Reopening Maine | #LAadapts

On Friday, May 1st, the stay healthy at home mandate is set to expire in Maine. The April 23rd press conference offered up a vision for reopening from Governor Mills, but offered no details, dates, or plans. Science tells us a safe and sustainable reopening won’t be a switch that quickly returns us to life like before. Economic markers tell us that Maine’s economy remaining closed won’t work for our businesses or people. We are hearing from some members that ordering and delivery of goods to prepare for a Friday opening are underway.

What should you do? Seek out industry-specific information, follow global sources of trends and solutions, and connect with your local peers. Look for key links below.

Food Service: A look at the future of in-restaurant dining. Quick-service restaurant and the (longer-than-imagined) shift to delivery and takeout can be found here.

Events + Meetings: Group size, travel restrictions, and the physical environment and space of venues are all factors for 12-18 months.

Retail: Changes in operations to retail will be key, as will monitoring changes in customer preferences and behaviors as a result of COVID-19. Shifting to e-commerce is more important than ever to explore.

Manufacturing: Safeguarding your workforce is going to be paramount. Find out if you are ready.

Customer Care: Continue with messaging to the customer, embrace the remote workforce- and adopt digital self-service (the last one surprised us too).

Everyone: If you work with people, regardless of industry, the way you manage your team will be changed. Prepare by reading more.

Key links and resources

We are offering sessions 5/4-5/6 to provide the most current information about checklists for the badging program at DECD known at that time, and pull forward example reopening plans and considerations. These sessions, at their core, will create a virtual environment for local business and community leaders to: