Is the Re-opening of Events from 21st September Desirable?

 Dr Archana Verma

EEMA, the event management association body of India, has brought it to the notice of the government that while other industrial sectors have been allowed to begin operating, the event management industry has taken a hard hit during Corona outbreak and is still closed and hence, the people associated with it involved are losing their livelihood.

They have pointed out that the event management takes into entire gamut many kinds of campaigns and meets such as religious and wedding ceremonies, corporate meetings, products launches, sports meets and many more. In total, it is a Rs 500,000 Crores industry and its closure is affecting many jobs. Lalit Gattani, Chair, EEMA, has presented the SOP to the State Minister for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai. EEMA has already held a webinar inviting all the industry members and released the guidelines for a re-opening safely. The Central government has allowed the events to be held from 21st September onwards.

In this context, it is important to remember that events usually involve the gathering and mixing together of a large number of people, who come from various quarters. They interact and exchange cards and discuss. The entire environment is aimed at social mixing, not at social distancing.

In such a scenario, although it's true that the jobs of a lot of people involved with events management are at stake, perhaps allowing events on a large scale is going to cause the danger of spread of Corona even more than anything else. Hence, if the events are happening, then these should be controlled and include only a small number of people, who should maintain distance.

Perhaps holding webinars should be still preferred whenever possible, as these serve the purpose of the corporate sector well, cost is low and is much more safer than physical events. The people involved in event management can migrate to webinar industry as much as possible.

Recently we have seen some musical concerts and other kinds of corporate events held online and they work perfectly fine. Hence, events should be held physically only when absolutely essential and in small size under controlled environment.

It needs to be remembered that the industries have opened, but the Corona is still around.