After at least three weeks of talking nonstop about the effects of coronavirus on the live event industry, including explaining force majeure and event cancellation contract provisions to anyone who would listen, I am exhausted. I am also worried, not so much about the virus itself since I am diligent about my hygiene and social distancing, but about paying my bills when none of my clients are working. Like many of you, I am an independent contractor. More on that below.
In the interest of mental health, my own as well as yours, this seems like a fine time to return to the much more enjoyable subject I was originally going to discuss last time: baseball and bumper cars. All of my presentations for at least the next couple of months are already off the calendar, so I recorded a video discussion of the Summer J. v. United States Baseball Federation case. Working remotely doesn’t preclude seeing your friends. Thanks for letting me into your home.
My next recording session is scheduled for early next week, when I will host an Event Safety Podcast entitled, “While We’re All Hunkered Down.” (Available wherever you get your podcasts.) We’re going to offer our best glass-half-full take on the current situation by suggesting useful things event professionals might do to pass this downtime without going nuts.
As a preview, some of the serious things I’m going to suggest will include performing overdue equipment maintenance, updating staff training and certification you can’t do when everyone is busy, updating planning and operational documents, and fixing contracts so they offer protection you might have lacked this time. All of these are based on the idea that this bleak period will end, hopefully relatively soon, and when it does there’s going to be A LOT of pent-up demand for all sorts of mass gatherings. I envision Mardi Gras every day for a while. That sounds really nice, doesn’t it?
I can help with much of this sort of work. And since I am in the same predicament as you, I am inclined to be very flexible about prices and payment terms. So if there is a project you’d like to undertake now to prepare for the recovery, get in touch with me. It will be worth your while.
Until we see each other in person again, be clean, keep your distance, stay informed, and be safe, wherever you are.