The Corona pandemic has brought the trade fair industry to a standstill. Major events were banned for several months. From September onwards, specialist congresses and trade fairs will be allowed to be held again, albeit with restrictions and subject to strict hygiene measures. "The economy needs trade fairs for a restart", demanded AUMA - the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry - already at the end of April. Dr. Jochen Köckler, CEO of Deutsche Messe AG from Hanover, is now full of confidence: "We can hold trade fairs - even in times of corona."
You have new products and would like to use the restart of trade fairs for your company as well? In this case, you should start early on with a hygiene concept for your trade fair stand and the individual specifications of the respective trade fair operator. The main focus is on compliance with the distance rules that apply in everyday life and the obligation to record contacts of visitors at your stand.
We have gathered the most important aspects for you:
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- Guarantee of the minimum safety distance of 1.5 metres
If you can still influence the construction of your stand, you should make sure that the minimum safety distances can be maintained at your stand. Hotspots or spots that were good stopping opportunities for stand visitors in the past must be converted. It is also advisable to clearly direct the flow of visitors within your stand so that the minimum distance between people of 1.5 metres is always maintained.
- Guarantee of the minimum safety distance of 1.5 metres
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- Creation of secure meeting zones for communication
Comply with hygiene measures in meeting rooms or at tables. For the all about automation trade fair planned for early September in Essen, for example, public meeting tables will be offered away from the stands, separated by transparent protective screens in the middle. In this way, meetings or sales talks can be held without face masks. Perhaps you can additionally install such safe alternatives for meetings in your trade fair concept.
- Creation of secure meeting zones for communication
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- Rethinking the Catering
New rules also apply to catering. Salmon bites that are freely accessible to everyone and finely decorated on trays are taboo. Packaged food and drinks in bottles, on the other hand, should not pose any problems and can be served to visitors without hesitation. Some catering companies also offer attractive and unusual packaging options. This gives your guests the good feeling that they have not landed in the economy class of a budget airline.
- Rethinking the Catering
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- Limitation of visitors to the stand and contact tracking
Similar to the current situation in shops, a maximum number of visitors should also be specified for your stand. Calculate the maximum number of people allowed while observing the distance obligation and plan the implementation of the measures. In addition, contact tracing is a central component of the hygiene concepts developed by trade fair operators. For example, Messe München requires its exhibitors to record and document all customers in Category I with close contact as defined by the Robert Koch Institute. This contact tracking can already be implemented very easily with digital tools like the snapADDY VisitReport. With the help of the app, only the visitor's business card is scanned contactless by the stand personnel, automatically digitized and saved with a time stamp. Thus you have maximum transparency at any time as to who visited your stand at what time.
- Limitation of visitors to the stand and contact tracking
The trade fair organisers have used the last three months to adapt the general trade fair standards to the current situation with Covid-19. In their concept, Deutsche Messe AG has provided for cleaning and disinfection intervals to be increased to the maximum. Since a visit to a trade fair cannot be compared with uncontrolled flows of people at sports or music events, nothing seems to prevent a successful restart to trade fairs in autumn.