After four weeks of diligent work by more than 300 contributors from all aspects of the live event industry, the Event Safety Alliance Reopening Guide is now available for free download.
Back on April 8, 2020, the day after we came up with the idea of reopening guidance specifically for our industry, I wrote to our Event Safety Alliance leadership group.
[I]t seems likely that events of fewer than 500 people may be allowed to resume in … June … maybe. Larger events will take longer. But since everyone is going to restart sooner or later, it is incumbent on every event professional to begin thinking hard about the risks they’ll face in their post-coronavirus world, and the risk mitigation measures they should be considering. These are uncharted waters for everyone, so we envision this as a collaborative project with as many smart friends as we can gather around us. The key is that ESA, as the acknowledged leader in event safety, gets in front of this essential initiative.
So we are.
Although the world seems to have fallen off its axis in many respects, a lot of people ignored the distractions so we could deliver the Reopening Guide on May 11, 2020, exactly when promised. This seems like good timing as municipal leaders allow more cities and states to reopen. Now comes the hard part for people who work in entertainment, sports, corporate activations, conventions, meetings, and all the other live events we’re used to enjoying – how and when can you reopen reasonably safely under the circumstances of a global pandemic.
I hope you find the Reopening Guide useful. In my usual style, it contains few “rules,” but many ideas that a reasonable person might adopt, particularly the smaller locations that will be allowed to reopen first.
Spoiler alert: Everything in the Event Safety Alliance Reopening Guide will require work you did not have to do before you closed. Let’s get to it. Safely.