As Australia tries to keep pace with a rapidly changing business and social landscape in the wake of COVID-19, we’re leading the way delivering essential content to our communities, writes Momentum Media director Alex Whitlock.
We are in unprecedented times.
How we are advised to engage personally and professionally seems to change by the hour as the authorities grapple with the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the impact that new measures have on the economy.
Our government is seeking to support the Australian economy through stimulus packages as well as helping to underpin businesses – ensuring they can keep Australians in jobs and best prepare the nation for the challenging times we have ahead of us.
That’s reassuring news for our communities as they plan for an uncertain future, however there’s no question that the period ahead will test many organisations.
The speed at which this crisis unfolds domestically and globally has deeply impacted everyone as we try and keep events in perspective while looking towards a return to normality.
While we have little control over the conditions we find ourselves in, we can adapt to the environment – and Momentum is in a strong position to ensure we keep our communities connected, engaged and better informed.
What have we done so far? We’ve resourced our content team to ensure our audiences have the business information and intelligence they need to make smarter business decisions.
We’re committed, across all our markets, to deliver timely and insightful analysis as it happens; our journalists and writers are the best in the business, we back them and we back your industry.
We have also moved quickly to position our awards business so that we can maintain continuity across all our programs.
Some of them we may reschedule to the back end of 2020 based on the needs of our partners, however we're going to press ahead across the majority of our awards programs and deliver them as live broadcasts.
That means we'll undertake our awards nomination and submission processes based on our usual timings.
We’ll also have greater bandwidth and creativity to reveal our finalists, highlighting the secrets of their success, telling their stories and profiling their organisations to support business growth.
We’re very excited about this opportunity and we will release more details shortly.
Importantly, our awards sponsors will be able to amplify their experience across all our programs: more connectivity with all participants, deeper engagement across our media platforms and greater value throughout the entire awards delivery process.
For our physical conferences and other business gatherings, we’ve also moved quickly to rethink how we can continue to deliver these programs, with an increasing focus on virtual events and broadcasting.
This is not new territory for us and we are well resourced with best-of-breed in-house capabilities to deliver. We’ve been broadcasting for years.
More than a decade ago, Momentum was one of the first media businesses to embrace and commit to utilising new, emerging channels to connect with its audiences. For example, The Adviser broadcast its first news video in 2009, quickly reaching an audience of over 2,000+ weekly viewers.
Since then our audio and broadcast business has evolved exponentially; we now deliver live webcasts, live broadcasting, live Q&As and other events as well as webinars. We’ve also created a podcast operation that is considered one of Australia’s best.
Today our podcasts and broadcasts reach a combined audience in the hundreds of thousands each and every month, with multiple activities taking place daily and often simultaneously.
While the current crisis is an unfortunate one, it is also a significant opportunity for us to further develop our capabilities, delivery and better understand the needs of our communities – and keep innovating via new communication channels.
At a time that many people feel increasingly isolated as the workforce adapts to social distancing, we are working hard to make sure that our audiences have access to thought leadership, strategy and best practice in their respective fields.
We look forward to running the events that our communities value so much as quickly as possible, but for now we are focused on meeting the current needs of the marketplace – and we look forward to playing our part.
It’s business as usual for us across our media operations, with up-to-the minute commentary and analysis for all our audiences via our digital channels plus the long-form analytical journalism delivered across other mediums that Momentum is renowned for.
This is a time for resilience, resourcefulness and measure – and where possible a hint of humour to help see us through adversity. Let’s all stay connected.