With Events On Hold, Experiential Agencies Use Their Skills to Fight COVID-19

COVID-19 has wiped the calendars of experiential and live event agencies for the foreseeable future, forcing them to shift their business models. Agencies that have been able to stay afloat are working with clients on digital pivots or contact-free consumer experiences as well as brainstorming ideas for when events potentially return post-pandemic. Simultaneously, some companies are putting their talent and resources into helping those who are fighting the pandemic on the front lines. In just a matter of weeks, U.S. event agencies, fabrication shops and rental companies have temporarily shifted priorities to make personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and essential businesses, and offer services like triage tents for temporary hospitals. Certain agencies have also launched national networks to connect event industry professionals and companies willing to help, with local hospitals and organizations in need. As there’s no definitive end date for the crisis, the goal for many agencies launching these COVID-19 response programs is to continue them until their services are no longer needed. Providing PPE and relief structures Like many experiential agencies, MAS Event + Design had its remaining Q1 and Q2 client activations canceled due to COVID-19, with question marks hanging over potential in-person projects for the last half of 2020. The Brooklyn-based agency, which produces events for brands such as YouTube and Spotify, is continuing to work with clients to figure out new ways to deliver consumer experiences. But the agency recognized it also had resources and employees that could help hospitals lacking personal protective equipment (PPE) to fight the coronavirus. “When this crisis began, as much as we needed to focus on our clients and help them through this complicated time, there was also a common thought within the agency,” said Melissa Mahon, svp of production at MAS Event + Design. “We asked ourselves: What can we do here to contribute to the solution to this problem?” When the outbreak began to escalate in New York in March, BeSide, the fabrication arm of MAS, began researching PPE they could easily construct with in-house tools and equipment. Working with the University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering and medical schools, BeSide developed a prototype for plastic face shields—the clear plastic visors that healthcare workers wear over N95 masks for additional protection. [kickout id="1"] Once the prototype was approved by medical professionals, MAS set up a call log for everyone at the agency to reach out to different plastic, foam and elastic manufacturers to source and purchase the raw materials needed to make the shields. Mahon said the agency now has a set routine of purchasing materials incrementally from different manufacturers and getting them shipped to their Brooklyn outpost. Mahon said BeSide is now making between 3,000 to 5,000 face shields per day at their production studio. For two eight-hour shifts daily, teams of five people per shift have dedicated their time to creating the shields. Mahon said the employees wear masks and gloves for extra protection and are respecting social distancing guidelines of staying at least six feet apart. MAS is now selling and shipping the masks directly to hospitals, doctor groups and community groups on a first-come, first-serve basis through requests to a dedicated email address. Mahon said the pricing of the shields depends on the quantity requested (there’s no minimum on orders) but on average they sell for $5 each. So far, MAS has mainly shipped face shields locally to hospitals including NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the Brooklyn Hospital Center, Mount Sinai and Elmhurst Hospital. Mahon said as the agency continues to promote initiative on their social media channels, they’re also receiving requests from out-of-state groups, and have already shipped to groups based in Massachusetts and Washington State. Mahon said the agency is beginning to mentor smaller shops across the country on how to replicate their initiative, after they reached out on social media. “Our goal is to keep this up as long as it’s needed, but I don’t know how long that will be,” Mahon said. “I suspect within a month, larger manufacturers like 3M will be able to produce [PPE] faster and at higher quantities. I will imagine they’ll take over this market. But we’ll be here and keep the lights on to contribute until the need is no longer there.” [kickout id="2"] MAS’s initiative is similar to how other U.S. shops in the live event space have responded to the crisis. Bednark Studio, a design and fabrication shop also based in Brooklyn, is working with the Brooklyn Navy Yard to mass-produce face shields with the help of volunteer employees. And Pink Sparrow, a fabrication shop based in Los Angeles and New York, is creating branded materials for essential businesses. These include touch-free hand sanitizer kiosks at business entrances, guards for grocery and convenience store checkout counters and storefront vestibules for contactless purchasing. Companies that provide rentals for events such as tents and stages were able to respond quickly to the crisis, since their services were readily available. Gallagher Staging, a custom staging company based in Los Angeles, was set to construct the main stage at Coachella this year. When Goldenvoice postponed the event to October, the company shifted efforts to offer at-cost solutions to the medical community. Through a digital crisis center on Gallagher Staging’s website, the company is offering relief structures for temporary medical facilities throughout the U.S. These include elevated stage platforms, ADA-compliant ramps, barricades to create pathways, and rain and shade structures. “Safety has always been at the heart of what we do,” said Joey Gallagher, CEO of Gallagher Staging, in a statement. “This is not about the state of the staging business; this is about how the staging business can help the state; it’s our responsibility to step up and deploy resources to assist those in need.” Along with PPE and relief structures, some agencies are working with clients to simply bring some positivity to essential workers. LnkBox Group—a California-based agency that works on brand activations and last-mile transportation for music festivals owned by Goldenvoice and AEG—had all of its planned projects wiped in less than a week. Keith Cunningham, vp of brand partnerships for LnkBox Group, said the agency is in talks with clients to launch a program called Hero Packs, which will deliver care packages to essential workers containing product samples their clients initially planned to give out at activations. LnkBox Group is working with eight of its clients to launch the 10-week program in May. The agency plans to distribute packages that contain snacks or other mood-boosting products to more than 1,000 essential businesses, including hospitals, transportation facilities and grocery stores. "From a brand standpoint, we know it’s a good way to give back. A lot of these brands are sitting on samples they weren’t able to get out,” Cunningham said. “From an experiential marketing standpoint, this fits into the realm of getting creative during this crazy time.” Connecting those who can help with those who need help Choura Events is another live event agency that was slated to build stages for events like SXSW and Coachella before the COVID-19 outbreak hit. The Torrance, Calif.-based company quickly pivoted to providing triage tents for temporary, local medical facilities. But what if certain groups in need don’t know a company like Choura Events exists? Experiential agencies are now launching digital platforms in order to bridge the gap between those in need and event professionals that can offer their services. New York- and Austin-based experiential agency N/A Collective, in partnership with Oztech Media, creative strategist Josh Ingram and creative consultant Natalie Sun, launched a network called Can Help/Needs Help. The digital platform connects event industry leaders and individuals who can volunteer their skill sets to those in need based on their locations. [kickout id="3"] Chiara Adin Moore, co-founder and chief creative officer at N/A Collective, said since they launched the network last week, they’ve seen around 160 professionals and agencies enter into their database, including Choura Events. Moore said her team has focused on outreach to hospitals and city groups this week and they're continuing to spread the word about the program through the agency's social media channels and newsletters. “We have a massive network of individuals—agencies, production shops, fabricators, freelancers, technical directors—across the U.S. who are not able to do what they love right now,” Moore said. “But they have amazing skillsets. They’re professional problem solvers. That skillset and that ability is so easily transferable to the current situation of coronavirus.” LnkBox Group has also launched a similar online network called Production 4 Health, in partnership with Denver-based WA Event Management and L.A.-based Boiler Room Creative. The location-based network connects individuals who work in live event production with medical groups in need. Matt Hyman, LnkBox Group’s vp of platform sales and integration, said the three agencies have connections to a large community out of work that can still provide helpful resources. Production 4 Health’s resource database includes those who work in event transportation, print or digital video signage, catering, staging, lighting, flooring and carpentry. “We wanted to put something together to help people get back to work, but to also provide help to the world through the production industry,” Hyman said. “We want to help some of these businesses who lost all their business, and connect them to healthcare folks so they can focus on fighting the disease and treating patients.” Along with providing services to those who are being impacted the most by the pandemic, Moore said launching Can Help/Needs Help is also proving to be an unprecedented connector among agencies as a whole, which normally compete for client projects. “The greatest part of the entire experience is being able to connect with different groups who wanted to help,” Moore said. “I didn’t know the Choura Events guys before this. The connection in the industry has been awesome to see.”