I think I speak for every single person within the hotel industry when I say I really miss some of things I used to take for granted. The constant hum of voices drifting out from the conference rooms as you walk past, the regular suited and booted smiling faces, enjoying a change of scenery from the office, watching working relationships being built whilst stood at the buffet!
I miss conferences. The old conferences. We have a new style of conferences that seems to be the safest option (unless you have pets or kids) in the form of Zoom/Teams/Hangout. Is it the same as being able to meet together face to face? I've asked 2 clients who have booked our conference facilities in the last month a few questions...
Gary runs an IT Consultancy Business, and has been booking our boardroom weekly for zoom meetings...
- How has COVID affected your usual conferencing requirements?
I run a team of 4 people, so would have a daily meeting with my employees, then each client I would meet with probably monthly - often presenting to a large team or department. Due to the majority of my team and clients (myself included) now working from home, this now all has to be donw via ZOOM, so nothing face to face.
- How have you found only meeting through ZOOM?
At first, maybe it was the novelty factor or the wartime spirit, but I almost convinced myself this way was better. Obviously necessary and safer but maybe more efficent. As time went on I realised all of us are craving the face-to-face contact and meetings more than I knew.
- Why do you book the hotel's conference facilites?
I fell into the habit of losing my routine on workdays. Eating badly, not getting dressed for work etc. Pair that with a 6 month old and 3 year old running in to my office when I'm on a call and I realised I would benefit from a more structured and professional setting. The hotel has everything I'd possibly need with the added benefit of lunch and coffee on tap!
Melina is the Operations Manager for an Engineering firm in Warwickshire. Each department head (5 people in total) have met once a month once lockdown was lifted and the guidelines allowed to discuss plans going forward.
- Why do you choose to meet face to face rather than virtually?
We originally did virtual meetings, and still do for various departments, but there is so much to discuss in terms of how each change in guideline is going to impact each team differently that we felt there was simply too much to discuss via Teams.
- Do you feel safe meeting face to face?
50% of the business are working from home, and 50% aren't, so as the team who meet have never worked from home it is absolutely no different to us. We love being able to get out of the office and have a change of scenery. The hotel have done a brilliant job with implementing measures to keep us safe so we feel perfectly safe here.
- Do you feel meetings are an essential part of your job?
Absolutely. I can track back every single major decision or project to being thrashed out in a conference or meeting. It seems to be the forgotten industry at the moment and I really hope something is done soon to get us back to conferencing safely, as virtual meetings are fine, but meeting face to face is so much better.
Obviously safety is paramount, and rightly so. But walking past an empty conference room does still give me a little pang of emotion thinking - surely we can get back to events safely soon?
I suppose only time will tell...
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