In Crisis – Travel Retail Voices: Heidi Van Roon, Spark Business Services Group : Moodie Davitt Report

There’s something that’s goin’ round, that’s shutting our borders down
It’s a bad time for our sick and our old
CNN’s nightly lullaby, tells of hundreds more that’ve died
I shut off the TV and think all alone, how long can this go on? – Jeff Orson, Pray

Welcome to In Crisis – Travel Retail Voices, our podcast series in which we speak to industry executives around the world to see how they and their businesses are coping with the COVID-19 crisis.

Today’s episode features Heidi Van Roon, a leader, a mentor, and a perennial champion of the entrepreneurial spirit. Heidi is the Founder and CEO of Spark Business Services Group in Vancouver, a best-in-class staffing and recruitment firm for luxury retail, specialised in the airport environment.

Heidi is an enthusiastic, engaging personality, describing herself as a savvy strategist with a soft heart. Now she’s having to deal with the reality of a business that’s been stopped in its tracks, in line with what’s happening across the North American aviation industry. Martin Moodie caught up with Heidi in Vancouver last week by phone and discovered that she’s down but most certainly not out.

It’s a particularly compelling episode for anyone interested in the critical question of how to promote retail to airport passengers who may be wary of human engagement so soon after the peak of the COVID-19 crisis.