New Delhi, Aug 22: As countries around the world start to reopen their economy, the events industry seems to have drawn the least interest.
Corporate events such as conferences and trade shows are very often bundled up with mass gatherings, which have been proved to facilitate Covid-19 infections. Therefore, events are usually part of the final phase of reopening, and for some countries that means waiting for a vaccine or a cure.
In India, this sector accounts for the employment of 10 million people which have been directly affected due to the crisis. The entire spectrum of MICE (meetings-incentives-convention-exhibition) is an Rs 500,000 crore market, including organized and unorganized sector put together and COVID? 19 is responsible for impacting jobs at a global level too.
These numbers are higher when added to the entertainment-based events like live concerts, sports meet, religious events, and award ceremonies.
Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) as the industry apex body and association has taken the charge in bring the event industry stakeholders together in delivering clear local guidelines and pressuring governments to give the industry a plan for going back to work.
EEMA as the industry apex body and association has taken the charge in bring the event industry stakeholders together in delivering clear local guidelines and pressuring governments to give the industry a plan for going back to work.
During a an open Webinar, organised by the association, EEMA president Roshan Abbas shared, ”The events industry that was steadily growing on a double-digit growth rate industry has seen a halt since Covid-19 has entered the global economy.”
With the declaration of unlock 4.0, the government has allowed many industries to resume their work, but still some major sectors including events have not been permitted to operate, which has brought this wheel on a standstill, he said.
”These SOPs have been meticulously planned over the last few weeks taking into account guidelines issued by the Government and multiple global associations, and have been planned across every vertical the event industry represents,” he said.
Special COVID-19 task force lead by the General Secretary Siddhartha Chaturvedi with EEMA’s member organisations aims to assist India’s hard-hit live business in resuming activity as soon and as safely as possible, in accordance with local government regulations.
The production of the SOP guidelines was implemented by the task force in record time of 4 weeks.
With the release of the guidelines, EEMA is working towards reopening the sector further. Among its recommendations are enhanced protocols related to sanitisation, cleaning, hygiene, attendee management, venue requirements and more.
”The event industry already carries out comprehensive risk assessment, safety checks and logistical planning for every event, so including a Covid-19 mitigation plan as an extension of existing event planning mechanisms is easily achievable,” says Mr Chaturvedi.
He also added, ”The USP of this document is its exhaustive detailing and transparency which covers the entire life cycle of an event right from its inception to execution and post, we have covered it all under WHO norms. The detailing goes to the level of how the mehendi wala needs to operate in a wedding to how you manage a queue for people queing in a temple festival to a road show vehicle going to a gram panchayat to sanitising mic and green rooms in an corporate events to smoothly conduct a large size physically distant conference to dining in a langar to dining in a cluster seating, to conducting a RWA activity, to a safe bar movement in a music festival we have tried covering it all.”
EEMA has also setup a Government Relations Committee chaired by Lalit Gatani and co-chaired by Samit Garg. The Committee would be taking the talks forward with the Central and State governments and discuss the SOPs developed by the Industry to convince them about their readiness to reopen, according to a statement on Saturday.
(UNI)
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