Diffusing innovation in times of disasters: considerations for event management professionals

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed the world, with confirmed infections threatening the health and lives of millions. Consequently, many hospitality and tourism organizations ceased operations temporarily, including the cancelation or postponement of large and small events. As lockdown measures begin to ease, events will be some of the last to re-open due to their non-essential categorization. Utilizing the diffusion of innovation theory from crisis management literature, nineteen in-depth interviews were conducted with senior event management professionals to explore how the events industry is innovating its service offerings in response to COVID-19. As the industry is forced to change its practices radically during the pandemic, findings reveal an interconnected innovation web modeled through the lens of diffusion of innovation theory. As a result, this research implies the need to develop a new type of innovation theory for the events industry that can be applied during extraordinary unprecedented disasters.