CHALLENGE:
About a month a prior to the event, it was no longer possible to hold the World Cargo Symposium in the original destination due to Covid. The event had been previously postponed so there was a great deal of financial and reputational risk on next steps. Safety would remain a critical deciding factor in the decision. MGME evaluated possible scenarios and performed a risk assessment to provide a recommended solution to our client.
SOLUTION:
The client moved forward with MGME’s recommendation to hold the event in a different country. This meant starting everything from scratch – sourcing and contracting a new venue, finding new suppliers, communicating the changes and next steps to all involved (attendees, sponsors, exhibitors) and ensuring all logistics were in place. Finding and working on all the arrangements with an exhibit management company was perhaps one of the biggest time crunches of all – as most events are finalizing exhibit orders a month prior and not just starting the process.
MGME moved the event to Dublin as the destination was well-located for most of the delegates, ease of travel with Covid restrictions at the time, and the serious attention they had with implementing Covid safety protocol. MGME is familiar with the venue, Convention Center Dublin, and our team was confident that our client would be able to execute a successful event in such a short period. This was the Convention Center's first international event during the pandemic due to their strict Covid regulations, as it is a government entity of Dublin. This meant the MGME team was brought together to tackle the challenge of executing all the deliverables at a fast and furious pace.
The safe execution of this event with strict Covid policies (proof of vaccination, social distancing and mask wearing) opened the eyes of our client to possibilities they had never imagined. Although the event was smaller than a typical pre-Covid event, those in live attendance were the most senior level people. Delegates were happy that they were able to meet their true target attendees.