News

There is hope, China is OPEN!! IHG yesterday announced that all its hotels in China are open, this follows similar reports from Accor and Marriott. One common theme is that each has announced enhanced cleaning protocols; last week Accor announced it had partnered with Bureau Veritas, a testing and hygiene specialist, to develop specific protocols whilst Marriott is trying  electrostatic sprayers with hospital grade disinfectant to sanitise surfaces!

With china some 3 months ahead of us when it comes to this crisis, this augur well for the eventual opening of conference centres, event venues and exhibition venues in London. Bearing this in mind a couple of days ago we announced the precautions we will take the moment we were allowed to reopen, see HERE.

We have been in touch with several event venues in the Far East to try to learn from them what they are doing to manage risks etc in light of the coronavirus pandemic, Hong Kong Convention Centre etc. We are currently talking to the specialist venue booking agency The Venue Booker, commissioning them to survey a large number of event venues in geographies ahead of us in this pandemic with a view to learning from best practise around the world.

To be transparent with all conference and meeting organisers who use our conference venues we think the following enhancements will help.

1. Extend the time frame and stagger arrivals and departures.

It is our experience that delegates arrive gradually so observing social distancing at this point should not be a problem. However, at breaks and at the end of the day congestion will be harder to manage. We think the following might help:

• More Coffee and buffet stations (we will use our room planning software to place these stations to maximise social distancing)
• More floor staff particularly at potential pinch points i.e. toilets / serving stations etc
• Staggering breaks, so no two events overlap

2. Manage the Visitor flow.

• Splitting corridors
• Adding more signage

3. Redesigning seating and Exhibition plans to accommodate social distancing.

• We have been redesigning our standard room layouts and quoted capacities of our conference venues, so that we can now quote capacities accommodating social distancing measures! Using the market leading room software tool Social Tables, we can offer all organisers free meeting room plans showing capacities in whatever seating style the organiser may require

4. Delegate Health Management.

• Temperature checks at the entrance
• If an app is available to facilitate contact tracing, then mandatory for all attendees
• Face masks on site for all delegates

5. Staff health Management.

• As per Delegate health management
• We will attempt to source coronavirus tests for all staff members.

6. Enhanced cleaning protocols.

• Floor mats are sprayed with diluted bleach every two hours.
• All handrails, door handles and lift panels are disinfected every hour.
• All restrooms are assigned with attendants during events to carry out on-going cleaning and disinfecting work.
• Tables and chairs in exhibition venues are disinfected twice a day.
• All frontline staff members are required to wear face masks.
• Food handlers working are required to wear face masks.
• Hand sanitizing gel is readily available at customer service points and throughout the venue
• Temperature check for all staff members when reporting for duty every day in place and recorded.
• Temperature check for contractor workers at the contractor entrances in place.
• Temperature check for all visitors entering the venues.
• Special rubbish bins for disposal of used face masks provided at conference centre’s exit points and offices.