16th April 2020 By Shannon Williams | shannon@tourismticker.com | @tourismticker
The Ticker’s Lowdown on the Lockdown brings you a daily take from a tourism professional exploring new ways of working, sharing what life now looks like for them and just how much Covid-19 has changed what they do.
Shayne Forrest in his new home office
Shayne Forrest, general manager sales & marketing, Hobbiton, on making the most of family time, upskilling and personal goals, while trying to deal with the emotions that come with alert level 4 lockdown.
How have the last few weeks been for you? What was business like heading into lockdown?
The last few weeks have been the strangest times I’ve ever experienced. A week before lockdown we were celebrating the official opening of our new staff facilities. So, going from being a part of a thriving business to closing the doors within two weeks is quite unbelievable and still hard to get my head around. It has been a pretty emotional time for the whole Hobbiton team.
We are lucky we made the call early that we were going to be temporarily closing so by the time the lockdown was official, Hobbiton was secure and ready to hibernate for this period.
And how have you been settling into lockdown life?
I’m slowly adjusting to lockdown life. I tried to work in the living room for the first few days but found it was too difficult so I have moved into the spare room and set up an office in there. The move didn’t go as anticipated as my one-year-old son has now decided this is his new favourite room of the house so has relocated his potty beside my office chair and is using this time to potty-train… makes keeping a straight face during meetings a challenge.
As a social person from a social industry, my biggest struggle is the lack of interaction with people. I’ve always enjoyed talking with people and throwing ideas around. Zoom is great but it’s not the real thing.
One-year-old George has chosen Shayne’s office to potty train
What are your main priorities that you are focusing on right now?
Our main focus is looking after our staff and the staff members who have unfortunately been made redundant due to Covid-19. We’re trying to offer them as much support as we can during this tough time. I’ve also found this a really good time to connect with industry friends and colleagues to share ideas and support each other.
Like a lot of other businesses, we are working on an ever-evolving plan of what our business will look like on the other side of this.
From a personal perspective, my main priority is to try and be present with my family and enjoy a lot of quality time with them. Four weeks of forced family time is an opportunity we will probably never get again so I’m just making the most of it before the kids grow up and start school.
How are you communicating with your team? Do you have regular conference calls, video chats?
Zoom, Zoom , Zoom. We have a daily meeting with our leadership team and I have a couple of meetings a week with the sales and marketing team.
We have a full staff meeting every Monday that chief executive Russell Alexander leads to keep everyone updated and connected.
And how are you keeping up morale through this difficult time?
Lots of talking, lots of Snapchats and memes, and still just trying to have fun. We need to remember we’re a business built on fun so we still need to be able to laugh and enjoy ourselves, even during tough times.
Iso-highlight: Shayne, his wife Aimee and their kids Ruby and George enjoyed a two-night camping trip in the backyard
Can you tell us a bit about your bubble? What do you get up to in order to keep spirits up?
In my bubble is my wife Aimee, my daughter Ruby (4) and my son George (1). Our focus is trying to give the kids a bit of daily structure so things feel normal. We are making sure we have all our meals together and start the day with a walk around our neighbourhood.
I’m getting very good at Frozen puzzles. We’ve done painting, grown our own crystals, made volcanoes and built a swing from spare parts (I don’t trust my building skills so helmets must be worn at all times). I’d say the bubble highlight has been a two-night camping trip deep into the backyard.
Have you got any personal goals that you are hoping to achieve while in lockdown?
I’m trying to get my fitness back up with daily runs, which I’m enjoying. I’m really getting into the Business Wards podcast at the moment so I am listening to that while out pounding the pavement. I’m wanting to upskill with a few different online courses to brush-up on the ever-changing digital marketing world.
Have you got any messages of support for the industry that you would like to share?
We’re an amazingly resilient industry, this is going to be an incredibly tough time but this won’t beat us. Keep talking to each other and supporting each other, together we can get through this and have the opportunity to be better on the other side.
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