Brands
How COVID-19 will change live events
Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This was is the bedrock of every live experience. The ones that we remember most vividly are the ones that made us feel most ‘a-live’. And over the years with the advent of technology, communication, internet, this feeling can be enhanced with these tools.
The pandemic, however, has made a swift incision at the heart of the live event business. If you just look at the figures pouring in from different sources about the estimation of current losses, they are a staggering Rs 3000 crore in just two months in India alone. More than 10 million people employed in the industry have been impacted. It will, if it hasn’t already, force the industry to rethink its strategy entirely. The consumer journey is now different– the touch and feel of in person events is not involved right now. Going virtual, using technology and design thinking, is the need of the hour. We have already seen many platforms including venues like NCPA that have taken the staged experiences and brought them home. Ticket booking platforms like BookMyShow have widened their canvas to include online fitness classes and dance classes. Experiences that you never thought could be enjoyed sitting indoors, like Theatre, have already started adapting to the small screen format of your laptops and mobiles.
Can it be shown as it was on stage? Maybe.
Can it be made better to include the new consumption process? Absolutely.
That’s what will set the best experiences apart. It cannot be just a LIVE on ground experience anymore. It will have to be a Mixed Reality Experience.
Once things come back to normal, yes, events will happen again. In my opinion though, two things will need to be now evaluated:
What kind of experiences are the consumers seeking – those who are attending live and those who are not?
How will the event industry design an experience within this environment? It will have to move ahead from just another ‘Going live on a social media platform’. It will need to be more integrated.
Emotional connect will have to be elicited through consumers’ devices. Not just event managers but even artists will need to rethink their delivery of the experience. In India, thankfully, the event industry has a body like EEMA that enables discussions, debates and innovations and in unprecedented situations like this, the body provides a voice as well as support. This pandemic will hopefully also give rise to a collective body that will be a platform for freelancers, gig workers, artists to enable them to come together and keep innovating and growing.
(The author is TABHRASA founder. The views expressed are her own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them)
Brands
Lululemon picks former Nike executive to be its next chief
Heidi O’Neill, who helped grow Nike into a $45 billion giant, will take the top job in September
CANADA: Lululemon has found its next chief executive, and she comes with serious credentials. The athleisure giant named Heidi O’Neill as its new CEO on Wednesday, ending a search that has left the company running on interim leadership since earlier this year. O’Neill will take charge on September 8, 2026, based out of Vancouver, and will join the board on the same day.
O’Neill brings more than three decades of experience across performance apparel, footwear and sport. The bulk of that time was spent at Nike, where she was a central figure in one of corporate sport’s great growth stories, helping take the company from a $9 billion business to a $45 billion global powerhouse. She oversaw product pipelines, brand strategy and consumer connections, and played a significant role in shaping how Nike spoke to athletes around the world. Earlier in her career, she worked in marketing for the Dockers brand at Levi Strauss. She also brings boardroom experience from Spotify Technology, Hyatt Hotels and Lithia and Driveway.
The board was unequivocal in its enthusiasm. “We selected Heidi because of the breadth of her experience, her demonstrated success delivering breakthrough ideas and initiatives at scale, and her ability to be a knowledgeable change and growth agent,” said Marti Morfitt, executive chair of Lululemon’s board.
O’Neill, for her part, was bullish. “Lululemon is an iconic brand with something rare: genuine guest love, a product ethos rooted in innovation, and a global platform still in the early stages of its potential,” she said. “My job will be to accelerate product breakthroughs, deepen the brand’s cultural relevance, and unlock growth in markets around the world.”
Until she arrives, Meghan Frank and André Maestrini will continue as interim co-CEOs, before returning to their previous senior leadership roles once O’Neill steps in.
Lululemon is betting that a Nike veteran who helped build one of the world’s most powerful sports brands can do something similar for an athleisure label that has genuine love from its customers but is still chasing its full global potential. O’Neill has done it before at scale. The question now is whether she can do it again.
