Virtual, Hybrid, or In-Person Meetings? What do we do?

The vaccines are here and our positive human nature has us thinking about what’s next. When can we get back to “normal” and what will that normal look like?

For Customer Advisory Boards, we recommend that you work with your Board members to shape an experience that will lend to the overall comfort, safety and productivity of the group. At the moment, virtual meetings are safe and productive on most levels and comfortable. In-person meetings are also very productive but the safety and comfort for everyone is still in question as we look to the second half of the year. Our experience is that hybrid meetings (people in a room and people virtual) are less productive and we need to find a way to improve the technology to get there.

Below are questions to consider in planning your Fall sessions.

1. Location: Can you arrange for a private location with a private entrance? Is the meeting in a large urban center with elevators? Can you expedite your Board to the floor they need to be on in a timely fashion and safely? If not, should you consider a less busy center?
2. Transportation: How many people will be flying to your meeting? Will you do rapid testing of those individuals to ensure they were not exposed? How will you handle out of country individuals that are supposed to quarantine? Can you budget to cover individual, private transportation?
3. Meeting Rooms and Masks: Do you have a location that allows for social distance and still enables effectiveness and productivity? Will you allow food and eating in the room without masks? Will you mandate mask wearing while people are in the meeting?
4. Dinners and Social Elements: How will you provide social components to the meeting while maintaining safety? Indoor dining or outdoor?

There are many elements to consider in making the decision about moving to in-person meetings. At some point, the comfort levels will rise. For now, we are advising our clients to continue with the productive and high turn-out virtual sessions that are running well and to build a plan for returning to in-person meetings that are safe for 2022.