 So, what does one do when tasked with planning a large in-person event like a May Day Festival into the virtual environment? Well, you find the right partners and you get to work. And that's exactly what Alex Pickers did with the Reveal Events Group with a recent May Day Festival virtual event as well as a Canada Day virtual event. We've captured his stories here for our 2020 Story Series and he's sharing all the goodness about how he was able to turn these live in-person festivals into virtual events. Stick around. And thanks for joining us for another episode of 2020 Stories with Stephen and Leanne. I am joined today by the fabulous Alex Pickers. He is the President and Creative Director of the Reveal Events Group. Alex just created two virtual events in the last couple of months. One a May Day Festival followed shortly by a Canada Day Festival. So we wanted to connect with Alex today and talk to him about how he pulled these events together on short timelines and in a virtual environment. Thank you so much for joining us today, Alex. Thank you for having me. You know, I was thrilled that you reached out about your events because not only were these planned with short timelines, but these were fairly broad and public events. And so I wanted to talk to you a little bit about how these events came to be and any best practices that you can share with our planners. Before we get started, can you tell me a little bit about what these events looked like in their format? For sure. For sure. So these were two quite large public municipal festivals that we were well underway planning. We then marked it and, you know, we had to pivot to use the word that everybody's using. And originally, the May Day Festival we were working on, as soon as the public health order came down, it was canceled. And so for the city, that event is a 95-year-old event. This was the 96th year. So it was deeply rooted in the city and in tradition. And so being canceled, it put us in a situation where it was like we felt like we were going to be writing down in history that we skipped a year. And so I worked very hard on taking a look at what it would look like for us to be able to do a version of that event, but take it online and keep it safe. There was a lot of back and forth with funders and looking at what allowable expenses would be to take an event virtual, take an event online, multiple, multiple drafts of event plans to go through line by line. Would this be an allowable expense? Could we do this? And obviously taking an event online during a crisis, budgets get completely reduced as well, right? And so cancelling all of our suppliers that we had and going through all of that whilst writing an event plan and then getting it approved. And when the event plan was actually approved and we realized the funding was going to come through for us to be able to do it, we actually had less than 10 days to pull it off because it took about three weeks just to get approval on doing something brand new, like literally within two months of being told that the event was canceled. Wow, that is incredible. And I'm assuming a little bit stressful as well. Now to clarify, Alex, was that for the May Day festival? That was for May Day, yeah. And May Day really became the test of whether or not we were going to do Canada Day as a virtual event as well. It was it was kind of, you know, throw it up in the air and see if it flies. And it was incredibly well received and it allowed us to put our best practices in place for Canada Day. And so in that short compact go, go, go period of time, we figured out what was going to work, what wasn't going to work. And it made Canada Day a little bit easier because we had our plans, our camera maps, our safety guidelines for recording artists and for going live from an outdoor stage, you know, with a single host and, you know, maybe one person being interviewed at a safe distance. So yeah, it was it was it was high paced. That's for sure. Yes, I can I can only imagine and and Alex, I have only experienced your live events, which have been incredibly fabulous. And I've loved the work that you've done over the years. I'm assuming, though, that you had to adopt a few new skills to start pivoting some of these live events into virtual. Can you tell us a little bit about what you had to learn as a meeting planner? Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think the the first thing that we had to take a look at and we had to decide on was could we actually do a live broadcast? You know, and and did we have budget to be able to pull that off? And so we relied on our partners. That was the first call that I made, you know, the the the AV partner that we had contracted for the live event. I went to them and I said, OK, well, you know, all is not lost at this point, but we need to sit down and do this. And my vision is to pre-record all of the performances, but then actually have it as a live broadcast in the same location. Can we do that? And with 10 days, do we have enough time to, you know, set it up and give, you know, your editors a chance to put everything together. And they were absolutely fantastic. They jumped to the call. You know, we we I was running and booking the artists and then they were figuring out, you know, their timeline. And so we had a full day of load in setting up the studio. We were very lucky to have a perfect space that was designed for for recording, which was great. But we did have to bring in all the equipment. So a full day of load in to get that done and then just a full day of shooting with all the different artists. But, you know, having to bring in safety protocols that you wouldn't think of previously, you know, obviously you clean equipment and you keep everything clean. But every mic, every D.I. is wrapped and labeled and sanitized. You know, no one's in the space without a mask. No one's in the space without gloves, maintenance staff to wipe down doorknobs, chairs, washrooms. Anything that is touched, you know, all of those things. And then, you know, writing your safety plan and posting it on the wall and, and, you know, having a safety officer there to make sure that everybody's adhering to this. Like, these are just things that we haven't had to do before. But we were very lucky. The team came together and got it done. Wow. And kudos to all the partners that assisted you in getting this off the ground as well. I that's a resounding feeling I'm hearing from a lot of planners is that it is a group effort now more than ever to have everyone come together to to create a safe environment and in a great live events environment. Now, you mentioned that you didn't have a lot of lead time leading up to the event and it was quite stressful. How are you feeling now that both of these events are over? And then, and now how do you feel about looking towards the future? You know what, I'm I'm to to sort of echo what you said. I'm really, really proud of the supplier group that I worked with. I don't know if I can mention them, but, you know, like, please do if you feel. Yeah. Yeah. Ballet tech production, the Manhattan entertainment. Kelly at Manhattan got amazing artists together for us with like no time. Spectra event group designed gorgeous sets for us and worked with us with very like everybody had to work with limited timeline. And, you know, you get that phone call from me saying, OK, guess what? I've got an event and, you know, hooray. And here's the kicker. We have like eight days to put it together. And, you know, they everybody just jumped. So like I am so grateful for the people that I work with and worked with on this. And, you know, they they really over delivered all of them. If it feels really good to be doing something positive during a negative time, quite a negative time in our industry, you know, and I I feel some personal resilience after doing that and personally inspired that, OK, you know what, we can still survive. We can still function as an industry. We just have to be really creative about it. And I think the other thing is, is what we're I'm most proud of is that we were still able to deliver something for people to enjoy while they were locked at home. You know, there's. Any opportunity that we have to create a little bit of hope is is great, right? So it's yeah, it feels it feels really good. And it it's a skill that I never thought I would have to learn. I'll say that. That's for sure. Yeah, that is very true. And and and I appreciate you sharing about how this has changed you personally because I feel a lot of our planner friends if they're still not feeling it now at one point, they were feeling very stuck about what to do. You know, they've got these incredible skillsets, but unfortunately, they were all, you know, stymied back in March and they weren't sure what to do with their skills and their talent. And you're a great case study of someone who took the skills and talent and yeah, slightly adjusted how you you. Create something with your skills, but you certainly have done so and are now looking to the future. Tell me a little bit about some of the projects that you might be working on in the months ahead. Well, I mean, again, I think that virtual online events or safe distance events, you know, adhering to the PHO are as much as I don't want to say it, it's definitely going to be through the end of the year. I think at this point, people are saying, look, we still have to have our conference or we still have to have our education sessions or, you know, client events or whatever it might be. And now is the time that I think we've resolved ourselves to saying, we have if we're going to do the fall events, this is how they're going to be done, you know. And so I'm working on a on. You more virtual events with clients and, you know, bringing that skill set that I had to learn in such a short period of time to our clients and saying, OK, it's not going to look like you wanted it to look, but we can still get it done for you and we can meet the goals that you have, whether it be, you know, there's continuing education credits that people need to be getting and there's, you know, researchers that need to have their poster sessions. Like there's all these things that are happening that that still have to happen and we have to find creative ways to do it. I think one of the benefits of the virtual events that somebody said to me and I had never thought about this is because you're not paying for travel, because you're not paying for accommodation, but these virtual conferences are actually allowing more people from an organization to attend. So there's a bit of a silver lining in that that I think we can maybe reach more people through virtual events. And I think what we're hearing in the industry is even even when we're allowed to meet again and, you know, this is this is all history. I think hybrid is definitely going to be the the the big thing, for sure, because people may not want to travel or, you know, unfortunately, we may still have travel bans in place for another year. Let's say that happens, but we still have to do our work and we still have to meet, right? And so I'm really excited looking forward to the fall because we we've been given the opportunity to continue to create virtual events for our clients and come up with creative ways to to allow them to still engage their customers or whatever it might be. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. It's exciting. Yeah, it is exciting. And it's interesting that you mentioned hybrid because I've seen that trend as well with some of our clients. They've come back to us to say that they've had really great attendance with their virtual events. And to your point, it's because you've taken the travel and the accommodation cost out of the equation and made it more accessible for people. So you're right. People in the hybrid space better get ready because I think 2021 is definitely going to be the year of the hybrid event and then who knows if that'll if that'll translate into 2022 and beyond. Alex, thank you so much for joining us today. But before I let you go, I'd love to hear any parting words from you about advice you have for meeting planners that are still feeling unsure of what their next step should be. Yeah, I think that's on a little more of a personal level. I've been, you know, been communicating with a lot of my colleagues in the industry, people that I love and work with for a very long time. And I think the most important thing to do right now is just check in on your mental health. We're in an industry. I mean, everyone in the world is affected by this. I get it. But we're in an industry that is very, very deeply affected by it. And I think just checking in on each other, checking in on yourself and, you know, knowing that it's if you're having a bad day, it's OK to have a bad day. But if you're not, if you're feeling really bad, reach out to somebody, you know, it's a it's a it's a it's a very strange time. And there's a lot of stressors around finances and what is my business going to look like? And, you know, even just being stuck at home and not being able to do the things that we normally do in a regular fashion, like going to the grocery store or whatever it might be. So I think the biggest thing for me is just that, you know, check in and make sure you're taking care of your head. Thank you for saying that. I'll be honest, I was not having the best of mornings up until this interview, but you have completely lifted my spirits and and I trust I'm going to have an fabulous day today. So thank you, Alex. I appreciate you joining us today. Friends, all of the companies and suppliers that Alex mentioned about when talking about his virtual events, you can find links to those suppliers in the description below this video, as well as links to getting connected with Alex and his work as well. Thank you so much again to Alex Vickers of Reveal Events Group. We're so glad that you were able to join us today, Alex. And good luck to you and your company as you head into the fall. Thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure, Leanne. Thank you, Alex. Bye for now. Thanks. Bye-bye.