Proceed with caution and a staggered strategy that complies with local and state laws while still fitting in with the company’s culture.
Rethink food service and distribution in open areas and meetings to cut down on and eliminate touch points.
Even the prospect of holding an in-person meeting during a pandemic is daunting, but it will become a necessity sooner or later.
Hosting meetings and events in a COVID-19-affected world has necessitated significant adjustments, especially on the part of planners and venues. To include the criteria for safe meetings and activities, venues should concentrate on a few main areas: health and safety policies, technology solutions, and safe food and beverage, to name a few.
Some people who attend offsite meetings enjoy exploring the city and taking advantage of any available leisure facilities.
This article delves into the topic of secure meetings and activities. We’ll look at how venues can completely equip themselves with the tools and services they need to get meetings and events back on track, as well as share guidance and tips from industry experts to help you get back on track.
Quick tips
• Proceed with caution and a staggered strategy that complies with local and state laws while still fitting in with the company’s culture.
• In the event that anyone on-site tests positive for COVID-19, implement early crisis preparation to avoid last-minute emergency response.
• To comply with social distancing criteria, have updated room layouts with chairs spaced apart, and maintain a record of all visitors and where they sat.
• Rethink food service and distribution in open areas and meetings to cut down on and eliminate touch points.
• When participants are not seated in an assigned seat, they must wear a mask.
Where to have the safe meetings?
Dates, prices, and space are no longer the only considerations. Health, performance, and openness are all important factors in the meetings and events industry of the future.
Although in-person meetings and activities have been paused, creativity has been ramping up, exploring long-term solutions to intractable issues like pandemics and uncovering new ways to be more effective at a larger scale.
One needs to look for a venue that is safe and also follows the norms of the government in the best manner. Your first priority is to keep the ones attending the event safe else it might turn into a COVID disaster.
Even the prospect of holding an in-person meeting during a pandemic is daunting, but it will become a necessity sooner or later. With the rise of virtual events, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your event stands out. In any case, it’s important that your company will provide the visitors with the best possible experience, whether it’s virtual or in person. We’ve gathered the following tips to help you maintain a high standard of service and hospitality while keeping social distancing and safety measures at the forefront.
Pay focus on the food service
If your meeting includes food and beverage service, you can find a different service protocol. When planning you event you need to provide the instructions to all for:
• Masks and gloves are worn by all servers.
• Attendants can serve the food if the party has chosen buffet service.
• Plated meals, drop-off catering, and chef stations, for example, are planned with limited mutual interaction in mind.
• Use water bottle with customized labels so that the bottles do not get mixed up.
• To keep silverware sanitary, it is rolled, and high-quality disposable napkins are provided instead of those that must be washed.
Mask is a must
Another form of social distancing is the wearing of a mask. States, counties, and municipalities can need masks, and mask orders may be lifted or restored as COVID-19 cases rise and fall. Guests should arrive prepared to comply with any and all local regulations. In certain cases, regardless of local regulations, the organisation booking the event may have a company policy requiring masks.
Most event venues will have additional protective masks on hand in the event that anyone arrives unprepared. In general, however, venue hosts should not be asked to provide masks or to track their guests’ mask use.
Make it interesting
Some people who attend offsite meetings enjoy exploring the city and taking advantage of any available leisure facilities. Occasionally, the company that is hosting the meeting will organise a fun activity. Team building is often aided by recreational activities. Meeting attendees can choose to extend their stay in order to take advantage of all that a location has to offer.
Understand the transition
Digital meetings are necessary right now, but so are secure bandwidth, reliable channels, good lighting and acoustics, and current devices. More than ever, the event must cater to your audience’s technical needs. Have the following in mind when doing so:
By removing the need for travel and allowing your audience to attend events from the comfort of their own homes, you will potentially increase the number of people who attend. However, you must be deeply acquainted with your virtual event’s capability and know how to add more bandwidth than is needed to handle a last-minute influx of attendees. Are you expecting a crowd of 100 people? Make enough bandwidth for 200 people.
Consider holding the event offsite, with panellists streaming live from a studio or recording sessions in advance. That way, you can collaborate with event management and execution experts to ensure that the event runs smoothly and with the same degree of professionalism as an in-person event.
Always have a contingency plan in place in case technology fails – as it will – and strive for redundancy in the technology. Have several Wi-Fi links, video outlets, and many tech experts on hand to test and re-test your audio-visual equipment, for example.
Conclusion
It is both an art and a science to organise an event. Tastefully furnished spaces and beautifully landscaped grounds showcase the craft. A perfectly plated dish, a well-mixed drink, and a decadent dessert are all examples of art. A well-designed meeting room with cutting-edge technology and all the conveniences demonstrates science. As venues find ways to host healthy meetings and activities, science is becoming ever more critical. The event organisers are experienced in both the art of hospitality and the science of keeping you safe. You can get in touch with them to get the best services for the planning of your event.
It’s crucial to communicate! Maintain clarity regarding service expectations and protection through communicating with participants, site managers, and catering staff.
It’s fair to say that in this new age, more due diligence is needed to ensure that you’re doing everything possible to ensure the safety of your staff, vendors, and event attendees. Events and gatherings, on the other hand, will not slow down or stop; rather, they will continue to evolve, whether online or in person.
