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innovative ways to make ‘events’
happen but just not face to face.
“Whilst the industry busied
itself finding out how to stay alive,
vibrant and relevant, the three
associations set to work to gain
recognition within government
circles so that we could be
supported like so many other
industries. Teams from venues,
organisers and suppliers pulled
together in unprecedented ways to
put a solution for reopening in front
of Government and, finally, we were
given a ‘go-date’.
“The number of meetings, calls,
working groups, documents and
papers was huge, equal in size to
the thanks to everyone involved,
and it has borne fruit in the shape
of the All Secure Standard, a
tool that will allow the doors of
our venues to be re-opened on a
risk-based management process,
something we all understand and
work with daily.
“As our venues return to full
working order, all the hours,
days and weeks of battling for
governmental recognition has
allowed us to clear the first hurdle,
we will be back on 1 October
2020. Now we need to rebuild
an industry, fortunately it is one
that has seen off many challenges
in the past and I am sure we will
weather this disruption. We may
look a little different, but we will be
stronger and confident to deliver
the huge variety of events that we
do so brilliantly, and that is how
disruption causes industries to
evolve.”
Andrew Harrison, director at
ESSA, whose sector has been
heavily reliant on events taking
place and has been hit hardest
by the crisis throws caution to
the wind. He explained: “To have
finally received a ‘go-date’ of 1
October 2020 for the exhibition
industry comes with mixed
emotions, but yes it was celebrated.
There is the obvious relief that we
can now all focus on a date that
the industry has been asking for
from Government, in order to have
something towards which we can
work.
“However, the euphoria has to be
tempered. We have a yawning gap
between the announcement of the
‘go-date’ and the first events being
held. Within which time we have
an industry that needs furloughed
personnel back in their businesses
designing, planning and preparing
for the restart of the industry,
just at the very same moment the
only financial support for many
businesses starts to recede, which
presents new and more serious
challenges.
“Equally, with the autumn season
already diminishing in returns,
and events still cancelling, this
gap clearly requires bridging into
2021. We have complete confidence
in the ability of the All Secure
Standard to deliver events with
carefully managed and mitigated
risk to all participating, but there
is a challenge ahead of us to instil
that same confidence in exhibitors
and visitors alike. We may have
climbed a mountain to get here but
there is still much work to be done
to reignite the exhibition industry.
But it will.
“The alignment of the AEO, AEV
and ESSA and all of our members,
who have been selfless in giving
time, expertise and commitment
to this process, to thank everyone
would be longer than the longest
Oscar acceptance speech, but they
deserve huge praise.” EN
What is the
All Secure Standard?
In a nutshell it is a framework
agreed by government
(Department for Culture,
Media and Sport) that events
should follow to ensure the
safe delivery of events under
current guidelines. The All
Secure Standard was created
by the Cross Association Event
Recovery Group, AEO UK
Operations Working Group,
AEO International Health Safety
and Security Group, AEV
Event Re-Opens Group, and
ESSA Taskforce, along with
numerous other contributors
including Clarion Events,
Informa Markets, and Reed
Exhibitions who created the
open source document – All
Secure Standard, upon which
these guidelines have been
based. The All Secure Standard,
which is divided into four parts,
provides guidance that will
work alongside organiser risk
assessments.
20 — August