Relax, Accept, Recognize & Enable During COVID-19 Outbreak -Recommends Kubbra Sait to the Industry

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Industry Watch | April 9, 2020 | Guest Article

Kubbra Sait

With the outbreak of Coronavirus or COVID-19 making headlines for a while now, it seems only pertinent that we zoom into how this has potentially affected the LIVE Event Industry and what can be done to prevent this issue. As event professionals, we need to keep a few things in mind including what our role demands in such a situation, and what responsibilities we must take to reduce the impact of this outbreak.

In conversation with EVENTFAQS, Kubbra Sait recommends four steps - Relax, Accept, Recognize and Enable to the industry to fight against the slump caused by Coronavirus Outbreak.

“Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.”- The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.

We are a RARE breed. This 'We' is us, the hearts who eliminate the arrhythmia in the three hours of an experience created to please. An experience to recall, and yes, of course, open the opportunities to be rehired. We entertain and No! This isn’t a piece for artists alone. This is a piece for us the ones who create and collaborate experiences as a whole.

We are a special breed, of persons, who know the value of the NOW, perhaps more than anyone else. Everything we do in the now, the proverbial present and this is reflected in the perseverance over months of preparation. Each day is a minefield, the endless saga of unsure clients, presentations in progress, the half-cooked briefs, the smoke break debriefs and after the fact laughter filled rooms, much elusive to the number of times the artist made errors on stage.

We are a herculean crew, the invincible army. But, as they say, “The only easy day was yesterday.”

Every solider, today, in the event business, is recalibrating tomorrow. We can see and read about the world’s wheels to be coming to a grinding halt. The punch in the face will leave us with a broken septum but the question is, “will it leave us with a shattered soul?”

I could share a few things that have help me transition, from worry to wonder.

While the world, immediately started to self-isolate and flatten the curve and practice social distancing and build on talents they never had the time to cultivate, I actually took the time to sleep. God! Yes! I slept like a child.

1. Relaxation

The step one was Relaxation, spending time with myself, and ‘googling’ the above jargons to see why don’t I understand the use of the word “draconian” in my life… well, the reason is I’ve never had to use it. We have been living life in the right lane, fast and furious, never caring about even indicating for change of lanes. Never even considering it. Yes, such a comfortable life, when you run life on autopilot and AI, you become the robot.

So, yeah I slept. I woke up to lazy days and lazier evenings.

I didn’t immediately push myself or step into a renaissance. I actually slowed down. Moved to the left lane, and actually smelled the air, on that note hasn’t the air quality drastically improved?

2. Accepting

The second step for me was Accepting the situation for what it is: Yeah! I am not the only one and we are in it together. Refraining the fight against the unseen opponent, not only helped me save my energy and my existing skill but also allowed me to appreciate my bright spots as a talent and a human.

When you focus on creating something from limited resources you begin to appreciate life as itself. I remember when I was climbing Stok Kangri (6152 meters) on my birthday, the tent kitchen at 5000 meters cooked me a sooji cake, in a pressure cooker. It was different, and yet special. It doesn’t have to be enormous; it has to be felt and real. It was the fuel I needed to summit.

3. Recognize

Step three was to Recognize that we are all at the helm of starting as clean slates. So, I started rebranding the uncertainty as a challenge. Imagine the drawing board is fresh, you are the artist, imagine the colors and textures and the stories you can build NOW, more than ever. It reminded me of the time I had moved to Mumbai, ten years ago with nothing but dreams. It is now, the time for you to dream bigger than ever. Not only as an industry but also primarily as individuals. The idea brigade can now hone those unique skills, be different, instead of continually upgrading to be a better version of the existing Ios. It’s indeed a time to shift from being copyists to creators.

4. Enable

The last straw in the hat, at these times, is to Enable those blueprints you draw during this time. Its important to remember the chaos is outside, not inside. I, for the longest time, have believed that I make good efforts at executing ideas, now I want to be an enabler of ideas. So, ask yourself, what is it that you really want to do?

We all have a creative engine that is functioning on inexhaustible mind fuel; all personal ideas and experiences can be logged into different verticals of entertainment as a whole. What have you never tried before? What is the experience that you think people have been lacking? I mean really, there is an app called house party, which allows you to stay away and yet party together. It works. Experiment now. Diversify and segregate that basket of eggs, be who you’ve never been and for your own sake FAIL, but fail better every time.  As artists, we don’t need the cloud to put our work; we only need to get our heads out of the clouds.

Let’s get real with our dreams. Let’s be artpreneurs.

As I said earlier, we are RARE, so just: Relax, Accept, Recognize and Enable the change that lies on the unknown side. We are the tiniest fragments of the entertainment industry, a small part, which is big enough to be a whole.

So, for when the wheels of the world are oiled again, I’ll leave you with this quote from the film Dunkirk; “Ordinary people have the capacity to do extraordinary things.” 

And you my friend reading is anyone but ordinary.