In this fourth and final segment of my interview with Alan Ryan, we discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the strategic counsel that we give our clients, how PR practices have changed due to the travel lockdown, and how the intimate, personal human connections we're making more than ever affect our approach to marketing.

Alan Ryan: How has the pandemic changed PR practices or activities? I mean, are there any things you're doing differently now? And what are some of those that you think will remain in place, once this pandemic threat has passed?

Steve Schuster: Clearly, virtual meetings have been a big change for everybody, not just in PR. Our team is all working from home, just like at so many businesses. And we meet by Zoom every day and just coordinate and socialize. We probably spend actually more time socializing than we do actually discussing business, which is really, really important because the strength of a team and the dynamics of a team has to be protected and nurtured even as we can't be in the same room. And this is true for clients talking to analysts, clients talking to editors, PR people conversing with analysts and editors when they're pitching.

It's become very personal. I can't think of a conversation in recent months that hasn't had at least some element at the beginning of how you doing? How's your family? How are you getting along? How are you feeling, et cetera, et cetera. We're really, I think, there's a new level of intimacy that once it's established is just not going to go away. I like that because a big theme for me is emotion and emotional connection between our clients and their customers. Because that's where decisions are made. It's all about emotion. Decisions are made based on belief systems and not on data sheets.

Alan Ryan: Yeah. I completely concur with that. I feel like if we get on the phone with a reporter or an analyst now, they do say, "How are you?" They do chitchat. And I think it's because people perhaps have a little bit more time. They're not running off to a trade show. They're not running off to a meeting, a physical meeting.

Steve: And it's revealing how human we all are.

Alan: Yeah. It's really great. Well, speaking of things like trade shows when these things are not happening now, at least in the near term, are your clients looking for other activities they can do instead? And, if so, what are they?

Steve: Well, it's content. And the content can take many forms. It can be written content, it can be video content, all that can be consumed by the people that you would have interacted with at trade shows. For example, on video, you can do a virtual demo. You can do a virtual demo live on webinars. There's a lot of thought being put into how to communicate both in recorded time and in real time with customers.

And I think that that emphasis on content, it's going to continue. And it'll be interesting to see what the results are. Because for so many companies, going to trade shows is just part of the budget. It's like, okay, our competitors are going to be there. We need to be there. You hear everybody during the entire show grumbling about being there, saying this is the last year and all that. One thing that I recommended in a survey that was conducted by the CTA who run CES was to invest money right now. It's July, CES is in January. Invest money in the next six months in creating the gold standard of virtual trade show platforms. So, something that really acknowledges and recognizes and facilitates the most important things that people get out of trade shows. And that's typically demos and meetings.

So how do you bring together people who need something and people who are making something that would be a good match? And I think the trade show companies have a real opportunity to facilitate that. And we'll be right there providing air cover and content and talking points and media training and all that to augment that.

Alan: I appreciate your time again, Steve. And that's all we had time for today. And I look forward to talking with you again soon.

Steve: Thank you, Alan.