Better safe than sorry

In the past, a security concept was mainly reserved for large events - security, fire protection, crowd management all had to be well thought out and planned. The keyword "health" was rarely mentioned. Our learnings after one year in the pandemic:

Every event benefits from a security concept

Digital and hybrid formats are a good solution for staging safe events with guests at this point, which is how we were able to create exciting formats this year. We naturally had a security concept for each of these events and, by the way, for our office as well. Even with a fully digital event, content needs to be produced on site. Where there is a live stream, there are also camera people, technical crew, moderators and speakers. A considerable number of contacts are generated – even without guests. We want to protect our employees and event partners to the best of our ability, because they are the ones who make the event possible in the first place and cannot do their work so easily from home. Having a security concept in place gives confidence above all, no matter how small or digital the event is.

Talking to each other

For the seamless implementation of a security concept, we believe that communication and organization are the keys to success. We have had great experiences with picking up the needs of the organizer, the location and the event partners as early as possible and working out a joint security concept. This ensures that all parties receive the same information and that there are no misunderstandings on the day of the event. The How can also be quite crucial. A nice way to communicate the common rules for example, is to focus on treating each other with respect.

Bringing experts on board

With our events last year, it always proved worthwhile to bring in professional advice. An external review of the security concept by our team of experts gives additional confidence in the rules. Another simple measure with which we have had very positive experience is to have medical students carry out the rapid testing at the entrance. The signal effect of this should not be underestimated: Not only do we feel safer, but the event participants also feel in good hands and successfully implement the security concept.

Here to stay

Vaccinations are progressing, incidences are not rising, further rollbacks of restrictions are on the horizon… You might think the days of Covid-19 safety concepts are already numbered. But until Covid-19 is pushed back universally through vaccination efforts worldwide, regional outbreaks may always occur. As event organizers, we have a certain responsibility and role model function, because our core purpose is to bring people together. And these people should feel safe and enjoy coming to our events. We therefore believe that this topic will not only affect us next winter but will rather become a new standard. Because as with established safety precautions, you’d rather be well prepared for an emergency that doesn’t happen than to be surprised by an event that can potentially cause great harm.

Maybe not always so stringent, hopefully with more exceptions soon – but infection control will be a matter of course on every event planning checklist in the future. Just like fire protection and emergency exits.