My Journey: A Continued Road to Learning - The Duuo Report on Covid-19 and its Impact on the Canadian Event Industry

Committee Note: As we reflect on the year we’ve had and what we’ve learned, we conclude our series “My Journey: A Continued Road to Learning”.  Our partner, Duuo will focus on their report of our industry and our road ahead.

There’s no denying that 2020 was a year that most of us will never forget. Our homes have now become our offices, our travel plans have drastically shifted, and we’ve had to keep our family and friends at a distance of 6 feet or more. One notable thing that has completely changed this past year is the way we experience events. Weddings, conferences, concerts, family reunions, and festivals have all been modified, rescheduled, or simply cancelled, leaving people lost for ways to get together and celebrate.

While every industry has been impacted by the pandemic in one way or another, it’s clear individuals in the events industry have had to seriously think about the current situation and quickly come up with alternative solutions for clients who were planning something special for 2020.

As an event insurance provider, Duuo has worked to form a community of incredible, hard-working event planners that are trusted to provide their clients with the coverage they need to host a spectacular event. After the first few weeks of lockdown, when things really started to sink in that this wasn’t just a “two week thing”, Duuo decided to reach out to some of the event planners they’ve come to know over the previous year to find out how they were doing.

Through these conversations, Duuo’s marketing team created a blog series called “Event Planners @ Home”. Through these blogs, members of their event community were asked how they were coping, what they were watching, and what they missed most about creating special events for their clients. They received some great responses, with many event planners making light of the at-home schooling situation and highlighting the ways they were keeping their business afloat at home.

As they started to conduct more interviews, they decided to take it to the next level. In June, Duuo sent out the Event Planning Professional Survey to get a better picture of the way event planners across Canada were dealing with the pandemic, while simultaneously allowing other event planners to get an inside look into what their peers have been working on, learning, and planning.

Duuo compiled the results together to create The Duuo Report: Covid-19 and its impact on the Canadian event industry. The report dives deep to provide readers with a snapshot into the state of the event industry as it sits today, along with information on the outlook for 2021.

In creating this report, the Duuo team got a first-hand look at how deeply this crisis has affected event planners. Not only on a professional level, but a personal one as well. As seen through interviews, emails, and surveys, a majority of event planners got into this business because of their genuine love of bringing people together to celebrate life’s most important moments. Without events taking place, planners have had to strategize the ways they can provide these experiences for their clients.

As members of one of Canada’s largest event planning professional associations, Duuo couldn’t have completed the report without help from members like you. We encourage you to check out the Duuo Report to find out what event planning professionals have been learning, planning, and watching over the last few months, and how they plan to come back better than ever before.

Download the Duuo Report here!

About the Author:

Rachel Devitt
Content Marketing Specialist
Duuo
rachel@duuo.ca