Face to face: Walk the talk

We sell the value of face-to-face connection to our audiences. Why not invest in that same connection for our own people?

If in-person connections are valuable enough to sell to our audiences, why undervalue them for our own people?

We say it all the time in event marketing:

“Nothing replaces face-to-face interaction.”

We encourage audiences to get on airplanes, book hotel rooms and spend valuable time away from their offices because we believe there is something different—and valuable—about being together in person.

It’s not about selling the most efficient way to exchange information. If that's all we wanted to accomplish, we’d offer a webinar, webcast or virtual event.

What we're selling is interaction: the unexpected question, the new relationship, the idea sparked over lunch and, yes, those hallway conversations we love to promote.

We know those things have value for our audiences.

So why wouldn't they have the same value for our own people?

Remote works. So does face to face.

I worked remotely for many years in a ROWE—Results Only Work Environment—and valued it enormously. I know firsthand that people don't need to occupy the same building to collaborate, build relationships or do great work.

But there's an important distinction between “We can accomplish this virtually” and “There is no additional value in doing this in person.”

There is.

Meeting a colleague you've worked with for years but perhaps never actually met. The idea that emerges because two people who don't normally interact happen to sit next to each other. The conversation that continues after the scheduled meeting ends.

Sound familiar?

They're exactly the kinds of interactions we just told our audiences were worth getting on an airplane for.

Put connection in the investment column

When the conversation turns to bringing a remote team together, it's easy to start calculating airfare, hotel rooms and time away from work.

“Couldn't we just do it on Teams?”

Yes, we probably could.

But cost and efficiency shouldn't be the only measures of value.

We routinely invest in courses, seminars and professional development because we expect employees to return with new knowledge, perspective and ideas. Intentional face-to-face connection can deliver many of the same benefits—while building relationships that make working together remotely even better.

That doesn't mean flying everyone somewhere to sit around a conference table—or worse, to sit in a conference room joining the same Teams meetings they could have attended from home.

It means being intentional about identifying the occasions when being together can create value that another email or scheduled video call can't.

Start with your own events

For media companies, there's an obvious place to begin.

Include more of your own employees in your events.

Not just sales, editorial and marketing. Bring some of the people behind the scenes—the employees who build and maintain the websites, registration forms and technology; handle production, invoices and customer service; and make countless other pieces work.

Let them see the final product their work helps create.

Let them meet the audience. Hear the questions. Watch the conversations. Understand what attendees and sponsors value. Give them opportunities to interact with colleagues and customers they may know only from a screen.

And don't underestimate the value of fresh eyes. Someone who isn't usually on site may notice a process that could be smoother, spot an attendee pain point or simply ask, “Why do we do it that way?” Fresh perspective on event operations can spark new ideas, too.

Yes, it costs money.

But perhaps we should view that expense the same way we view other investments in employee development, engagement and satisfaction.

And as a bonus, events can almost always use a few extra hands.

Walk the talk

Remote work has demonstrated just how much we can accomplish without being in the same room. We shouldn't lose that lesson.

But we shouldn't let it teach us the wrong lesson, either.

Being able to accomplish something virtually doesn't mean there is never additional value in being together.

We already know that. We build businesses around it. We ask audiences and advertisers to invest their own time and money in it.

Maybe it's time to make some of that same investment in our own people.

If face-to-face is worth investing in for our audiences, it's worth investing in for our employees.

Let's walk the talk.