As the current landscape has required many of us to work remotely, we at Stamp are using Zoom meetings in place of face-to-face meetings. During an editorial strategy session this week to discuss what would be appropriate in these times to share with DMOs, I took a moment to read a blog I had been working on to the editorial team. They encouraged me to let them just share the video recording of these few minutes from this meeting.

Unconventional times call for unconventional measures—this is a great demonstration of the viability of teams working remotely with technology but also an example of “leveraging” what you are already doing—in this case a Zoom video call that was being recorded. Click the picture below to see and hear this “raw” thought and be on the lookout for upcoming emails as we have already begun to identify resources that might be useful as we navigate these uncertain times. The full text of the blog article is below the video.

“In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity.”

My wise 89-year-old father reminded me of this Albert Einstein quote yesterday. I am worried about him during this health crisis, and I am certainly struggling to see where these great opportunities will be.

With previous natural disasters, there have generally been winners and losers in our industry. As we survey the landscape, it is hard to see who will not be losers. The unknown is how badly the losses will be for each of our organizations and stakeholders. And then, there’s the front line staff of our industry with nowhere to go but home. Literally, as I was thinking about what I wanted to share here, this news alert came through:

The most pressing questions DMOs are likely to face in the days and weeks ahead are: how bad is all of this going to get for the hospitality industry, and when will the end be in sight? Our stakeholders, and their staff, want answers that nobody has.

However, even if you don’t have any answers, one of the best things you can do is pick up the phone and call to check in with every stakeholder you can. Yes, everything you hear is going to be bad. But you are calling because you are literally the glue that holds this industry together. When things are good, stakeholders tend to have the attitude that they don’t need DMOs' help, even though you are always working in the background to help them. But they definitely look to DMOs for answers (and action) when things are bad. Let them hear from you now. Let them know that you care. Let them know they need to be there to support each other at this critical time. And let them know you will be doing everything you can to help them.

We will survive. They need to hear from you, with concern in your voice, that it may be a while before we thrive again, but we will survive.

As the current landscape has required many of us to work remotely, we at Stamp are using Zoom meetings in place of face-to-face meetings. During an editorial strategy session this week to discuss what would be appropriate in these times to share with DMOs, I took a moment to read a blog I had been working on to the editorial team. They encouraged me to let them just share the video recording of these few minutes from this meeting.

Unconventional times call for unconventional measures—this is a great demonstration of the viability of teams working remotely with technology but also an example of “leveraging” what you are already doing—in this case, a Zoom video call that was being recorded. Click the picture below to see and hear this “raw” thought and be on the lookout for upcoming emails as we have already begun to identify resources that might be useful as we navigate these uncertain times. The full text of the blog article is below the video.