Stories from the Corporate Events War Room: Featuring Evan Babins

In many cases, 2020 has (for the most part) been all about reassessing, redesigning, redoing, un-planning, re-planning and a whole lot of figuring out. Corporations of all sizes have had to engage in a 360-degree view of their business activities and determine new strategies to achieve their goals. As dictated by the pandemic, in-person events were among the first elements to be paused. 

As an event planning company that specializes in partnering with corporations, we are no stranger to the types of war-room conversations that no doubt every organization has had in the last four months since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. These closed-door deep-dives take bravery, courage, and out-of-the-box thinking in order to result in a new strategy that fits. In order to bring positivity to the industry and showcase examples of possibility, our summer blog series “Stories from the Corporate War Room” is going to shine a light on in-house event planners across Canada that are softening the chaos within their organizations, re-strategizing new event plans from all angles, and doing great work. 

Our core belief at Brand Alive is that corporations have a unique opportunity to amplify human culture, and that live events enable them to do just that. Follow along this summer as we take a look at Canadian event profs bringing their own corporate culture to life regardless of the barriers created by COVID-19. 

Introducing:

Evan Babins

Manager, Event Planning

Equitable Bank

Toronto, ON, Canada

I had the chance to catch up with Evan and asked him to share insights from insight Equitable Bank over the last few months.

To get us started, tell us what the 'war room' at Equitable Bank was like as COVID-19 really started to take over (mid-March) all corporate decision making?

The company made a lot of decisions rather quickly as to how the company was going to pivot to the “new normal” of working from home. The executive team came up with a plan to send people to work from home mode incorporating new tech, apps and programs and ensured that everyone was set up for success. The company gave everyone a certain amount of money to spend on getting the home office setup: new monitors, keyboard, mouse, etc. in order to ensure everyone had what they needed to be able to continue with business as usual for the most part. In terms of the events world specifically, we found that events started cancelling right away with things moving to re-bookings and virtual events taking place as early as March 20th.

Tell us one story about something that you or Equitable Bank did as a company (or are working on as we speak) that was an innovative, thoughtful or a unique approach to the challenges that COVID-19 imposed on your business?

We are always looking for ways to be creative and to bring new ideas and innovation to the table when it comes to events, branding and promotional items. One of our internal project teams completed a massive project under budget and way ahead of schedule. The project lead came to my team and asked us to not only produce an internal event for the team but he also wanted a unique swag option that people would never forget - a way to celebrate achievement. We came up with a completely custom branded sneaker that “wow’d” everyone. We were expecting the shoes in our office by mid-March but when COVID-19 hit, that got bumped back. Thankfully other parts of the world opened up for business and we received the order in time to celebrate. The team can’t get enough of them. I have had other teams already approach me to place new orders for them. Just goes to show, a little bit of out-of-the-box thinking doesn’t go unnoticed when changes out of our control come in to play. 

 To bring some optimism to the table: what do you see as being the most exciting or thought provoking opportunity that lies ahead for the live events industry?

COVID-19 made event producers go back to our roots when we think about what an event really is. It comes down to people getting together to share in a unique experience with other like-minded people. It doesn’t matter where or how the experience comes to life - what’s important is being together and sharing that experience. Whether that is online or in person, as long as people can continue to gather and share ideas and be excited for new things, there is hope for the industry. I am confident that the world will come out of this better off and that the events industry will thrive in the future.

 True or false: Virtual events are a stop-gap during the pandemic crisis but people will ultimately desire to be together in person again as soon as it is safe to do so.

True. 

People will desire to be together in person as soon as it’s safe. I know for me, I really hate being at home and not being in the office working with the team. I miss seeing people in person and I miss the magic moment when the event is all ready to go, the stage is set, lights are dim, show ready and the doors are about to open. It’s my “Go-Time” moment. I always take that moment in right before doors open. The months and months of planning from an initial sketch on a napkin to the show being real and about to start is my favorite part of being in the industry. I hope that I can have that moment back sooner than later.

Follow Evan Babins:

@djesb

Follow Equitable Bank:

@eqbank