COVID-19 is indeed still raging all around the world, however, now as many people are already immunized, many event organizers started considering the idea of organizing events with in-person attendees again. Nevertheless, although this is a great step forward, it still doesn’t make things any less challenging.
In fact, now more than ever, event organizers and venue providers have their hands full with work. This is because there are many different protocols that they have to implement in order to ensure Safe in-person events as it is required both, by the law and by many attendees as well.
Let's start with the venues. Venues COVID-19 Health and Safety protocols usually address six main topics: General Measures; Cleaning & Hygiene; Personal Protection; Physical Distancing; Loading and Unloading; and ways how to deal with a suspicious or positive case. Depending on the venue this can be extended to handling of food and beverage, transportation, etc.
Event organizers on the other side have COVID-19 Health and Safety checklists that address Registration, Location, Cleaning, Engagement, Event Operations including communication, Group & Beverage, Graphic Signage, Transportation and Reaction Plan.
However, in general many of the items in the Venue H&S Protocols and Event Organization H&S checklist overlap.
So let’s check some of the challenges raised by these COVID-19 H&S protocols and checklists, and find out how each one of them could be solved fast and easy today with technology such as Agorify.
Challenge #1
Contact Free Registration and Self-Check In
One of the biggest challenges that venue providers are currently facing is the lack of the right equipment for allowing a completely touchless self-check-in and badge printing solution. Although with the development of the technology, this process could have been automated a long time ago, the majority of venues up until the pandemic were doing things the old way - manually.
Solution #1
Agorify’s Self-Check-In and Badge Printing Solution
With our self-check-in and badge-printing solution, attendees will be able to do the entire check-in and badge-printing process without the help of anyone. They will be able to scan their tickets on an iPad and right after their name will be automatically printed on a badge that they should just go and pick up by themselves.
This is extremely important as this way the entire process will be not only touchless and smoother, but also the rule of social distancing could be easily achieved.
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Challenge #2
Each speaker should use a different microphone
As COVID-19 is a virus that spreads super easily, it is the most logical thing that speakers should not be allowed to use the same microphone. However, think about what it would be like if the event’s agenda includes over 50 speakers and each one of them should use a different microphone… Chances are that venue providers or the event organizer would spend most of their revenue on buying new microphones! Not sustainable at all, right?
Solution #2
Organizing a hybrid event instead of onsite-only event
If you think that there is not really a cost-effective solution for this challenge, you are absolutely wrong! The solution is actually not only cost-effective, but it will also help you to make your event even safer for your attendees.
Let’s first explain what are true hybrid events and then elaborate this. At Agorify, we define True-Hybrid event as a conference, exhibition, seminar, concert, or any other meeting where participants can partake, choose between, or instantly and effortlessly switch from onsite to an online event experience without losing any event feature or benefit.
Hence, by organizing a true hybrid event, you would still be able to have as many speakers as needed, but you certainly won’t need as many microphones considering that hybrid events offer speakers the opportunity to speak from the comfort of their homes too.
On top of that, taking into account that not all speakers and attendees would attend the onsite part of your event, the social distancing protocol would also be easier to execute!
In fact, Agorify is a True Hybrid all-in-one event management platform which allows event organizers to execute hybrid events while providing the same value to both, onsite and online attendees, speakers and exhibitors. It is super easy to navigate regardless of which device you or your attendees will be using so if you are thinking of giving your event a digital dimension, Agorify is indeed here to take it to a whole new level.
Challenge #3
Event organizers are not allowed to provide an agenda flyer
Another challenge that event organizers are facing at the moment is also not being able to provide their onsite attendees a flyer or brochure with the agenda of their event. And of course, this could leave a bad impression on the attendees as they won’t know what comes next during the event, right? Well, there is a quick solution for this too!
Solution #3
Using Agorify app to provide all attendees with the event agenda
Being a True Hybrid enabled event platform, Agorify can easily help event organizers provide an agenda not only to their online attendees, but also to those who will attend the onsite event.
In fact, the concept of the hybrid events is to keep all attendees and speakers connected regardless of their location which is why it is a good idea for event organizers to also encourage their onsite attendees to download the Agorify app.
And considering that they are not able to provide them the physical agenda as it is against the safety protocols, they could use the Agorify app not only to provide smooth networking among all participants, but also to provide their onsite attendees the event agenda the same way they would to their online attendees.
The process will require zero physical contact and yet it will be faster, eco-friendly and cost-effective as they won’t have to use paper and spend extra money on printing it out either.
Challenge #4
Exhibitors are not allowed to provide physical marketing materials
As already mentioned, considering that COVID-19 protocols are demanding almost zero physical contact among everyone at the event, exhibitors are also not excluded. In fact, no physical marketing materials are allowed to be handed out to attendees. Sounds nuts, right? Well, there is a solution for that too!
Solution #4
Allowing exhibitors to market their materials via Agorify app
As already mentioned Agorify is a True Hybrid all-in-one event management solution that provides seamless experience to old participants involved and exhibitors are not an exception either.
Aiming to meet exhibitors’ needs and expectations, Agorify is allowing them to share marketing PDF files on the exhibitor page. These marketing files could serve as lead magnets in case they decide to ask delegates for their contact information in exchange for accessing the document.
Keeping flexibility in mind, exhibitors can decide whether to make contact information sharing optional or mandatory for those attendees who would like to download the PDF files. The best thing is that although they can have a physical booth on the onsite event, with Agorify they will also be able to have an online booth that onsite attendees can also visit without breaking social distancing!
Bottom line
Organizing an onsite or hybrid event during a pandemic could be quite a challenge, but as you could see, all challenges were solvable fast and easy.
Regardless of whether you also want to offer your attendees the flexibility to choose if they feel comfortable attending the event onsite or online or whether you just want to comply with all the safety protocols, it can all be done with one single solution - Agorify.
So without further ado, just go ahead and start using Agorify now!
