Nicole Walker, Arinex COO, sat down with CIM Business Events recently to discuss recovery planning. Read on to see the full interview.

What has been the impact of Covid-19 on the business? Arinex has seen nearly all events up to and including May 2020 either postpone or cancel and that has been very difficult for all staff involved, let alone additional work for no return. What this means is that relatively busy months we expected in the short term will soon be the opposite as our planned work has been delayed or is no longer required. It is reassuring though that the majority of these events have postponed to later this year or early next year so the work and the revenue has simply shifted.

How did you cope with the sudden halt to activity? We have eight speciality business units at Arinex; Accommodation, Conference Organising, Delegate Services, Destination Management, Marketing, Special Events, Sponsorship and Exhibition, Technology and our operations are well supported by Finance, HR and Admin

Founder Roslyn (McLeod) has intentionally grown the business this way to make us resilient to crises. We are also fortunate that our financial structure, with a Trust Account for client funds means that our clients are reassured that their money is protected during this uncertain time.

The road ahead? Whilst we focus on the situation at hand we must also look forward and start planning for when this crisis is over. The team has been hard at work in many different areas focusing on how we can bounce back from this hurdle and accelerate us into the future.

Above all, it is important to remain calm, to communicate effectively with clients, delegates and partners and to continue monitoring this rapidly-evolving situation so that we can react quickly and appropriately.