8 essential tips for organising an event to mitigate the impact of Covid-19

The author­i­ties have revealed a timetable for lift­ing restric­tions with regards to hold­ing events. This grad­ual phas­ing out of restric­tions begins as we enter the sum­mer months and requires organ­is­ers to adapt to the pro­to­cols ded­i­cat­ed to each venue and activ­i­ty. Dis­cov­er 8 tips to put in place when organ­is­ing an event once restric­tions are lift­ed.

Think ahead when preparing the event

1. Get in touch with the authorities

Amid all the uncer­tain­ty hang­ing over the events sec­tor, organ­is­ers must check with the appro­pri­ate local author­i­ties that their event is allowed to be held. Offer to work with them to set up a strict and safe pro­to­col in order to reas­sure them and demon­strate your exper­tise. You have every­thing to gain by think­ing ahead and will avoid any unpleas­ant sur­pris­es.

2. Adapt your event’s venue, format and content

How can you meet your event’s aims when you can’t organ­ise it in the con­di­tions you’d ini­tial­ly imag­ined? Here are three pos­si­ble ways, among oth­ers, of com­bin­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty and prof­itabil­i­ty:

• Reduce costs by choos­ing local speakers/artists
• Con­sid­er chang­ing the for­mat from one large event to sev­er­al small­er ones over a longer time peri­od
• Offer an online ver­sion in addi­tion to the phys­i­cal edi­tion

Chances are you won’t be able to hold your event in the same con­di­tions as your pre­vi­ous ones. Adapt­abil­i­ty is the key to stack­ing the odds in your favour.

3. Use an online ticketing solution

The capac­i­ty lim­its that apply to events can be eas­i­ly man­aged with an online tick­et­ing sys­tem. Sell online with a quo­ta of avail­able tick­ets so that the num­ber of atten­dees doesn’t exceed the lim­it autho­rised in your venue. Set some aside for those who vis­it the venue on the day if you wish. This will give you peace of mind and allow you to track sales in real time and lim­it queues on site.

For seat­ed events inte­grate a dis­tanced seat­ing fea­ture into your tick­et­ing mod­ule. Atten­dees can choose their seats and the sys­tem auto­mat­i­cal­ly opti­mis­es the spac­ing accord­ing to your pre­de­fined set­tings — num­ber of seats between each group of peo­ple, max­i­mum size of ‘social’ groups, etc.

Also make sure that your tick­et­ing and access con­trol part­ner can work with a poten­tial ‘health pass­port’ cur­rent­ly under dis­cus­sion among Euro­pean and nation­al author­i­ties.

4. Communicate regularly with attendees

Show your atten­dees that you’re doing as much as pos­si­ble to ensure your event takes place in the safest  pos­si­ble con­di­tions. Tar­get your atten­dees from pre­vi­ous edi­tions to hit your capac­i­ty and send prac­ti­cal infor­ma­tion and instruc­tions by email to atten­dees who’ve already bought their tick­ets.

Take care of the details on your event day

5. Control access with efficiency and precision

Opti­mise your access con­trol, lim­it your queues, and track your fill rate in real time with a scan­ning solu­tion designed for events. Check each attendee’s tick­et in sec­onds with the WeezA­c­cess mobile app or use our pro­fes­sion­al scan­ning ter­mi­nals if your event requires a large num­ber of tick­ets to be checked.

6. Optimise hygiene levels

Reg­u­lar­ly clean the most fre­quent­ly vis­it­ed areas, includ­ing entrances, toi­lets, bars, and so on. Have hand sani­tis­er and masks in strate­gic places. Equip your staff with every­thing they need to make all employ­ees and the pub­lic feel safe.

7. Improve signage and ensure information is clearly displayed

Posters, floor mark­ings, ded­i­cat­ed vol­un­teers are all worth­while meth­ods for guid­ing your atten­dees to the var­i­ous areas of the event while respect­ing the hygiene plan and remind­ing them to adhere to the hygiene mea­sures that pro­tect every­one on site.

8. Ensure safety in and around the catering areas

Space out tables and chairs so that peo­ple can eat in small iso­lat­ed groups or by them­selves. Offer a Click & Col­lect ser­vice so that atten­dees can order via their phone and col­lect their pur­chas­es at a des­ig­nat­ed point. This is the best way to lim­it unnec­es­sary con­tact, espe­cial­ly when queu­ing.

Would you like to be sup­port­ed in set­ting up these types of actions? Con­tact us now — we’re already prepar­ing the organ­i­sa­tion of events like yours:

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