Hosting In-Person Events During a Global Pandemic
How many of your concerts, birthdays, weddings, or events of any other kind, have been postponed or canceled since the pandemic began? Probably too many to count. Now, how many virtual baby showers, virtual birthday parties, virtual happy hours, or other virtual events have you attended instead? Again, probably too many. Although modern technology has made virtual events possible as a temporary solution, and even a good alternative, for in-person events, people are still itching to attend events and connect with others.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided a scale of risk for different types of gatherings with virtual events being the lowest risk to attendees. The second-lowest risk event type suggested a smaller outdoor event where individuals remained six-feet apart, wore face masks, did not share objects, and came from the same local area or community. With thorough research of recommendations on event layouts, sanitation, and signage, we were able to have the framework to follow for our first in-person event since March.
Our team at CIIC delivered a successful Fall Trick or Treating client event in mid-October, filled with candy, costumes, happy families, and successful safety measures. For the past three years, we have worked with Tice’s Corner Marketplace to plan a fun annual Fall Festival with face painters, balloon artists, a bouncy house, treats like apples and apple cider, and, of course, lots of candy. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the new CDC guidelines, many of our usual activities for the event were not appropriate in the current situation. But, because the event is a tradition for many of our clients' customers, we still wanted to have it in-person, but carefully restructure it from start to finish to ensure everyone's health and safety. Some of the key modifications we made include a controlled-limited capacity, clear and constant communication of safety and health protocols with the vendors and attendees, and the incorporation of protocols to follow in a fun and easy way.
Mandatory registration helped keep the event to a manageable size since one of our main concerns was upholding social distancing guidelines. We set up multiple half-hour time slots for 25 people to spread out the arrival of attendees and avoid a large influx of people all at once. Fortunately, this also helped us not have to turn away any families that came to the event but didn’t register.
With many changes to the event this year, communication was key! Prepping for the event, we made sure we communicated clearly with the vendors, attendees, and everyone else involved in the event about our expectations and how the event would be different from previous years: focusing on the contactless entertainment, smaller event size, sanitation stations, and setup.
We incorporated the latest CDC protocols to ensure everyone’s comfort and wellbeing. Making sure everyone was safe was just as important, if not more important, than everyone having fun. As suggested by the CDC, we included signage and distancing markers throughout the event to ensure social distancing and the wearing of masks, as well as offered hand sanitizer and extra masks to attendees. Also, following the guidelines for outdoor capacity, we stayed below the limit of 500 people, totaling a little over 300 attendees. In context, our events brought together over 600+ people before COVID-19.
Some of our normal fall activities for the event had to be scratched due to the close contact with people, having us to think of new, fun ways to engage attendees. This year, instead of our annual raffle, we designed two guessing games for attendees to enter: guessing the number of candy corn in a jar and guessing a pumpkin’s weight. Both items were available to view at our check-in table, but to enter the contest, attendees had to go to the client’s Facebook and Instagram page, follow them, like the guessing game posts, and comment their best guesses. This way, we were able to contact the winner via social media and avoided having attendees share pens and paper by the check-in table. We also had a roaming magician at the event to replace some other fun activities usually planned, and the attendees had a blast trying to figure out the tricks behind the magic, six feet apart, of course.
Overall, the work behind the event helped us tap into our creative thinking while being assertive and strategic. Our team was constantly researching and staying up to date on the current safety protocols and trying to think of new creative ways of doing “everyday” things, but it was worth it, seeing the smiles on the attendees faces, being able to continue an annual tradition that they loved so much, given the current situation we are in and the hardships we have all gone through.
We are so excited to continue with events and discover new and creative ways to plan them while keeping everyone safe, entertained, and connected in this “new normal” world.
Signed,
Nina Foley
