The Made in Yorkshire and Made in the Midlands exhibitions are still scheduled to go ahead this May and July, whilst many others have been canceled. However, the Made team is taking extra precautions on exhibition days to ensure the safety of its staff, exhibitors, and guests.
Whilst many exhibitions and large events, such as festivals, have been canceled up and down the country, the Made Group will be going ahead with their events this year despite the risk of spreading COVID-19. The Trade Association, based in Birmingham, understands that whilst it may be hazardous to attend events with a vast number of people, the manufacturing sector still needs to thrive regardless of these pressures. One of the major factors in manufacturing success is attending networking events and looking for new local suppliers within the industry. Jason Pitt CEO of the Made in Group said:
“The manufacturing industry, in particular, is an occupier of large premises with many sites having 100,000 sq ft of space. These businesses are a crucial pillar to the economy, while hospitality is significant, the manufacturing sector is a driver of wealth in bringing money into the economy through exports.”
In spite of the potential dangers, The Made Group is determined to keep a positive attitude and deliver with solutions rather than dwelling on the problems. Both events, Made in Yorkshire which takes place on 21st May in Leeds and Made in the Midlands which takes place on 1st July in Coventry, will have a number of measures in place to reduce this risk.
Each event will have cleaners who are regularly wiping down overly used surfaces such as tables, chairs and door handles. Another measure put in place will see medical staff on-site for anyone who may feel unwell and therefore harbor risk. Jason recently spoke about this in the Made’s Exhibition update video on Youtube:
“We have taken some of the ideas from hospitals, on how they maintain a high level of cleanliness in the environment where there are lots of viruses and vulnerable people. They have a standard that you normally wouldn’t at events. This will mean high touch areas not being cleaned once or twice, but all of the time.”
Before anyone enters the venue, Made staff will be taking people's temperatures to ensure everybody is healthy enough to attend a high attendance event. To further increase everybody’s safety, there will be numerous posters placed around the venue to remind people to wash their hands and sanitize, as well as having a number of sanitizing stations in convenient places.
Taking measures further than many other hospitality events, the Made Group will also have a self-declaration action in place. This means anybody who attends the event will declare they are healthy enough to attend an event. On top of this, Made staff will encourage social distancing, which includes not standing too close to people and endorsing an alternative greeting to handshaking.
You may have noticed recently, on the Made in Group’s Youtube channel and social platforms, that there is a video on the Group’s alternative to handshaking. The group understands that in order to build connections with others, it is important to interact. Therefore, they recommend bumping elbows when greeting someone to replace the potential high-risk of spreading the virus.
As well as taking these extra measures, The Made Group now has plans in place to hold digital events to replace Best Practice networking. Throughout the year, the Group holds around thirty Best Practice events at members premises to encourage sharing Best Practice and networking within the manufacturing industry. For the foreseeable future, these will be held as a digital event online where members will have the opportunity to get Best Practice and network amongst those who take part.
Made members, the software has already been implemented to give them a chance to network with each other through the back end of their microsite - individual websites attached to Made’s platform. Members will be able to use an application called Zoom - enabling them to hold video meetings and a chat box called Olark which shows you when other people within the membership are online. Talking about this is a recent publication from the Made in Group, Jason said:
“We want to enable our members to be able to attend events virtually and try and replicate some of the experiences they would have had in person. It is not to replace physical meetings, it is about mitigating risk”
These plans have been put in place to encourage members to interact with each other more, despite the current climate.
You can attend the Made in Group exhibitions by heading to https://madeinthemidlands.com/events/82835303623 or https://madeinyorkshire.com/events/72482788973.
Learn more about how the Made Group plans to mitigate risk in a recent video posted by CEO of the Made in Group Jason Pitt. You can view this by going to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpLOsDQ3IKc.