How to hold safer meetings in the world of Covid-19

Covid-19 has changed the normal practice of business meetings, conferences, conventions and exhibitions and the ones that take place have been scaled down and are far fewer. However, one of the things to look forward to is holding larger events and getting together again and this article looks at some of the things we need to consider.

Hopefully, some of these measures will be a thing of the past, once the vaccines are rolled out. However, the events industry needs to recover confidence and trust, including the readiness of participants to travel and mix with each other and for their employers to feel comfortable about travelling and sending them to meetings. It is important to recognise that there is a shared responsibility between event organisers, venues, suppliers and attendees in terms of adhering to guidance from government and public health organizations. Wherever possible we need to minimise contact between event staff and attendees to reduce risk of Covid transmission. So, what should we be checking, as well as the usual items on a site visit

Venue finding

There is no doubt that more space will be needed to hold an event to enable social distancing, consider all elements, including where to put people if there is a bottleneck:

• Meeting rooms (layout and capacity)
• Catering spaces
• Registration area
• Corridors, staircases and elevators
• Entrances and exits
• Public areas, lavatories, business centres

Carry out a risk assessment of the venue against set criteria, both before confirming with the venue and again before the event takes place.

Site visit

There is no substitute for carrying out a site visit to the venue, but venues are making much more information available and have new floorplans and capacity charts. Many are offering virtual site visits which will means you can evaluate more venues.

Venue equipment

Find out what the venue can provide, for example, you may need:

• Perspex screens
• Directional signage and distance marking on the floor
• Barriers or one-way systems and the ability to restrict the number of entrances
• Hand sanitizing stations
• Mask stations
• A separate area if you going to check temperatures of people arriving, or even on a daily basis
• Drop off and collection points to sanitize equipment
• Does the venue have fogging equipment to sterilize the space and how often is it used

Venue Accreditation

Check the venue’s accreditations. The two main accreditations in the UK are Visit Britain’s We’re Good to Go and AIM Secure. In addition, there are many others such as the HBAA and Quality in Tourism’s Safe Clean & Legal, AIPC, ICCA and UFI’s Good Practice Guide, COVID-19 Certify, COVID-19 Control, COVID-19 Aware and AA’s COVID-19 Confident. Hotel groups have introduced their own standards and best practices such as such as Hilton’s CleanStay programme and Marriott International’s Global Cleanliness Council.

Ventilation

Agree the air conditioning and ventilation settings with the venue for the duration of the event and do not allow anyone to alter the settings. Airborne transmission is one of the ways that Covid-19 is spread and ventilation needs to be excellent to make event spaces safe. Venues need to have a good airflow, HEPA or MERV-13 air filters (check when were they last cleaned or replaced?). Negative-pressure systems or portable filters should be used in enclosed spaces or areas which don’t have windows to open, these will pull air away from people and filter it before it is inhaled again. Ceiling fans and air vents should be directed away from people. Humidity should be between 40-60% to minimise transmission.

Doors and windows can be kept open to improve ventilation, particularly in public and catering areas, using plants or partitioning to make the area private.

Registration

• There are various options for minimising contact at registration:
• Send the badge in advance (mail or email) and the attendee assembles it themselves
• Send a QR code or information to go in a digital wallet
• Self-service touchless kiosks
• Use an event app, which can have an individual barcode

It’s a good idea to spread the arrival time to avoid people queuing, so find out how people are travelling and when to manage the area.

Social distancing

Wristbands are available to alert people they get too close. You can set the distance to whatever the local requirement is or your own setting if preferred. It works on Bluetooth and the wristband vibrates, buzzes or flashes when two people are too close. These will also retain data on where attendees are and who they are close too, if contact tracing is needed at a later date.

If you’re not going to use a technology solution, think about who is going to be responsible for enforcing social distancing onsite and how they are going to do it.

The programme

Stagger the timing of meeting sessions, so everyone isn’t in the corridors or swapping meeting rooms at the same time causing a bottleneck. Allow enough time for meeting rooms to be cleaned between sessions, disinfecting of tables, chairs, a/v equipment etc.

Think about whether the presenters can change rooms instead of the audience. Can speakers take microphones with them rather than changing them if they go to another room?

Ask attendees to book breakout sessions, so that you can manage the capacity, make sure the room isn’t overcrowded and you know who is in which room in case contact tracing is needed.
Could attendees book a track of breakouts, rather than select individual sessions? Maybe breakout sessions need to be repeated to cover all attendees.

How are you going to manage questions in a session? Can you use the event app or other software, rather than passing a microphone around the room.

Water – there won’t be a group of attendees around one table, so it won’t be possible to give them bottles or a jug of water to share. They will need one each, or do they bring their own in? What about the waste in our world of social responsibility?

Contactless scanning can be used to monitor numbers in different areas of the venue and control access if meeting or catering areas are full.

Consider using semi-outdoor or outdoor space, weather providing. Venues are creating different spaces such as using terraces, lawns or marquees.

Stagger the timing of breaks and meals, to avoid too many people in the area at one time. Are you going to serve a box or plated meal? Buffets are still an option, if they are served by staff behind a Perspex screen, one server per dish and the attendee holds the plate under the screen. More food stations will be needed to get people through quickly. However, this requires extra staff from the venue, so make sure they plan accordingly.

Without a doubt more space will be needed to make sure everyone is socially distanced, for seated meals you should only place 3 people on a 6” round table to keep them separate. Also, everything will take longer than previously to maintain social distancing, so build this into the programme.

Have a back up team of staff available in case one or more of the members of staff onsite comes in to contact with someone who has Covid or needs to self-isolate. Different people will need to take over immediately.

Communications

Communication is more important than ever.

Agree the safety protocol and let everyone know what it is beforehand. Issue a clear Code of Conduct, which makes the rules clear and who is responsible for making sure they are adhered to. The venue will have a protocol in place, but you will also need them for your event. Things to include are:

• Mask wearing (you might want to provide masks, to make sure they are the same standard)
• Social distancing
• Use of sanitizer and hygiene measures
• Temperature checks
• Social bubbles

Onsite, an app is an easy way to distribute information and attendees need to know how important it is to read notifications. It is also a safe and private way to exchange information.

Are you going to ask attendees to sign a Covid waiver before they attend? Take legal advice about this and understand your liability.

Covid screening and sick attendees

Consider whether you are going to have a medical professional onsite. Do you want to take people’s temperatures on arrival or at the start of every day? Or do you want them to bring a clear test result, as some countries immigration now require? Or would you consider bringing in a private medical company to test onsite?

Abbott Labs have developed a Covid test, BinaxNOW that costs about $10 and will give results in around 15 minutes. The priority is to issue this to health professionals in the US first, but it could be made commercially available in 2021.

The event organiser needs to have a procedure if someone has Covid. A hotel will have a quarantine protocol, but an attendee needs to be informed in advance how a quarantine experience in the hotel room will work, such as medical services, food and beverage and any additional cost. If they need to go to hospital, how will this be organised.

Make sure you have excellent attendee records so contact tracing can be carried out and have a communication plan to inform all attendees if there’s a problem. Ask people inform you if they fall ill within two weeks after the event too, so that you can let everyone know.

Give aways

Free gifts are an event favourite, but how do you make them safe? You might want to send them to the attendee before or after the event. Consider the purpose of the item, is it to generate excitement or interest, do they need to bring it with them? Or maybe it’s a follow up or thank you.

This is by no means a comprehensive checklist, but just to help when planning future conferences, meetings and events. For more information or help to find a venue, contact [email protected]