Your 3 Steps to Event Planning during COVID-19
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Your 3 Steps to Event Planning during COVID-19
Keeping safe is top of mind for all of us, here are our steps to planning a healthy event post-COVID.
As the country begins to emerge from quarantine it’s natural to want to get back to normal, especially when it comes to things like planning events and social gatherings. However, COVID-19 is still very real. Here are our 3 tips to safe events so you can confidently host gatherings this summer:
1. Stay up-to-date on local guidelines
First up, make sure any event you’re planning is within all local and provincial guidelines keeping in mind that it’s different for each area. Larger gatherings always carry an enhanced risk of spreading, which is important to keep in mind. In Canada, no gatherings of over 200 people should be occur until further notice. Many of the latest guidelines point to a maximum of 100 people per event, starting with a maximum of 50 people for indoor social gatherings like birthday parties, funerals, and weddings. For outdoor events and seated indoor audience events, you’re looking at a maximum of 100 people, 200 for those audience-type community events like festivals and outdoor performances.
Be sure to offer hand sanitizer at the entrance, a one-way entry and exit and seating 6’ apart. It's safer to discourage food or drink sharing of any kind. Branded masks and/or personal sanitizers are a fab touch!
Whatever you do; these guidelines and limits are subject to change at any time, so keep an eye on guidelines from your specific province or territory as well as guidance from the Public Health Agency of Canada. Use these guidelines to your advantage and strategically plan events in ways that keep people distanced and safe while still enjoying themselves. Plus, staying up to code avoids hefty fines.
2. Consider pre-screening your guests
Regardless of the event you’re planning, you’ll want to keep all your guests as safe as possible. Before your event, be sure to send out guidance to ensure that no one shows up displaying any possible symptoms of COVID-19. You’ll also want to be sure to communicate to your guests that attendance is not advised if they’ve been in close contact with someone infected in the last two weeks.
Once your event begins, consider pre-screening your attendees by taking their temperatures with a contactless thermometer. This helps to ensure that no one enters the event with a fever. Then, require hand sanitizing at several touch-points of your event: registration, guest seating areas, outside and inside the washroom and around any display tables. If you provide individual closed container food or beverages, ensure those have been sanitized with more hand sanitizer available before pick up.
3. Mitigate risk when physical distancing isn’t possible
A huge part of events involves community and social interaction, which is what’s tough about this new normal. However, ensuring that events continue will only happen with safety at top of mind for everyone. Check out the Canadian government’s event risk mitigation guide, and design your event with public health in mind.
If your attendees will have close contact with each other -- meaning within 2 metres -- consider having a mandatory mask policy. You’ll also want to limit prolonged contact and activities that involve droplet spread, like buffet food service, singing or using wind instruments and limit high-risk, high-contact touch surfaces in whatever way possible.
First up, make sure any event you’re planning is within all local and provincial guidelines keeping in mind that it’s different for each area. Larger gatherings always carry an enhanced risk of spreading, which is important to keep in mind. In Canada, no gatherings of over 200 people should be occur until further notice. Many of the latest guidelines point to a maximum of 100 people per event, starting with a maximum of 50 people for indoor social gatherings like birthday parties, funerals, and weddings. For outdoor events and seated indoor audience events, you’re looking at a maximum of 100 people, 200 for those audience-type community events like festivals and outdoor performances.
Be sure to offer hand sanitizer at the entrance, a one-way entry and exit and seating 6’ apart. It's safer to discourage food or drink sharing of any kind. Branded masks and/or personal sanitizers are a fab touch!
Whatever you do; these guidelines and limits are subject to change at any time, so keep an eye on guidelines from your specific province or territory as well as guidance from the Public Health Agency of Canada. Use these guidelines to your advantage and strategically plan events in ways that keep people distanced and safe while still enjoying themselves. Plus, staying up to code avoids hefty fines.
2. Consider pre-screening your guests
Regardless of the event you’re planning, you’ll want to keep all your guests as safe as possible. Before your event, be sure to send out guidance to ensure that no one shows up displaying any possible symptoms of COVID-19. You’ll also want to be sure to communicate to your guests that attendance is not advised if they’ve been in close contact with someone infected in the last two weeks.
Once your event begins, consider pre-screening your attendees by taking their temperatures with a contactless thermometer. This helps to ensure that no one enters the event with a fever. Then, require hand sanitizing at several touch-points of your event: registration, guest seating areas, outside and inside the washroom and around any display tables. If you provide individual closed container food or beverages, ensure those have been sanitized with more hand sanitizer available before pick up.
3. Mitigate risk when physical distancing isn’t possible
A huge part of events involves community and social interaction, which is what’s tough about this new normal. However, ensuring that events continue will only happen with safety at top of mind for everyone. Check out the Canadian government’s event risk mitigation guide, and design your event with public health in mind.
If your attendees will have close contact with each other -- meaning within 2 metres -- consider having a mandatory mask policy. You’ll also want to limit prolonged contact and activities that involve droplet spread, like buffet food service, singing or using wind instruments and limit high-risk, high-contact touch surfaces in whatever way possible.
People, community and interactions are still important pieces of life, something we understand strongly at Mosaic. However, so is doing our jobs to stop the spread of COVID-19. As we learn to navigate this strange season we’re all in, we can all work together to continue inspiring community and communication. Contact us for any event needs whether you’re looking for help to design a safe event or you’re looking to move your event online. We’re all in this together and we’re happy to help!
