How to Host a Post Pandemic Multilingual Event
June 11, 2020
If you are responsible for hosting business meetings and corporate events in a post COVID-19 world, things may look a lot different. In fact, it may well be that the corporate event industry has changed forever as a result of the outbreak of coronavirus. As an event planner, careful coordination of your efforts will be a prerequisite to ensure the proper health and safety protocols are implemented and followed during your presentations. From social distancing to making certain your venue has a safe airflow, every detail will be essential for delivering a positive experience and safe outcome for your attendees. You may consider options like tape marks on the floor to indicate the distance that people standing in lines or on stage should be from each other. In addition, having a sanitation service in place is one of the most crucial components for reopening in-person events and restoring normalcy during all phases of business recovery.
Are Air Hugs and Elbow Bumps the New Normal?
For an in-person event to be held in a post-pandemic world, most often there will need to be an important reason for it happen. Nonetheless, some business gatherings are simply too essential to postpone or cancel. For those events, it is important that you start by contacting local authorities to ensure your event operates in full compliance with local, state, and federal guidelines. Moreover, all attendees and your event staff will need to know what is expected. Plans for emergency preparedness and crisis communications need to be in place so all event planners, workers and attendees can quickly share information that is uniform and consistent. Until a vaccine or cure for coronavirus is found, domestic events, smaller seminars, and internal workshops may have to be conducted nearby with a shorter agenda, since prolonged close contact may be an important component in preventing the spread of the potentially deadly disease.
Embrace Online Digital Technologies for Interpretation
International travel bans, shelter in place orders, and restrictions against non-essential meetings, has been devastating for planners in the event industry. Since in-person physical conferences may remain on hold for some time, finding new ways to connect with your audience may produce the best interim solution for delivering your multilingual event. Although smaller meetings may be conducted following the same protocols used prior to the pandemic, given the number of guests having to travel as well as the limitations being placed on your venue, a virtual event may be the most sensible alternative. A key component of delivering a successful COVID-19 seminar, group presentation, or conference likely will include how effective you are at utilizing online technologies, like video-based simultaneous interpretation, to enhance a participant's overall experience. In fact, developing virtual capabilities for delivering multilingual events may be the most crucial element for future face-to-face meeting strategies. Certainly keeping people safe and defeating the coronavirus takes priority, but event professionals who embrace innovative ways of hosting multilingual meetings will define the “new normal” for large gatherings.
