We've all got backup plans for when things squirt sideways. However, nowhere in my binder of in-case-of-[insert catastrophe here] scenarios did I have a plan for an entire show being cancelled mere days before it was set to open – with my client's booth already set up in the exhibit hall.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society show (HIMSS) was scheduled for early March at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. Innovative Display & Design (IDD), where I'm an account manager, had designed and installed a stunning 50-by-70-foot booth for Nuance Communications Inc. to help it launch the Dragon Ambient Experience (DAX), an artificial-intelligence listening device for hospital exam rooms. The news was covering COVID-19 almost nonstop, but HIMSS management continued to reassure exhibitors and attendees that the show would go on.

On the Thursday before the show (which was set to open on Tuesday), our manager of client operations, Beth Maldonado, and I were on a late-morning flight to Orlando to ensure everything was ready. About 30 minutes before our flight landed, we received an email that HIMSS had been cancelled. We were stunned to say the least. HIMSS had stood its ground for so long that it seemed inconceivable that everything would collapse so close to open. But there it was. Done. Fin. Kaput.

Even before we landed, Beth and I were texting Amy Souza-Gagnon, Nuance's director of trade shows, to see how she wanted to move forward. It became clear that Nuance felt HIMSS was too big an opportunity to introduce DAX and wasn't going to let a little thing like a cancelled show stop it from launching its product. We needed to help the company come up with a new plan – and fast.

As soon as our wheels touched down, Beth and I headed to ground zero at the convention center. Late that afternoon, all the key players on the exhibit team jumped on a conference call to game plan a new strategy. Nuance reps had spent a lot of time prescheduling DAX demonstrations with showgoers, and they needed a meaningful avenue to connect with those prospects. Since those clients would now remain scattered across the globe, Nuance decided to execute live virtual demos of DAX.

Luckily, we had everything we needed right at the OCCC, including all the components to build a modified AI patient room. Plus, we'd already planned to record the demos to use in videos later, so we had cameras, lighting, and audiovisual equipment. Unfortunately, since HIMSS wouldn't allow us to use the venue for the digital operation, we'd have shift to a different locale. Ugh!

As luck would have it, nearby space availability really opens up when there's no show – go figure. Within a couple hours, Amy had nailed down a ballroom in a hotel only half a mile from the convention center. Meanwhile, Nuance's marketing executives and sales teams were diligently working to hold onto prescheduled meeting times and book new ones, and the design team started crafting video-feed-friendly design options for a new exhibit using components from the one being dismantled. By the end of the night, we had most of the pieces in place.

We headed back to the convention center early Friday morning to navigate the hurdle of getting our freight out of the venue. Everything we needed for our new setup had to be loaded onto our AV partner's truck by 11 a.m., and we had to finish dismantling the entire exhibit to get the necessary components. It was going to be tight. Thankfully, the crew kicked teardown into overdrive. In an all-hands-on-deck bit of teamwork, that exhibit came tumbling down faster than a toddler can topple a tower of bricks – but in a much more controlled fashion, of course. We got all the desired items into their crates and wheeled to the loading dock with minutes to spare. Our truck zipped in, we loaded it, and then it was off.

Once the exhibitry was out the door, we could relax a little. Just kidding! The entire team sprinted the half-mile to the hotel to start assembling our new exhibit. (Let me just say that we have some potential athletes for next year's rescheduled summer Olympics.) The freight arrived at the hotel, and the contracts with the venue were finalized. We hauled everything into the ballroom, and over the next three and a half days the team readied the exhibit, beginning by constructing a new 10-by-20-foot in-line studio perfect for livestreaming. The back wall was a large LED screen that would depict a patient-care room and play testimonials from doctors using footage that had already been filmed in preparation for HIMSS, as well as new video shot in the ballroom for the altered demo. On the right side of the stage we installed a faux hospital exam bed for the presenters to use, and lighting and cameras were set up to capture and stream the footage.

By Tuesday morning (when HIMSS was originally set to open), all the kinks had been ironed out, and Nuance went live with its first virtual demo. And over the next four days, the comany delivered virtual experiences to more than 350 clients and prospects all around the world. The "show" turned out to be an overwhelming triumph, so much so that Nuance has taken its act on the digital road by setting up a streaming operation at its headquarters to reach remote customers. Obviously, today's climate is like nothing we've ever experienced, but by working together and reacting quickly, we were able to keep innovating and delivering stellar results because, as we're fond of saying, the show must go on – even when it doesn't.