We’re all fairly fed up of reading about the various plans, the threat of another cancelled Christmas and the new variant which threatens to change our lives all over again.
The first case of the new variant was discovered in a medical professional from Israel who had recently travelled to London to attend a medical conference. There is of course little evidence to back up Dr Maors claims that he ‘caught it’ at the conference itself, as he’d have been using public transport, visiting restaurants and possibly shopping during his stay in the Capital. However, it does highlight the inevitable dangers of events and the threat they pose as a breeding ground for Covid 19.
At EMD, we are well aware that all of our conferences carry some element of risk. We manage medical meetings and conferences and so we bring together clinicians from all over the world, and expose them to one another. This is why we are focused on making our events as safe as possible. We offer hand sanitizers on the registration desk, we wear masks and keep our distance, we regularly test and we ask any staff displaying even the most mild symptoms to stay at home. These are all the obvious ways in which to keep our staff and delegates safe, but EMD have gone a step further…
We offer contactless registration, where a delegate can sign into a meeting electronically and not have any need to come into contact with staff or signing in papers. We also encourage all of our societies to not offer delegate bags, we carry out risk assessments and discuss cleaning and hygiene with the venues we use. We also make it clear to all attendees that they must not enter the event if they show symptoms, as well as kindly asking that they continue to respect social distancing and hand washing. For our larger events, we put a one-way system in place to view exhibitors and scientific posters, and we also encourage our clients to use the ‘NHS Covid Pass’ for their attendees. We also ensure high levels of communication with both our client and delegates to ensure everyone is fully aware of the current situation and the measures that will be put in place should things change.
We’re playing our part in keeping people safe. We are so grateful for the support of our wonderful clients over the last 18 months, and we’re delighted to say we’ve survived as a business, which many in our industry sadly cannot.
We hope that this will all be a distant and surreal memory in years to come, but while it’s reality for us at the moment, we will do all we can to ensure our events are as safe as they can be, and our delegates feel comfortable and safe when attending.