he team behind Web Summit , the world ’ s largest tech conference , recently held a digital edition of COLLISION , its event based in Toronto , Canada .

The online event ran 20-22 April , and attracted more than 38,000 people across three days .

Speaking at the event were a range of CEOs , celebrities and commentators which included Ryan Reynolds , David Beckham and Nicole Kidman . On the business front there was co-founder of Twitter Biz Stone , CEO of Wikipedia Katherine Maher and CEO of Paypal Dan Schulman .

Among the star-studded cast was some strong representation from the events industry – SISO chair Doug Emslie and UFI CEO Kai Hattendorf were joined by Forbes journalist Zach O ’ Malley Greenburg for a panel titled ‘ What does recovery look like for the events industry ?’

When asked what steps need to be in place for a return to live , Emslie pointed out that in many places around the world , we have already returned to live events . “ China has been operational for nine months running events at scale ,” he said .

Emslie added that SISO is putting the experience of the Asian markets to use : “ We ’ ve been putting together some case studies for how people have brought events back safely . The All-Secure Standards have been put together by the associations and have become the norm . Governments and regulators have confidence now that we have the experience to run events safely .”

Hattendorf said that testing was not a one size fits all solution to bringing

events back . Instead , the key was “ having a series of protocols in place that make our show environment safe for our customers .” He added that “ we ’ re building a volume of evidence that people can run safe events . We know how to do this . We ’ re showing that people can turn up to an exhibition and fill up their order book with no medical issues .”

O ’ Malley Greenburg asked Emslie and Hattendorf whether they thought anti-vaccination sentiment would affect the return to live events . Emslie ’ s response was a practical one : “ I think a vaccine passport will become standard for any international flight . After a certain time , people will become comfortable with it . When you go to certain countries , you have to get vaccinated for diseases . Nobody complains about those .”

Emslie also mentioned the UK ’ s

Below : Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave

planned pilot events , taking place in April and May , which will be testing the water for the return of crowds . “ You ’ ll need two bits of paper , and then you ’ re in . One is your ticket for the event , and the other is either proof that you ’ ve been vaccinated or a negative test result .”

O ’ Malley Greenburg ’ s final question was about the speed of the recovery – will the return of events be a switch going from off to on , or a dimmer slowly getting brighter ? Hattendorf said it will probably look more like the latter : “ This industry will work together in reopening like this industry worked together in lockdowns . We won ’ t be at pre-Covid level three months from now . It ’ ll ramp up as the market opens up , because of that confidence returning .

“ Once people can have those face-to-face interactions , their phones will be going back in their pockets .”