going from strength to strength in this time of change. They hold weekly virtual chats for their members with a guest from supplier and venue side each week. Their aim is to provide a well-rounded focus group from all aspects of the event world. “We obviously look forward to connecting in person again soon, but staying safe is the most important thing for now,” says Michelle. “In the meantime, we’ll relive our fabulous FAM trips on our Insta timeline!”
EventProfs Live https://eventprofslive.com/
John McIlroy at Zest Meetings & Events Limited
Zest Meetings & Events organise and manage large scale events and team building. They have responded to these unprecedented times by launching a range of online or virtual team building solutions.
John says, “Face to face meetings and gatherings are a thing of the past and it looks like they may not return for many months. The majority of employees from most business sectors are now working from home - having less direct contact with their colleagues than ever before. These are challenging times for everyone, but it’s more important than ever to keep morale high and help boost engagement within the workforce.”
Zest Meetings & Events have designed a range of online, virtual team building experiences which are proving really popular with their clients. They all use online conferencing platforms to bring everyone together and are designed with the aim of boosting morale and giving staff a unique shared experience.
Lots of formats are available, but some of their most popular are:
- Game Show - participants battle it out at a variety of gameshow rounds
- Big Picture - working together to create a virtual masterpiece work of art
- Lip Sync Battle - how will participants get on lip syncing to a selection of songs
- Virtual Race Night - place your bets and try to beat the bookies. Hilarious event
If you would like more details about any of their online event formats, please contact John McIlroy on 07572579292 / John@zestme.co.uk
Sarah Howson, BBO PA Network
Sarah Howson runs the popular Berks, Bucks and Oxfordshire PA Network, facilitating networking events for PAs and EAs.
An event had been planned for Thursday 2 April “Drained to Dynamic: How to be a resilient PA”. With the lockdown, Sarah had assumed she would have to cancel and wait for the right moment to start events again. The keynote speaker for the event challenged Sarah to simply switch to an online event. “I felt the event would be particularly helpful for my network of PAs as the majority of them work in quite a solitary way. They have to keep confidential about a lot of the work they do, don’t necessarily have close colleagues in the business who they can share information with, so being resilient when working solo is very important. As such, I didn’t want a hugely relevant event to be shelved,” said Sarah.
Quickly getting to grips with Zoom, Sarah was stunned to have 55 people online for the event! “After an initial ‘I feel like Joe Wicks’ moment, I found my stride and the event was a great success,” says Sarah. “Compared to a physical event, some of the network members found it easier to attend online as travel didn’t create a barrier to attendance. During the event, networkers all participated in the 8pm ‘Clap for carers’, which was a lovely bonding experience.”
The next event is on 23 April and the featured speaker is Evie Whitehead of Evie Nutrition, on how to keep a healthy immune system. It will be an interactive session, with recipes created using store cupboard items.
“I’m now thinking of adding on online element to each of my future live events, so we’ll always include those who can’t attend in person on the day. We did miss having a venue show round which is a big part of the usual events, so something to look forward to when we’re back to business as usual,” said Sarah.
Sarah’s advice for businesses is to keep visible, be positive and keep connected.
BBO PA Network, sarah.howson@bbopanetwork.co.uk www.bbopanetwork.co.uk
Kate Plowright, Selling Savvy
Selling Savvy provides mentoring and sales training for the hotel and events industry. Kate has always run face to face workshops, often thinking about moving online but not having the time or an urgent need to do so until the pandemic struck.
“Our face to face workshops are extremely lively, interactive and jam packed with relevant and proven learnings. We teach strategies on a month-by-month basis, allowing time for clients to put these tactics into practice. This combination of learning and doing builds their confidence and empowers them to deliver more than a classroom environment would,” says Kate.
Before COVID-19 hit the UK, Selling Savvy was a purely face to face business with no virtual training or mentoring underway. As the Founder and Director, it was on Kate’s radar to branch in to that one day, but finetuning the in-person structure was more important at the time.
Since lockdown everyone has become an expert on Zoom or Google Hangouts and it has opened Kate’s eyes to what the possibilities are.
“During lockdown, while our monthly workshops have been put on pause in the best interest of our clients’ cash flow, we have been running free virtual workshops on a weekly basis to do our bit to support the industry. This has proved a huge success. Firstly, because it has proven that our training model works really well online and can be just as engaging, lively and informative. And secondly, because it is has given us exposure to a much large audience both geographically and industry wide,” says Kate.
Several businesses have attended that were either on Selling Savvy’s proactive leads list previously and that they now know well, or that they had not heard of before. “All of these newbies have had excellent feedback and are now shouting about us on socials,” adds Kate.
Moving forward, the plan has always been to expand into a franchise model for Selling Savvy and this still stands, but with a new additional training offering in place: virtual LIVE workshops. This will be a cost-effective way to inject some instant procedures into a business and increase their conversion all from the comfort of your home or office.
Kate Plowright hello@sellingsavvy.co.uk 07746 843417 www.sellingsavvy.co.uk
Windsor Tourist Guides Ltd
Amanda Bryett, finalists in last year’s Visit Britain Tourism Superstar competition is used to spending her days guiding groups around Windsor.
“From a daily 15,0000 to 20,000 steps per day taking hundreds of visitors around Windsor Castle to only a few hundred steps a day is proving interesting,” says Amanda. “The daily walk is now a dog walk on the Long Walk where amazingly all you can hear early morning is bird song rather than planes!”
Back at the office, it’s logging cancellations but happily many agencies and visitors are simply moving their tour on one year so Windsor Tourist Guides have plenty of bookings for 2021 especially from the USA. Putting photographs of the town with a ‘come and visit’ slogan no longer feels appropriate for their Instagram page @windsortouristguidesltd (https://www.instagram.com/windsor_tourist_guides_ltd/) so they have started a history of Windsor Castle and the town. “With history going back to 1070 we have plenty of history to put online and so far are getting really favourable feedback and a fair few new followers,” proving the theory that connecting now and staying relevant is paying dividends.
In the spirit of keeping healthy in mind and body, Amanda has taken up yoga, something she’s always wanted to do and is on day 20 of her online beginner’s course.
Windsor Tourist Guides Ltd www.windsortouristguides.co.uk
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