Kristen Adamo | Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau CEO and president
Patience is a virtue but it has never been one of mine. I walk fast, talk fast and am prone to saying things like “bottom line it for me.” I am teased a lot about my inability to wait in a line or sit in a traffic jam without visibly squirming.
This pandemic has been brutal in so many ways, but it has taught me one truly good thing – the power of patience. When the enormity of the situation I was in hit me, I did what I always do – I got to work. I did budget forecasts, developed strategies and started restructuring my organizational chart. I thought I could outwork and outsmart the virus. I was wrong.
We aren’t dealing with a specific incident or a specific problem. We are up against an organic, living thing that doesn’t care about my timetable or my spreadsheet. It will do what it wants to do and we will have to adapt.
I have learned that it is OK to not have all the answers right now. Rather, I make measured decisions based on the information I have at the moment. I have stopped trying to develop a recovery timeline. Instead, I am working on a recovery plan that can be implemented when the time is right. Mostly, I have learned to wait.
While the tourism industry has suffered so much, we have a solid base of meetings and sports business for 2021 through 2024. There will be more WaterFires and more Newport Folk Festivals. We will host March Madness next spring. Our future is bright. We just have to get there.
I will have patience.
