Seoul, a metropolitan city with the population of approximately 10 million people, entered a new phase of countermeasures against the COVID-19 titled “Distancing in Everyday Life.” The residents are expected to continuously follow the guidelines of personal hygiene routines such as washing hands, wearing facial masks, and keeping a minimum of 1-meter distance from others. Drive-Through Screening Centers are still on operation fully as well as the Walk-Through ones. Seoul City is in the process of forming a collaborating hospital system with vicinity governments to control the number of patients overfilling hospitals in a certain area. These measures appear to prepare the city to defend itself for fighting the smaller battles more quickly and effectively on a long-term base.

The Seoul Convention Bureau (SCB) also brought in safety measures to its support program, PLUS SEOUL for MICE participants. Meetings will be resumed in post-COVID sooner or later and mutual agreement had led to the birth of “New Norm.” SCB expects the keywords would be hygiene and safety in MICE industry where face-to-face is one of the fundamental elements. Newly added PLUS SEOUL support options are Infection-free Zone and Reassuring Package. International conferences and exhibitions will be able to organize their events in the Infection-free Zone and keep it sanitized for the days while hosting the event in Seoul. The Reassuring Package provides comfort and care services from the arrival of the participants till the departures, starting for the international conference participants first. It includes assistance services for translation and interpretation, emergency medical situations, reservations and more. The assistance will be offered in-person where it is necessary whereas most of the services are to be offered over the phone.

Seoul MICE industry is expanding to the digital world as well. Pioneer conferences and exhibitions has opened their events and welcomed participants online and many more are on its way. BIO KOREA 2020 transformed the event to go fully virtual including e-Conference, 360° VR for the venue, 3D scanning of the products at the virtual exhibitions as well as 3D animated videos. The digital world will present endless combinations of the advanced technology and imagination from the event organizers and planners and SCB seek to become a steppingstone for the Seoul MICE Alliance to land in the digital world. In the same manner that the nation well presented the innovation through the responses put for the crises, SCB will dedicate its effort to earn its name in the digital MICE industry while securing safety measures on the ground.