Great news yesterday, as Covid19 hit its lowest infection rate since October 2021 in the UK. This is fantastic for events, connections and getting people together. We are in the process of planning in-person events for Winter 2022 – but it would be foolish not to think about our contingency planning, you need to have robust plans in place, should the situation change.
As part of our event planning we are always doing risk assessments. Part of the risk assessment is contingency planning – considering all the possibilities and options to overcome them. Covid19 contingency planning is just part of the risk assessment and is good practice.
Read our six solutions and suggestions:
1 Reduce event capacity
This would make the event feel more exclusive, only a limited number of people were there in person. This increases the opportunities for connections with more people and deeper connections.
2 Increase event space
If this is possible at no extra cost (though venues are keen to claw-back lost revenue) this can make your event feel safer for people attending.
3 Coloured wristbands to indicate your proximity to others
This is a great way for your delegates or attendees to decide how they want to interact with others. It makes it really clear and no-one needs to go in for the awkward hug or handshake without knowing if it’s going to be reciprocated.
4 Moving online
Event platforms such as Bizzabo, Hopin and Zoom Events are easy for us to configure and give delegates an engaging, interactive experience. We are adept at encouraging engagement from delegates and making attendees’ event experience as interactive and valuable as possible. We wrote about the tools we use here.
5 Regional hubs with event online
This works if you have multiple locations who are used to meeting together already. You can reduce travel and the risk by regional locations meeting together and your speakers broadcasting from one location to all regions.
6 Postpone until Spring
It looks like Covid19 rates are reducing overall, but with a spike or raise in numbers (albeit lower peaks) every 3 months. On that basis, it’s likely we’ll be looking at another peak at the end of October 2022 and the end of January 2023. Trends worth considering when planning.
How Autumn Live can help
At Autumn Live we often provide proposals for clients who are meeting in person and then want a back up to gather their delegates online. Though we love having a 3-6 month lead time for events we can put an event online within 4-6 weeks. This provides a backup to your face-to-face event, so you don’t lose traction, positioning or your launch schedule. Talk to us. Our 30 minute consultation is free and can help your thinking. Together we can work out if you need extra support or not.
