What Does the COVID-19 All Secure Standard Mean for Events?
What is the COVID-19 All Secure Standard?
The COVID-19 All Secure Standard is a set of guidelines that have been set out by the Association of Event Organisers (AEO), Association of Event Venues (AEV), Events Supplier and Services Association (ESSA) and its various stakeholders. The COVID-19 All Secure Standard has been developed with the approval of the UK Government to help ensure a safe return to live events.
The guidance sets out to achieve common standards of health, safety and operational planning, management and on-site conduct for the events industry.
How does The COVID-19 All Secure Standard affect Event Registration?
With all the talk of Test and Trace in the current circumstances, it’s easy to forget that most events already have an effective contact tracing system built into their event planning. Event Management Software and booking systems routinely keep track of who is coming to events, whether you use a free event ticketing system or a dedicated registration company.
The new COVID-19 All Secure Standard puts a fresh emphasis on the role of an exhibition or conference registration system or contractor. The risk assessment based approach become integral to the safe planning and running of your event. Critically, the standard includes a requirement to collect and retain details of event attendees for the NHS Test, Track and Trace programme. Good quality event data management combined with the latest event technology can offer several key tools in the bid to meet the COVID-19 All Secure Standard. Here are a few ideas:
Enhanced Communication through the Event Website
At every stage in the event planning process, clear communication with exhibitors, attendees and contractors will be even more important through the guidelines of The COVID-19 All Secure Standard. People will need to know what the instructions for arrival are, what steps you are taking to make the event safe and all of the other specific details. This can be easily communicated and updated on event websites.
Additional mailings and SMS updates might also be necessary so that critical updates are quickly disseminated. Information might be different for different attendee types and so your event website might need to be programmed to only show the right information to the right people.
Stagger Admissions to Exhibitions or Conferences
By collecting data in advance of your event, you can allocate arrival slots to delegates. This could be done by allowing slot choices, or by assigning slots to people according to who they are or it could all be system generated - randomly allocating slots so that you spread the arrival process evenly. Arrival slots will help ensure that your reception area is not overcrowded at any time.
At Event Connections, we can decide the protocols and apply them in different and sometimes complex ways depending on the project. By developing a personalised event agenda for attendees, you can issue clear instructions with any arrival and departure times. If the booking system you are using can’t issue slots, then let us know and we can either look after the whole process for you, or just dovetail with your event software with us handling the joining instructions. We have API’s with various different registration platforms (like Eventbrite) to make this easy to manage.
Minimise Registration Queues & Contact
By issuing a QR code to event visitors ahead of the day, you can minimise any contact in the registration area. Self-scan kiosks can easily be deployed and people can scan themselves into your exhibition. That can be further supplemented by wireless handheld QR scanners operated at a safe distance by staff.
As well as meeting the COVID-19 All Secure standard, you will get instant stats on how many and exactly who has arrived, which is helpful for managing the flow on the day. After the event, the post-event reports will give you a detailed breakdown, which should help with future events planning or for any contact tracing requests. It’s best to AVOID using touchscreen devices for check-in as they will allow for cross contamination. And remember, facial recognition at events won’t work with face masks (and is controversial at the best of times!).
Capacity Management & Seating Density Management
Controlling the flow into the reception area is one thing, but capacities will have changed in almost every space you use. By using scanners across the event, you can track people into rooms or areas and keep a sharp eye on any capacity levels. You might need to restrict access depending on someone’s pre-selected agenda, or based on attendee type.
Badges can obviously be useful for a visual check, or if you are taking a digital approach, then people can display the QR code sent to their phone and be instantly scanned & verified as they walk into sessions or areas of the event.
A venue capacity management app can be used to monitor crowd density across your event, not only allowing you to make dynamic changes to your event, but also ensuring that you have the best quality data for any contact tracing requirements. You will know who was in which room at which time, and if needs be, create a report showing people who also shared the same breakout room at that time.
Enhance the Quality of Attendees at Your Event
It makes sense to restrict event attendance where you can, and ensure that only the best quality attendees are in the expo hall. That is going to be much better for sponsors and exhibitors and critically, it will help you reduce unnecessary foot traffic. By having a vetting process built into your registration process, you can limit who gets an event pass.
This might be driven by logic & data by asking pre-qualification questions, or you might want to manually screen event registration requests and then issue an acceptance or decline through the event registration platform.
We already do a similar thing with popular networking events where our clients want the very best level of attendees present. It sounds harsh, but events are expensive and space is more limited than ever - you don’t just want anyone taking up a space.
For help implementing the COVID-19 All Secure Standard at your exhibition or conference, please do get in touch with the UK Event Registration Experts.
Featured Services
Who we are
Event Connections provide exceptional event registration and delegate management services to event, conference and exhibition organisers.
