What if it happens?

What if it happens?

In 2016, the morning after the Presidential election was called for Donald Trump, the opening session sound check and breakfast buffet went as planned.  As the ballroom began to fill up, about half of the participants were expecting a memorial service while the other half were sporting party hats and had noise makers in hand.  Both groups were surprised the community they loved so much was more divided than they had imagined.  This was shocking and caused irreparable damage to the event and your organization.

As these events unfolded,  meeting planners didn’t know what to do and just decided to stick to the plan. The speakers played hot potato hoping they didn’t have to address the topics at hand, and the harm is still felt today. Divisions formed inside your organization that were once a tight community, are now splintered.  In 2021, I was called in to emcee a virtual conference because of the contentious rift in the membership community.  This organization had the forethought to utilize an outside partner who could address anything that might come up.  We have worked together each year to help draw the community back together again. It is working, slowly but surely by being intentionally addressed.

8 Years Later – Lessons Learned

The results of the past two national elections polarized attendees leaving the conference agenda, speakers, venue staff, and exhibit hall vendors needing help with what to do, most choosing to go about the regular planned schedule.  Ignoring the impending response didn’t make it go away or lessen the impact.  Frankly, my clients have been working to rebuild their precious community spaces since 2016, through COVID, and the Insurrection on January 6th.

Now is the time to learn from the past and prepare for the future.  Meeting professionals and associations and corporate staff planning events between November 2024 and March 2025, you need to take action to protect your bottom line as much as the retention of your talent and membership benefits.

The feeling of division is going to increase at all conferences as we get closer and closer to the election.  Now is the time to address the uncomfortable so that we are prepared, can recognize concerns before they happen, and how to respond without exacerbating polarization.

Let’s do this together.  Here are some questions for you and senior leadership to work through together.

Prepare 

First, use this time to prepare.

Collectively, our main goal is to have a successful event. How do we define our event’s mission?  I suggest you look and see if there is something you can do that doubles down on the mission of the event itself.

• What are the beliefs and values of your organization or event?
• How are you using language to align with these principles?
• When reviewing policies, practices, and traditions, is there something that can bolster the mission of the event?
• At each point of contact, can you intentionally align the event’s mission online, in hand, visually, throughout each part of the event’s experience?
• Lastly, tap into the social hubs, community influencers, and strong personalities in the organization to open up communication and work together.

 

Recognize 

You don’t know what you don’t know.

Some may feel anxiety already bubbling up – pressure is a real motivator.

Internal Pressure needs to be taken seriously because your feelings show up at work and you need to prepare for the experiences of your event participants.

• What can you do now to lessen ambiguity for those who may be experiencing anxiety or fearful of what could happen?
• Those who have felt divided since 2016 may be worried about being in the wrong place, feel unsafe, lost, or have a sense of scarcity.  How can you help them feel welcome?
• Can you provide space for important conversations where everyone belongs?

External Pressure can impact (inbound) you and your organization or event through comparison across industry benchmarks.  Together we could put pressure (outbound) on others to plan for any negative polarization that could take place.

• What are you doing to acknowledge the debates, primaries, campaigns, and elections in every state and federal?
• Before, during, and after the election results being called and the inauguration, can you recognize in advance the pressures your participants, staff, sponsors, etc., could experience?
• A new Presidential term is bound to be contentious.  What are you planning to do to take these internal and external pressures into account?

Now is the time to listen and plan.  I am partnering with my clients to be prepared and develop the skills to recognize the real pressures that impact their constituencies.

Together, we can use our expertise and respond accordingly and confidently.

Respond 

Hope is not a plan.

There is a difference between a knee-jerk reaction and a well-thought-out response and the gap between the two is where our preparation and recognition skills make the difference.  We can consciously respond to almost any disaster scenario from active shooters to blackouts to food poisoning and beyond.  As a professional speaker, emcee, and recovering event planner, I remember when we didn’t have to plan for these things and now it is commonplace.  We didn’t think it happened enough to prepare for it, felt no pressure to do so, and figured if it did happen, we could just figure it out at the moment.

I’m working with event planners to prepare for success in creating community safety and healthy discourse to showcase the value of the event.  Our profession is complex and we have normalized our confidence in figuring things out in the moment.  These reactions have a long-term impact on your community’s feeling of trust, finances, and industry reputation.

Here are some questions to ask your event team:

• Are you ready? What protocols and practices do you already have that you can tap into?
• Who can help or hurt any response you were to come up with and can you bring them in early?  I call this elephant hunting.  Can you bring in the elephants in the room and allow them early access, honor their expertise, and convert them into the cheerleaders and support you need?
• While inviting elephants into the conversation, search for sacred cows too.  Who or what are historically untouchable traditions or power sources that could trip the event into a bad place when tensions are high?  Can something be done in advance or minor adjustments made for a higher chance of success?
• What programs, groups, identity-based groups, committees, etc., already exist that form a foundation for this event?  What is their current capacity for crisis management?  What do these key players recognize already as areas of focus or concern? What did they experience over the last eight years that could help you prepare?
• Utilizing outside support as scaffolding for your event could be another response protocol to help your event be successful.  Hire a professional emcee to support your event as an outsider.  I partner with planners before, during, and after an event to ensure success and build community.  I like to think of my emcee role as an insurance policy for the event as a whole.
• What response protocols or practice scenarios do you run through, ask yourself if you can replicate it in real time.  Is the plan simple enough to be implemented by others?  Can you suggest others utilize your idea and it becomes a best practice?
• Lastly, what can you, your staff, organizational leadership, participants, and the greater community do to monitor, listen, and learn ahead of time to adjust accordingly?  How nimble is your plan of action?

Community Matters!

Associations are struggling with membership and organizations are struggling with retention.  Events are one of the biggest community development offerings that we have and ignoring this political upheaval heading our way could be detrimental to your community-building initiatives.  No doubt, this is going to be a wild ride for all of us. Use this time to develop meaningful answers for you and your events using one simple question; What if it happens?

Jess Pettitt has been stirring up culture-based conversations by blending humor and diversity issues for almost 20 years.  For more information visit www.GoodEnoughNow.com.