Who’s in Control and What’s Your Commitment?
Is it me, or is it just plain weird out there right now?
After two months in lockdown it’s hard to tell. The immediate business crises seem to have run their courses. Contracts have been rewritten. PPP and EIDL loan applications are in (and many are funded). Rescheduling is a regular part of email correspondence.
Basically, it feels like the new normal everyone talked about is here. Right now.
The collective v individuals
Over the past two months, the pandemic created collective experiences for every single one of us – whether we wanted to go through them together. Lockdowns and loans, rescheduling and contracts, scared and uncertain. It happened to all of us at about the same time.
But over the past week our country has been breaking apart at our state borders. Some are moving forward with opening, while others are taking a more cautious route. Texas opened reception venues to 25% capacity, while Oregon pushed off events for what appears to be months. Virginians still have nearly another month before they can legally leave their houses for non-essential travel, but Nebraskans never even saw such an order.
You can, but should you?
I can only imagine that as the states go their own ways so will event companies. Not in the sense that some will do events and others will wait. I think we can all agree that everyone would like to get back to business as usual.
And I think we can also all agree that even if it’s legal to host events in the next few months, most of our clients will push the date until they feel more confident in timing, finances and attendance. As our kiddos’ 5th grade science teacher says: “Just because you can put an elephant on a rocket, should you?”
I have a feeling wedding couples and corporate event planners are asking themselves a very similar question.
How will the events industry divide?
I’m reading Originals by Adam Grant as part of an informal book club and ran across a new concept. When you’re unhappy with your current situation, you have four viable alternatives:
- Exit by removing yourself from the situation
- Voice your interest in improving the circumstances
- Persist by putting up with the issues
- Neglect what you’re doing by reducing effort
When I talk with event pros about how they’re doing, I can’t help but hear the differences already starting to appear. Most are persisting and some are neglecting. A few have exited to a new venture. But nearly everyone appears to be wearing down slowly, week by week, postponement by postponement.
Voice your interest through action
It’s hard to see your way out when you’re in the middle of it all. Who knows how this one ends? As I wrote about last week, we’re still lost in Act 2 and don’t know how much we’ll have to change before we can find a resolution to our story.
If you look to the future you’ve got to be either a) an optimist or b) a pessimist, because there doesn’t seem to be a middle ground right now.
I’ve got to believe we still have hope. Not the kind of hope that’s unrealistic, not the kind that puts us back to business as usual.
But the kind of hope that gives voice to our concerns and lifts our spirits as we fight another day to do more than just persist, or exit in fear, or neglect what we know needs done.
Our couples are counting on us. Our families are counting on us. Our colleagues are counting on us.
