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Considering Bringing Remote Workers Back to the Office? Consider This First…

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Upset person needing help with mental wellbeing issues

Mental Wellbeing Issues Emerge as a Major Side-Effect of COVID-19

One of the questions I’m frequently asked is, “When will the economy bounce back to pre-COVID levels so we can all get back to normal?” The answer: We won’t “bounce back” to a pre-pandemic economy, and “normal” won’t be the same. The details on this answer is a topic for another post, but suffice it to say that one of the reasons is due to emerging, unforeseen variables, such as deteriorating employee mental wellbeing issues.

And THAT IS the topic of this post. Two new surveys provide troubling but important data that will impact how – or if – you re-centralize your team…if that’s your plan.

See new data on your team’s mental wellness…

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Best Buy Blows Away Fiscal 2nd Quarter Estimates – Yet Its Stock Drops; Why?

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Best Buy store

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) had what appeared to be a big win this week, generating financial results that handily beat its fiscal second quarter estimates, driven largely by a huge 242.2% increase in ecommerce sales. Their fiscal second quarter, the 13-week period that ended August 1, 2020 was big, coming in at $9.910 billion – even in a COVID-19 ravaged quarter – fully 4% higher than the $9.536 billion in the same quarter in 2019.

And yet, the company’s stock value DROPPED on the announcement of their quarterly results. And in after-hours trading, Best Buy stock lost as much as 5% of its value. Why did that happen?

See why Best Buy stock got hit, on good news…

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A COVID Catastrophe – Emerald Reports 93% Drop in Q2 Revenues; Confirms Insurance Payments

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Emerald owns CEDIA expo

Owner of CEDIA Expo & CEPro Looks to Turn the Corner from COVID…Some Day

Emerald Holding Inc. (NYSE:EEX) – formerly Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. – released their fiscal 2020 second quarter results this week and it’s no surprise that they were brutal, as the company continues to find itself caught in a COVID catastrophe that is killing in-person events, like the very expositions they produce. With the second quarter covering the period of April – June, the previous peak of the pandemic’s infections and deaths (since exceeded), the company performance – as expected – was really challenged, with the bulk of their various trade shows and in-person events cancelled or postponed.

But the company did have one piece of good news…the insurance companies providing event cancellation insurance to the company have begun paying against their claims.

See an analysis of Q2 results for Emerald…

[Read more…] about A COVID Catastrophe – Emerald Reports 93% Drop in Q2 Revenues; Confirms Insurance Payments

Facing COVID-19 Fears: Eight Out of Ten Americans Fear a Second Wave

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Axios logo

A new survey from Ipsos/Axios had lots of interesting details about how Americans are feeling at this unique juncture in time, as states begin to reopen their economy, with a commensurate rise in cases of coronavirus. As many readers may know, this is an area…consumer sentiment…that I try to keep tabs on, as 70% of the U.S. economy is based on consumer sentiment.

And one piece of this research jumped off the page and grabbed me by my throat – 8 out of every 10 Americans worry about a second wave of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

See how consumers feel about COVID-19 now

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Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, A Popular High-End Event in October, is Canceled

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Photo of the venue where the now canceled Rocky Mountain Audio Fest RMAF was to take place
The Gaylord Rockies Resort where the now-canceled RMAF 2020 was to take place [Click to enlarge]

On Tuesday, promoters of the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest – a well respected and popular event for the high-end specialty audio segment – announced that they were cancelling the show scheduled for October 2-4, 2020 in Aurora, CO. Like many other industry events this year, the reason was due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

See more on the RMAF cancellation…

[Read more…] about Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, A Popular High-End Event in October, is Canceled

With Original Event Canceled, IFA Now Says It Will Hold a New Live, In-Person Show in September

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IFA 2020 is an all-new 3-day event in September 2020

Promoter Says It Is Putting ‘Health and Safety First’

Saying they are putting “Health and Safety first,” IFA announces they have received the appropriate government approvals to hold a live, in-person trade show event in Berlin this coming September. The announcement was a dramatic departure from their previous announcement in April cancelling this very event. But will anyone choose to attend?

See more on IFA effectively un-cancelling their show…

[Read more…] about With Original Event Canceled, IFA Now Says It Will Hold a New Live, In-Person Show in September

Consumers Look Through COVID-19 Lens to Form an Opinion of Your Brand

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COVID-19 consumer Brand Sentiment survey header

The race is on as marketers conduct myriad surveys to try and understand how the forced self-isolation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the consumer psyche now. Also, marketers want to determine if there will be any lingering effects in consumer sentiment – and perhaps more importantly, spending patterns – down the road, when life begins to return to some sort of normal again.

One thing marketers have discovered is that consumers are making judgments about your company and your brand, by looking at you through a COVID-19 lens – which, depending on your actions, could be either positive or negative.

See how your response to COVID-19 can make or break your relationship with consumers…

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Strata-gee’s COVID-19 Impact on Tech II Survey: What a Difference a Month Makes!

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Strata-gee COVID-19 Impact on Tech II Survey

Now completed, Strata-gee’s COVID-19 Impact on Tech II Survey is a follow-up study to Strata-gee’s original survey, COVID-19 Impact on Tech. If you haven’t read those original results yet, I would suggest you start there by clicking on this link as it will add context to the follow-up survey discussed here. And this time we learn that things have definitely changed in just five short weeks. In a nutshell, survey respondents report that the impact of COVID-19 this time around is much greater than in March.

See more of what the Strata-gee COVID-19 Impact on Tech Survey is telling us…

[Read more…] about Strata-gee’s COVID-19 Impact on Tech II Survey: What a Difference a Month Makes!

IFA 2020 Show, Scheduled in September, is Now Canceled

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A photo from a previous IFA show

All Eyes Turn to the Emerald City – San Juan Capistrano

IFA 2020, a huge consumer electronics show scheduled to take place in Berlin on September 4-9, 2020, is now canceled, the organization behind the event announced this week. It is yet another show joining a long line of mass, in-person marketing events to suffer this fate. The promoter is promising “an innovative new concept” to replace it – which some speculate will be a virtual online conference.

See more on this cancellation of IFA…

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Group of 20 Prominent Exhibitors Call on Producer of AXPONA to Cancel Event

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AXPONA signage from previous evenrt

Cites COVID-19 & Economic Hardship

In an “Open letter to Joel Davis of JD Events,” a group of 20 prominent personalities in the high-end specialty audio industry – who are also contracted exhibitors – call on the producer of AXPONA to cancel the event. AXPONA had already been previously rescheduled by its production company from the originally planned April 17-19 dates…to August 7-9, due to the expanding COVID-19 pandemic.

Now some exhibitors are publicly calling upon the show’s producer to fully cancel the event for 2020 altogether, as COVID-19 – and the economic damage it’s causing – continues to be a major issue.

See why exhibitors want AXPONA canceled…

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