Talking Tourism Episode 84 - How Do You Do Mass Gatherings In A Socially Distanced World?

Madi Seeber-Peattie had been working in the events industry for more than 15 years when COVID-19 restrictions hit the industry hard. As owner/manager of Hobart's Farm Gate Market, Street Eats @ Franko and the Food and Beverage Collective, Madi lives and breathes mass gatherings. Her various ventures typically saw up to 10,000 people through the gates every week, and one of them depended entirely on interstate visitors. So what do social distancing and density restrictions mean for the mass gatherings world?

For Madi, it meant losing 85% of a market's revenue overnight, farewelling half of her core team, and cancelling a number of business events.  But it also meant finding innovative ways to offer essential services like a drive-through farm gate market service, strengthening relationships with suppliers, and tapping in to a Tasmanian market that was serious about supporting local. 

In this episode, TICT's Emma Azon-Jacometti chats with Madi about what COVID-19 has meant for large-scale events in Tassie, and discovers that there just might be more positive take-homes than you'd expect.