The Omicron wave, which thankfully now seems to be abating, threw events for a loop yet again as the new year kicked off. Many events cancelled or postponed, but those that forged ahead set an important example for the rest of the industry and showed that hosting events safely is possible with the right planning and measures in place.
The National Retail Federation’s (NRF) flagship event, NRF 2022: Retail’s Big Show, was one of the first large-scale trade shows out of the gate in 2022, scheduled for January 16th-18th at NYC’s Javits Center. Susan Newman, SVP, Conferences at NRF, shares that while her team did have discussions around potentially cancelling the event, they quickly decided that it would be best to move forward as planned.
“We already had crew at the Javits — floors were being marked and carpet was being laid — by the time Omicron started to spike,” she says. “In addition to that, the industry we represent, retailers, are frontline workers and have been going through this now for two years without the ability to shut their doors. We thought, given who we are and who we represent, what would it say if we closed our doors and said, business can't go on? We didn't want that to be the message that came out of NRF.”
NRF held last year’s event in two parts, and pivoted the first to virtual last January. However, Newman notes that the virtual space didn’t provide the ROI they had hoped for the “exhibitors” so they decided they would not to go down that road again.
“I do believe there is a place for virtual events, but I do not believe that the tradeshow space is one of them,” she says. “There wasn't a Plan B to do a virtual event in this case. If we felt like we had to cancel, we would have simply canceled.” Certain content from the event is available on-demand through the end of March, but there were no hybrid or digital elements during the event itself — “this is as virtual as we want it to be,” says Newman.
When it came to navigating the safety measures for the in-person show in the midst of Omicron, Newman explains that the location played a big role, as New York City has strict policies and safety protocols for venues.
“They had mask and vaccination requirements, and we were on board with that,” says Newman. “However, NRF was responsible for checking attendees’ vaccine status, etc. One of our biggest challenges was working with the security company to get a system in place to make sure that we had all the doors covered. It's a very large venue and we had a significant amount of people who were going to be coming in all at one time, so we wanted to make sure we didn't have a jam up at the door. That was a new element that we had to deal with this year.”
In order to simplify the process, NRF encouraged attendees to use the CLEAR app to verify their health information, and the event also accepted New York’s Excelsior Pass. “Having this be a mandatory requirement of the building helped us with messaging,” notes Newman, “because we could tell people that this is a venue requirement, and we're all trying to keep everybody as safe as possible. It was easier to fall back on rules that we were also required to follow.”
The event also provided rapid tests and masks for attendees onsite who wanted them, and Newman shares attendees, on the whole, are used to these types of requirements by now and are willing to do what’s necessary to keep business going.
“The folks that came, I think, are the folks that are comfortable traveling and attending events. Most were not only fully vaccinated, but also boosted. There was a level of not only confidence, but also understanding of what it was going to take to make this happen in a safe way.”
Newman shares that the most important strategy in the lead up to the event was transparency with exhibitors and attendees. “We found the more that we communicated, and/or made our event information accessible, the more the exhibitors/attendees appreciated the insight and could make decisions on how to proceed.”
For example, exhibitors had access to a version of the attendees list, so they were kept updated on changes on a daily basis. In addition, NRF made the floor plan available online for attendees, so they could check back to see which companies were in and which were out, in real time. “If a company cancelled , the floor plan updates automatically,” explains Newman. The event sessions and speakers were also updated often.
This effort on NRF’s part allowed exhibitors and attendees to make informed decisions with the latest information available. Many exhibitors changed how many staff they would bring or what their booth would look like. “With the information they had access to, many altered what it was that they would typically do at the event,” says Newman.
The event, which usually draws 40,000 attendees — and was anticipating 30,000 before Omicron took off — ended up with a final attendance of around 10,000, or 25% of a normal year’s attendance, which tracks with other major events happening around the same time.
Despite the lower-than-usual attendance, “I think it certainly fulfilled NRF’s objective,” says Newman. “We kept our doors open for those people who needed to get business done and who truly were looking for new technologies to move their businesses forward. We made that possible.”