Art of Reinvention

Reinvention, resilience, and rebuilding have been recurring themes lately.   There's  building this new business, the death of my husband’s grandmother, and a tornado strike devastating the St. Louis airport.  I flew to Baltimore for the live web streaming of a panel discussion about virtual events.  [Quick note:  the entire presentation is available for viewing on demand, along with others, on www.randallinsights.com Seen & Heard page.]

As my husband dropped me off at Lambert International Airport last week, it took us a minute to figure out if there was a working entrance and where that door might be located.  Nearly every window and glass entrance was boarded shut with plywood.  I’ve spent so much time going in and out of that airport over the past 8 years  that the change was so sudden and so stark.  My familiar “fast lane” security line wasn’t open, and my familiar terminal C was completely shut down as well.  Everything seemed to just take longer than my normal routine.  However, it also occurred to me that our airport, though serviceable, has needed a facelift for quite some time to be truly comfortable, let alone optimal.  Now there is no putting it off.  The airport is going to be repaired and rebuilt, and that has already started.  In my mind, this sparks an inescapable analogy to the meetings and events industry. 

The laid-bare St. Louis airport made me consider the devastation of our industry since 2008.   At first, many of my colleagues talked of how the then-current setbacks were no different than what we’d seen after 9-11 and other economic downturns.  Then the situation continued to deteriorate and spiral downward in an increasingly powerful funnel cloud, laying waste to budgets and changing attitudes about the necessity of travel..  As that funnel cloud built up steam and cancellations mounted, alternative approaches entered the meetings and events marketplace.  The concept of virtual meetings as a cost-saving substitute was widely promoted in ads, such as examples from Cisco and GoToMeeting.  That approach was provocative, and certainly provoked  the fear and insecurity of the traditional, physical meetings and events industry.  Esteemed consultants may call this creative destruction, but it felt like plain old destruction to many physical event industry colleagues.  However, event professionals have worked hard and displayed great tenacity to gain a voice with management….and we are not about to allow the  entire meetings and events industry to be re-imagined by outside forces (such as corporate IT departments, economic downturns,  media vilification, or acts of nature like volcanic eruptions and tornados) without engaging us in the process.   And that is what is happening at this moment.  We’re tearing the plywood off of the windows of our industry and looking at our structure with new eyes.  Event technologies aren’t a threat -- they’re a business solution when applied appropriately and strategically.  The strategies we use to design engaging experiences and capture the hearts and minds of our attendees are fresh, new, and different because all expectation has changed now.  

My business trip to Maryland was great and the webinar went well.  Working with Scott and Mark from IEP, Donny from Sonic Foundry, and Stacy from GEP reminded me that although  I’m building  a brand new business - all of my familiar industry friends and supportive relationships remain.  It’s just that we’ll be working together in new ways and different capacities.   It is certainly a form of reinvention that I’m going through at the moment.  However, it’s incredibly comforting to know that the people you’ve always been able to trust and rely upon are still there for you.  

Another lesson of resilience and change came to me through the loss of my husband’s Grandmother, Naomi Lockhart .   She was 92-years old and one of the most gracious, warm, loving, and sweetest women I’ve ever known.   My husband and I along with his family gathered around her bedside.  We were crowded into her bedroom in her comforting, familiar surroundings.  Her loved ones there to support her in those final days and moments of life.   I’d never experienced that extremely personal farewell.  There was no hospital bustle and distraction, but simply the peace and dignity of her own home.    The community of souls surrounding her was such a strong statement of the bonds she forged with those who touched her life.   One couldn’t help but think about all the building and rebuilding Grandma Naomi had seen in her lifetime.   She outlived two husbands and even had a 94-year old boyfriend who cherished and devoted himself to her.  She had outlived two of her three sons.  She had an inspiring strength of character and resilience to continue to pick up her life and carry on regardless of the obstacle or tragedy.  She lived through great depressions and great economic boom times.  She lived through a world of mind-blowing technological advances.   Just think about watching household necessities change with the introduction of automobiles in every garage, radio, then television, clothes washing machines and "automatic" dishwashers, computers and the internet, telephones in the home to cellphones in our hands all the time, from air travel to space travel.   When you think about the nature of change and adapting to new stuff over a lifetime, it’s remarkable and possible only with strong self-confidence and a grounded sense of optimism.

Considering this notion brings me great hope and inspiration for our industry.   Yes, our industry is changing rapidly and it’s uncomfortable and terribly disruptive.   But, it’s also exciting.   We’re resilient beings and we can bounce back from unimaginable things.    That strength of character that we demonstrate every day in our jobs is the necessary ingredient for embracing innovation and technology. 

  We’re inventing our future.  We're rebuilding our perspectives and resiliently bouncing back from the set-backs that have plagued the events industry.  As long as we gather together in a community of support for one another, there’s nothing we can’t do.     Bring on the change.