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INDUSTRY VIEWS

Re-Opening Guidelines

MIKE LORD is a board member of SA Events Council.

Safety first for the events industry

As event specialists, our priorities must focus on the safety of our performers, attendees and practitioners, writes Mike Lord.

As we enter Alert Level 1 in South Africa, the relaxation of regulations around capacity at events has allowed for a 50% venue capacity capped at 250 pax indoors and 500 outdoors. While not ideal for the reopening of the industry, this adjustment has at least allowed for smaller events to start operating albeit not yet at a financially viable level. The events industry is prepared for much larger event capacities limited by floor space rather than a specific number. We anticipate this step to be imminent as the risk of spread diminishes and we learn what protocols we need to have in place to limit spread at organised gatherings.

Covid-19 has posed a new and unforeseen risk to our industry. In June, the SA Events Council developed and published a comprehensive set of Re-Opening Guidelines outlining the steps that one can take to enable the safe reopening of events and we are working hard to ensure that the confidence and trust in our ability to keep our events safe grow quickly.

The last thing we want as we begin this process is for there to be events that do not adhere to the safety protocols outlined in the guidelines, which pose a risk to attendees and artists resulting in a back-step in the regulations and possible risk liability and reputational risk to those involved.

The Re-Opening Guidelines are simple, easily understood and accessible, but thorough, to ensure

enhanced mechanisms are adopted to provide a safe environment and demonstrate a duty of care. Taking into account every step of the event process and mitigating exposure at each juncture, they can be applied universally using the World Health Organization’s five-tier risk level categorisation scale. Of course, at the same time, we need to take into consideration the many differences in event types and audience capacities as well.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY The importance of communication throughout has also proved to be an important factor in building confidence among attendees. We cannot ignore the strong psychological impact of attending an event in the current climate. For many, the initial gatherings with more people than they have been accustomed to after so many months require a big step and one that is accompanied by trepidation and even fear. Building trust and confidence to attend is paramount. When attendees know what to expect before they even arrive on-site and what measures are being undertaken, the stress factor decreases exponentially.

Many venues, corporates and caterers have their own sets of safety practices and this is sometimes a stumbling block to align thinking across the sector regionally and nationally. We urge all events organisers to communicate and apply the Re-Opening Guidelines as a foundation standard on every event planned. If necessary, additional venue/ corporate-specific protocols can easily be overlaid to satisfy compliance for all stakeholders, especially meeting the requirements of corporate South Africa and the sponsors involved – thus ensuring the event-specific Covid-19 management plan lays the foundation for a safe event. It is up to each and every meeting planner, event organiser, promoter or production house to selfregulate using these basic safety protocols in the same way we have always done for non-Covid-19-related event safety practices.