Hello and welcome to Opportunity in Isolation.

Being in events has been quite a challenging time for the industry. For my business we've pretty much lost all of our summer trade and at this point in time, we don't know how things will play out for the rest of the year. So in this episode I wanted to get a bit of a deeper insight into what is going on and had a discussion with a few industry figures to help gain a better understanding

Lucy Brazier is one of the world’s leading authorities on the administrative profession. She's the  CEO  of  Marcham  Publishing,  specialist  publishers  of  Executive  Secretary  Magazine  which is a  global  training magazine dedicated to the professional development needs of senior and aspiring administrative professionals. Lucy works  with  the best trainers  of Executive Assistants  from  around the world to  deliver the most up to  date and current training in the market.

Daniel Skermer has been working in the hospitality sector for over 15 years and is the proud founder of PA Forum and West Midlands PA Awards which he started in 2016. They 795 Personal, Executive and Virtual Assistants as members, who have attended a number of different events we organise across the West Midlands. Now into their fourth year, they have successfully hosted 2 Learning and Development Conferences for Business Support professionals and 2 Awards ceremonies to recognize and celebrate PAs, EAs and VAs across the region.

Chris Peacock is Director and co-founder of Conference Care, which he formed in 1995 and has grown to a team over 50 event specialists, providing a range of conference, event and meeting management services to a mostly corporate client base. He has direct responsibility for the sales, finance and procurement areas of the company.  He is a former Chairman of the HBAA in 2012, and served as a board member of the association for over eight years.

Torie Blythe Richards is the owner of the The Partnership Collection which is a private lifestyle and concierge service which includes The Partnership Lifestyle Club, The Partnership Concierge Service and The Partnership Boutique Events This was a great conversation and quite inspiring especially if you are looking for ways to come out of the other side of this.

We covered a lot of ground in our discussion which includes: The extent to which events have been effected The future of the events and hospitality industry Tips on engaging with your customers Opportunities that will come from a post covid world.

Please let us know your thoughts in the comments and subscribe to our podcast for more content!

Show notes

00:26 How their businesses have been affected by COVID-19

9:42 Business forecast of the events industry post COVID-19

16:09 Future of events in the virtual world

24:46 Advice about marketing your business in a more tactful and impactful way during quarantine

31:17 Becoming innovative as a business during and post COVID-19/ Doing things different 36:14 Opportunities to look for now and in the future

45:49 New skills and hobbies they’ve picked up during lockdown – Daniel finally started working out even though he paid for personal trainer sessions 2 years ago

Quotes 13:59 Lucy People will forget what you did but they will never forget how you made them feel

19:13 Lucy Do you know that you can do an event for Microsoft teams for 2500 people, free of charge?

22:33 Daniel

I’ve made bucket list – an updated bucket list which has some places that I want to see and I’m not saying now, I wish I could do that or I wish I did that, I WILL do that.

42:06 Torrie

Honestly, I would not wish this on anybody or any business but I know that it will be the best thing that’s ever happened to us as a business because it has made me – you talk about thinking outside of the box, we’re thinking outside of the circle. We are completely diversifying in every area of the business.

49:36 Lucy

The great thing with the virtual world is that if you put something out and it doesn’t work, you reinvent it and do something different.

25:00 Chris

I think the traditional marketing methods, they don’t work currently.

38:35 Daniel

I think if you feel really strongly about what you do and you stand behind what you do and you believe that what you do is right and that it’s helping people then there’s nothing else really that you can think about.

Follow

Lucy Brazier - Executive Secretary Magazine https://uk.linkedin.com/in/lucybrazier

Torie Blythe Richards - The Partnership Lifestyle Club https://uk.linkedin.com/in/torieb

Daniel Skermer - The PA Awards https://uk.linkedin.com/in/danielskermer

Chris Peacock - Conference Care https://uk.linkedin.com/in/chris-peacock-b979b71