With many now able to plan for the safe reopening of business events, the US-based Go LIVE Together campaign/ECA (Exhibitions and Conferences Alliance) has partnered with Epistemix, a leading provider of analytical tools designed to understand the spread of infectious diseases, to model anticipated risk levels for events planned in 2021. Using this model, the partners say they were able to:
• Forecast the potential level of immunity at a given date based on historical infection rates at a given location, different assumptions about vaccination rates, and future potential impact of new variants
• Estimate the likely number of infectious people who may attend based on the size of the event and origin of attendees
• Calculate the number of infections that might expected at an event given the range of protective measures that could be implemented.
The partners claim that, with the health and safety measures the events industry has voluntarily adopted, and given current infection and vaccination rates and projections, the scientific model by Epistemix predicts nearly a 0% transmission rate of Covid-19 at an event hosting 20,000 people this summer.
Business events around the world have leveraged current medical information and are working with local health officials to define what “safety” means in a post-Covid-19 world. Click here for a full list of health and safety guidelines.
The Go LIVE Together coalition, through the ECA, is now taking these models to the top tradeshow cities in the United States to request reopening plans. This effort comes at a critical time, when state leaders are beginning to define next steps for their local economies, including California governor Gavin Newsom, who recently announced his plan for a 15 June reopening. Encouraging news, but Newsom’s plan includes attendee caps and testing and vaccine-verification requirements that some eventprofs believe would make hosting successful business events all but impossible. These restrictions put California and states with similar guidelines at risk of losing major events —as seen with the American Public Transportation Association’s recent decision to move their event from California to Florida.
The coalition says it is working to help state leaders understand the economic impact of business events, as well as the industry’s commitment to adhering to health and safety guidelines and the planning required to produce an event, so that local guidelines can be adjusted to allow a reopening of events across the nation.
The Society of Independent Show Organisers (SISO) and ECA are urging the sharing of this overview of the importance of business events, encouraging evidence of the industry’s ability to reopen safely and the need to take action today in order to plan for events scheduled months from now.
