Rod Hughes is vice president and principal of Kimball Hughes Public Relations, a PR agency specializing in reputation and crisis communications management for professional associations and insurance organizations. Reach Hughes at Rhughes@kimballpr.com.

In the lexicon of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” winter is coming. But just what that means for associations and other organizations trying to plan events, conferences and meetings remains uncertain.

What is certain is associations will need to make plans for a range of eventualities over the next several months. This will ensure they, and their members, aren’t left out in the cold. Understanding the trends that could impact these events is key.

Where COVID-19 is Trending

News articles from late last year and early this year noted the pandemic seemed to be winding down. However, with the Omicron variant, pockets of the U.S. continued to struggle until recently, and COVID-19 case rates are shockingly high elsewhere in the world, according to news reports.

While COVID-19 seesaws across geographies, the virus remains a major public health concern. For associations with broad, geographically dispersed membership, understanding the state of the pandemic — globally and locally — is an important first step in the planning process.

Potential Challenges for Association Events

By now, few professional associations are unfamiliar with taking live events virtual. However, what might be new for early 2022 will be the need to change venues or offer hybrid options with little or no advanced warning.

In the first year of the pandemic, many associations — save for those with March and April 2020 events — had a little time to provide advanced notice to event attendees of cancellations or a move to a virtual environment. Negotiations with convention centers, hotels and other facilities were frequently flexible, if a bit complicated, and refunds and credits were applied in many cases.

Now, any new surges will likely take place in geographic pockets. Warnings will likely come in local weekly case counts rather than national or statewide announcements. Organization leaders not paying close attention might be caught short. There simply may not be enough time to go virtual absent detailed, advanced planning.

Another realistic scenario is the potential for some segment of membership — as well as association sponsors and other business partners — to express reluctance to return to in-person events. There might also be resistance to comply with changing state, local and municipal mandates.

Managing these potential, and hopefully unrealized scenarios, will require advance planning for the rest of 2022 to be nimble and nuanced.

Alternative Strategies

Should associations again need to adapt their events to circumstance, possibly on a tighter timetable, advanced planning will require alternative strategies.

According to Beth Hernandez Casey, chief marketing nerd with corporate event planning company Meeting Nerd, well-prepared leaders must have a plan vetted and ready to take an event virtual on short notice.

Such a plan should ensure the event registration management platform and related mobile apps have the capability to support an all-remote experience. Event organizers will also need to create or have ready custom landing pages that link to webinars from a gated post-registration page, as well as from the organization’s mobile application. This preliminary work helps set the stage for a more positive experience if an event needs to move quickly to an all-virtual environment.

It’s important to remember that attendees have been down this road before. Organizers should take some comfort in a more forgiving, more sophisticated and experienced virtual audience. Of course, none of this means in-person events should be scrapped. However, given the lessons of the pandemic, the responsible course of action is to plan live events in tandem with an all-virtual backup to avoid unexpected surprises and costs.

Concurrent with logistics planning, association leaders need clearly defined roles and responsibilities. For instance, who will craft and deploy emails to attendees, speakers, sponsors and other parties? Who will build, populate and then activate the landing page that needs to function as the virtual event portal?

In addition, webinar content needs to be part of the planning, and presenters need to prepare accordingly. Who will train speakers to operate in the virtual environment or on any technology specific to the virtual event? The potential for chaos and confusion with a last-minute change of venue can put the entire effort at risk. Building a back-up plan with realistic options, budgets and responsibilities, and training, will avoid unnecessary confusion.

If a hybrid option that includes both live and virtual attendance, and participation, is preferred, this also must be part of the plan from the beginning.

“Don’t make going hybrid an afterthought,” advises Hernandez Casey. “The online portion of a hybrid event can have significant costs.”

She also notes adding livestreaming keynotes and other plenaries that are essential to creating a compelling online program on an ad hoc basis can get expensive. Details like hardwired internet, cameras and labor are just a few cost considerations that can add up quickly and consume the majority of an event budget if they aren’t part of the plan from the beginning.

Keep Communication Open

An essential aspect of planning for a potential 2022 change of venue is good communication. A well-considered plan is only as effective as the communication undertaken to keep everyone informed.

Bernd G. Heinze, Esq., president and CEO of Accolade Management Services — an association management company — says his organization is continuously taking the pulse of members of the associations under Accolade’s management regarding policies for live, and virtual, meetings and events. “We believe in engaging with members at every opportunity and have doubled down on virtual events to complement the live ones where we are able to safely produce them,” Heinze says.

Through email, newsletters, polling, social media and discussions with committee and board members, association leadership must follow Heinze’s lead by not only understanding what members want, but keeping them informed that alternative planning is part of all in-person event strategies for the foreseeable future. And those messages must be repeated.

Tasking a communications committee or senior leaders with planning and coordinating all communications content — emails, landing pages, promotional materials, social content, Q&As for members, etc. — is the most critical aspect of alternative strategy event planning. Those communications need to be planned, created and approved in advance to avoid delays and confusion.

Event organizers should map out these communications in advance. What is the timing? What approvals will be needed, and from whom? Who will craft the language? Who will distribute the communications? How will feedback be gathered and communicated to the planning team? In addition, messaging needs to be prepared to answer questions from members. This includes everything from questions about refunds, credits and previously booked hotel rooms to issues concerning technology, timing and program-specific questions. It’s no small undertaking, but it is what is required for responsible planning in these times.

If yet another COVID pivot is needed, it will likely come faster and with less notice than the pandemic provided previously. Association leaders need to be prepared, both with a reliable plan as well as an effective communications strategy to ensure member value, as well as member events, are sustained regardless of the status of COVID-19.   | AC&F |