Love Letter to the Live Events Industry

Hello there.

Lisa Marks here, owner of Brand Alive.

This month I’ve been thinking a lot about 2020, and how devastating it has been for thousands and thousands of individuals, businesses, owners, employees, and brands - and so many friends. 

In an events season where I would normally spend 30/40 days onsite (in December 2019 our team was producing in Calgary, Edmonton, Lake Louise AB, Toronto, Mississauga), execute 10-12 overlapping projects all at one time, hiring a team of significantly talented partners and producers. 

This year, I spent most of December at home.

I’ve been thinking back to being in Las Vegas for The Special Event and Catersource, speaking at and attending my favorite conferences of the year…. waking up on March 13 to what felt like the apocalypse coming barreling towards us.  

It has been:

• 6727 hours since I woke up in Las Vegas, glued to my iPhone, receiving non stop text messages from friends and family about COVID-19, and impending lockdown news flashes 

• 280 days worth of re-doing, re-strategizing, re-booking, re-crafting every project on the books and all future client projects that are marinating, and making it up as we go (truth)

• 9 months of the most intense, brain-stretching and painful conversations I have ever had in my career (and I’ve been through some meaty corporate scenarios)

After all this, I am mentally exhausted. I know you are, too, my dear event industry colleague. 

You know why? Because this has been the hardest year ever.

Brutal. Unreal. Unimaginable. Insanely difficult.

In the midst of all of this, I started to realize what our industry needs: a giant, worldwide group hug.

Because hugging is banned right now, what I mean this is:

We as event professionals need to find a way to find all of the admiration and respect we have for this amazing industry and career of ours, and put it out into the world for all to see. The industry needs us care and attention right now, just as it gave us so much when it was thriving.

If that doesn't sound easy right now (I get it), try this:

• Think about your career to date or the business you own or the job you still have (or had) or to a time when you felt most powerful in the live events industry

• Now ask yourself - what are the absolute best things that the industry gave to you? Think of all of the wonderful and tremendous experiences you have had simply by existing in this amazing industry of ours. It might be:

  • Personal brand

  • Friendship

  • Wealth

  • Excitement

  • Purpose 

  • Fulfillment

  • Travel 

  • Growth

• Write this list down as a letter of gratitude to your industry

• Call a friend in the industry and talk about your favorite memories and why you will fight for this industry to recover

Those are gifts from the industry, to you, that no pandemic or shutdown can take away. 

For right now, it may be hard to feel gratitude or joy for those things.

But, I am here to remind you that these amazing gifts still exist within you. The truth of the matter is, we can use the energy and power that our industry gave us when times were good in order to support it when times are tough.

Our industry needs us right now. It needs optimism, ingenuity, energy ideation, care, positivity, possibility… all of the wonderful things it made us feel when times were good.

Right now, whether you are employed, furloughed, laid off, an owner, facing bankruptcy, worried about the future, feeling sad, or feeling like you can’t go on, our industry needs you.

Whether you are a dreamer, a do’ers, an inventor, a creator, an organizer, a facilitator, a brand manager, a coordinator, or a jack/jill of all trades, the live event industry NEEDS your power and your energy in order to restore itself.

So, over the holiday season and in the weeks ahead, I invite you to rest, and to conjure up all the love you have for this industry and its patrons, dream about why you jumped into this industry in the first place. Talk about your favorite events and memories with those you trust, wrap your arms around this industry like never before. 

Because, my friend, come 2021, the industry is going to need all the support it can get. 

Standby: world’s largest industry-wide group hug.

World’s largest industry-wide group hug: GO!

Happy holidays, everyone.

PS: Here is my love letter:

Thank you to the live events industry for allowing me to find myself. For giving me a purpose bigger than myself and for giving me a community. I knew I would “dance with the people” one day and I had no idea it would be my career. Without this industry, I would be lost and so I will fight to keep this industry whole. It will evolve, and it will look different, but I will fight to keep the industry alive, however that may look. Thank you for everything.