INTRODUCTION
A few weeks ago, I asked a select group of event professionals the following question:
What do you think your biggest operational challenge will be when you start producing and working in-person events again?
Over 45 professionals responded with a detailed look at the sometimes unique, but most often not, challenges that they're facing as we inch our way back to in-person events.
The results share many common themes, including:
- Understanding how to manage social distancing
- Interpretation and Implementation of state and local guidelines
- Combining the health, safety and sanitation requirements with public perception
- New financial burdens on all aspects of the event
- Staffing shortages and safety
- Guest and consumer confidence and communication
- Managing new expectations around tech, digital, etc. post COVID-19
- Scenario management and planning
- Balancing sustainability and budgets
Thank you to everyone who responded. Below you'll find the raw responses from these professionals (only edited to maintain anonymity).
Honestly, there's more questions than answers that arise from these responses. But it's encouraging to know that as we start to find the answers, we can learn from each other and navigate how to safely and responsibly bring back in-person events.
In a few months, I'll check in again to see how these professionals are addressing the challenges they mention and will share those results.
- Chris
SURVEY RESULTS
--
“I think the biggest operational challenge when the industry gets back on its feet will be staffing. Finding the extra staff to screen patrons and disinfect high touch areas will be both a hiring and financial burden for promoters. If the industry actually gets moving this fall there will be a serious shortage of capable staff across the board. With most rescheduled events and pre existing events this fall there are simply not enough hands to do everything at once, not to mention equipment.”
--
“I think the biggest challenge will be getting people to feel comfortable to come to events again but operationally, I think space requirements (and therefore expenses) will go up so that we can accommodate guests with enough space for them to be comfortable - maybe not 6 feet apart, but definitely more than we used to have.”
--
“Operationally, I think it will be challenging to understand state to local guidelines and how this applies to events that take place across the US be it tours or sporting events. Understanding how to operate across the US and eventually abroad will be a unique challenge. Additionally, I think the way our events are planned from in person meetings and walkthroughs to onsite will inevitably change, impacting budgets, efficiency, communication, etc.”
--
“Touchless everything/respect for personal bubbles. Emphasis on RFID as opposed to hand-scanners/barcodes in most cases.”
--
“Biggest Challenge: Community education – correcting the earlier assumptions derived from incomplete data that has driven the narrative using current science. Indoor vs Outdoor, Positive tests results vs actual individual complications, contagability in changing environments, personal and collective social implications.
Biggest Impact: Transparency in messaging – People now know there is risk to everything we do – its just awareness that has increased 100 fold. Going to the grocery store, getting gas, standing on the beach is now a risk. But is it a new risk or has it always existed? Washing hands has always been around and is still the number 1 defense.”
--
“It will all be about Health & Safety. The biggest challenge will be how do we comply with moral and legislative guidelines. What do we have to do and what should we do? Can we accomplish entrances, F&B lines, crowd control, within the guidelines set at the times of our events.”
--
“The most challenging operational challenge will be managing social distancing. This will effect so many aspects of the operation from the way we arrange seating in our arena, to handling lines and scanning at gates, handling lines for vendors and at the entrances to certain venues, etc. We also need to protect the musicians and the staff, including the production crew. And finally, we need to find a way to make the event financially viable given the new parameters.”
--
“One of the biggest operational challenges when things start back up will be finding that fine line between safety and guest experience. I know so many ops groups are running around pushing all these ideas of how to distance folks, how to test them, how to use the bathrooms, etc. – but they are looking at it only from an Ops point of view. We have to look at this as Promoters too, and we can’t screw the long term health of this industry by trying to squeeze people back in too early and give them a horrible experience – then they just won’t want to come back. We have to take care to find that balance of what precautions we can take that the guests will accept and want to come back again, otherwise it will all be for not.
Also people have to think through when you put on events, to be responsible, we have to understand the gathering starts well before we open venue gates and goes well after the event is over for many at post-concert parties. That is where the close contact and spread can have the most effect on people, and can be more out of our control. But we have to address that responsibly and think through those things. Where will people congregate before the event? After the event? How to work with those locations and partner with them in safety practices. Parking lots, restaurants, bars, park spaces, etc. – all the places people will gather around an event.”
--
“I think the biggest operational challenge in these new times for our line of work is forward-thinking the health and safety measures needed to satisfy a general event attendee's perception of the event's health and safety execution. This perception is fragile in a social media world and could cause harm to an event's bottom line (along with the cost to put these measures in place). Beyond planning ahead, the enforcement of safety measures on-site will probably be even more challenging and costly with the staff or tech needed to enforce.”
--
“Finding additional queuing for proper spacing and amount of time needed to get someone into a building/event after proper screening. Will need to build in extra time for additional screening (temp checks/other things) with more room to do so.”
--
“The biggest challenge will be the consumer confidence that it is safe to come out. To that point, we are looking at things like;
- Adding a temperature scan system. They do it in Asian countries as a result of SARS/H1N1.
- Optional contained areas with socially distanced suites/boxes.
- In app ordering.
- Order and pick up at locker/cubby type locations.”
--
“The big things on my mind: Successful (but also as non-invasive as possible) access control, that is giving good data on which people are where, when - how many bodies onsite and where they are clustering (people by each location is a best-case scenario, we may not scan at all points of interest. If it's not easy and non-invasive, it's going to turn into visual only and a lot of data opportunities lost. So we're focusing on the most appropriate way to capture ingress/egress and be able to report by location real-time, in a good-looking way.
As our whole year has changed, and as we've spoken to you about, taking our event cycle and pushing "fast forward" on it and moving all milestones 5 months or even a year ahead - we have so many disparate processes across groups this is a huge challenge and takes a lot of work (we know our processes, but having them easily revised and shareable is different).”
--
“Biggest challenge is going to be staff safety and ideally creating a scenario where we know staff are not sick upon arrival and potentially spreading it. You can't unload a truck being socially distanced. However, from a liability standpoint until we get some clarity on how exposed we are if people get sick while "reopening" my biggest fear is ambulance chaser lawyers suing event organizers for being "negligent." I could go on for awhile but in a nutshell those are the things I have been thinking a lot about.”
--
“It’s not 100% an operational challenge but I think it will be tough for events to balance the social responsibility. I would hate to put on an event that would cause an outbreak of covid and potentially put someone’s life at risk. Unfortunately deaths have happened at events but in this scenario it could be someone who didn’t choose to attend the event which is a new level of responsibility for event producers. All events changed after 9/11, Boston, and Vegas and we will adjust but it will take some time for the public to get used to it. The event industry has a few questions we will all have to work through…
- Do producers need to go above and beyond guidelines to make the spectator or participant feel more comfortable?
- How do you attempt to make everyone feel safe but also not drastically have it affect the experience (long lines, social distance, less in attendance)?
- Which guidelines do you follow? State, county, city, etc.?
- Do we have the money to put these guidelines into practice?
- If I do follow the guidelines to a “T”, and an outbreak does occur, how does the event handle it?
- Putting the social responsibility aside, bad PR surrounding this could kill the event for years to come.
- What’s our risk we are taking on? There isn’t an ins carrier out there that would add COVID-19 to a policy these days.
I think in general event owners are trying to figure out what the guidelines will be when we do start to come back. City and County Health Departments aren’t really giving events a policy to follow yet nor much indication of what things could look like. It will be interesting to see what hoops we have to jump through but being that every venue is different I think the impact will vary greatly.”
--
“The biggest issue will be social distancing at a large scale festival is next to impossible. I really don't see how it can happen. Testing/etc on site before people come in will be a logistical nightmare and will also be very expensive. The safety of the fans, artist, staff and the community in which we produce our events is number one. Again I don't think we will see festivals for at least 12 months in Blue states. The Red States probably sooner but I feel starting too early is irresponsible. What if an outbreak is traced back to the festival? So much uncertainty.”
--
“To answer your question, I think everyone is and will be thinking about health protocols when in-person events resume. We'd already started a responding to this right up until our in-person events were canceled - wearing and having masks available, cleaning all props and equipment, having hand sanitizer and wipes on hand for attendees and staff/volunteers, increasing virtual engagement opportunities, supplementary health training added for volunteers, increased signage about washing hands, being aware of their closeness to others, to stay home if not feeling well, etc. I think when we return to 'normal' being extreme with cleanliness needs to be shown to the public.”
--
“Coordination of Human Resources and management of them in a somewhat cost effective way while trying to install an event in a manner that is somewhat safe for the workers.”
--
“From a strictly corporate event viewpoint, most of our large-scale clients are insistent that even when they get back to normal live events, there will be a digital component to them - a hybrid model. This means we have to think about everything in both formats, and while there could be some duplication in logistics and content, it will also be a lot of extra work. New reality, I know. So far I think the virtual world has been (rightfully so) underwhelming and I hope that it stresses the importance of LIVE that much more. But I'm a little suspicious of the "pent-up demand" argument for a number of reasons, not the least of which will be budgets and lingering fears/concerns of attendees. So there will be a number of people that want to engage virtually for quite awhile and how do you continue to connect with them, and for events that have paid entry, justify the price of the ticket.”
--
“In response to your question, I believe our biggest operational challenge will be in sanitation. Festivals are inherently dirty places. From natural elements like mud and dirt, to temporary infrastructure like porto potties, concessions booths, and lounge furniture, keeping every single element germ free is going to be nearly impossible. I think it’s going to be important to do everything we can but the reality of it is that patrons should not expect to come to a festival and be in a sterile environment. We have a duty of care to implement procedures that will help keep our patrons safe, but there’s also a duty of responsibility on our fans to act appropriately and not show up if they’re sick. When you consider that festivals are also places where the majority of people are not sober, that layers in a number of challenges on its own.
At the end of the day, so many of the guidelines that have been issued by the ESA, CDC, and WHO are just not feasible for festivals specifically. We’ll do everything we can but will not be able to follow all of these things to the letter. Everything we implement will require more staff and resources, and with every added human or piece of equipment comes additional operational challenges back-of-house. If we add a team of 20 people to walk around and make sure people are distancing, we also have to feed those people, they'll have to go through check-in to get their credentials and t-shirt, etc. Every aspect or person we add just adds to the challenges somewhere else. I think before we can come back, a lot will need to happen outside of the festival gates and we’ll learn a lot from how other industries come back to life. Time will tell.”
--
“I think from a credential standpoint I would assume most festivals will have some sort of vaccination requirement. That could be challenging when people roll up and aren’t prepared. It is definitely going to be an added stress. Implementing social distancing at all departments is going to be a Challenge as well.”
--
“I keep thinking about the immediate future of events and to me its all leading to increased hybrid models for the next few years. It's going to be tricky managing the online experience for virtual attendees and exhibitors. I also think bringing your own device will increase v. collecting printed materials.”
--
“Social distancing. In my world—handing out credentials involves close contact. If they are not in the system we then have to reach out to whomever hired them and go from there. It sometimes leaves them lingering around our office for 20 or so minutes.”
--
“The unknown for us is what post pandemic events look like and understanding when/if they will return to normal conditions – referring to the way we operate events and in the way that patrons attend events. The biggest immediate challenge to ensuring a COVID safe workplace for employees and patrons as we are unsure what extra precautions we will need to take. We do not know what impact that will have on the overall experience for the patrons and what impact that has on the format and feasibility of those events. Operationally, we foresee working with suppliers will be challenging as they are hesitant to quote as they too are unsure of what they need to do as part of their services post pandemic, so there is an assumption that there will be extra operational costs to consider.”
--
“I think our greatest challenge going forward will be in the development of enhanced public health practices and protocol that will assure both consumer confidence in buying a festival ticket, as well as assure that our artists will also be safe in our backstage environment. We are taking every bit of time we can to research and develop a new public health plan, which is of course, as we all know, quite challenging when our industry is dependent upon large gatherings to operate.”
--
“Talked with a few folks internally and we think [our] biggest operational challenge at future events will be delivering a modified onsite solution that still satisfies client needs, but also meets shifting consumer expectations around entry, contactless interactions, etc. I assume most ticketing and access control providers will say the same.”
--
“Sanitation will be the biggest challenge obviously. Clean crews dedicated to area where people eat, lots of had wash and hand sanitizer station. Much more frequent cleaning of restrooms. I also plan on using a lot more touch free urinals. In the country music space I do worry quite a bit about the culture developing around masks. It's and easy to do and obvious safety precaution this is going to be crucial over the next year and I worry it is going to become a point of contention at country music festivals.”
--
“The biggest challenges are going to be around the states and cities with different compliance’s / policies / guidelines that are in conflict with each other, or difficult to navigate at a large scale level. Not to mention the differences in opinion on appropriate / reasonable response to health safety across the industry - ESA for example is being very vocal about some very unproven ideas…. Second will be balancing new needs / expenses and patron experience with challenging financial landscape ”
--
“As far as the biggest operational challenge, I think that COVID19 is going to make it harder for festivals to make sustainability a priority. In order to prevent the spread of germs I believe that single use products are going to be more heavily relied upon which will make reusable programs harder to implement.”
--
“I think the largest challenge will be working with venues & vendors on standardizing practices and making sure that all departments are following health procedures. I think there are going to be a lot of different versions of safety procedures and it's going to be interesting to see how production company's vet and approve those processes to make sure they fit within their requirements. I think that a lot of lead time is also going to be required as legal is going to need to approve and get on board with everything which usually takes a while.”
--
“Where do I start, lol. Quite simply attempting to maintain social distancing is going to be the biggest operational challenge.”
