What it’s like to go to a conference in the pandemic
Masks, pre-packed chicken lunches and a whole lot of space
NORFOLK — It wasn’t that long ago in Hampton Roads when several hundred well-dressed businesspeople met with regularity inside hotel ballrooms, shaking hands and mingling, often sitting at round tables with numbers in the center and a name to denote who had paid for all eight-to-10 seats. There would be chicken and a plated dessert in view during the main course, and a basket of rolls and salad dressing to pass around. Coffee poured tableside? Why sure.
That’s what it was like on Feb. 28 when more than 800 people packed into the Chesapeake Conference Center for the annual “State of the City” event, which the Hampton Roads Chamber holds in several of the region’s cities. There were no masks, no temperature checks at the door. It was a different time. We knew not what March would bring.
Fast forward to Tuesday for the
Chamber’s annual State of the Region event presented by Old Dominion University’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy, an event that typically attracts about 700 people.
It was held inside its usual venue, a sprawling Norfolk Waterside Marriott ballroom, but about 120 people were spread among 32 tables sitting five seats each. Several tables sat empty.
After getting a forehead temperature check and being told where to sit, there was masked mingling, fist bumps and jokes of “air hugs.” Attendees then headed to tables already laden with the meal. There was a pre-packed, lidded chicken breast salad with baby greens, golden beets, sweet potatoes, grape tomatoes, a polenta crescent and parmesan crisp. Packets of ranch and Italian dressings sat beside a condimentsized packet of hand sanitizer. The usual tempting dessert — a deep dish caramel apple pie — also sat nearby, this time in a box with a plastic lid. A similar container held an individual roll and wrapped pats of butter. A glass pre-filled with iced tea had a cover on top. Coffee would be self-serve.
Even the menu noted that the room had been “electrostatically sprayed prior to your entrance to ensure a sanitized space,” and the food had been served in compostable containers.
The Chamber has become the canary in the convention hall, if you will, working jointly with the region’s venues to figure out ways to host these types of in-person events again with safety at the core.
“It’s a whole extra level of planning,” said Priscilla Monti, the chamber’s senior vice president of programs and communi
cations.
At the Marriott, “we came up with these bento box-like meals,” she said of the chicken salads. The goal was to limit the amount of contact people made with other people, including server staff. There were none visible, until just before and after the event.
The Chamber made a point to give each presenter his or her own remote clicker to advance the slideshows and individual microphones, whatever they needed. It just couldn’t be shared. To avoid passing around a microphone in the audience at Tuesday’s event for questions, attendees were told to text queries directly to presenter Robert McNab, director of ODU’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy.
McNab said he normally likes to walk among the crowd of tables to gauge reactions, especially to register some of his laugh lines. Knowing that everyone would be wearing masks this year and he would be stuck behind a podium talking about an unprecedented pandemic, he said he wasn’t going to even try to tell any jokes this year (although he snuck in a couple).
There have been other quirks to become accustomed to. At the Chamber’s Valor Awards — honoring first responders — in August, there was a maximum capacity limit of 50 people at the time in the Chesapeake Conference Center space and 36 honorees, leaving no room for sponsors. There were no usual handshakes or poses for photos after accepting awards, just trophies placed on tables for honorees to go on stage to retrieve alone.
“It felt a little awkward, but that’s
just the way we have to do things now,” Monti said.
So far, she said, there’s been no pushback from attendees on having their forehead temperatures taken at the entrance or being required to wear masks. Each table at the State of the Region event was reminded to put them back on after they finished eating.
Jay Walker, an assistant professor of economics at Old Dominion, said he appreciated having the option of attending in person or watching a live-stream online.
If he missed anything from the before times, he said while wearing a gray gaiter scarf covering half of his face, “It was a little more difficult to recognize people.”
It was easier to spot Norfolk City Manager Chip Filer, who wore a black mask with the city of Norfolk logo and his name embroidered on the side. Filer, a former ODU economist who had routinely led presentations at similar events in years past, said it felt largely the same except for “seeing a heck of a lot fewer people.”