The event experience for an attendee begins not at check-in or registration, but when they encounter your event for the first time, perhaps in an email or on your website. This first impression either lingers with them or leaves no trace. If your event branding conveys the right vibe, the first impression piques their interest, captures their attention, and dwells in their mind. This first encounter with your event is the beginning of the attendee journey.Missed Part I of Crafting the Event Experience Workshop w. Ryan Costello?

First step in crafting an event experience: create a resonating event brand

During our recent workshop, Crafting the Event Experience – Part 1, Ryan Costello, co-founder of Event Farm and Chief Strategist for MemberSuite, used the word ‘crafting’ intentionally. You are crafting—designing and building an event experience—not merely having or hosting an event. 

In his 20 years of creating event experiences, Ryan has never been obsessed with selling tickets and getting butts in seats. He always thinks about the subtleties of an event experience for attendees—how to engage their senses, wow, and inspire them. Event Farm clients like Nike, NBC, Facebook, Spotify, and Google, are known for pushing the level of event creativity and they push technology partners like Event Farm to think about new ways to craft a memorable event experience.

The event design process starts with thinking about the attendee journey from that first touchpoint to the post-event thank you email. What’s going on when someone encounters your event for the first time? What does your branding convey? What kind of vibe are they getting from your email or website?

When planning your event, you are building a brand—and that starts with naming the event. Ryan compared the name ‘Holiday Party’ to ‘HoliDazzle’—the name of our holiday event last year. The name alone feels different. Combine that with inspired branding and you are on your way to creating a definite vibe. 

The first step in crafting an event experience is to figure out the branding and look and feel for your event. Express it in your email invitation and event website—the first touchpoints in the attendee journey. This branding must make an impression and convey a feeling. It sets expectations for what the event experience will feel like.

The event branding in your email invitation and website makes an emotional impact on your target audience. It makes them feel something. You know your target audience. What would resonate with them? What would catch their attention, hold their interest, make them think, “I want/need to go,” and compel them to RSVP or register?

Event branding and design for average humans

People always say, “But I’m not a designer.” True, but you can think like a designer. You can discern good design versus lackluster design. You have that ability. When faced with two advertisements, you know which one is more appealing, which one feels right. You can also share your design ideas with colleagues who can tell you if the branding conveys the tone you seek.

Every event has a vibe—whether it’s a roll-up-your-sleeves workshop, elegant sit-down dinner, product launch, trade show client reception, or trade show after-party. 

• What would attendees dress like? 
• What would the event sound like?
• What would it feel like to be there?
• What would attendees expect from the experience?

Every attendee touchpoint before, during, and after your event contributes to crafting an experience. The branding must be consistent across touchpoints so you can spark the intended emotions and outcomes.

Tools that will help you create the right vibe for your event 

Ryan shared some tools he uses and websites he visits for inspiration when developing an event brand. 

YouWorkForThem is the first stop for design inspiration. Browse through the fonts, graphics, photos, and videos, all of which you can license for your event. Dramatic changes are possible with font selection; they can quickly change the vibe your event projects. Ryan suggests only using web-safe fonts that can be rendered on email clients and web browsers.

Dribble is a hiring platform for artists but is also great for getting inspiration. Coolors is a color palette generator that can help you find the look you’re going for. Unsplash offers free, Creative Commons-licensed, high-quality images. You can play with images you find by using RemoveBG to strip out the background.

Sketch is where everything starts taking shape. This affordable, novice-friendly art design tool is like a lightweight Photoshop. It’s a series of panels or artboards on which you paste images, play with them, see all iterations, and let your inner amateur designer go crazy. 

Treat every event as its own brand. Take the time upfront to think about the look and feel of the experience you’re trying to create—that’s your design inspiration.

To learn more about how event technology can enable you to bring your branded event websites and invites to life, check out Event Farm’s registration solution.

As you can tell from the Pandemic Compliance and Safety at Live Event virtual event series we’ve been hosting the last four months, we are incredibly passionate about helping in-person events return safely – hence, why we also launched the Event Safety Toolkit earlier this year, a suite of purposely built applications that help make your live events the safest they can be.

Today, we are thrilled to share that we are taking safety up another notch through our newest partnership with CLEAR, the secure identity company, to leverage their Health Pass technology combined with our registration and check-in application to assist event organizers with pandemic compliant health screenings, vaccine verification, and test validation. 

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Event organizers set the requirements a user must complete in order to enter.

Step 2: Attendees securely access and verify their COVID-19-related health information using CLEAR’s Health Pass prior to an event. 

Step 3: Event organizers then use Event Farm’s check-in app to scan the QR code generated by CLEAR’s Health Pass which verifies that the attendee’s information matches the registration information and event safety protocols. 

In the words of our very own Co-Founder, Ryan Costello: 

“It is our mission at Event Farm to continuously innovate and expand new event safety technologies to benefit both planners and attendees alike. Partnering with CLEAR to streamline the health screening process is a critical step toward ensuring a safe and swift return of in-person events.”

CLEAR’s Health Pass integration is the perfect addition to our event safety technology and is available now! 

Have a live event on the horizon? Contact us now to learn how you can leverage Event Farm and CLEAR Health Pass for your upcoming event. 

Events are coming back but planning an event looks nothing like it used to. Venue and governmental regulations keep changing. Many of your regular vendors have lost staff or gone out of business. With so many new safety-related expenses, your old budget template no longer works. 

Event budgets were the focus of part IV of our virtual series on Pandemic Compliance and Safety at Live Events. You can catch up on previous panels in these recaps: 

• Part I: Public health and event safety best practices
• Part II: Legal and event safety best practices
• Part III: 2021 Event Planning Playbook

Marcella Farman-Dietz, executive event consultant for Medialink, joined Ryan Costello, co-founder of Event Farm, to discuss a sample event budget for a one-day business summit and reception for 400 attendees at a hotel conference center in NYC. We looked at the cost differential between today and 2019 when the actual summit took place to get a sense of the expense increases you can expect when planning your events. Of course, your costs will depend on the venue and local/state regulations still in place regarding mask-wearing, social-distancing, and room capacity. But, as Marcella said, this was an incredibly useful exercise to start getting a handle on the new reality.

Here’s the recap of the budget items where you can expect increases in expenses if you plan to host safe events. Missed Part IV of the Pandemic Compliance and Safety at Live Events panel?

#1: Venue and staff costs – 24% increase

Ryan and Marcella project a 25% increase in food and beverage costs due to not having buffets or family-style service. Some cities/counties may have “slightly irritating” regulations, for example, in New York City right now, you must be seated at a table to eat or drink. Cut costs by opting for boxed meals instead of table service.

When it comes to venues, you are likely to see a 25% increase in meeting space expenses. Venues must spend more time and money on cleaning with less staff to do it.  

Expect a 100% increase in event staff (catering, service) costs—curveballs you can’t control. Vendors are still recovering from the impact of staff furloughs last year. Plus, when social distancing rules mandate less capacity in meeting rooms, you need more rooms and, therefore, more staff. You also need more staff for table (vs. buffet) service, health checks, check-ins, and compliance monitoring. 

#2: Audio visual, décor and entertainment – 6% increase

If you need more meeting rooms, you need more equipment. The panelists anticipate a 10% increase in lighting costs and a 50% increase for additional monitors and screens.

Don’t expect any cheap deals on entertainment. Artists are excited to get back to performing live, but some of them could increase costs to recoup lost revenue – so you could see a 25% increase.

#3: Event technology – 50% increase

There doesn’t seem to be any changes in costs for registration software, event app, check-in app, and lead retrieval. However, you need to budget for new event safety technology. Event Farm has rolled out a suite of event safety tools to assist with code of conduct agreement, health screening, attendee messaging, access control/contact tracing, queuing, mask management, and vendor management.

Another solution available to manage your safety requirements at the door is Clear Health Pass. Right now, we’re budgeting this as $1 to $3 per guest plus set up costs. Once you set up the criteria for attendees, the Clear Health Pass app handles health screening questions and proof of vaccination. Attendees simply pull up the app to show their green checkmark and their entry is approved. 

Will this health pass solution be necessary six months from now? No one knows because so much depends on virus variants, vaccination rates, government regulations, and your audience’s comfort level.

#4: Hardware and registration supplies – 27% increase

Because social distancing requires more check-in stations, you can expect an increase in registration hardware needs (computers, printers, tablets). You can reduce the need for additional hardware by staggering arrivals, for example, assigning check-in windows.

#5: Pandemic compliance – new expense – 100%+ increase

Every event needs a Pandemic Compliance Advisor (PCA), but the cost can fluctuate. Many of the agencies providing this service were once live event companies so they understand our business. However, someone on your staff can become a trained and certified PCA—five people on the Event Farm staff did just that. If you’re curious about the role and responsibilities of a PCA, our 2021 Event Planning Playbook provides a job description. 

Onsite testing is another variable. There’s no federal requirement and state/local regulations are constantly changing, but venues sometimes require it. Marcella’s venue for an upcoming event feels more comfortable knowing she’s going to do it. Rapid tests are coming down in pricing. Depending on how safe you want to make your attendees feel, you may opt for home testing for VIPs—entertainment, speakers, executives—so they don’t get on the plane if they have a positive result.

#6: Safety equipment – new expense – 100%+ increase

Masks, disinfectant wipes/spray, gloves, thermometers, plexiglass, and hand sanitizers are not a huge budget item, but they are a new expense. They’re also a sponsorship opportunity.

#7: Travel and transportation – 111% increase

If you’ve planned any travel lately, you’re familiar with the huge increases in the cost of rental cars and flights, especially fully refundable fares. We’ve also seen Uber/Lyft price increases. If buses are running at lower capacity, you’ll have to budget for more of them.

#8: Signage – 53% increase

You’ll need more signage, for example, social distancing and access control signs, and you’ll need more lead time. Signage is typically the last thing on the list, but print houses have laid off employees, so you can’t rely on a quick turnaround or 24/7 coverage. Let everyone know they can’t wait until the last minute to put in their requests. Marcella suggested building in more time for all vendors since most of them have less staff than they used to.

Keep your attendees and staff as safe and comfortable as possible. Check out our Event Safety Toolkit to see how event technology can build safety protocols into your program.

As pandemic conditions continue to change, do you feel that you must wade through wave after wave of information to seek answers and solutions to plan safe live events? We do! So we set out to compile all the knowledge we’ve gathered so far this year to create the 2021 Event Planning Playbook and provide the answers you seek to give your traditional playbook a massive upgrade. Ryan Costello, co-founder of Event Farm, unveiled and walked us through the Playbook during the third event in our series on Pandemic Compliance and Safety at Live Events.

Our two previous events focused on event safety best practices from a public health perspective and a legal perspective. For this panel, Ryan invited two event planners who, like him, are passionate about bringing events back safely: Ari Nisman, president and CEO of Degy Booking International and Degy World LLC, and Margaret Launzel-Pennes, CEO and co-founder of TBX: Total Brand Experience. During the virtual session, the speakers shared their candid thoughts and approach to the different components within the playbook, and below is the recap of the discussion.Missed Part III of the Pandemic Compliance and Safety at Live Events panel?

Finding an event location

The Playbook provides three valuable tools for venue scouting. 

• Reopening tracker that describes travel, gathering, and mask restrictions by state

• Event risk assessment planning tool
• 90-day global event tracker

These tools, updated in real-time, provide the information you need as you evaluate potential locations for your event.

Selecting an event venue

This section suggests questions to ask venues about compliance and safety, recommends venues with GBAC STAR accreditation, and advises following CDC guidelines on ventilation and sanitization. 

The panelists offered tips about negotiating with venues and vendors: 

• Only work with venues that agree to comply with your protocols and stand by your decisions on ejecting non-compliant attendees. 
• Pay extra attention to indemnification and insurance policies. Everyone’s on the hook now because it’s difficult to prove where and how someone got sick. Because legal expenses are a concern, insurance is now 30-40% more expensive even though it doesn’t cover epidemics.
• You must have liability and indemnification conversations with vendors too. Like the venue, they must agree with your compliance protocols before you sign the contract. Smart, responsible vendors are asking for and doing the same things as smart, responsible planners. 

Planning the event layout

Create an attendee journey site map so you can visualize the event layout. New focuses of concern include mask break areas, line management, and room/venue entry and exit. Event technology is your friend here.

• Notify attendees via text message when to arrive for check-in or other events. Stagger arrivals and departures so you can prevent crowds by controlling the flow of attendees in and out of the venue.
• Leverage virtual queuing during mealtimes, demos, registration, and product pickups.

Creating the event agenda

Agendas must accommodate new conditions:

• Smaller sessions since you can’t have as many people in one room.
• Attendees need more frequent and longer breaks so they can get relief from mask fatigue outside or in their room. 
• Give attendees more time for staggered entries and exits, and to navigate a spread-out event.

 Even with all these breaks, you must still provide the same content value as before.

Developing a transportation plan

Transportation services will look different with staggered pickups and drop-offs and buses not filled to capacity. You’ll need more buses, more loops, and, as a result, a bigger budget or a creative solution, like sponsored transportation. 

Put technology to work here too. Text message specific groups to let them know when their bus is ready to board, and leverage access control along with RFID wristbands/credentials to track who and how many are on each bus. 

Appointing a Pandemic Compliance Advisor (PCA)

Every event team should have a certified Pandemic Compliance Advisor (PCA) overseeing safety and compliance. The Playbook includes a job description of the PCA. When on-site, the PCA should only have this one role. They shouldn’t have other responsibilities that could cause conflicts of interest, for example, revenue concerns.

If you’re in charge of events, get your PCA certification so you know whether people in that role are doing the job as they should. The PCA is not typically the enforcer—that’s when you get venue security involved. The panelists agreed that compliance enforcement is subjective. You don’t want to falsely eject someone and find yourself in a lawsuit or with a PR nightmare.

Revising the safety plan of action

Event planners have always relied on a safety plan covering fires and other emergencies. The CDC has a checklist to help you develop a safety plan for these new conditions. You also need a compliance enforcement plan along with the usual emergency communication plan. Don’t forget, you can rely on your event technology to leverage text messaging for emergency communication. 

Sharing an event safety code of conduct

Attendees, staff, vendors, and venue personnel must sign the event safety code of conduct during the registration process. This code represents an enforceable, emotional buy-in that you’re all in this together. The Playbook provides a sample event code of conduct.

Gaining attendee confidence 

Ryan suggested using your event safety plan and protocol as a marketing tactic—a differentiator for your events. Your event code of conduct, FAQ, and website safety page will earn the confidence of attendees. A generous refund policy and health screening reminders will encourage attendees to stay home if they’ve been exposed to COVID or aren’t feeling well. 

On-site health screening 

Follow the CDC guidelines on health screening. Require attendees to answer health screening questions in order to be able to be checked into the event. A contactless solution is highly recommended to ensure the answers are tracked in real time by your check-in staff. 

Mask monitoring

The CDC advises changing masks every eight hours. You can provide masks (another sponsorship opportunity) and use technology to track their dispersal in the event app. However, masks have become a personal fashion statement, so keep that in mind. 

Tracking event, venue, and vendor staff

You don’t want someone showing up to work on the catering or AV staff who did not attend the pre-event meeting or go through a health screening. Have a plan in place to control authorized staff access to the event, including the ability to monitor daily staff changes for multi-day events so you can have a record for contact tracing.

Event budgeting

Now that you have the Playbook and know how to plan safe in-person events, how much should you budget? With new expenses brought on by new concerns, pre-pandemic budget templates also need an update. We’ve got you on this too. Our next virtual event panel will discuss budgeting on May 20. Stay tuned for details. 

In the meantime, check out our Event Safety Toolkit to see how an event app can build safety protocols into your program. If you missed any of the previous panels, you can read the recaps of Part I (public health aspects of event safety) and Part II (legal aspects of event safety).

The questions raised by participants during the first session of our virtual event series, Pandemic Compliance and Safety at Live Events, prompted us to bring a fresh group of panelists, including a lawyer, for the second session we hosted in March on event safety compliance and legal liability. Legal issues are top-of-mind right now as

88% of our session attendees shared in our event poll that they plan to host an in-person event this year.

Below is a recap of how our panel addressed the top nine legal questions about event safety. Since it’s legal information we’re sharing, we have to make the standard disclaimer: please seek the advice of your own legal counsel before acting on anything you read here. 

Missed the Pandemic Compliance and Safety at Live Events panel?

#1. Can your event have a vaccination requirement?

Ryan Costello, co-founder of Event Farm and host of our virtual event series, asked about the topic on everyone’s mind: the legality of attendee vaccination requirements. Chris Deubert, general counsel for D.C. United, said you can require vaccinations, but it raises a potential legal concern under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Per the ADA, you must let anyone in regardless of a disability or perceived disability, but the law does permit exclusion of individuals who pose a direct threat to others. Despite this exclusion, Chris said you could still come up against “creative legal challenges.” For example, if we’re at herd immunity, it may not be reasonable to exclude someone because they haven’t been vaccinated. You would also need to provide reasonable accommodations to someone if they haven’t been vaccinated for religious or medical reasons.

Stephanie Krzywanski, CMM, CED, partner and Chief Operating Officer at JR Global Events, said people might feel left out and alienated by a vaccination requirement or by the segregation at your event of attendees by vaccination or testing status.

A vaccine requirement raises practical issues too, said Mac McCullough, Ph.D., associate professor at Arizona State University and health economist for the Maricopa County Department of Public Health. Considering the varying efficacy windows of the different vaccines, how do you determine when it’s safe for a vaccinated person to be around other people?

#2. Can you ask people about their vaccination or testing status?

An event organizer could ask for personal healthcare information because you are not bound by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA governs healthcare providers and employers in certain situations.

However, you must comply with other laws governing the collection and retention of personal data, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other forthcoming state laws. Be careful how you collect and treat personal information.

#3. Can you ask attendees to sign a waiver? 

Chris said a waiver is questionable in enforceability, especially when people feel they have no real choice but to sign it. Besides, event organizers may not be protected from legal action even if attendees sign a waiver.

#4. Do you need a code of conduct? 

A more effective tactic is requiring attendees to sign a mandatory code of conduct during registration. If they don’t sign it, they can’t register. Period. With their signature, they agree to the event and venue’s rules and regulations, and assume all risks.

In pre-event emails, remind attendees about the code of conduct’s terms and conditions so they’re prepared to abide by them while on site. Convey a message of responsibility: we’re all in this together—attendees as well as staff on the organizer, client, venue, and contractor teams. Since half the spread of COVID is through asymptomatic carriers, attendees must think about other people. Don’t come if you’ve been around anyone who’s been exposed to COVID. Don’t come if you’re not feeling well. Behave reasonably while you’re here to protect yourself and others.

Offer a lenient refund policy so people have no qualms about canceling if they think they may have been exposed or may be a risk to others.

#5. Is there a simple way to do a health screening on site? 

When attendees arrive on site, they can do a contactless check-in using event technology. During this process, require them to complete a health screening questionnaire. Follow the CDC’s COVID screening protocol with questions about symptoms, exposure, testing status, etc.

#6. Why and how do you address indemnification?

Your venue and vendor contracts should include an indemnification clause that requires them to abide by the code of conduct and any local or state rules, regulations, and laws pertaining to COVID. This clause should indemnify you if you get sued as a result of their negligence. For example, if a server with COVID spreads it to some of your attendees, the catering vendor should indemnify you, that is, cover the costs if you get sued. You should also require vendors to name your organization as an insured on their insurance policy, so you’re covered by their policy.

You must discuss liability with your venue. If one of their team members doesn’t follow the agreed-upon rules and you ask them to leave, who covers the cost of replacing them—the venue, client, or event organizer? What if someone on the event organizer’s staff or an attendee gets ill from spread on site? Who pays for that?

#7. Can you get sued if someone gets COVID? 

You can’t stop anyone from trying to sue. If you’re an event planner, make sure your business is organized appropriately, for example, with an LLC structure, so your personal assets aren’t exposed. Make sure you have the right type of insurance coverage, for example, property and general liability commercial coverage, to cover most, if not all, of the cost of a lawsuit, including attorney fees.

Know and follow the COVID-related guidelines and regulations in the venue’s jurisdiction. In some areas, these policies have the force of law behind them, so if you don’t enforce them, you are per se negligent.

Document everything you do to keep people safe, including correspondence with attendees, the venue, and other contractors about the code of conduct. A litigant would have to prove you were negligent, and, because of that negligence, they were damaged. Lawsuits are always a possibility, but Chris hasn’t seen a single meritorious lawsuit on this issue.

It’s difficult to prove someone got COVID at a specific event, said Mac, given the amount of community spread. With limited public health resources, contact tracing hasn’t been a priority. It’s hard to trace one individual case back to an individual person or incident.

#8. Can you require people to wear masks in a state that doesn’t have a mask requirement? 

Yes. The courts are more interested in what science (the CDC) says than what a politician says.

#9. Who’s in charge of enforcing the code of conduct and local/state regulations? 

Event planners must develop standard operating procedures (SOP) for dealing with COVID. Adapt your SOP to each location and client. Once you have the SOP for a particular event, enforce it at every level. You must get buy-in from the most senior person on the client staff. Don’t allow any exceptions.

Since CDC guidance and local/state regulations are constantly updated, schedule regular conversations with the venue about their responsibilities for COVID protocol. Start with monthly meetings and increase them to a weekly cadence as your event approaches.

Every event must have a Pandemic Compliance Advisor. Everyone must feel empowered to ask people to follow the rules. Determine ahead of time who is going to assume the role of enforcer by ejecting non-compliant attendees. According to polls, people feel unsafe around someone not wearing a mask. You need to intervene in these situations.

Know where you need to focus and where you can stress less. Address what makes people feel safe, for example, lots of hand sanitizer, even though surface spread is unlikely. But prioritize what keeps people safe: ventilation, distancing, mask requirements, and a code of conduct.

Get a head start by downloading this sample code of conduct template and learning about Event Farm’s event safety software. To register for the next panel in the series and learn how to host safe in-person events with the 2021 event planning playbook, click here.

We want to help bring in-person events back safely – hence why we’ve been initiating conversations with experts, bringing ideas and recommendations to the events community, and exploring technology’s role in helping planners host safer events.

In February, Part I of our virtual event series on Pandemic Compliance and Safety at Live Events — hosted by our co-founder, Ryan Costello — looked at safety considerations for in-person events from two perspectives: the event planner’s and the public health expert’s. When you combine these two points of view, you get the best science-backed practices for event planning. 

Here is the panel’s recap on the six event safety factors to consider: airflow/ventilation, masks, social distancing, duration of proximity, health screening, and sanitization.

#1: Airflow/ventilation

“Find out what your venue has done to improve airflow”

advised our panelist Mary-Ann Urbanovich, CMP-HC, meeting manager at HMP Global. Although many venues have upgraded their system, don’t assume yours has. Ask them about the filtration system they’re using. Look for venues with the Global Biorisk Advisory Council STAR™ accreditation. This credential recognizes facilities that meet standards for cleaning, disinfection, and infectious disease prevention.

As venues try to find the right balance between comfort and ventilation, you can anticipate hearing attendee complaints about cold rooms. Ah, just like the good old days! Our other panelist, Mac McCullough, Ph.D., associate professor at Arizona State University and health economist for the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, predicted an increase in the popularity of temperate locations like San Diego as planners seek venues that offer comfortable outdoor spaces.

#2: Masks

Masks have become the visible symbol of the pandemic. They’re also low-hanging fruit for event safety. Everyone should wear a mask that covers and seals their nose and mouth. Two masks are better than one if a single mask allows gaps.

Because the lifespan of a mask is 8 hours, attendees must bring more than one with them each day to your event. If they arrive on site after a day of travel, provide a clean replacement mask so they can change out their compromised one. 

If you suspect that compliance with your mask requirements will be a problem, treat it as a change management issue. Lay out your event’s safety rules and code of conduct on the event registration website so expectations are set well in advance. These rules ensure attendees take care of themselves and everyone else at the event. “Let them know, we do it because we care about each other,” said Mary-Ann.

Anticipate the inevitable burnout from what Mac describes as “marathon masking.” Some attendees will look for reasons to take off their masks, for example, during happy hour. Make sure everyone has fresh masks for evening activities.

#3: Social distancing

The 6-foot guideline on social distancing is an average, not the rule. The recommended distance depends on what people are doing. For example, they need more distance if they’re exercising, singing, or cheering. More distance is required in poorly ventilated rooms than in outdoor space.

Stay current on the public health guidelines at your event’s location. When cities, counties, states, and the CDC have varying guidelines, the local jurisdiction rules. Social distancing decisions now also depend on room capacity and budget constraints. You may have to adjust your expectations of what’s possible this year compared to years past.

#4: Duration of proximity 

People spend time away from home at events so they can be with other people. How do you provide a safe environment for attendees to be together? If they can’t be together, they might as well stay home and watch the program virtually. 

You must balance the desire for attendees to talk with each other with the responsibility to keep people apart and moving so they’re not in proximity too long. Think about ways to avoid cramped lines at registration and food and beverage stations, and thick crowds of people moving between sessions. For example, instead of having one general session for 1000 people, spread it out into three concurrent general sessions for smaller audiences. Or, instead of moving people between rooms, move speakers.

Use your event technology to prevent lines by sending out a text when it’s an attendee’s turn at a kiosk or station. Stagger arrival times for different groups, like airlines handle the boarding of their flights.

#5: Health screening 

Besides any legal liability—a topic we cover in Part II of our virtual event series—event hosts have an emotional liability for attendees. You have an ethical obligation to enforce responsible attendee behavior. 

The best strategy is to ask attendees to complete a health screening questionnaire similar to the one used by the CDC. Use your contactless check-in technology to ask and keep a paperless record of these questions about symptoms, travel, contact with exposed people, and testing status. Mac suggested also asking about any loss of taste or smell.

Many questions have already been raised about the legality and practicality of vaccine requirements for events since a person’s vaccination status is private medical information. Besides being a costly measure, rapid testing presents privacy concerns too. Avoid going down that road, but if you do, turn the testing over to third-party medical professionals.

Temperature checks are not foolproof. They won’t catch the asymptomatic people who are 50% of COVID-19 cases. You’ll get lots of false negatives (asymptomatic cases) and false positives (people coming in from a scorching afternoon) with temperature checks.

#6: Sanitization

Although it’s theoretically possible to pick up COVID by touching contaminated surfaces, it’s unlikely. However, you must ensure your venue partners are following surface sanitization protocol. Identify high-touch areas and stick to a sanitizing schedule. Consult first with your AV/production partners so their equipment isn’t damaged during the cleaning process. 

If you follow CDC guidelines, your organization will minimize legal liability. Document everything you’re doing to address these six factors. Your intentions and actions will show that you’re trying to do the right thing and keep everyone at your event safe. In our next post, we’ll go over the legal aspects of event safety covered in Part II of our virtual event series on Pandemic Compliance and Safety at Live Events.

To learn more about Event Farm’s suite of purposely built applications to keep your event staff and attendees safe at your in-person events, click here. 

P.S. Registration for Part III of the #EventSafetyPanel series is now open. Click here to learn more and join us on April 20th.

Since March 2020, this whole pandemic period has been a waiting game. Waiting for the mask-wearing era to pass, waiting for when we can feel safe again, and most importantly – waiting for when we can socialize and have fun with other humans without the anxiety of getting sick.

But the truth is, most of us are tired of waiting and want to get to a place where we can safely go back to hosting and attending in-person events. During our recent Pandemic Compliance and Safety at Live Events panel, we conducted a poll where

61% of respondents indicated they are hosting an in-person event in 2021 and 27% said they are trying a hybrid approach first.

Whether you want to dip your toe into organizing in-person events or are ready to dive into the deep end, the key is to prepare more than you have ever done before to ensure you can produce a safe event. Here are 10 signs to gut check if you are actually ready to host an in-person event.

#1. You’ve surveyed your audience.

“If you build it, they will come” is not applicable today given we all have varying levels of risk tolerance and fear in the global pandemic environment we are living in. You need to do your homework. Reach out to the audience you are targeting for the event (potential attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, staff, etc.), and get an understanding of their willingness to attend. 

#2. You have a safety plan of action.

You have ensured your venue is “safe” with appropriate ventilation and distancing built-in to your site plan.  You’ve made everything you can “contactless”.  You’ve programmed your agenda to minimize large crowds. You also have a plan of action for mitigation if someone becomes ill, including an event shutdown plan, and procedure for isolation and system of quarantine. Additionally, you have a plan of action to deal with attendee or staff non-compliance and risk.

#3. You have a designated Pandemic Compliance Advisor.

Someone on your staff should serve as a Pandemic Compliance Advisor (PCA). The role of a PCA includes: ensuring the venue follows appropriate regulations, procure and distribute safety supplies, engage and educate staff, monitor local risk, and coordinate risk mitigation on-site. They are your pandemic compliance enforcement leader. 

#4. You have an Event Safety Code of Conduct.

A code of conduct is a document that includes your event’s rules and regulations, including acceptable behaviors before, during, and after the event.  The code of conduct also should reference your Terms and Conditions for attendees wherein you will outline limitations of liability.  Having one is great, but requiring a digital signature of acknowledgment is a must to make it effective. Ensure your event registration solution enables you to do this. This code of conduct is largely what your PCA will be executing and enforcing.  (Note: If you don’t know where to start and want to check out the sample/template we created, you can download it here.)

#5. You have an on-site health screening plan.

The CDC has a handy resource you can use as a guide of what to ask during the event’s on-site health screening of staff and attendees. Besides knowing what questions to include, you should also have a plan of how you will collect and record this data. Clip-boards and printed paper can easily introduce human error and additional manual work. Reduce high-touch points by having the health screening done during a contactless and paperless check-in to ensure only those that are “CDC approved” are actually checked into the event.

#6. You have instant emergency communication in place.

Whether it is COVID-19 related or a safety threat of some other kind, you need technology in place that enables you to instantaneously and effectively communicate with all or specific groups of attendees and staff. Email is easily ignored and in-app messaging is an option but only works for attendees that downloaded the app and enabled notifications – hence why we recommend implementing an SMS text messaging communication system for your event.

#7. You have a system to monitor masks.

Are you requiring attendees and staff to wear a specific type of mask? Are you requiring masks to be replaced every 8 hours? You should already have these types of questions answered before hosting your in-person event. Leverage technology to keep track of mask pick-up and exchange.

#8. You have a contact tracing plan.

Let’s say attendee John tests positive for COVID-19 during your event. Are you able to answer: Which rooms has he been in? Who else was in those rooms that could’ve been in contact with him? Now more than ever having technology that keeps track of when someone joins and leaves a room and which other attendees were in the room is going to be critical to assess the situation and take action. Your access control system needs to be upgraded to a contact tracing system. 

#9. You have a staff, volunteer, and vendor tracking system.

Attendees register and check into your event, making you aware of who is on-site. However, managing staff, vendors, and volunteers, can get overwhelming and out of hand quickly, as these are the people that normally don’t get tracked. Ensure you have event technology in place that allows for tracking of certified and authorized personnel, including the ability to monitor daily staff changes for multi-day events.

#10. You have carefully reviewed your vendors’ contracts and understand your liability.

Any event vendor should have a terms and conditions section within their contract where it spells out that they will abide by the appropriate CDC rules and regulations around COVID-19. They also must have a clause where they indemnify you if you get sued due to their negligence (i.e. cover the legal costs). And lastly, we recommend requiring vendors to have insurance and to name your company or organization as an insured under their insurance policy.

If you’ve got all of these covered – nicely done and we wish you a safe and successful event! But if you found yourself adding more to your to do list, click here to learn how you can knock out most of these (especially signs #4 to #9) with our Event Safety Software.

I’ve been producing events for the last twenty years. I’ve also helped countless other event planners host thousands of events around the world. Essentially, I’ve been bringing large groups of human beings together for my entire professional career. Last year, in the blink of an eye, that all stopped for us event planners. We all either lost our jobs or had to pivot and move our events online. Either way, it was a major shock to our professional and personal lives and I’m concerned it might not be as easy for us to “get back to normal” as quickly as we all would hope.Throughout the pandemic, the consensus in the event industry has been that when there is a vaccine is when we all expect to get back to normal. Almost like it would be our on/off switch. Logically it makes sense. I’ve even told myself that as well. But now that the vaccine is here, if I’m being completely honest, I’m still scared and I’m not ready to flip the switch just yet. And I know lots of other event planners feel the same way but we are all afraid, or maybe too prideful, to admit it. I’m scared for my own well-being. I’m scared for my attendees and my teammates. I’m scared that somehow I could be responsible for contributing to continuing this awful pandemic. I’m scared that for the first time in 20 years I really don’t know what I’m doing and there seems to be a lot at risk.About 12 years ago someone dropped dead at one of my events. 😳  Thankfully, my event staff reacted quickly enough and the attendee suffering from a heart attack actually survived. Even still, that moment changed me forever as an event producer. It made me fully appreciate that events are collections of human beings coming together. When that happens, the potential inherent risk goes up. It is statistical probability in play. More people = more chance something bad can happen. On top of that, events add more risk with things like crowds, alcohol, weather, large productions, equipment, etc.

The heavy reality that I came to realize is that as an event producer, your attendees’ lives are in your hands.

Even though this all sounds incredibly dark and challenging, I’ve spent my career committed to this work because I love it. I love executing incredible experiences for people and I’m not ready to give up. So….. I’m trying to unpack this all and find a way to navigate myself (and hopefully others) out of this new fear. I wanted to share a few concepts that I’ve been thinking about in the hope they can help us get through this.

1. Let’s ease into it

I don’t even feel comfortable walking on the same side of the street as other people right now and I don’t think I’m alone in this thinking. It’s going to take most of us some time re-acclimate to being in groups with other humans. We have to ease in to it and start small. Really small!

A journalist recently asked me something I predict in 2021 for the events industry. My answer was that I unfortunately think that some larger scale event will rush to happen and it will be unsafe and ultimately be a huge setback for our industry’s recovery.

Let’s prove me wrong.

Let’s produce events with 10–20 people. Or host events that are programmed with lots of sessions that breakdown the full crowd in to groups of 10–20 people.

Let’s use as many outdoor venues as we can.

Let’s try not to produce large scale music productions with crowds pressed up against a stage.

Let’s not pack people into bars and restaurants.

Think — picnic with friends. Let’s do a few of those and slowly grow to the larger scale productions we love. Our collective patience will be imperative.

2. We need to go above and beyond

To create an event environment that feels safe enough to attract attendees (and even staff) we are going to have to go way above and beyond. Just having a sign that says “please wear your mask” and offer some hand sanitizer isn’t going to cut it. EVERY aspect of the event should be thoughtfully designed with the safety and well being of attendees in mind. And, it needs to be communicated in an authentic way. This is where I think we’ll see the most creativity come out of our industry.

I’ve already been thinking about: contactless check-in, mobile COVID testing/vaccination passports, liability waivers, using RFID to help manage contact tracing, contactless lead retrieval, programmatic networking, staff and vendor protocol management, etc. I’ve seen venues start to rollout modified F&B delivery plans and augment their facilities for smaller audience sizes. I also know there’s a lot happening surrounding liability insurance for venues and planners. How that plays out will certainly shape our events going forward.

A challenge I’m setting for my team is to have an attendee give us feedback that our event was “too safe”. That’s how we’ll get past this fear.

3. Let’s use knowledge to combat fear

One thing I love about the events industry is that we like to share (or some may call it showoff) our work. This quickly creates trends and best practices across the industry. This will come in handy right now as we all struggle to iterate through what’s working and what’s not. I’ll be looking to Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and other social media platforms to pick up ideas from other event producers. I look forward to speaking on panels with other leaders in our industry and I’ll keep writing and reading as much as I can. I’ve even signed up for a certification course on how to become a “Pandemic Compliance Advisor”. Let’s all be sponges for new ideas right now. Gaining knowledge is an incredibly powerful tactic to suppress fear.

Stay safe and best of luck with your events in 2021. I’ll share more as soon as I know more! We’ve got this!

This time last year, very few people ever thought about virtual events. Hosting a webinar? Sure, that was business as usual. But a virtual conference? Not on the radar.

This spring, when the pandemic interrupted business as usual, no one knew what to expect from a virtual conference, and frankly, the bar was set pretty low. But now, 6 months later, it’s a whole different story.

Not only are we all fatigued from a calendar full of Zoom calls, but there are more engaging technologies that people are experiencing which is rapidly increasing attendee expectations at virtual events. What’s become incredibly clear is that just watching a stream of video content isn’t a compelling enough offer for them to spend their time and money with you. Just think about how many free “virtual events” you’ve been invited to lately. They’re mainly the ones that just renamed their webinars as events. Even the organizers themselves know they can’t charge for them so they make them free in the long shot you’ll actually tune in.

Content alone isn’t going to cut it

Attendees can watch webinars and recorded videos of presentations on their own at any time. That’s why I love YouTube. As marketers, we’ve been pushing this type of content out for years. We’ve never considered that an “event” because it shouldn’t be. Watching content is no different than watching the news on television. Is that an event?!! The obvious answer is no, but can you put your finger on why?

What attendees really want from a virtual conference

There’s an entire multibillion-dollar event production industry for a reason and it’s not just to add flower arrangements on tables. There’s an incredible amount of work, design, human touch, and creativity that goes into making an event a compelling experience for attendees. It’s an art. As someone that’s produced countless events myself, it’s frustrating to even consider that just by turning on Zoom I could call that an event. If that was actually effective than the event industry wouldn’t exist.

Meet and talk with other people

Your data may have already told you this but one of the most popular reasons people attend your events is to meet other people. They want to network, spend time with friends and acquaintances, and meet new people. They want to share a success story. They want to get advice. They want to give advice. They want to hear new perspectives and ideas.

They want to enjoy both serendipitous and structured meetups that expand their professional network and give them the insight and ideas they didn’t hear in sessions. The biggest failing of most virtual conferences that we see today is not providing these opportunities for conversations.

Feel like part of a community

At a conference, attendees can look around and know they belong. They’re part of something bigger than themselves—they belong to a professional community. They’re sharing the conference experience with people who do what they do and have shared a common interest. Visually representing the entire crowd or community at a virtual event is harder because most solutions don’t have the concept of a “venue” where everyone congregates. Without a visible community, events can fall flat.

Signal their status

Not everyone gets to attend a conference. Even at the most inclusive of events, the people attending feel special. They’re the ones going places.

Conferences are great opportunities to signal status. Attendees want to be seen by the crowd. They want to share their knowledge as speakers, session discussion participants, lunch table companions, or bar buddies. They also get to play the social connector when introducing attendees to each other.

Escape from their routine

Traveling usually takes care of this desire to get away from the usual. But watching a session at home feels like the typical, multi-tasking webinar experience. You must help attendees carve out mental space at home for an atypical day online. And not just an atypical day online, but an atypical day at a virtual conference.

Give them something to fear missing out on. Differentiate your virtual conference from everyone else’s. Make it the talk of the community. Get the buzz going in the days leading up to the opening keynote and keep it going long after the closing session.

Have a-ha moments

The conference mind is a relaxed but engaged muscle. Attendees are away from the office but still in work mode. They’re discovering new information, best practices, and ideas. They’re making new connections.

Your virtual event must create the conditions for this type of mindset. Spark new ideas and facilitate insightful conversations, but give attendees the space to reflect too.

Turn ideas into action

Far too often, attendees are not given the time to reflect upon what they’ve learned and/or digest it with fellow attendees. A typical zoom-esque virtual event ends abruptly when the last presentation ends. Attendees have sat through a linear flow of presentations: one session after another, and before they know it, they’re back in the office with a full notebook but no time to review it. Help them make plans and turn those ideas into action.

Get motivated and inspired

Ultimately what do attendees really want? They want transformation. They want to return to the office changed in some way. They want things to go differently from now on.

Your content must be top-shelf, no doubt about it. But you must also spend time figuring out how to help attendees achieve all these other event goals as well. And you have to create the right environment for them to achieve these goals—an environment so enticing that they’ll ignore the distractions surrounding them at home and on the screen. At Event Farm we’ve been working hard to develop solutions to create these environments that can help make your virtual conference a real success. Let us know if you’d like to learn more.

I’ve been producing events and working in the industry for almost 18 years. I consider myself a seasoned veteran and feel like “I’ve seen it all” at this point. Meaning, I’ve experienced all the crazy event challenges out there: medical emergencies, venue cancellations, inclement weather, power outages, horrible vendors, drunk attendees, ridiculous artist demands, internet failure, etc, etc.

But now that we’ve been forced to take our events virtual there’s a big new challenge we’re facing and it’s not an easy one to solve. It may sound simple on the surface but I promise you it’s not. Since we’re all not in the same place at the same time, we have to navigate and accommodate multiple timezones for our attendees, staff, speakers, sponsors, performers, etc. It’s something we’ve never really had to do with IRL events (except for live streams) and it’s really complex when trying to organize your agenda, maximize attendance and audience engagement. No one wants to attend an event at 6am and similarly no one wants to be watching a speaking session at 11pm. At the same time we want to include as many people as we can but how? Hmmmm……

Here are 10 tips I’ve found helpful:

1. Collect the timezones of your attendees by surveying them in advance. The key is to do this before selecting a date, sharing the details, or opening up your event registration. If you can do this before going live with registration, you can skip Tip #2. If you can’t do this prior to going live, you’ll need to collect timezones from attendees while they register. Or you can simply take a chance and trust your gut on the best time for your event ???? (not ideal).

2. When collecting attendee timezone as part of registration you’ll be promoting an event on a specific date or series of dates but not an exact time out of the gates. You can leave it broad, but set expectations by telling prospective attendees how much of their day it will take. For example, you can say a half-day event, or two half-days, etc. Remember, it’s okay to crowdsource and explain to attendees exactly what you are trying to accomplish and why. Attendees will understand that you want to make sure you optimize the event for as many people as possible. And remember, for an in-person event, the attendee would have likely blocked all/most of the day for your event anyway so we’re asking them to do the same here and we’ll actually be giving them time back on their calendars once it’s locked in.

3. Host your event to be optimized in the timezone where the majority of your attendees are.

4. Include downloadable calendar invite links for attendees in your registration system and in confirmation emails. Most calendar applications dynamically update based on the person’s local timezone which does the conversions for them.

5. Don’t program time-oriented agenda items (i.e. lunch break at 12pm EDT or a virtual happy hour at 5pm EDT). That’s ostracizing for your audience not in EDT.

6. Recognize that anything more than a 6-hour time difference between attendees is going to be incredibly challenging to execute and you should consider breaking up your event into multiple events that splits your audience. Think about it, an event that starts at noon for one attendee would either start at 6am or 6pm for another. That’s tricky.

7. Anywhere you share an agenda you should explicitly list times in all relevant timezones for attendees. Do the time conversions for your audience. If you’re using an avatar based virtual event campus solution for example, you can dedicate web boards throughout the campus to display these times in many places. There are also quick and easy timezone conversion tools such as everytimezone.com and thetimezonconverter.com you can use/share. Generally this math is pretty easy but can get a little tricky around daylight savings time changes and with states like Arizona who don’t use daylight savings.

8. If you’re using an attendee app as part of your event experience, try and find one that has dynamic timezone agenda listings that automatically convert to everyone’s local timezone (i.e. not hardcoded times).

9. Again if you have to cross a time gap of more than 6 hours you can also consider offering a live event and then offer a pre-scheduled recorded broadcast later in the day or the following day for your audience who is behind or way ahead. So it’s sort of a 2nd event but with far less production. Just offering a post event recording will devalue attending your actual event. Make it feel like a second event just for them that’s only available at that specific time.

10. Virtual events should be quite shorter in length than in person events or at minimum be broken up into shorter chunks over the course of a few days. People will not sit in front of their computer and be an engaged audience for 8 hours at a time. This actually helps with navigating timezones because its much easier to have 3 hours of programming across multiple time zones than 6–8 hours of programming. The latter will certainly force attendees to participate during sub optimal times.

Bonus Tip ????: With the vast majority of people working from home right now due to Covid-19 be extra thoughtful about how/when you schedule your event program. Meal times throughout the day can be extra hard right now as most families are all home enjoying those times together.