Author: Monica Herald

As COVID-19 has swept the world, drastic measures have been taken by many governments in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus — but governments are not the only organizations that have adapted to COVID-19. In fact, many businesses have had to get creative with their own responses. Although some businesses may have closed their doors forever, there are countless examples of businesses who are thriving and changing their business model or adapting to prioritize the health and safety of both their employees and their customers. Here are eight different examples of some of the adaptations that companies are making in an attempt to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, as well as the benefits of each.

Hand sanitizer

When people can’t go to pubs to buy beer, and local breweries can’t sell their beer, what are they to do? Some breweries are making hand sanitizer. With the rush on the grocery stores and the hoarding and price gouging of hand sanitizers, this move makes a lot of sense. COVID-19 is highly contagious and spread through contact of microscopic germs. Hand sanitizer is one of the solutions for this, and so it’s a key resource during this time of the pandemic. Some local breweries will even deliver hand sanitizer to your home for you.

Employee shuttles

Hospitals, construction companies, and even local governments have begun offering employee shuttles so that their workers can avoid public transportation. Although there are recommendations to allow for a six foot (two meter) distance between individuals, this can be difficult to maintain on subways and public buses. Additionally, individuals don’t always comply, leaving workers stuck. Providing employee shuttles allows organizations the ability to run ongoing transportation from key points for their workers. Other than shuttles for employees, some organizations are using shuttles to transport free food to seniors or other vulnerable populations, proving that there are several adapted uses for shuttles during this unique time of COVID-19.

The production of ventilators

Some companies are pivoting to create ventilators  in place of their regular items, such as vacuums, electronics, and the like. Ventilators are one of the items that are in short supply right now, as patients sometimes require them for treatment of COVID-19, especially when breathing becomes challenging or oxygen levels are at very low levels. While some companies are using ventilator designs that are similar to standard ventilators, others are innovating and taking this opportunity to create a new ventilator that is more efficient and compact. At a time when the purchase of home goods may decrease, the demand for ventilators is sure to remain strong for the indefinite future.

The remote work revolution

In light of the pandemic, many companies are switching to a remote work model. Some companies have done it from necessity (looking at you, teacher heroes, working from home), others have done it as an experimental adaptation of entire business models. Some examples are that therapists are conducting at home sessions over Zoom, organizations and companies are holding meetings and allowing their workers to accomplish their tasks from home. As this round of COVID-19 flare ups winds down, some companies have decided that they will allow their workers to work from home until the end of the year, or, in some cases, indefinitely.

A massive switch to online events

One of the things we’re most used to pre-pandemic are in-person events. However, with the limitations on gatherings, many companies and organizations have switched to holding their events online, from one-day events, to multi-day conventions, and everything in between. Large multinational-corporations have held successful live events during the time of COVID-19, and others announced the switch to an online event prior to in-person gatherings being curtailed. Many conventions have offered opportunities to attend a virtual version, and some celebrities have even pitched in on their own. Artists have gone live weekly to promote upcoming albums and raise money for organizations in need of funds. That’s how you take care of your communities!

Industry pivots

Some companies have taken their adaptations to the extreme. One example is a company where instead of tending to mold mitigation and helping buildings be restored after fires or floods, they are now helping hospitals and other similar environments with containing COVID-19 and cleaning up. What’s intriguing is that this company takes work that they were already doing (cleaning up) and applies that work to another, similar thing (cleaning). In fact, the service pivot has been so successful and so popular that the company has had to hire more staffers to meet the work demand of offices, hospitals, and even some drive-through franchises.

Virtual photography sessions

With so many celebratory and ritual moments canceled or postponed due to COVID-19, virtual photography has been a pivot that demonstrates just how creative photographers can be. Personal photography sessions allow one to reflect and consider what wants to be remembered, and what wants to be honored and celebrated. Just because graduations, weddings, and funerals have been canceled and postponed, doesn’t mean that those moments don’t still need to be held. One could argue that the need is even greater now, given the accompanying grief because of the lack of normalcy and ritual remembrance. Photography businesses have helped celebrate prom and family pictures and graduations, even without being in person. With modern technological advancements like instant image background removal, the photographs can now appear as if they were taken in-person despite the reality of being staged from afar.

Face mask production

Many different companies are getting in on helping make face masks, from fashion brands to the Amish. Face masks are pivotal in helping curtail the spread of COVID-19, and in the United States, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended that everyone wear one any time that they are outside in public, around other people. With such a range of companies pivoting to create masks, there are as many different ways of providing masks as there are companies! Some of the companies produce protective masks for health and other essential workers. Other companies have taken to making masks and selling them. Many fashion houses are engaging in this pivot. Finally, there are some brands that are making the masks available for free or for donation.

However your business chooses to respond to the COVID-19 situation, there are a myriad of ways to rethink and reimagine income streams and production. From figuring out ways to create virtual experiences to hiring shuttles to protect your employees from public transportation risks, there are so many different approaches to take. A crisis of this global magnitude is going to require ongoing awareness of shifts in safety, in transmission, in guidelines. Businesses would do well to watch for opportunities that allow them to continue operating, and to seize the moment to think creatively about how they’d like to be structured, moving forward. 

Event planning can be stressful. After all, you’re the one who’s responsible for making sure it all goes according to plan, and for that to happen, you need to be on top of all of the little details.

Fortunately, that’s where an event planning checklist can come to the rescue. An event checklist can ensure that you don’t forget an important task. It’s also a helpful way to keep track of all the things you’ve delegated, because we know events don’t happen with just one person doing it all. 

We’re going to break this event planner’s checklist down three ways: pre-event, day of event, and post-event. Feel free to skip ahead if you’re at an advanced stage of your planning experience.

While each list will be unique, depending on what type of event you’re holding, there are some general guidelines that you can consider for your pre-event checklist. For ease of organization, we’d recommend categorizing your tasks into five main areas:

• Budget 
• Logistics  
• Venue  
• Programming 
• Promotion 

You can probably see from those five areas that there’s some overlap. Have no fear. We’ll walk you through it all, and having the event planning checklist will help minimize your stress during the planning and execution of your event.

Let’s dive in to the first category, which is all about money.

Budget 

Some might say it makes sense to start with logistics, name, theme, date. And some of those pieces, sure, you can begin with them. However, much of what you’re able to plan will depend on your budget. This is true whether you’re planning a smaller more intimate event like a bachelorette party, or a larger event like a conference or music concert series. 

If you’ve already held a similar event in the past, start with your old budget! The categories of expenses and income can be helpful. If this is your first go at it, here are some things to consider when it comes to budget:

Income:

• Who are possible funders or sponsors who can partner with your event. What might they be able to contribute?
• Are you selling tickets to the event? Is the event designed to raise money or are you selling tickets just to cover expenses? 
  

Expenses:

• Begin with large categories: food, location, decorations, entertainment, transportation. When you’re examining this, you might begin to research different costs for different vendors. It’ll be similar for all of them, but we’ll take transportation as an example and break it down in the logistics section for you. 
  
• Other smaller items to consider for expenses and get estimates for include equipment needs (a/v), speaker fees, travel, and insurance.  

Gathering these details will ensure that you don’t overspend on your event! If you need to reduce costs, you’ll be able to easily identify which areas to cut or tweak. 

Logistics

The first things you’ll want to do under the logistics category are:

• Pick a date 
• Select a venue 
• Give your event a name and have a theme 
• Make your guest list after completing the above

You’ll begin with these things, because then you’ll have a sense of some of the bones of your event. Once you know your location, you can begin to do the next two most important logistics components. It’s time to make a guest list and figure out transportation, if you need it. 

Your guest list will be determined by cost, by the type of event you’re having, possibly by past guest lists, and finally, by how many attendees the venue can accommodate. 

Also, will you be blocking off hotel rooms for your event attendees? One easy way to do so is through Bus.com partner HotelPlanner.com. HotelPlanner.com offers an overview of the best online rates for your group and even allows hotels to bid for your business, which can open up even more discount possibilities.

As far as transportation goes, you’ll want to look at types of transportation first. Do you have public transportation? Would you prefer to transport your attendees together in one spot where they can enjoy the time from one location to the next? Perhaps you decide that that’s what you’d like to do- transport everyone together. Here are some steps to take for that. 

Some final things to consider under logistics include: 

• Do you have all of your vendors listed in one spot? For example, a/v, catering, music or entertainment.
• Do you have tasks or areas of responsibility assigned to specific individuals or groups? With a large event, you’ll want to make sure to split up the work— it’s impossible for one person to do it all!

Venue

Where will you have your event? There are several factors to consider when you’re beginning to select your venue. There are also a number of things to make sure you take care of. The planning checklist for this portion is mostly questions to consider as you select your venue and nail down a contract agreement.

Here are some common questions to ask. 

• Does the infrastructure of the facility or venue meet your needs? 
• Are there enough breakout rooms? 
• Are there enough restrooms? 
• Is the venue accessible? (both ADA accessible and geographically accessible. 
• What types of transportation can get your participants to the event?
• Are A/V and wifi needs met? 
• Is the main room large enough to accommodate your guest list? 
• What are nearby food court or food options, if you’re not providing food for the event? 
• Is the layout sufficient for your needs? 

Once you’ve confirmed your venue, you’ll still need to be in contact with the facility up until your event occurs.

Among other things, you’ll need to: 

• sign a contract
• pay a deposit 
• setup the venue before the event 

It’s usually wise to have one person as the main point of contact for the venue. They’ll be able to communicate about any needs such as water and cups, coffee, etc, or anything else the facility is providing as part of the contract.

Programming

As you plan your schedule, you’ll want to make sure that you have a few things in place. Who is going to be attending and participating in programming? What will the flow of the day look like?

• Select speakers or panelists
  
  This has a few steps to it.
  * Research potential new speakers
  * Pull from old speakers — send out email or make phone calls to invite
  *You’ll want to make sure that you reach out with enough notice that your panelists or participants can add the event to their schedule. 

• Registration decisions: how will you allow participants and speakers to register? Is it possible through a website? App? Paper only?
• Programming the schedule
  What’s the agenda for the event?
  You’ll want to plan out a timeline that incorporates all your necessary items. This could be super simple or it could be a complex task, depending on your event. The timeline for a wedding will be different for the timeline of a science fiction convention.
  
  Some things to consider as you program your schedule:
  * Do you need multiple tracts to allow for different panels or events happening simultaneously? Make sure that you’re allotting rooms, and time for breaks.
  * If you’re moving from one location to the next, and transportation on a charter bus or public transport is part of that, have you allowed enough time to get from point A to point B if there is traffic?

Promotion and Marketing

The final category of your event planning checklist for before the event is to create and schedule all of the programming and marketing components.

Here’s a list of some items that could go on that list: 

• Create logo 
• Gather sponsors’ logos 
• Select places for advertising: social media, news, radio. You’ll want to ensure that people know about your event. Where will they be hanging out? That’s where you want your advertising to be located. Maybe your event is a church conference. If so, did you put an ad in the bulletin? Obviously, if your event isn’t one that requires advertising, this might look different. 
• Create website or app for the event 
• Draft and send email communications to potential participants
• Craft a promo video of either live footage or animation, and post to youtube and share on social media 
• Decide on a hashtag and start to build up a following around it
• Release press statements about your event to the appropriate outlets and journalists. 
• Craft any drafted materials that will be needed for the actual day-of-event. 

Day of Event

If you’ve used your planning checklist effectively, the day of the actual event should go smoothly! There aren’t many things that need to happen differently day of, if you’ve accounted for everything. Mostly, it’s typing up loose ends of execution and some logistics. Hopefully you’ll be able to watch the fruits of your labor unfold and enjoy some of the event yourself. 

Logistics

• Set up signs as necessary 
• Make sure you have registration manned
• Meet speakers, if necessary, and show them the green room and share any other pertinent details. 
• Sound and technology check: make sure that all necessary technology is working before your participants arrive. 

Venue 

• Pay remainder of fees: whatever you still owe the venue, you’ll have to pay it on the day of your event, usually. Make sure that whoever is responsible for accounting has a check or a method of payment that has previously been agreed on. 
• Make sure accessibility options have visible signage 

Programming 

• Have someone who can keep sessions on time
• Have programming booklets or schedule available for participants 
• Be ready to troubleshoot if a panelist cancels last minute

Post Event

After your event, you’ll want to see how it all went. It’s important to conduct an analysis afterward so that if necessary, you can adapt or tweak for the next time. Make sure to save all of your event checklist information in one spot so that you’ll have it for easy reference next time! 

Budget 

• Evaluate whether or not you stayed on budget. 
• Gather all necessary receipts, invoices, etc and store in one place
• Reconcile accounts 

Logistics 

• Send out post-event survey to participants 
• Send thank you’s to panelists/presenters, hotel, vendors, etc. You’ll want to make sure to maintain those relationships you’ve worked so hard to build. 
• Evaluate systems. Did your planning checklist have everything on it that was needed? This is where having multiple folks helping out along the way really shines, because people will have noticed gaps that you might not have accounted for. 

Venue 

• Insure that nothing was left behind at venue and that there was no property damage 
• Evaluate the pros and cons of the venue. Were the breakout rooms adequate? Was someone else’s simultaneous event disruptive of yours?

Programming 

• Evaluate programming. Was it effective? Did the participants enjoy it? Host a debrief and gather thoughts while it’s all still fresh. 
• Send out an email to your newsletter about how the programming went and include highlights.

All in all, creating an event planning checklist that is split into tasks for before the event, tasks for during the event, and tasks for after will help ensure that your event is a hit. It takes an extensive amount of work to execute something with so many moving parts! Regardless of whether your event is a small one, like a bachelor party, or a large one like a music festival, an event task list will keep you on track.