The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is preparing for the safe resumption of business-to-business (B2B) events, such as MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions), in the coming months.

STB has developed a risk management framework for business events of up to 50 attendees based on strict management measures.

These events were put on hold in March due to the worsening of the Covid-19 situation.

Safe Business Event Risk Management Framework

Event organisers and event venues (EOs) must achieve five key outcomes under STB's Safe Business Event Risk Management Framework:

• Infection control measures for every stage of an event attendee's journey (from pre-event to post-event)
• Limits on crowd density
• Limits on close contacts between individuals
• Ensuring a safe and clean environment
• Preparing for emergencies relating to Covid-19

These take into consideration the event risk profile and the readiness of event organisers and event venues in mitigating the risks.

Pilot on two "hybrid" events

STB's Safe Business Event Framework will be applied to two potential hybrid events before gradually scaling up to other EOs:

• 2020 IEEE International Conference on Computational Electromagnetics (Aug. 24 to 26, 2020)
• Asia Pacific MedTech Virtual Forum 2020 (Sep. 24, 2020)

Each event will feature a maximum of 50 onsite attendees, as well as an addition of approximately 1,000 attendees who will participate virtually across both events.

Such hybrid events, which feature a mix of face-to-face and virtual interactions, are likely to be the norm for business events for the near future, according to STB.

Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing said during a press conference on July 22:

"Even if we cannot have one large scale event, we can have a large scale event, broken up into different cells, and combine them through technology to enable a different experience both online and offline.

Our opportunity is this, if we can do this well in Singapore, then we will show the way for the rest of the industry in other parts of the world to come together to work with us as well."

The 2020 IEEE International Conference on Computational Electromagnetics had originally been planned for March 2020, but was postponed in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Professor Shen Zhongxiang, General Co-Chair of the event said:

“We chose to continue with our conference in Singapore because of the country’s strong track record in delivering quality business events. We have complete trust that the Singapore authorities and our venue partner have stringent measures to help us deliver a safe event for our participants.”

Top photo via Singapore Expo