03/14/2020
Hello Everyone,
We wanted to post on the COVID-19. IFEA has written a really good post that I am using in this communication to you.
To Our IFEA Industry Friends:
At the core of every festival and event industry professional, is a Type A personality whose comfort zone is in their ability to control things. Challenges and problems are our specialty and we excel at solving them; quickly and efficiently. We control the problems, control the fallout, and move on to the next challenge. Which is why the current COVID-19 (coronavirus) global pandemic is our worst nightmare. We can’t control the virus. We can’t control the response. We can’t control the fallout. Which leads to global frustration and stress.
Our primal tendencies are to second-guess all those who are calling the shots; perhaps suggest or imply over-reaction. After all, the flu, which we see as a comparable, is infecting and killing many more people. Or to blame others for the problem. If the media was not covering the virus and related responses around the world so closely, it would not be a problem at all; if other countries/states/ provinces had controlled the virus better in their own regions, this ‘foreign’ disease would not be impacting us. Or to consider the impact as only effecting our own industry or segment of the population. Don’t ‘they’ know the financial, social and emotional damage being done by stopping events (as opposed to travel & tourism, retail, education, health care, restaurants, manufacturing, meetings and conventions, et al.) and all those in the family tree chart connected to those events?
The New York Stock Exchange has three circuit-breaker thresholds that switch on if there are significant declines in the S&P 500’s previous day value: a Level 1 (for a 7% drop), Level 2 (at 13%) and Level 3 (at a 20% decline), all designed to avoid a full market crash, if possible. A Level 1 or Level 2 decline shuts down the market for a minimum of 15 minutes; a Level 3 circuit-breaker suspends NYSE activity for the remainder of the trading-day, according to the exchange. The breaks are designed to give investors additional time to absorb information and understand what’s happening in the market, hopefully allowing clearer thinking to take the lead when trading resumes.
While we cannot control what is currently happening in response to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, we can install our own circuit-breaker, step back with other industry professionals and partners, and readjust our own response(s). After recognizing that everyone, worldwide, is affected by the current global pandemic, and offering our sincere empathies, we need to do what we do best and revisit what it is that we do/can control and how that might positively affect our events and organizations. Here are a few starting considerations to begin with (please send others that you add to your own lists to us, so that we can share them with your professional peers):
RESOURCES
We urge everyone to bookmark and follow these valuable sources of information:
IFEA IMPORTANT INFORMATION ALERTS
As pertinent news and information updates, especially applicable to festival and events, become available, we will keep you updated.
IFEA EVENT INSIDER
Providing weekly coverage of global news regarding the COVID 19 (coronavirus) and what may or may not be pertinent to your needs and global region.
More Details | Sign Up
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
WHO updates their website daily and has developed many resources to help you understand the current situation regarding this new coronavirus outbreak. More Details.
THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL (CDC) AND PREVENTION
The CDC is a highly reliable source of information, especially for those in the United States. Their website resources and news page are continually updated. More Details.
CDC - Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Page
CDC - Communication Resources
Begin with a trust that the medical and health professionals directly dealing with the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) have no more desire to see our economy or events devastated than we do. While we may not yet see beyond our flu comparisons, they know the full and potential fallout that could occur if we do not take the actions taken now. The health and well-being of our world, communities, attendees, volunteers, staff, et al. is always going to be our primary priority.
Should the virus continue to spread and grow, our options will likely be a short list (as noted in our previous communications) with not much middle ground: to proceed as normal, with messaging regarding prevention steps (as against the flu) to your attendees; or, to cancel/postpone. Obviously, the latter may/will be devastating financially to most everyone in our industry, but if you are planning for your response or revisiting your risk management plans, that is the primary conversation that you should be having with your Boards and key stakeholders and city/community leadership.
If you are able to hold your events as normal, remember that our industry/events provide a unique opportunity to educate large numbers of attendees about the current state of the virus and how to maintain healthy lifestyles to prevent/limit the further spread of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) in your own community.
If you have questions or need information about considerations to cancel or not; about refund policies; about how to remain financially sustainable; about how to talk with your staff and volunteers; about how to work with entertainers, artists, vendors, city officials, participants, et al.; about how to best communicate with and include your many stakeholders; please actively use your access to the IFEA global network of peers and professionals. Reach out and share ideas and resources and maybe vent (a little) with others who can directly relate; and remember to reciprocally help out others who may reach out to you. The IFEA staff team can help direct you to topically-targeted members and active Affinity Groups, if you do not have a trusted, professional contact-base already.
Talk with your insurance carriers, just to clarify if and what coverage you may have against any potential need for mandatory cancellation under these unique circumstances.
Brainstorm with staff and other stakeholders (sponsors, banking partners, city officials, key vendors and suppliers, Boards, et al.), sooner-than-later, to create your own multi-step plan to keep your event(s) healthy and everyone as financially whole as possible.
If you have already had to cancel all, or parts of, your events, look to others in your community/market who are in the same position and brainstorm creative new ideas how you might help each other to survive the challenges together, looking forward, by pooling resources.
Communicate clearly with your attendees all that you are doing to deal with the realities of the current situation and that you may need their help to keep your own event and related stakeholders whole and sustainable moving forward. Perhaps create some new benefit programs and levels for those who who can help keep you financially sustainable through this challenging time in our global history.
Reach out and include the media in coverage of positive community partnerships vs. only coverage of the negative fallout from the pandemic response. They, too, want to see everyone come out of this whole and healthy.
Rest assured that the IFEA will continue to closely monitor the changing landscape of this pandemic on our global industry and to keep you informed and supported in the timeliest fashion possible. Please continue to use and access the resources in the sidebar of this communication.
Wishing you all safe, healthy and successful events.
Steven Wood Schmader, CFEE
President & CEO
International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) World Headquarters
