How to develop an effective health and safety strategy for events

With winter approaching, event planners may well be revisiting health considerations around COVID and other risk factors. Individuals are actively seeking out brands that increase their level of safety, so it is vital that event planners continue to have health, security and safety top of mind, alongside plans in place to mitigate any risks.

This was the main message in a recent webinar from the Centre for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), entitled ‘Event Health and Safety: Navigating the Future with Proven Risk Management Strategies’.

It featured contributions from Nancy Drapeau, IPC, VP of research at CEIR and John Cordier, CEO of Epistemix, a software company that develops simulations to fight disease and inform policy.

More anxiety

Drapeau pointed out how findings from the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer, an annual trust and credibility survey, have reflected how people are anxious about many issues, including climate change, the war in Ukraine and health considerations based on COVID.

“We have a more anxious audience out there and trade show attendees and exhibitors are people and consumers too, and this gives you a window into their state of mind,” she said. Being able to comply with best practices will strengthen trust and affinity between planners and event participants, she added.

Tips to help

Cordier outlined how there are a range of different mitigation strategies that event organisers can look to adopt, based on data around COVID and the time of the year; for example, such viruses are likely to increase from August to December because that is an expected peak in the flu season.

“It’s really about the timing and your specific audience - maybe we recommend masks when people are travelling to events and when they’re at airports,” he said. “Vaccinations, tests and social distancing - these are all things that you can start to deprioritise, but it all depends on who your audience is. An important thing to consider with your audience is whether there are people who are immune-compromised; this crosses over into DEI and ESG initiatives, where effective health and safety and security risk mitigation comes into play.”

Situational awareness

Cordier added that when looking at a DEI or ESG initiative, some strategies could enable more people to show up at events and thereby make them more inclusive. He suggested several ways to approach risk management, including situational awareness - using an understanding of the past to forecast different, future scenarios.

“Situational awareness would come in the form of being able to look at past data and understand what and how that trend is changing today,” he said. “The situation awareness could be something like the number of people in the city, the new technologies that are becoming more disruptive.”

Succinct communication

Cordier added that one other element not to overlook within any effective risk management strategy is how you are communicating with your stakeholders - the longer it takes to tell the story or relay the message, the greater the opportunity for people to get confused.

“Simple is better on the communication side, and if you can have a line or two with data visualisation, that's the best way to go about it,” he said. “Consider all the different types of people who might come to your event and tie this to your communication message.

“Are there groups you might be excluding because of their health profile, or from a mental health perspective? Consider what you are doing to support them. Ultimately, the more people there are at events, the more opportunities for business to happen, and the greater the experience for everybody.”

Other short-term risks

Cordier also outlined the drivers of near-term risks for events such as increased globalisation, climate, and food supply chain issues. Areas of potential concern to look out for include mental health (specifically among teens and young adults), viruses such as African swine fever disrupting food chains, and seasonal variation in respiratory diseases, such as the flu, COVID and RSV, a common respiratory virus.