COVID-19 (Coronavirus) has Severely Impacted the International Business Community, especially the Events Industry
The events industry is taking a big hit as major events are being cancelled, because event managers & attendees alike are naturally concerned about holding & attending large public gatherings.
Event organizers have an important responsibility to make sure they are well informed & if necessary, prepared to take responsible decisions on whether to cancel future events or continue to hold them. Obviously, of course, your major responsibility is to keep your participants safe.
But this does not mean one should panic & start cancelling events, thereby negatively impacting your business or conference & obstructing the dissemination of important information.
With the availability of Live Event Webcasting technologies, cancelling an event is not the only available option. Event organizers can now choose to significantly limit the number of onsite attendees by offering Live Webcasts of the conference or meeting.
This would mean that the only people physically present at the event could be the presenters, managing staff and maybe a few select invitees. In fact, events can be webcast from corporate or association boardrooms or offices, limiting physical attendance even further, while offering the same benefit to their audiences.
Not only would this be greatly appreciated by audience members, but also by presenters, who might otherwise have been reluctant to attend. In fact, with the technologies available today, even the presenters could be piped in remotely from their own offices or homes.
Audience interaction & real-time participation is not an insurmountable issue…
Live Interactive Chat screens alongside the Video screen allow for audience feedback & questions to the presenter, who could answer them online & in real-time!
Technology then, should be your defiant response to this pandemic, which might otherwise have been a major obstacle to the gathering of people for sharing information & conducting business.
No more restrictions need to be applied for the event – ‘social spacing’, washing hands, coughing, sneezing or any other safe practices – which would otherwise be essential for preventing spread of the disease.
In fact, even people who are actively infected or sick can now “attend” the meeting or conference without the danger of transmitting the infection to others!
Hopefully this information is of some help to you and your organization, to allow you move forward with your busy events season, without hindering your business or the sharing of vital information.
If you are concerned about making a decision whether to cancel an upcoming conference, workshop, symposium town hall meeting or any other event, give us a call at 604.970.5055 or send us an Email  to see how we can help you overcome this obstacle to conducting business as usual.
For those event managers who would still, against the advice of health officials, insist on hosting large gatherings, the CDC has provided some tips on implementing safe practices at events:
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Some More Resources:
Resources for Large Community Events & Mass Gatherings
