MAP Digital’s Virtual Event Portraits: from the Ballroom to the Kitchen Table
Meghan Swift
How long have you worked for MAP Digital?
It will be 16 years this September. I was working as a Theatre Equity Stage Manager in Boston when Mary Ann Pierce called me to help out with a corporate conference that MAP Digital was producing. When I started, I worked part-time as onsite event support until I moved to San Francisco; at that point, I became a full-time producer for MAP Digital. Working mostly remote, but being able to see the MAP Team onsite at events. Over the next few years, I was part of the team that developed the MetaMeetings Platform which runs the webcasting and other digital aspects of our client’s events. The platform helped our company grow and enabled us to seamlessly go virtual when COVID-19 struck.
What is your role with MAP Digital?
Since joining the MAP Digital team my role has evolved with the company, from onsite event support, to project manager to producer and now COO and Executive Producer. While supporting onsite events, I worked from the conceptual stage through the final roll-out of MetaMeetings by ensuring both client and internal needs were captured, supervising the programming, testing, and implementing the final product on site. As the company grows, my everyday responsibilities grow. I help manage the client requests for upgrades to MetaMeetings, I supervise all of MAP Digital productions and manage the core team of Event Producers. I also am the Account Executive for our banking clients; ensuring their production needs are met and offering strategic planning for the event season’s needs.
How do you see the events space changing in the age of COVID?
I believe COVID will change the behavior of both the attendee and the event planner in that both will be looking for more web-based interactivity even after we return to in-person events. For the near future, in-person events, as we know them, will be non-existent. Now, event planners need to have comprehensive virtual access for both the presenters and the attendees. I anticipate that attendees and companies will continue to scrutinize the need for travel and to conduct “in-person” events, especially once the novelty of finally being able to travel again wears off. The COVID pandemic has shifted priorities of businesses and families to one where health and safety are paramount. I would expect these shifts in the collective behavior to continue to shape the new world of events.
What is your funniest COVID WFH story?
Oh, anything to do with Owen, my 6-year-old son making himself a part of my conference calls. The other day he approached me looking really sad, and so I excused myself to ask him what was wrong. He proclaimed he “needed bacon”. It was a good laugh for my coworker and me!
Have you picked up any new hobbies or revisited old ones during quarantine?
Well, I’m now a 1st grade teacher! Haha. Now that our son is doing Distance Learning, my husband and I have become his surrogate teachers. It’s exhausting and teachers should get paid more. Full stop.
What is the most challenging part about this ‘new normal’?
The “Groundhog Day” effect. It’s hard to not do much outside of our new routine of work, school, eat, sleep. It’s VERY hard to be two full time working parents who now have their son home full time as well. We are making it work with love, patience, and a lot of dance party breaks!
How do you unplug at the end of the day when working and living has meshed into the same place for the past 5 months?
Living in California, I have always worked from home. However, with the COVID lockdown, I have had to move my schedule around to accommodate both the homeschooling of our son and also the growing demand for MAP Digital’s services globally. I try to break up my day by getting outside for walks and finish the day by watching TV or sitting outside with a glass of wine.
©Ellie Kurttz Photography
