Can Italy Promise COVID-safe Events?
“We have worked on this plan,” said Corrado Peraboni, CEO of the Italian Exhibition Group (IEG), “with the aim of providing a complete and reliable answer for our customers and the international public which, now more than ever, is asking us to be able to count on trade shows and conferences re-starting,” commenting of its aim to provide COVID-safe events.
Holding and taking part in trade shows in Italy in complete safety, in total respect of the rules and healthcare protocols, and protecting the health of companies and visitors, IEG Italian Exhibition Group has devised a plan for meeting safety.
Thanks to a working group together with its outfitting and catering companies, technicians, and international operators, #SAFEBUSINESS by IEG is the name of the project launched by IEG. The project (the full, copyright-free document and infographics can be downloaded and published from www.iegexpo.it/en/safebusiness ) focuses on every phase in the trade show and conference experience.
“We have done so in line with the anti-COVID-19 health regulations and documents drafted by AEFI, FEDERCONGRESSI, UFI and EMECA, which I would like to thank for their constant presence regarding the question concerned,” added Peraboni.
The SafeBusiness by IEG project provides over fifty guidelines for COVID-safe events with a rigorous regulatory and organizational protocol upstream. These include: sanitized shuttle transport between the airport, hotels and Expo Centres, all equipped with disinfectant, the obligation to wear face masks on board and a fixed number of passengers; conventions with bike sharing and electric scooter companies in accordance with hotels and the territory; ticket office and payments exclusively on line, scheduled entries according to hall capacity and extended trade show opening times, face mask distribution desks (with mandatory use and specific aids for those with special needs such as transparent face masks for IEG staff to facilitate relations with the hearing impaired); multiple entrances, safety aisles and distancing signage, dematerialized entry tickets, temperature checks on the public using thermo scanners and a sanitization route, wardrobe with automatic rack and disposable individual coverings.
The entire outfitting supply chain will be organized and managed in safety, visitor flows will be monitored with centralized digital tracking and on-site controls by remotely guided stewards.
All the areas, rooms and bathroom facilities will be sanitized on a continuous cycle and air-conditioning channel filters will be sanitized. Digitalized informative material, multi-media productions and live streaming to support events, conferences and the media.
Catering: temperature checks for the workers, gloves, face masks, disposable overalls, skip-the-line payment apps, single portion lunch and coffee boxes, coded delivery system to the stands.
A strict crisis management protocol for COVID-safe events will be established which defines on-site behavior should suspected cases occur. IEG employees and trade show staff will also undergo training for their own safety and to ensure the safe execution of their duties, the use of PPE, respect of the strict procedures for personal hygiene, sanitizing and distancing.
And, on the theme of employees, the President of Italian Exhibition Group, Lorenzo Cagnoni has announced that the company has decided on voluntary mass serological screening in support of SafeBusiness by IEG: “We are adopting screening to protect our collaborators, associated company employees and all our relational system. Operating in several regions, we will carry it out according to the already issued and further protocols and the relative instance has already been presented to the Emilia Romagna Regional Authorities.”
IEG Italian Exhibition Group is a trade fair and conference organizer with head offices in Rimini, Italy, and operative in Vicenza, Milan, Brescia, Rome, Arezzo and Naples as well as in China, the United States, and Dubai with associated companies.
