We’d gone more than 500 days without getting the entire MCW Events team together in one place. But last month, on Thursday, May 13, 2021, we finally did it. We gathered everyone in person! So this post is not about maximizing your hybrid event or the top 10 best virtual event platforms. It’s not even about mandates and masking, distancing, and testing. This is a very different post, friends. It’s about what we learned getting back together.
This gathering wasn’t via Google Hangout or a Zoom link. There was no mention of platforms–nothing virtual, nothing digital. And in case you wondered, the word pivot wasn’t used once. It was a joyful reunion of faces we’d only seen on screen for more than a year. The sensation of gathering in person was surprisingly overwhelming, bursting with joy at every turn, hug, and squeeze. It’s no wonder that decades of neuroscience studies around the globe suggest that we’re hardwired for connection. We need to be in a community with one another. Gathering is in our blood.
Our intentions were twofold. First, we wanted to celebrate the fact that we’d made it. And not just made it – we experienced the gut-wrenching growth that came from digging deep and leaning in, then digging 10 times deeper and leaning in 100 more times. This past year forced many of us to understand the richness of perseverance and what steadfastness really means.
But we also gathered together because we believe it is up to us, the travel and event industry, to be the first back to market. Or, in this case, the frontlines of cities, states, and countries. To resurrect our industry. To counter fear and to communicate that the “Coast is Clear[er].”
Yes, virtual and hybrid are always going to be a thing. I’m not sure we can ever uninvite them to the table. But it’s time to return to the heart of gathering. So with some of our favorite people at one of our favorite places in the 98101 zip code, we wanted to tell you the story of what’s happening “out there.”
We chose the Four Seasons Seattle for this momentous occasion. Honestly, you probably already know of them. But did you know that they’re already open and hosting events? Did you know that their restaurant, the GoldFinch Tavern, serves up some of the freshest and most sophisticated seafood dishes in all of the Pacific Northwest? Tourists and locals alike, this is where you’ll get some of the best cedar plank king salmon on the West Coast. And we know there are a good many grand, sweeping views of the Puget Sound throughout downtown Seattle. But we’re reasonably sure that the Four Seasons Seattle is the only one that offers that view alongside a sprawling pool deck. That’s where we hosted our first IRL team event of 2021.
The Infinity Pool with a view of Elliott Bay. Photo courtesy of the Four Seasons Seattle Hotel.
Alongside the equally beautiful waters of the hotel pool [which felt more like a crystal clear blue lagoon] and Eliott Bay, the Four Seasons creatively designed and built a custom cabana and bar for us, mixing up locally sourced ingredients with dreamy drinks for all. If the setting wasn’t enough, the mouth-watering event menus left our team begging our leadership to “Order more!” Pause there. The event menus at a hotel had our team begging for more? When’s the last time you heard someone say that? Exactly. Let that sink in.
This entire experience felt like a luxurious vacation but just ten minutes from home.
Some hotels, post-pandemic, are still in recovery mode, leaving us a bit unimpressed or feeling that much of the experience we so loved has been removed. The opposite rang true with the Four Seasons. From the complimentary morning juice shots they sent to our rooms to the local amenities, turn-down service, and housekeeping, it was all very much alive and well. Even the meeting and event space spoiled us with individual coffee and food stations, making us never want to share another meal in a line. And if you’ve ever wondered, it’s possible [and wildly decadent] to use your Four Seasons mobile app to order vanilla cheesecake with candied lemon and berry compote while you watch your favorite show in the bathtub. #SweetDreams
It’s as though the great pause of 2020 bought us all some time to come back with more innovation, more creativity, and more ways to design world-class, out-of-the-box experiences that foster the meaningful connections we so long to experience.
So let it be known, friends: it can be done. We don’t have to sacrifice designing whimsy and revolutionary experiences for our clients despite the past year. Even with enhanced global health and safety programs, we can do all of this by using, as the Four Seasons would say it, the “timeless wisdom of the Golden Rule.”
There’s warmth in the forecast and a brightness cascading from the horizon ahead. So, this summer, MCW Events is hitting the roads, the waters, and the friendly skies to tell you and show you that the coast is clear[er]. We’ll be visiting vendors and venues, orchards and vineyards, the newest openings, and the most fabulous finds. And we can’t wait to share the stories of what we find and whom we meet [old and new]. We don’t even have to imagine it. We know what new experiences, creativity, and vision have birthed over these last 500+ days, and those stories, those ideas, are all worth telling.
Chances are, we just might be coming through your city. And we want to meet you. We want to buy you donuts [yes, you read that right]. It doesn’t matter what role you play in the industry. We’d like to know what you want to see and what you want to know. Send us in to test the waters. Invite us into your space. Let’s be the ones to collectively tell a new story and reset the industry that exists to gather people together.
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