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How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

  • 1.  How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    Posted 04-12-2021 12:07

    Hi, all! We hope you had a nice weekend and are looking forward to a great week. We're here to kick off our next Huddle of the Week discussion.

    We have heard from several community members that while you are working through the health & safety protocols with venues to host safe in-person/hybrid events, you still have some questions on how to ensure the in-person attendees understand all aspects of this.

    It can be hard to know where to include these details in your event planning and build process, as well as what information to collect from your attendees during the registration process.

    Therefore, we're looking to start the discussion and offer a space to brainstorm below:

    • How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?
    • Are there specific questions you will be asking your attendees during the registration process, such as how comfortable are you with in-person greetings, social activities, etc.?
    • Do you have any example health & safety waivers for your upcoming events? If so, feel free to share on the thread below.

    As always, share your thoughts, ideas, and questions (for each other or your supplier/hotelier peers) below. #HuddleoftheWeek #VoiceIt


    #BiddingonGroupBusiness
    #Flex-Creating/ManagingEvents
    #ManagingOn-site
    #ManagingVirtualEvents

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    Danni Czark
    Senior Associate, Online Community Marketing
    Cvent
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  • 2.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    Posted 04-12-2021 12:16
    We are planning our return to in-person events in September and will be advertising all of the health and safety precautions that the hotel has in place (sanitation stations, housekeeping, food screens, etc.)

    In addition, we are adding to attendees' name badges a red, yellow or green color sticker or ribbon to display their level of comfort interacting with others, and asking their comfort level with a registration question. Just below the question, we are including this image: comfort.jpg

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    Edd Schillay
    Director of Operations
    The Trial Network
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  • 3.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    Posted 04-12-2021 15:16
    Hi Edd,

    This is really helpful as our team is fully dependent on the attendees understanding our corporate health guidelines and promoting the cleanliness guides that we find per hotel. I've heard about the colors on badges before but sharing the .jpg was really helpful - thank you! 

    Since we haven't added this to our registration site yet, I assume our first step is to add in our corporate guidelines into the registration site as a consent question. This way they have to agree to these guidelines in order to complete the event registration.

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    Devon Everage
    Meeting Planner
    Hill-Rom Holdings Inc
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  • 4.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    User Group Member
    Posted 04-15-2021 14:17
    Edd,

    I love the badge idea! This was not a professional event, but we offered brightly colored ribbons at our wedding reception last fall. Those who preferred to social distance put a ribbon on, and everyone else did a great of respecting that. Implementing the ribbons made everyone feel a lot more comfortable about attending a large group event.

    At work, we are slowly moving back to outside events this summer, and we are planning to move to mid-size group events this fall. We will look at capping capacity, greater spaces between stations, and touch-free / smart phone technology for gamification vs having paper entry forms.

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    Kaitlin Feist
    Marketing Programs & Events Specialist
    Dakota Supply Group
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  • 5.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    User Group Member
    Posted 04-12-2021 16:21
    We are still planning our return of in-person events. The COVID-19 scale seems to be all over the place, its down then its up, and a hobbile repeating process. I am not sure how any company could make a quick decision. 

    • How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website? Yes also enabling Social Wall (designing and seating) into our plans to safely plot all items within safety standards.
    • Are there specific questions you will be asking your attendees during the registration process, such as how comfortable are you with in-person greetings, social activities, etc.? We are working on that, but some questions companys will ask are have you been vacinated?
    • Do you have any example health & safety waivers for your upcoming events? If so, feel free to share on the thread below. This seems to be a live document for lots of companys. This is in process of being built through consent questions in the registration.


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    Mary Ann Hall
    Event Planner
    Federal Reserve System
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  • 6.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    Community MVP
    Posted 04-13-2021 08:50
    Edited by Loretta Peterson 04-13-2021 08:51
    Hi Danni,

    Thank you for posting this thread!  This doesn't answer your questions directly, but I attended a webinar on in-person events.  The presenters indicated the GBAC Global Biorisk Adviory Council is a group that formed to create multi-industry standards for safety protocols.  GBAC Star Accreditation has emerged as a venue hygiene standard in the U.S.  Marriott and HIlton are GBAC Star accredited.

    The presenters also indicated a top resource for information on communicating with people about the safety at a venue and an event is the Georgia World Congress Center Authority (GWCCA).  

    I found the GWCCA interesting because it included some of the new expenses we may incur related to cleaning and prep plus it can help guide you with safety protocol and questions to ask a venue.



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    Loretta Peterson
    Events Associate
    CDW
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  • 7.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    Community MVP
    Posted 04-13-2021 16:34
    These are some really great posts!  I've really enjoyed reading your idea's and helpful tips!  Remember, Marriott Brands have safety documents that you are able to down load right from the Cvent Venue tab for the Westin Tampa Bay and all Marriott Brands. Below is what to look for on the hotel Venue Tab. 



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    Colleen Beck
    Director of Sales & Marketing
    The Westin Tampa Bay
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  • 8.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    User Group Member
    Posted 04-14-2021 08:44
    We are almost thankfully not returning to in person events until at least October and even then it'll be through third party events (we sponsor some marathons and as of now the 3 majors, NY, Chicago and Boston are still on) but we're really struggling with (might make a great webinar topic for you guys ;) ) that with all the GDPR rules how can we start asking people if they're vaccinated or have had covid since we're a tech company, not a medical provider. We already had privacy concerns brought up when we tried asking people if they had dietary issues for meal planning and our GDPR group flagged that as personal medical information. How do we tow the line between following peoples personal preferences and ensuring their well being but also upholding their privacy?

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    Rachel
    NJ
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  • 9.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    Posted 04-15-2021 12:07
    We are planning to return to hybrid events and in-person events over the next two quarters. Our HR team has tasked the planning portions of all event teams to collaborate on the most stringent guidelines possible. There are many venues that have more loosely defined protocols for social distancing and safety, so we've created our guidelines with levels based on venue requirements and state or national requirements (some of our clients are global across 85 countries). We feel that we've created a package design so our guidelines can change on some of the finer points as long as those points have been relaxed state- or country/region-wide. Most importantly, we are only allowing packaged foods and drinks with outside drinks (especially coffee) being admitted when someone comes into the event, no refills, and their container must be fully enclosed (no open tops or topless containers). Also, we are doing away with any papers or handouts... all of our items will be emailed to a singular contact person per district or organization with access to print as they see fit or for their attendees to access virtually (save a copy locally on their phone, tablet, or laptop). We are also asking for our seating in all events to fit within the state's or country/region's social distancing policy and be 'classroom' style with all attendees facing the same direction. There are many more levels to what we're setting as our standards, but these were some that felt the most promising.

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    Amanda Adams
    Mid-Atlantic Territory Client Services Coordinator
    Cognia, Inc.
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  • 10.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    Posted 04-15-2021 13:53
    We are planning our January 2022 conference as in person but being ready to pivot to virtual if necessary. Something we are currently looking for is what others are using in contracts with presenters regarding COVID 19 and also wording around the possibility of going virtual vs in-person?  Does anyone have any examples?

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    Jennifer Batson
    Administrative Assistant
    National Louis University
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  • 11.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    Posted 04-16-2021 09:52
    Hi Jennifer,
    I don't have any specific examples, but I do know a fabulous speaker that could probably help you.  Crystal Washington, https://crystalwashington.com/, is a technology speaker based in Houston, Texas.  She has made several Facebook posts about working with clients over the course of the pandemic.

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    Amy Zientek
    Director Of Sales
    Visit Lubbock The Convention and Visitors Bureau
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  • 12.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    Posted 04-16-2021 08:26
    Great thread! In planning ahead for our first in-person event post-pandemic, I would add an entire section covering health and safety, including protocols in place for the event - social distancing setup, sanitizer stations, mask wearing policy, etc. - any additional protocols in place from venue, and general information and links to external sources that may prove valuable.

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    Bouran Qaddumi
    Sr Manager, Natl. Field Training
    Cajun Operating Company d/b/a Church's Chicken
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  • 13.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    Posted 04-16-2021 09:50
    This is a great thread!  As a non-planner (I am with a DMO) I am curious how often planners plan to update registrants regarding changes to protocols.  For example, if you are having an in-person event in October and you open registration in June things could change 87 times in those 4 months.  Also, will you only tell them the big changes (i.e. facility capacity increased from 50% to 75%) or every change (i.e. I am attending an event later this month and the facility just approved to seat 5 at a table instead of 4)?  Even though we have been in this for 15 months there is still so much to figure out!

    I do love the ribbon/dot idea.  I have been to a few local meetings that have done this and it has worked out wonderfully.

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    Amy Zientek
    Director Of Sales
    Visit Lubbock The Convention and Visitors Bureau
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  • 14.  RE: How are you planning on incorporating health & safety protocol information in your registration and website?

    Posted 04-19-2021 19:04
    We have our first event back fully in-person next month and are asking consent questions during registration to ensure that our attendees will abide by our venue's health and safety guidelines. We made the question mandatory and even include the link to a downloadable version of our venue's guidelines so that they completely understand what they are agreeing to. Also, we too are implementing a colored ribbon system to display attendees' level of comfort. 

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    Chelsea Benge
    Events Software Specialist
    Leading Real Estate Companies Of The World
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