How can you safely meet in times of COVID-19?

There is no doubt that Covid-19 influenced our way of living and working together enormously. We work and meet more and more remotely and are forced to accept this solution, but in order for the economy to fully flourish again, face-to-face meetings are also necessary. Physical encounters involve the exchange of ideas in a natural way and physical contacts, in which you can make eye contact with the others, are absolutely necessary to make conversation partners feel better and respond better to certain situations. 

But how can you organize a professional meeting and guarantee the safety of all participants? 
Discover our tips here!

 1. Choose a safe environment with respect for all official guidelines 

Most buildings have already taken the necessary steps to comply with the official guidelines.  To make sure that all guidelines are followed, we will gladly provide you with a 'checklist'

• Is there a separate entrance/exit?
• Are there disinfectant hand sanitizers available from the moment you enter the building?
• Is the reception staff protected?
• Is the registration contactless? (without having to register with a pen and paper or via a digital touch screen)
• How safe is the ventilation system?  Make sure that only fresh air is used and that it is not recycled and reused, in order to minimize the risk of contamination via the ventilation system.
• How will the meeting rooms be set up and the 1.5m distance between participants be respected, in accordance with the guidelines?
• What measures does a building take with regard to cleaning and including audiovisual material such as microphones, remote control for projection equipment, etc?

 2. How does a venue's catering offer meet the new standards

The impact on catering is perhaps the most far-reaching and therefore requires a completely new approach.
Meeting venues need to show even more creativity than ever before and be more inspired by individually packaged catering such as 'fast food' and 'airline catering', while retaining sufficient individuality, quality and respect for nature, because catering is still an important part of a successful meeting.
How are catering spaces set up and how can you avoid too much movement and participants crossing each other too much?  Meeting venues need to completely reinvent themselves in this area as well.  

3. Does the location also offer the possibility to combine physical meetings with online tools, i.e. the organization of hybrid events?

Respecting the 1.5m distance between participants will initially have an important impact on the number of attendance during meetings.  How can you, as an organizer, optimize the investment in a meeting?  A first answer, is the use of online technology in combination with a live meeting.  For smaller meetings, you can link a video camera to a digital platform and thus involve more people than just the attendees in the room itself. For larger meetings and congresses, an online streaming platform is the perfect solution. Via a streaming platform, participants who are not in the room can participate in an event and thanks to the interactivity of the platform, can also actively participate.  For example, they can ask questions or participate in a live voting.  Interaction guaranteed

Are you interested in organizing a real meeting again in combination with online technology? 

Then be sure to contact BluePoint via marketing@bluepoint.be or +32 2 706 88 00. 
Our marketing team will be happy to give you more information about the technological possibilities and our prevention advisor will be happy to explain our safety measures to you.

Don't let Covid-19 stand in the way of your real meeting and let our experts assist you!