Wrapping up and taking stock

Wow! What a year 2020 has been for everyone, not just Opening Doors and Venues. We started the year full of motivation and enthusiasm as we embarked on a packed calendar of client events and a glamorous celebration in the summer of our 20th year in business. Little did we know that there would be a virus which would have very different ideas...

Rose, Madalina and Sarah were very much looking forwards to a jam-packed diary of conferences and awards celebrations for our clients, and collaborating with industry colleague, Clare Beach of Azura Events, to provide production and administrative support for two association congresses: one in Edinburgh and the other in Halifax, Canada.

The first quarter of the year held so much promise, but as we all know, it soon became clear that COVID-19 was having other plans. Our first exciting event for the robotics industry in a number of educational venues in Cambridge was placed in jeopardy as the attendees would have been travelling from across the globe. As borders closed and airlines grounded all flights in March, this was the first event to cancel entirely. The second event in early May was the next one to be hit.

Despite the lockdown, Rose and Madalina kept the boat on course supporting Clare for what was meant to be a Canadian congress in September. As weeks rolled by, it became clear a physical event would not be happening; this congress was converted to 100% virtual with a 4-month lead time. As scary as this whole process was, the team worked through the new challenges of the virtual world, and delivered a fantastic 5-day virtual event.

“This new virtual way of bringing people together has brought with it new challenges,”  explained Rose, "although my feet are not hurting, my brain is frying! With all of our project planning having to start again, looking at the requirements of a client and working out how to convert this to a virtual or hybrid event. Our priority is now ensuring that all attendees have the same, if not a better, experience at the online event as they would in person and maximise their learning time and networking opportunities.”

 You can catch a little bit of OD&V on camera as well: 

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