How to think about events during the rest of 2020

With many staples and opportunities changing due to COVID-19 and public health concerns, here’s how you can reimagine your efforts—with a little help from Freddie Mercury.

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In the 1980s, “Another one bites the dust” was a chart-topping hit by Queen. Today, the saying is used to describe the current state of the events industry.

It seems like we can’t go a week, or even a day, without hearing about another event’s plans to cancel or postpone. And rightly so, as we are in the throes of a health crisis, something no one could have predicted or planned for a year ago.

Before COVID-19, events provided an engaging environment for attendees to connect with customers and prospects, expand their network, reconnect with old colleagues, rub elbows with media, and in some cases even enjoy some great live music. For PR, events have always been great venues for client speaking engagements, making news announcements and meeting with reporters in-person (especially for companies whose leaders don’t live in San Francisco or New York).

That is not the case today.

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the events industry on its head. Event organizations are having to rethink their programming and determine whether they can go on as planned, cancel, postpone, or pivot to a completely online experience. Companies are scrambling to figure out how they can engage with their customer base and generate new business leads without meeting up in person.

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