With each passing day, this strange new world becomes more and more like the New Normal - sometimes I even have to remind myself that it will end. I also can't help but wonder what things will be like post-COVID, especially in relation to running events.
Here are a couple of questions that we've been mulling over and some ways that technology could come into play.
How will health and safety change?
There are already a huge number of risks that any event professional needs to keep in mind. Plans for fire, earthquake or other natural disasters; ways to deal with accidental injury or death; exit signage; toilets; the list goes on.
After the pandemic, will there be new regulations that aim to reduce the transmission of infectious diseases or perform contract tracing afterwards? If so, what will they look like and how might they be enforced?
Facial recognition has been a hot point of contention for several years now. Would it be going too far to scan each person going into an event venue? What if the data was anonymized?
Perhaps it will just be as simple as keeping records of people's names and contact details. Excel can only take us in the face of large-scale data collection.
Blerter has already made strides in this department with an event delivery platform that allows simple and fast contact between every staff member at a venue. Who knows where we could end up next.
Who will be responsible?
If there is a future outbreak of a deadly disease at an event and it isn't managed well, who is accountable?
How will the organizer and attendees know if everything has been done to prevent it? What will the guidelines be for informing people of the outbreak?
For this, we can look at the proliferation of digital privacy legislation across the world in the last few years. As changes were made to data breach legislation, digital compliance became a breakout market.
In the cybersecurity ecosystem, there are now dozens if not hundreds of solutions that have come about offering automated checklists for compliance, with simplified reporting in the case of a data breach. What might this look like in the events space? Could we see an app that would generate and report health and safety compliance directly to the appropriate people?
Thinking ahead
Even in these small examples, you can see that there is a lot to mull over for the incoming post-COVID world.
As technology progresses and becomes the foundation of nearly every aspect of our lives, it becomes more vital to ensure that you are not going to be left behind.
Research shows that no matter the industry, those who refuse to undertake some level of meaningful digital transformation are those who end up losing out. Events are no different.
Now might be a good time to start thinking about where digital technologies will fit into your business once the world starts to open up again.
Has your event been impacted by COVID-19? We'd like to hear from you. What challenges are you currently facing? What have you tried that you'd like to share with others?
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