In the present, our focus is on providing innovative solutions to our clients in a virtual space. However, we are looking towards the future and wanted to compile a list of best practices that we think will be necessary for meeting planners to keep their attendees, partners, and clients as safe as possible in the “post-COVID” world when we return to face-to-face meetings in a form of hybrid events.

There are three stages at which we must prioritize safety and health above everything else. These three stages are pre-event, during, and post-event.

• Sanitation Crew
  Yes, add this to your budgets. Nowadays, we see sanitation processes implemented around the clock in all businesses in which people are nearby. Adding a sanitation crew to your budget will ensure that you are well prepared and allows for more natural coordination with venue partners. Having seats, surfaces, entryways, and equipment sanitized after every session might be a bit invasive, but as previously stated, health is a top priority.

• Room Diagrams
  Not only are processes going to be different, but also room sets. Meeting professionals must ask their A/V providers and venues to provide the necessary room designs to ensure the execution of social distancing guidelines.

• Live-Streaming Technology
  Realistically, we won’t be able to have the same amount of attendees in a room. Whether this will be because of venue policy, government mandate, or attendees’ worrying about getting sick, meeting planners must research live-streaming tools to include in their budgets to reach attendees remotely. A huge positive from this situation is that many live-streaming technologies have been upgraded and made more readily accessible to all meeting professionals. Many AV production companies, including us here at Zenevent, have begun offering their own virtual platforms where attendees can still access the content and engage with it in real-time.

It will be a very different world and the norm has forever changed for the meetings industry. As a resilient group of professionals, we must encourage change and evolve as an industry. Meeting professionals are all too familiar with a sayings such as “The show must go on!” Well, now is the time to make this show go on. Safely.